|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
One of the frustrating things about researching true crimes in 19th-century and early 20th-century newspapers is that the newspapers are so selective. Unlike today, where every aspect of a crime and its subsequent trial and punishment are related in the tiniest detail, early crime reporting tended to, if I’m lucky, relate two out of the three of these. Often I will come across a compelling bit of reporting of an ancient arrest only to find no further mention of trial, motive, sentencing, etcetera. Additionally, early newspapers in our county would eagerly report far-flung crimes but rarely anything local. To be fair, that was true of many newspapers across the United States.
Here is a case in point. When doing some blind research, I came across a tantalizing brief article in the Aug. 7, 1909, edition of The Enterprise, a newspaper printed in South San Francisco:
“Frank J. Resseguie, charged with assault with intent to commit murder on a chauffeur named Louis Heidinger on March 15 last, was found guilty by a jury in the Superior Court at Redwood City yesterday after being out half an hour. Sentence will be passed next Monday.”
Further research into The Enterprise yielded no more details of the crime. After poking around in other sources, I was able to find more information in an earlier (March 16, 1909) edition of The San Francisco Call:
A vicious and mysterious assault was made upon Lewis Heidinger, a chauffeur, in a speeding car bound for a county line beach resort, late last evening. While the chauffeur was driving a passenger who had represented himself to be F. J. Resseguie, a contractor and builder…he was struck over the head with a hammer or length of gas pipe. Stunned and panic-stricken by the brutality and surprise of the assault, Heidinger jumped from his fast-moving car and over a fence into a field. In the jump, he sprained his ankle. The theory of the police is that Heidinger’s assailant wanted to steal the automobile.
“Several days ago a man who represented himself to be F. J. Resseguie…approached Heidinger, and after several conversations stated that he wanted to buy the car Heidinger was driving. The price agreed upon was $2,200. The pretended purchaser met Heidinger last evening and said that his wife had the money at a house in Colma. He asked Heidinger to drive him there.”
For this case, there was one interesting follow-up in the Aug. 28 edition of The Enterprise:
“Learning that threats against the life of District Attorney Joseph J. Bullock had been made by Thomas Thompson, a well-known resident of Vista Grande, Superior Judge Buck last Monday in open court at Redwood City, took cognizance of the fact and issued a warning that prosecution will follow if threats against county authorities are made.
“Thompson is the brother-in-law of Frank J. Resseguie, the contractor, who was found guilty of assault on a San Francisco chauffeur, with intent to murder. As the jury recommended that extreme mercy be shown to the defendant, Resseguie was released on probation.
“The judge, however, warned him that his brother-in-law had threatened ‘to get’ Bullock, and that the court would hold him responsible for any further threat made.”
At least in this instance, I was able to discover the eventual sentence of probation, but the reasoning for the jury to recommend “extreme mercy” for what appears to be a particularly vicious and senseless crime is a mystery.
Older crimes such as this one are fascinating, and the language used by reporters of the time is often so good that I cannot improve on it or summarize it adequately and will quote significant passages in these blog postings.
So stay tuned to these Thursday articles – but don’t necessarily expect every aspect of the tale.
