On this day in 1914* millionaire San Francisco business man George Gray was shot to death in his office, murdered by a former employee seeking $17.50 in back wages. *One source dates the murder to November 10, 1915.
Gray, along with his brother Harry, owned three quarries in San Francisco located at Corona Heights, Telegraph Hill and Thirteenth and Castro. No strangers to controversy, the brothers had been sued numerous times.
They opened their first quarry in 1890 on the east side of Telegraph Hill, (right) blasting the face of the hill near residential areas, causing debris to break windows and injure children. In 1894, a rock slide buried a residence on Vallejo Street and a year later, the home of a shoemaker on Calhoun Street was blown off its foundation.
Enraged neighbors were able to obtain a judge’s order to stop the blasting, but the Grays ignored the order, just continuing to operate at a different quarry.
Corona Heights neighborhood threatened by Gray quarry.
Complaints continued to mount about broken windows, damaged roofs and in 1895, a broken sewer line which spilled raw sewage over a neighbor-hood. Six months later a group of women appeared before the Board of Supervisors, insisting that the Grays be made to comply with the judge’s order, to no avail.
The city needed the rock for construction, the supervisors said, accepting the company’s explanation that 1,500 men would lose their jobs if the blasting was stopped. And besides, George said Telegraph Hill was ugly and should be taken down to give residents on the other side a view of the bay.
Contemporary sources say the pair “reached a new low” in 1909, using the city’s Fourth of July fireworks to mask blasting activities.
But violence would follow their arrogance. That same year the company’s cashier, Katheryn Bush, was killed by an angry unpaid worker. Five years later the same fate befell George.
On the morning of November 10, he was confronted at his Castro Street office by Joseph Lococo, a 36-year-old Sicilian immigrant seeking that $17 in back pay. He was sick, he said, had not eaten in two days and had a wife and two children who were starving. In addition he was facing eviction.
According to newspaper accounts Gray laughed at Lococo and told him to leave at which time Lococo pulled out a gun and shot him dead.
Lococo was arrested and tried for murder, pleading not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. Acquitted, he left the courtroom a free man, cheered on by more than 100 supporters.
Thus ended the Gray quarry business. The firm went bankrupt. To add insult to injury bricks from the brothers’ brick yard that had been used in the cable car bed were found to be sub-standard and had to be replaced. Harry survived brother George by 23 years, never regaining their lost fortune.
Coit Tower, 1 Telegraph Hill Blvd, sits atop the place George Gray meant to destroy. Designed by the firm of Arthur Brown, Jr., and completed in 1933, it was funded by Lillie Hitchcock Coit in honor of the city’s volunteer firefighters. The deck of the tower provides a spectacular 360 view of the bay area.
Murals at the base were added in 1934 by Works Progress Administration artists, depicting Depression life, some becoming controversial. The hill gets its name from the semaphore telegraph of 1850 there used to alert residents to incoming ships. Pioneer Park surrounds the tower and is home to the city’s flock of wild parrots. Stars in their own right, the birds were featured in the 2005 film, “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.”
The tower is open 10 to 6 daily May through October and 10 to 5 daily November through April. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. Docent tours are available for groups of 4 to 8. Tour price including the history of the murals is $8 per person. Entrance to the tower elevator is $8 for adults (resident adults, $6); $5 for seniors and youth 12 to 17 (residents, $4); $2 chldren 5 to 11 and younger than 5, free. For more information go to sfrecpark.org/destination/telegraph-hill-pioneer-park/coit-tower or call Phone: (415) 249-0995.
© Text Only – 2017 – Headin’ West LLC – All photos – public domain.