This murder case had everything- frontier lesbians, French prostitutes, jealous Italians, enraged pimps, reform school babes, even a transvestite frog catcher. On Thursday, September 15, 1876, the evening quiet at San Miguel Railway Station, located at what is now San Jose Avenue and Sickles Street in the Oceanview District was shattered by the report of a heavy shotgun blast. Pellets from the shot broke the window of a front bedroom of John McNamara's saloon/hotel, and struck 27-year-old Jeanne Bonnet, killing her instantly. Jeanne and Blanche Beunon, a French prostitute, were preparing for bed, when the shotgun blast crashed through the window. Jeanne Bonnet’s life had been short and turbulent. She was one of two daughters in an unstable family of French theatrical performers. Jeanne had been a frequent inmate of the Industrial school, San Francisco’s19 Century version of reform school. It was said, she would gain entry to the boys’ dormitory and there "attack the largest boy found in the room, just to show how she could whip him." As an adult, Jeanne’s legal troubles continued, most frequently for refusing to wear female attire, a crime in those days. She said that the law prohibiting her from wearing male apparel was an infringement on the rights of women, and she said that she intended to continue, no matter what the consequences.  Jeanne in her banned attire.Jeanne made her living by catching frogs in the ponds near Lake Merced and selling them to French restaurants in downtown San Francisco. She made a good living but her drinking and her attraction for round heeled women kept her in constant battles with their procurers. First the police tried to determine whether Jeanne or Blanche was the intended victim. Blanche’s pimp, Arthur Deneve had threatened both women after Blanche had left him for Jeanne, but he had returned to France weeks before the shooting. Captain of Detectives Isaiah Lees soon learned that a man named Pierre Louis had been paid $2,000 by someone to kill Blanche. Lees and his detectives hastened to arrestLouis but he had disappeared. Two years later someone was revealed as an Italian Market Street merchant who had proposed to Blanche and became furious when he learned that Blanche had taken up with Jeanne Bonnet.In mid-July 1880 Louis was arrested near Montreal for assaulting his wife Caroline. Louis hanged himself before police arrived. In the end, the crime remained officially unsolved, Jeanne was dead, Blanche went back to her Merchant and the frogs relaxed again in Lake Merced. |
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