The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-11
A FOUL MURDER
Tn CHINATOWN
J. B. FORMAN OF BERKELEY, OUT
ON A GOOD TIME, ROBBED
AND SLAIN.
FATAL BLOW IN THE NECK.
Two Ex-CoNvICTs ARRESTED ON
SUSPICION OF COMMITTING
THE CRIME.

J. B. Forman, woolworker, IS years of
age, was found dead in Cum Cook alley,
Chinatown, by Officer Bakuhch at 7:15
o'clock yesterday morning. Investigation
revealed that it was a case of murder, and
piggy" Johnson and Billy Madden, who
have done time at Folsom and San QUEEN
tin, were arrested on suspicion of having
connection with it.
Forman was believed to have been en-
ployed by George S. Webb at Obj Bancroft
way, Berkeley. He came over to San
Francisco on Saturday evening on ''good
time" bent. He visited the tenderloin dis
tricts, Barbary Coast and Chinatown.
While drinking in saloon on Jackson
street he ran across the men who are now
held on suspicion of having struck him
the blow on the back of the neck which
caused a meningeaI hemorrhage of the
brain and spinal cord, from which cause
Forman died.
AS an evidence that robbery was the mo-
tive of the murder the pockets in the
clothes of the dead man were turned in
side out when the body was found. There
was nothing of value found on his person.
A few cards bearing the addresses of sa-
looms and disreputable persons were found
in his pockets, showing that the unfortu-
nate man had made the rounds before he
came to his sad and untimely end. The
body was removed to the Morgue and DR..
Rachael made the autopsy with the results
already stated.
Sergeant Conboy and Detective Bohen
and number of others went to work on
the case. Conboy, so long and thoroughly
acquainted with the district, soon fell on
the trail of the dead man the night pre-
vious and learned that he had for his
drinking companions the ex-convicts,
Johnson and Madden. The three men
late hour on Saturday night. Forman
was very drunk. While making the tour
of the saloons he spent money freely, and
it was this extravagant generosity that
first attracted the attention of th%N crimi-
mails, who soon wormed their way into his
graces.
The ex-convicts were the last persons
seen in the company of Forman, and this
circumstance makes the case against them
quite strong. They were found by Ser
geant Conboy and Detective Bohen in the
company of degraded women in disrepu-
table lodginghouse on Jackson street,
near Kearny, and were taken to the new
City Hall Prison.
Cum Cook alley runs off Dupont, between
Jackson and Pacific streets, and is inhab-
tied by the gambling and criminal classes
of Chinese. 1t is narrow, dark and lonely,
especially after midnight, when drunken
ness and debauch have staggered home,
and is well adapted for the waylaving and
striking down in cold blood of an unsus-
pecting person. There the highlander is
seen to come out of his hole like the rat to
bask in the sun; there is found the dens of
the Chinese women of forgotten virtue !;
there the opium-smoker hits the pipe and
dreams his life away.
Frank Johnson, alias Piggy" is grad
uate in crime from the old Industrial
School. Then he served two terms in the
House of Correction for petty larceny and
grand larceny. On November IS, 1891, he
was arrested by Detective Cody, along with
Con Shea, Jimmy Boyd and Elias Flop
boyd, for burglary, and got three years in
Folsom penitentiary. He is now 81 years
OF age.
William Madden, alias Ryder, is an all
round 'crook." He is % years of age. On
November 49, 1886, he received two and a
half years for burglary in the second de-
gree, and on September Z, 1889, he re-
ceived q similar sentence for burglary.
His last sentence was on September 81,
1892, when he was sent to San Quentin for
two years for burglary.
Standish Webb, son of L. f. Webb
whose card was found in Forman's pocket,
states that last summer a man who gave
his name as Benjamin Forman was en-
ployed at his fathers ranch, about four
miles from Gazelle, Siskiyou County.
About six months ago this man left the
ranch and came down to San Francisco to
look for work His cousin was a stone
cutter, employed at San Francisco Moth
ing was heard of Benjamin Forman after
that. While there he claimed to hail from
Ohio. He is man about IS years old, of
medium size, as near as young Webb can
recollect. While in Gazelle, where he was
employed for several months, he received
no mail.