The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 91 - The Shanghai Kelly's

Episode Date: June 25, 2015

Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine the crimpers of San Francisco and PortlandSourcesTour DatesRedbubble MerchPatreon

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hey girl. Hey girl and then we'll start. Nope. You're listening to the dollop. This is a bi-weekly we're all the genders podcast about American history. Each week I read a story to my friend. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is about. Because he doesn't get enough sleep on tape nights. Oh here we go. Here we fucking go. Do you want to look who to do? I'll do one bottle. People say this is funny. Not Gary Gareth. Dave okay. Someone or something is tickling people. Is it for fun? And this is not gonna come to tickle you. You are queen fakie of 8 uptown. All hail queen shit of Liesville. A bunch of religious virgins go to Mingle and do what?

That's right. Gary. Gary Reynolds. Gary of the Gareth. That's my real name. What are half of the 19th century? Whoa what the fuck? No. I mean so okay. That's all I got. This is a train wreck. I don't have a specific. This is a tree. We didn't fully end the advertisement and then the date. I think we got all the information out there. I don't think we have closure. And now we're where? Where are we? We're in the later half of the 19th century. Later half of the 19th century. All right. It was the golden age of Shanghai. Shanghai was the practice of kidnapping sailors to man crewless ships. Well okay. All right. There's a lot going on. I'm still thinking about the mattress.

Shanghai is kidnapping. You're kidnapping us a guy to go work on a ship. But an empty ship? Well I mean there's not enough guys on the ship to run the ship. So they grab a guy to work on the ship. So they just take a man and then they're like, there you go. You work here now. Pretty much. Okay. Good deal. I think you I think you have got it exactly. Good deal. Okay. Sorry. I had to quit the bash process on my Macintosh because bash overheats your computer. It's a stupid thing. All right. The middle of the 19th century witnessed the zenith of shipbuilding and the construction of the efficient and beautiful China and California clippers.

Okay. In contrast Americans merchant Marine had gone from being America's first and finest employee in colonial days to a disreputable occupation one that was classed with criminals and prostitutes. Cool. Ah you work on a botanical sucker cock then. Excuse me? You fucking boat worker. All right. Why don't you put a dick in your face? I'm turning around. Or stop talking to me. Stop talking to me. Shit. I don't even know you. You're both loving. I said stop talking to me. Get off your boat. I'm walking away. In tolerable living conditions aboard ships and harsh punishment of sailors resulting in fewer and fewer Americans

shipping out. Sure. Congress had made flogging of sailors illegal in 1850. They created a law in 1850 saying you couldn't flog a sail. It was a good time. Like it was so bad that someone went to Congress and went hey man they're beating guys with things. Listen we really I think we might have to make a law. A flogging instrument. I think we might have to make a law. But they were still cheated horribly. There was still brutal hazing which was sanctioned by the courts. Which was sanctioned by the courts. It was legal. Okay. To brutally haze them to maintain discipline. See brutally is a tough word. Yeah it's

tough to hear that before hazing because hazing is by nature seems like it's sort of like all in good fun for the most part. But brutal hazing. Under federal statute from 1835 until 1898 and founded on the case Butler versus McClellan of 1806. Brutal hazing was legal and included corporal beating. Whoa. Starving and imprisoning. Hey just razin' ya. Totally legal. You're a POW now. Get it? We're gonna starve you. Now scissor like bacon. They were also scantily. Pop like popcorn. They were also scantily dressed often soaked with salt spray and malnourished. Sailors easily became victim to rheumatism, consumption, and scurvy. Once a

sailor signed on board a vessel for a voyage it was illegal for him to leave the ship before the voyage's end. The penalty was imprisonment. So you can't quit this job. It's like the army really. It's a little worse than the army. Yeah. I think it is worse. I think they treat you better in the army if that's possible. But if you if you leave you go to jail. Yeah. Yeah. All this made it pretty difficult for ships to recruit competent American seamen. Yeah of course. People are like oh no no I know the deal. It's all bullshit. Yeah. Yeah so no. So you want to come on board? No no no I've heard about it. It's all total bullshit.

I don't want to get covered in salt spray while you imprison me. Come on. Alright. They all the Americans were looking for jobs where they weren't beaten or starved. I mean talk about spoiled. Also the 1949 gold rush was in full swing so many sailors had gone to mine their fortune. After the discovery of gold in February 1849, 60 vessels left New York for San Francisco. 70 more took off from Philadelphia and Boston. By the end of the year 697 ships had entered the San Francisco Bay. Most of the sailors abandoned ships so they needed crews and they needed them badly. First recruiters conducted legitimate business

but the demand grew and the supply of men dwindled so captains turn towards Shanghai or crimping as it was known. Crimping? Yeah. Okay. You don't like crimping? No I don't. I don't. Well I don't like either term. It's close to pimping. Yeah it sounds like a mix of crypts and pimping which to me is not a good term. I wish that's what the name of this came from. Cryptimping. Crimps flourished in Port City, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle on the West Coast. Portland eventually surpassed San Francisco for Shanghai. On the East Coast, New York easily led the way followed by Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and it

was big business. As early as 1852, 23 Shanghai gangs operated in San Francisco. But okay walk me through what a Shanghai would be. We're gonna walk you through it. Okay. Okay the Crip made his living by furnishing ships with crews. The Crip had one or more boarding houses which provided lodging and other services to sailors. Okay. They also had saloons. The boarding masters employed men known as runners and the runner's job was to get the seaman into the boarding house or saloon. While the ship was waiting offshore to unload its cargo the only way a sailor could leave is legally was with a runner. He couldn't

jump off the ship or he'd be in prison. Okay. But he could leave with a runner. Uh-huh. Whenever an incoming vessel arrived numerous white-haul boats could be seen streaming from the waterfront. Competition was fierce because runners were paid commission for bringing a sailor to a boarding house or saloon. Once aboard the ship the runners solicited the sailors to desert and accompany them to their boarding. Wait, wait, okay, sorry. So, okay, so they will they will go find a sailor. They would go out to the ships. Okay. They'd go out to the ships. Yeah. Like while the ships have docked. They'd go out to the ships.

And the. It's docked so it's in the bay. Okay. But it's. Waiting to unload its cargo. Right. Okay. But it's it's right. But it's pretty much on land for the most part. Close. So, and the runner goes in there and convinces a sailor to go to a saloon. Yeah. And then through that is sort of like time-sharing like why he should like come on this other boat. Yeah. Okay. So, he's just getting him drunk and making it. Yeah. Okay. Runners would offer free liquor or other inducements to get sailors. This is a time-share. To come to their boarding house or saloon. Once there sailors would be drugged. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Drugged. Yeah.

The thing was usually administered by the bartender. Often by putting snuff in their beer. Sometimes dropping a strong plug of tobacco in the man's whiskey. Snuff said. Wait. This just took a much crazier turn. Yeah. Fuck that. So, I'm guessing the runners aren't the best salesman. Oh, no, they're yeah. I mean, they they're a salesman when they get out there. But once once they. Yeah, but they're they're they're closing like Cosby. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, totally. But once they get them in the boarding house saloon, their job is done. They're fucking back to get the next guy off. They're off getting the next dude. And then the

bartender takes over or the crimper. Okay. If the. This is a lot to handle, by the way. Okay. If the tobacco didn't do the trick, they were given a drink spiked with lotinum opium or chloral hydrate. If still nothing, they would hit the guy over the head with what was known as a Bung starter. Okay. All right. So let's just let's everybody slow down. Okay. So they plant C is is the flog. Yeah. With a Bung starter Bung starter. It's probably just a big bat. Okay. Like that. Okay. Knock the guy over the head. All right. Because I don't know. After they were relieved of their belongings, including all their clothes, they're wrapped in a

blanket and rode unconscious out to awaiting ship. What? All the crewmen needed was four limbs and at least one good eye. What? That's all I needed. Okay. It's it's getting them naked and putting him in the blankets. That's my new sticking point. Why that? Because they were gonna because they could take the clothes and sell them. They're stripping. It's like when you kill a buffalo. How long could this? Every part of the buffalo. Please do not be a Native American about drugging and declothing sales. But how like how this could not have lasted long. Because as soon you have to be like it's weird one. It's 50

years a long time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. They swarm. This is a quote. They swarm over the rail like pirates and virtually take possession of the deck. The crew are shoved into the runner's boats and the vessel is often left in a perilous situation with none to manager the sales unfurled and she is liable liable to drift about and in the shipping channel. In some cases not a man has been left aboard in half an hour after anchor has been dropped. So so the runners get there. Okay. And everyone's off the boat. Yeah. A sailor was anybody's game until he actually was in a boat and then he had named his Crip. Whereupon he was

very busy. It is very pimpy. It's real pimpy. Yo yo that's my bit. Yeah. I mean it really is like I pissed on that already. That's my bitch. He did. He did. He did piss on me. He did. He did. He pissed all over me. He was not to be fair and square. He's the one who got me naked in the blanket first. Yeah. Therefore he pissed on me. I'm his bitch. He's pissed on me. I've been creeped yet. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Hey tell my wife boy. Yeah. Oh yeah. Aside from two to four months advanced pay sailors could not collect their wages until their ship had completed its voyage which took anywhere from four months to four years. Why the

fuck. Sailors left the ship before the voyage was finished and the cargo unloaded they would not be paid. So the captains had a strong incentive to get sailors to desert ship. Oh my god. This sounds like a government. The ship's captains welcomed the runners aboard to lure the deserting sailors on to shore. I'm so the ship would pull in and until the cargo is unloaded no one gets paid. So they would sit there waiting for the cargo to unload and then they'd get then the captains would get the guys to come out to try and get the sailors off the ship so they'd never have to pay. Right. So a guy could waste three and a half

years and then in the last minute be like I'll do a shot. I could use a drink. Sailors eventually became wise to the tactic. Yeah that's what I'm saying. I mean how long until someone's like hey um there's a really shitty deal going on out there. Have you heard. So captains would try to get the crews to leave by serving rotten or tiny food rations. Oh rotten. Yeah. There you go that's a rat for you. You can have a rat. The men then usually deserted within a few days but often the captain would have already made a deal with a crimp. The sailors would sometimes within hours find themselves aboard the vessel they had just left. No

no. Unable to collect wages earned. No. From the previous voyage. Well that's so awkward. Naked. Oh God. Naked again. Why naked again. Because they were on the ship. But come on. I understand the process but we can eliminate. They know who they're getting. You don't need to renew this man. And then the ship I'm sure would sell them clothes that they would have to pay off. I mean this is bullshit. It's called capitalism. It's called bullshit. Also they would be in debt to the cramps for two months advance pay to sign up for the outgoing. How is this happening. How is this. How is nobody stopping it. It's America. Yeah but why. I mean at some point

somebody must have complained. In perpetual poverty to work off a debt attached to his future wages the sailor was a virtual slave laboring under subhuman conditions. So okay. So the crimper would make the captain give him the sailor's advance pay. So for each each each so the sailor get two months advance pay. Right. And so they'd bring this unconscious guy out. This unconscious naked guy out. Right. And then and then the captain would be like well here's your commission for getting that guy his job. Uh huh. So it's like if you work for a temp agency where they're like we take a percentage of your money. Wait that the

runner would get the money. Yeah the runner would get the advance money because they found they brought in the client. But then so but no but then so what's that it's not advanced money. Well you but you owed the you owed the runner. You owe the man who drugged you and got you nude and made you a slave. Got your job. Hey man are you gonna be a dick or tip. He's just a headhunter. So the two months advance pay never goes to the person who's been kidnapped and and. Why would it the guy. Okay yeah you're right. No I just want to make sure that that's what's going on. This practice was known as bullshit blood money. Oh good good. Always

good. Because the senseless man Shanghai aboard ships were frequently blood soaked. The waterfront. Wait wait wait wait don't don't you rush by this blood part. So they will because of the because of plan C. They're flogging. Yeah the beatings. Okay. All right. The waterfront along San Francisco's Barbary Coast was one of the most dangerous areas in San Francisco since the beginning of the gold rush. In addition to regulation night stick and pistol usually carried every policeman assigned waterfront duty sported a foot long knife. Now we're now we're in Saudi Arabia. That's a

sword by the way. That's a sword. Several battles occurred where residents of the Barbary Coast had their hands chopped off by skillful police. What is going on. Alley's and streets by the waterfront were packed with saloons brothels and boarding houses catering to sailors. Although most boarding houses had bar rooms sailors often traveled uptown to the dives of the Barbary Coast for entertainment. The Santa why would you go there if you're a sailor. Yeah but you just go you know what a good time. Look look just don't go to eight mile it just don't cry like it's very you know they all thought they all thought like

well I'm wise to this all I know how to handle this I can take care of this guy seems cool I'm gonna have a drink from him my head my clothes my life. Although most boarding houses at bar rooms are sailors often traveled uptown the California Police Gazette had already warned the public about the Strick Nine whiskey used by bars to snare their prey. The saloons had great names the nymphia the so different the fierce grizzly fat darties the crutch nigger purcells and not all of those crimper sailors many were just men who didn't know better like William Davis he was Shanghai and his granddaughter wrote

this account he left the lejo and left us there to go to San Francisco to look for work around the waterfront and the sailors boarding houses and saloons and he was drinking a ship was bound out for Europe and they were short of carpenters so they shamed him drunk and loaded him on the ship and when he sobered up they were six days out on the ocean bound for Cape Horn as in those day there was no Panama Canal so often they would wake up days later because they would just keep them drugged for the first few days so there's like no way that they could ever like once they want this is like taken yeah

except there's no phones right and there's no particular set of skills Barney listen to me very carefully you're naked excuse me yeah I know sorry I've been calling a lot it went right to voicemail a bunch anyway you're fucked so so you wake up six days into she woke up six days into the voyage yeah so we were left and we never knew where he was right so then the people your family but not you're just gone well that's the thing about being drugged and thrown on the ship is there's not time for goodbyes grandpa Davis showed up after nine years and wanted to mother to take him back he was then an old man and when he

told and he told the story of his wanderings how they shanghite him how the ship was shipwrecked in the Bay of Biscay off the coast of Spain how he was picked up by a ship bound for Malaga Spain how he sailed for England and then to Canada and then to California looking for us then to Logan and found us but grandma would not take him in so he left oh that's a life that's a man's life yeah it's just yeah there were a number one on crimson San Francisco one the one was horseshoe brown who would hit sailors over the head with a horseshoe ah cool I was hoping his nickname was attached to violence honest Arnold who

got his name because he never told the seller the truth Calico Jim was known for having shanghite as many as six policemen who'd come to investigate him what shanghite cops yeah man I'll tell you mate I understand everything you're saying well let's have a shot and get to the bottom of this huh okay that sounds all right cheers there you go hey all right hey grab this horseshoe what's that for there was Amazonian mother Bronson sure wasting was huge my Amazonian yeah she was apparently so powerful that she could anesthetize a crewman with her bare hands okay and miss pick up she ran a boarding house

that specialized in a drink of gin brandy whiskey and opium okay here's the thing if you're a sailor just don't drink or maybe you don't care like what am I gonna fucking do go up and dig for rocks you I know you you like being naked no no no you definitely like you eliminate most of your you'll be fine if you don't go to a saloon look I came here from Ireland just don't go to a saloon potatoes just don't go into the side don't mind being on a boat you will lose your family and life don't go into the saloon god damn it but Pete and Marty on the boat no beat and Marty are dead all right I'll just do

one mother of God of all the crimps in San Francisco's barbecue coast one man's villainy earned him the label king of the crimps James Kelly was known simply as Shanghai Kelly he was a short thick man with a wild red beard and red hair and a horrific temper Kelly was born in Ireland we didn't have to say that no no it's clear in 1820 and made his way to California in 1848 no one really knew where in Ireland Ireland he was from and he wasn't big on details Kelly specialized in the long trip hence the name Shanghai waking up on a boat headed for Alaska or the Cook Islands was one thing but waking up on a ship headed for

Shanghai meant years of your life was gone these were the worst ships with the most undesirable voyages Kelly set himself up in business sailors boarding house at 33 Pacific Street the heart of the Barbie coast it was a ramshackle three-story building put up on stilts because when the tide came in water swept right under the house and lapped at the front door Shanghai would send out his runners to ships who would induce them with promises of women and liquor if his runner got a sailor to abandon ship it was a double win he now got money for getting the sailor on the next ship and a vacancy had been created on

another one oh boy so if they get a guy off a ship yeah you've created a job yeah and they put that guy on another ship and now they knew that now that captain needs a guy yeah it's fucking supplying so then you just have to get a bring a new guy this off another ship Kelly was also like plugging holes in a dam yeah Kelly was an innovator he invented the opium cigar oh god he had cigars made in Chinatown where the drug was rolled into the cigar with tobacco that way even when a wary sailor who insisted on pouring his own drinks could be drugged when he was offered a good smoke it was called a Shanghai smoke Kelly's knockout

specialty drink was schnapps with beer spiked with opium lot of them and chlorohydrate what if the sailor sounds like the subway bread as the list goes on and on they're more like periodic elements if the sailor managed to be standing he got the standard knock on the skull and speed was important to Shanghai Kelly this was because ship captains often became desperate for crewmen at the last minute when members of the crew failed to show up oh no not necessarily even failed to show up we're drugged and thrown on another ship probably so while he is a crimper he is like a specialty crimper because he can

he can get the last-minute crew yeah he's like the fast food of Shanghai yeah right because of this Kelly had three trap doors installed in front of his bar when a crewman was whoa this is not good trap trap legitimate trap doors this might be my first reality dose of trap door so I felt like this was fairly invented okay continue it when a crewman was needed quickly Kelly Kelly would maneuver the man to the correct place in the bar while the bartender poured him a spiked cocktail then just as the sailor seemed to be losing consciousness Kelly would signal someone who would trip the trap door the victim then fell directly

into a boat waiting below and a runner would take him out to a ship oh my god I mean don't look at me innocent it seems like the Henry Ford of of crimping the man was often injured by the fall but he had a nice long sea voyage ahead of him to recover what do you need better than doctors always say you don't get up by the ocean yeah no that's what they always say get saltwater around it if the combination of the drug in the fall had killed him Kelly would still not lose his commission the dead man will be wrapped in a blanket and sold to the ship's captain as a doping victim captains often would not figure out he was dead oh my

god well out into the Pacific no what that it this is very dark well check your G check your produce for you like you when you when you're getting eggs at this it's like the Monty Python bit in holy grail you look at them eggs when you when you're at the store I mean this man looks like he's dead I'm not gonna pay for this this is a dead man this guy's fine he's fine he'll wake up he doesn't have a pulse extra dose of yeah that's cuz I put an extra dose in there but he'll come around and listen if I swear to God if I get out there again and I'm dealing with another goddamn corpse okay listen I'm not gonna be back for two

years so it's hard for me to get revenge latest medical research say that pulses not necessary he's blue yes he's that's his name's blue Tommy all right take the money Shanghai god damn it blue Tommy's dad I can't he became a legend at San Francisco so as we return an attempt to exact revenge against Kelly but would most often find themselves once again Shanghai oh no that that has to be though that is the war when you when you spend three years on a ship the whole time all you're doing is like when I get back there I'm gonna get that fuck I'm gonna get and then you're like tell him here for

you thunk oh god where we going you know I've actually reformed myself since I did that to you please accept my apology and have a drink a little bit to the left a little further to the left okay just a touch more to the left right here little right okay all right have the drink yeah thank you what he's dead so there were legal remedies though a small and disreputable band of bar hopping lawyers began filing legal suits for victimized sailors I'm what grounds against Kelly and the ship owners okay whenever a judgment was handed down in a sailors case the attorney took his fee which he would then share with Kelly

hmm so he set up sorry so here's what Kelly did Kelly brought some lawyers in who would then take these guys who were coming in saying I got Shanghai and then they would go to court and then he would win a judgment and the ship's owner would pay and then Kelly would just take the money good so in 1851 this Francisco police made an effort to stop Shanghai uh-huh this was done under crusading captain Edgar Walker but it was not successful at all whenever policeman was assigned to water from patrol he disappeared that's just crazy Kelly's career reached its pinnacle in the early 1870s a convoy of three ships

sent word by a runner boat as they passed the Feralon Islands that they were horribly short of crew from disease and desertion together the ships needed around a hundred men to get back to full strength no no one of the ships was named the reefer and was legendary for the harshness of its command the dangers of its food and its filthy living quarters Kelly came us the neighborhood and saw that the pickings were scarce with hardly any ships in port and a bunch of regulars in the saloon it wasn't looking good but hundred men was a huge commission then he came up with what is considered the greatest

crimping scan oh boy of all time oh boy Kelly cleaned out his till took the money and charted a paddle wheel steamer called the Goliath for two days then Kelly declared that he was throwing himself a birthday party oh no no one questioned the timing because he never told anyone much about himself Kelly sent so I'm having a birthday party didn't didn't you have one just like listen everybody should come come on down yeah but you just bring your male friends okay guys only oh just the fellas yeah just strong fellas only no question time because oh Kelly sent word all over the waterfront that a huge

bash was gonna take place on the Goliath with free food and booze he was his way of saying thank you to everyone who helped him over the years oh no all the but the most suspicious men got on the Goliath pimp's con men beggars cut throats after a hundred or so man run ship Kelly gave the signal and out to see it went no Kelly stocked the ship with ramen whiskey free food and his own bartenders the drinking got underway immediately as the ship passed under the golden gate the party was well on men started stumbling and collapsing all over the ship by the time the Goliath reached the reef reefer and its

companion ships Kelly was ready to make his deal and unload the victims he made several thousand dollars and sailed back to San Francisco Bay what a fucking dick then he realized he had a problem almost everyone knew about the birthday bash and now he's returning with a mostly empty ship he thought about waiting for nightfall and returning in the darkness but then word came that a ship called the Yankee Blade and hid in underwater rock and was taking on water he quickly changed course and headed for the Yankee Blade he rescued everyone on the ship that gave them all the food and booze and when the Goliath came back to its

birth a bunch of drunken men stumbled off the ship and into the bars of San Francisco it's too later be Shanghai Wow that's fuck I mean he must that what a fucking asshole yeah oh our hero our hero mom I'm just doing what God wanted me to he wasn't the only Shanghai Kelly hmm there was also Joseph Kelly or Bunko Bell Bunko Kelly in Portland, Oregon he was known for its dangerous port as much as San Francisco Portland had an underground the city's network of so-called Shanghai tunnels which tourists today are often told were used to spirit unsuspecting men perhaps lured by a half-naked prostitute to an

establishment where they were drugged and kidnapped toward their final destination by his count some 2,000 souls owe their time to sea because of Joseph Kelly Jesus Kelly spent his early life on the sea in his memoir he wrote of once being shipwrecked on an island of Madagascar rescued from the shipwrecked by the natives Kelly was fed soup afterward he looked into the clay jug that stored the rest of the stew and discovered the right hand of one of his shipment a typhoon struck he and some other sailors fall the lead of a man described as an old pirate and escaped from the rescuers they were promptly

picked up by pirates fortunately Kelly and his band managed to lock the pirates in the ship's belly before heading ashore to India in 1879 Kelly got off a ship in Portland about three-fifths of all sailors who rides in Astoria or Portland ditched their ships Kelly took up the trade of crimping and became so good at it that Stewart Hallbrook who was a rough writer back then who specialized in selling Portland history described him as quote an artist for the magnificent imagination he applied to his occupation was nothing short of creative nothing short of creative according to Hallbrook one October while looking for

semen for a ship leaving the next morning Kelly went through his usual stops on Skid Row Erickson's Blazers the Green Ivy the Senate it could not find a single man to press into service on a ship standing across the street from a cigar store about to give up Kelly noticed a six foot tall wooden cedar statue Indian outside he wrapped the Indian no no tarpaulin no no no no ships bunk no no two days later is it just me or is that guy a terrible worker yeah but he's giving out cigars yeah it's true he's got this I'll tell you what that guy's cool with cigars but he won't take orders from anyone two days later the

deception was discovered and the sailors through the statue overboard the fin salmon fish that really says a lot too because that means sometimes they were leaving these dudes wrapped up for two days yeah they would just like unmoved they would just think the guys were gonna come out of that there was just a naked guy who is eventually gonna hatch opium just see the little beak poking out through the cloth this little scam made Kelly $50 and the nickname Bunko turn of the century slang for a con man yeah Bunko Kelly appeared in newspapers for the first time a few years later in April 1887 a ships captain wrote to the

Oregonian to complain that Kelly had supplied him with a man who was rendered nearly motionless by rheumatism Kelly's next mention just three years later in 1890 a local paper described him as the boss Shanghai or in the northwest his most famous exploit was in 1893 when Kelly was asked to supply the flying prince with 22 men at a rate of $30 per head Kelly's walking on the street and notice an open trapdoor on the sidewalk what the kind that a business uses without allies you know just like an oh okay right open doors okay I'm thinking no trapdoor yeah and he entered he entered the course if you're this guy

you hey what's up hey what's going on here can I make you guys slaves inside he found 24 men 10 of whom were dead what the group had tried to burgle the seller of the saloon next door but had accidentally broken into an undertaker shop instead the keg they found and tapped was filled with embalming fluid what Kelly took the 14 survivors and 10 corpses to the ship where he was paid for them all the ship was already heading down the Columbia River when the corpses were discovered oh my god I like the fact that it got even darker like kidnapping and ruining lives and drugging people but now the body switch

element it's good and really if you're in charge of these ships just fucking check right or you know right at contract kick them I don't know kick them kick them real hard around this time Bunko Kelly was arrested but not for crimping because crimping was legal jaywalking Kelly was arrested for allegedly murdering GW Sayers an opium smuggler who had been hacked to death and thrown in the Willamette River Kelly been fond of selling a folk 8 f fake opium which was actually clay to the local Chinese population Jesus this guy is real full of shit he allegedly lured Sayers out of his home with promises of

a scheme to raise about $200 by selling fake opium then he beat Sayers to death before Kelly was sentenced to life in prison he declared his innocence and blamed the death on a framed job by other crimps and Kelly may have been telling the truth he had been working for Larry Sullivan a prize fighter turned crimp and he was listed as a clerk at Sullivan Sayers home at 113 North Second Street by September 1894 though Kelly had broken away from Sullivan and gone into business with someone else renting a flop house that was used as a boarding house on B Street Sullivan was not pleased with this turn of events

three days before the murder Sullivan Kelly and two other men were taken to jail for what the local news reported was a lively street fight as opposed to one of those real tame street while Kelly maintained his innocence his story often varied sometimes he was being framed by Sullivan other times he had been hired by a Portland attorney to kidnap Sayers because he was pursuing a case against one of the attorneys clients it took a jury 12 hours to find Kelly guilty of murder in the second degree while in prison Kelly wrote the memoirs the memoir 13 years in the Oregon State Penitentiary in which he claims to have

fought in the American Civil War a Cuban uprising and in Chile where Kelly says he was part of a regular monthly effort to overthrow the government monthly yeah the government's gonna be like all right it's the 28th let's do this get ready they're gonna try to overthrow us again so the book didn't sell well by the time Kelly was released in 1908 he'd been largely forgotten he made appearance that same year in San Francisco when a report in the San Francisco call stated that he was working for gang boss Abe a roof who was on trial for bribery quote Bunko Kelly another undesirable who openly reports to

roofs office boy Charlie Hagerty during recesses of the court was also present after a book tour in Seattle the following year he wasn't heard for heard from again the big problem with these characters is they there's hardly any actual real record of their doings Bunko Kelly because they weren't that open yeah and that Bunko Kelly was supposed to be from Liverpool but he was actually from Connecticut and there's no there's no record of the cigar store Indian there's some newspaper reports but there's no like police right the good thing is this is all legal so there's no how the fuck is it legal but there the

story's been reported reported over and over and they've been published in Shanghai is totally legal yeah loud Kelly does appear in court records Cripps often use the courts against each other such as when in April 1887 he took his own brother to court over a $50 debt though he apparently remained in partnership with him a story in the Oregonian in 1889 recounts complaints of a Samoan sailor who said Kelly locked him in a room when Kelly couldn't find a ship that would readily take him I mean that's insane sorry I'm just trying to find I just the situation to totally fuck you hasn't emerged yet just give me

15 minutes yeah so there you go well that's fucking insane Shanghai unbelievable it was a good time and they had and the government had to sanction it because they needed cargo to come in and it's like a legal immigration right now yeah they needed the ships they needed they needed it so they just let them be abused and they knew they had to be kidnapped and there's a total fucking disaster Jesus Christ God bless America okay everybody feel weird yeah yeah we do we feel weird okay