Charles de Young
In January 1865, teen age brothers Charles & Michael Henry De Young and an elder brother Gustavus (who were all uncles of Edward Rhine, 1st cousin 2x removed of Jean (Bloom) Ghertner started a San Francisco entertainment slanted newspaper, The Daily Dramatic Chronicle. It grew into a full fledged newspaper, The Chronicle, by 1870 and it was the predecessor to The San Francisco Chronicle.. Bret Harte and Mark Twain were among it’s writers. Michael was the business manager and Charles was a firebrand; his style was yellow journalism and unbridled populism, which the brothers learned sold newspapers.
anti-Kalloch pamplet
the shooting of Charles De Young
“In the spring of 1880, ten days before the trial was slated to begin, Charles, in an ill-advised attempt to contaminate the jury pool, published the accumulated slime in a sixty-page pamphlet smearing Kalloch.” Kalloch’s son, Milton Isaac Kalloch, got an advance copy and flew off the handle. He got a gun, some shots of “liquid courage”. Milton then went to the San Francisco Chronicle offices at 8PM on April 23, 1880 and shot and killed Charles De Young At trial Milton Kalloch was acquitted due to ‘extenuating circumstances’ in part due to the testimony of Mayor Kalloch who told of ‘outrages and perfidies Charles De Young inflicted on his family’ and the Mayor’s showing two bullets that De Young had shot him with. At Milton Kalloch’s trial, a San Francisco Chronicle testified the younger Kalloch had shot De Young five times but strangely, that employee was convicted of perjury and imprisoned. (see this from Murder by the Bay)
Michael Henry De YOung
Charles’ brother, Michael Henry De Young continued publishing the paper and apparently continued mud slinging tradition. “In 1884, The Chronicle ran a piece alleging corruption in the Spreckels sugar company”. Later that year, an irate Adolph B. Spreckels, shot Michael De Young “apparently due to a negative newspaper article, but he survived.” Michael was a director of the Associated Press.
References
Getting away with murder (from a Blog)
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