Kings of the Tenderloin
The McDonough Brothers were the Fountainhead of Corruption in S.F.
The Tenderloin took its name from an older neighborhood in New York with similar characteristics. A New York City police captain, Alexander S. Williams, often bragged that when he was assigned to another part of the city, he could only afford to eat chuck steak on the salary he was earning, but after he was transferred to the neighborhood in question, he was making so much money on the side soliciting bribes that he could now afford to eat tenderloin.
The McDonough brothers (Peter and Thomas) became an immensely wealthy and powerful force in San Francisco, dominating the underworld, city government, and police department from 1910 to the late 1930s. Together, they were dubbed the "Kings of the Tenderloin,” at the time, the most notorious criminals the city had ever known.
Pete was the boss. He was born on May 10, 1872 and raised in the Cow Hollow neighborhood (now known as the Marina District) of San Francisco. He was the son of Hannora (née O'Connor) and Patrick McDonough, a San Francisco police sergeant and saloon owner. The McDonough family was of Irish-descent and they had five children. Pete attended Sacred Heart College in San Francisco and then for 12 years Pete worked at a haberdashery at 3rd Street and Market Street.
His older brother Thomas was born February 19, 1870 in San Francisco and was educated in the public schools and Sacred Heart College in San Francisco. Thomas was a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the Druids.
In 1890, along with his brother Tom, Pete took over the saloon previously owned by his father, located Kearny and Clay Streets. The bar was located close to the Hall of Justice, on Montgomery Street. This led the brothers to open the first bail bondsmen business at "the corner," as it was called at the time, in 1896. It is possible that the brothers founded the first modern bail bonds business in the United States, the system by which a person pays a percentage to a professional bondsman who puts up the cash as a guarantee that the person will appear in court.
[Pete] McDonough was considered the overlord of San Francisco vice, gambling, and prostitution.
Over time, the business expanded to include a range of services for accused individuals, such as providing lawyers. Pete McDonough also developed a communication system with the police stations, so that his business could quickly respond to new arrests. As explained by FoundSF, "Within minutes of an arrest, McDonough's nephew was hailing a taxi to find a judge to sign an OR (order of release) form, and the client was soon free. Naturally, everyone was on the take, and McDonough was raking it in."
The brothers were a dominant force in organized labor. They provided bail without charge to striking workers, and they generously donated to the political campaigns of labor leaders. For example, they paid for the bail of striking streetcar workers during the 1906-07 strikes. For this support, the brothers often expected support from organized labor when they were in trouble.
Pete McDonough was a product of the post-earthquake Abe Ruef days of civic corruption. During his years as the pre-eminent bondsmen in San Francisco, McDonough was accused of bribery, perjury, suborning witnesses, tampering with judges, corrupting officials, and controlling and paying off police. A 1919 Grand Jury exonerated San Francisco District Attorney Charles Fickert from charges made by John B. Densmore, investigator from Washington, Director General of Employment, in the framing of Thomas Mooney and Warren Billings and for Fickert having conspired with McDonough in the freeing of wealthy defendants. Labelled the "Fountainhead of Corruption" by Edwin Atherton in the 1937 Atherton Report on San Francisco police corruption, McDonough was considered the overlord of San Francisco vice, gambling, and prostitution. Furthermore, a grand jury concluded that "No one can conduct a prostitution or gambling enterprise in San Francisco without the approval direct or indirect of the McDonough brothers."
During prohibition, McDonough spent eight months in the Alameda County Jail for bootlegging and eventually sought a pardon from President Calvin Coolidge. He was jailed again in 1938 for refusing to discuss police corruption before the Police Graft grand jury headed by Marshall Dill.
Pete McDonough died on 8 July 1947, after having a stroke. Thomas died in 1948.
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