Skip to main content

Belle Cora, Best Known Madam of Old San Francisco

In the history of San Francisco, there are two infamous Madams... Belle Cora, and Ah Toy. The former is arguably much more infamous. 

There are several versions of Bell's origins, but most historians believe she is the daughter of strict Irish parents who happen to live one house over from a brothel, and Belle and her sister became intrigued with the oldest profession. Later, Belle went off on her own, and after a while, made it to New Orleans, where she met Charles Cora, a riverboat captain who's also an avid gambler. The two became inseparable and decided to make their way West. They tried several cities in California until settling in San Francisco by 1849, just as gold was discovered in Sonoma. They established a parlor / brothel at the corner of Dupont and Washington... with the most beautiful women... and the highest prices, catering to the elite of the city. Belle was the most expensively dressed woman in town, and Charles himself was no slough, believed to have a net worth of 400K, which is practically billionaire status in today's money. 

However, the city itself is changing from the frontier port it was in 1849-1850 into a bustling proper city by 1852, with a population in the 20K to 30K range, and the city kept on growing. As more people arrived, more "civilized" people arrived as well, and they wanted the vices expelled, or at least, minimized. And both Charles the gambler and Belle the madam are public symbols of the vices they wanted to remove from the city. 

The fateful day was November 15th, 1855. The story was that Belle was in some sort of a tiff with Mrs. William Richardson, wife of a US Marshall. That day, both Belle and Charles attended a play sitting in the first balcony, the most expensive seats in the theater. Mrs. Richardson tried to be a Karen, something akin to "oh, this theater lacks class, allowing such riffraff to sit in VIP seats. Where's the manager! I want to see the manager!" When the management refused to eject the Coras, both Richardsons stalked out of the theater. 

The next day, Charles Cora and Marshall William Richardson encountered each other multiple times all over the city, in front of many witnesses, sometimes hostile with heated words, sometimes friendly and sharing drinks. Then under very murky circumstances, while walking on Clay St and Leidesdorff, Charles Cora fired one shot at William Richardson, killing him instantly. 

Belle did EVERYTHING to save Charles. The prosecution outright accused her of trying to buy off and/or intimidate the star witness. Belle hired the best attorneys available in San Francisco, and personally delivered meals to the city jail. The trial actually resulted in a hung jury, and newspapers shouted about alleged bribes paid out by Belle and her collaborators. 

With a bit more time, there was a chance that Charles could have been retried and possibly freed, but that chance evaporated when another shooting occurred in 1856... On May 14th, 1856, City Supervisor James Casey shot newspaper editor (and notorious muckraker, probably a historical Alex Jones) James King of William. This touched off a wave of vigilantism, resulting in a new "Vigilance Committee" being formed. On May 18th, 2000+ citizens, fully armed (and they even commandeered a cannon), formed a mob and went to the prison where Casey and Cora were held, and demanded the two be handed over. And the sheriff, after being threatened with the cannon, gave up and surrendered both. 

Both were retried, this time without their defense attorneys (one of the vigilants acted as their defense). Casey was convicted unanimously, but Cora actually came close to a tie, but in the end was convicted of murder and sentenced to hang on the 22th. 

Belle somehow heard of the news and convinced the vigilantes to let her spend his final hours with him, and 2 hours before his execution, they were officially married. And at 1:21pm, Casey and Cora were hung at what's today, roughly Battery and Sacramento. 

Belle Cora retreated to Cora House, their parlor, and was not seen for a month. After that, she sold the place, and gave away most of her fortune to philanthropic causes, esp. children's education. She died in 1862 of pneumonia, at the age of 30. 

Cora House itself is gone, burned in the 1906 earthquake. It was at now Grant and Washington. 

Cora House, circa 1853


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

About the author

Kasey is a professional tour guide and amateur historian who specialized in Chinatown History and Tours. You will often find him guiding groups sampling delicious food and learning interesting historical tidbits about Chinatown most weekends.

Popular posts from this blog

Look Tin Eli: The Revitalizer of Chinatown After 1906 Earthquake and Fire

Look Tin Eli is not a popular name unless you study Chinese-American history. Yet arguably, his greatest contribution was how he became the chief negotiator for the rebuilding of Chinatown after the 1906 Earthquake and fire, and can be considered the father of all modern Chinatowns.  Early Life Look Tin Eli (aka Look Tin Sing) was born in Mendocino, California, in 1870 to Luk Bing-Tai (known locally as Eli Tia Key) and Su Wong. Luk the elder originally worked as a cook for the local magnate upon arrival, but was able to raise enough money to open a general store in town. Luk the elder's bride is actually Native American, but raised by a Chinese American family. The couple had four children: 3 sons and 1 daughter including Look Tin Eli. The elder Luk decided that all of his sons needed a proper Chinese education, so he sent each of his sons back to China at the age of 9. Look Tin Eli left in 1879. The decision was likely based on the fact that back then Chinese Americans are not all...
Post a Comment
Read more

Origin of Chinese Laundry: How Chinese-Americans Turned Discrimination Into Opportunity

One of the oddities during the Gold Rush years of San Francisco was the extreme imbalance between males and females. It is believed the ratio was like 20 to 1. And remember, back in the 1800s, men do NOT do laundry... It was supposed to be women's work or domestic servant's work. Most men don't even know how to do laundry. Not to mention two buckets of fresh water would cost a quarter. This resulted in some very odd pricing, such as the cost of laundering a dozen shirts being $8-12 dollars, due to very few women available to do the laundry. A few men will try, but give up after a while after they either destroyed the shirts or lost all the buttons. The situation was bad enough, laundry was sent across the ocean to be laundered. A ship can carry back several hundred dozen pieces of laundry .  Hawaii, seeing an opportunity, started to offer $6 per dozen washes and a much faster turnaround.    Some folks in Chinatown recognized the profit potential, being close to the p...
Post a Comment
Read more

So What Exactly Are the Tongs of Chinatown?

The Tongs of Chinatown started off as an attempt to do good, but ended up corrupted by greed and turned into a term of evil. But what are they really?  Tong 堂 literally means the main room or a hall. It could be termed an "association", and they still exist today in San Francisco Chinatown.  Hop Sing Tong, or 合勝縂堂 (lit: united victory main hall) photo courtesy of Wikipedia / Wikicommons The Tongs started as immigrant associations serving people with common former residency, common dialect, or common ancestry. The tongs will help people fresh off the boast to adapt to the new culture. If you can find a tong that is affiliated with your village or your clan or speak your dialect, you will be welcomed. You will be given a bed for the night, then help to find a job, and find proper housing.  The tongs also offered both physical and legal protection. By 1854, the Chinese have been ruled to have no right to participate in the court system . In People vs. Hall, a Chinese witnes...
2 comments
Read more