Los Angeles herald., 1908-12-02
ARTICLE IN NEWSPAPER
MAY HAVE LED BIGGY
TO END HIS OWN LIFE
Especial to The Herald. !

SAN FRANCISCO, December l.
That Chief Biggy killed himself be-
cause of an article that appeared in the
San Francisco Call Monday morning
and in which it was made to appear
that the chief, while intoxicated had
created a scene in the Tenderloin dis
trict, is the belief of some of Biggy's
friends.
Under the heading, Raids in the
Name of Blggy,'' the Call printed the
following:
In the ambitious role of temperamental
reformer, a short, pudgy man, announcing
himself huskily, and without contradiction
to be Chief of Police Biggy created a great
furore on the outskirts of the Tenderoin
district between l and o'clock yesterday
morning. First the man kicked hard at the
door of Elfen & Harden's saloon, 6S4 Lar
kin street. corner of Ellis then he broke a
glass door in the Ellis street side of tho
saloon, and as a fitting climax to the es-
capade he "raided'' the notorious resort
kept by Tesse Wall in the over the
saloon.
Still proclaiming himself to be the chief
of police, the temperamental reformer who
looked so like Biggy that no one thought
for moment he was any one else, blus-
tered into the Wall woman's resort. ordered
all the inmates into the street. then re-
scinded his order and set the time for the
exodus at o'clock, then had second at
tack of kindlness and postponed the fate
full hour until December Is. All the time
the uproarlous visitor shouted in alcoholic
tones that he was Chief of Police Biggy,
and no one doubted his word.
To give verisimilitude to the raiders s
elf-advertisement of authority, Policeman
James Murphy appeared before Tessie Wall S
door at o'clock in the morning and estab-
lished a blockade that lasted until o'clock
in the afternoon. Whether or not the man
was in fact Biggy, Murphy evidently be-
lieved in his identity. A half hour before
the blockade was called off two of Chief
cOnddantial
Tessie Wallis resort and had long confer
ence with the mistress.
The pudgy person who appeared to be
under the influence of liquor approached
Elfen & Hardens saloon at 1880 o'clock
Dean Elfen, one of the proprietors, was in
side checking up the cash and had locked
the front doors. Suddenly he heard swift
kick striking against the woodwork and a
heated voice shouting. Il am Chief Biggy
(lkick); "Open up that door" (kick-kick).
II don't care who you are" shouted Ellen,
and went on with his accounts
Soon the racket was renewed at the side
door in Ellis street, and the glass panel
broke before the fist, the breath and the
voice of the man who called proudly and
without contradiction, Il am Chief Biggy."
But he didn't get into the saloon.
He had better luck with the door leading
to Tesse Wallis quarters He went up
stairs
A long hallway studded with many closed
doors, greeted his confused sight chief
of police should show no awe in the pres
ence of a closed door and the Intruder, Civ
ing an extra twirl to his mustache, and
again announcing himself Biggy, started
down the hallway, rapping with a splendid
curiosity on each closed door and demand
ing that it be opened and the place cleared
out One of the women, Clarissa Howard,
was SO shocked by the sound of the words.
II am Chief Biggy." that she suffered from
nervous prostration all day.
Biggy has been threatening to close up
the wall woman's place almost since the
time he was first made chief OF police. He
objected he said, to the existence of such a
place at the important transfer point of
Iarl<in and Ellis streets. But for some un-
explained reason the day of closing was
postponed. 1t was naturally shock when
a man announcing himself as chief appeared
to carry out the threat. The raid" was ex-
planned by the condition of unnatural excite
inent under which the impersonator of the
cbief was laboring.