War of Words: A True Tale of Newsprint and Murder
The book by Simon Read (check out the CLEWS interview with the author) describes the turbulent founding of the San Francisco Chronicle in California's lawless frontier - and they don't get more tabloid than this, for blood was spilled from its earliest days.
The star-crossed haters at the center of the debacle detailed here were a newspaper publisher, Charles de Young (who had "a deep affection for all things tawdry" and fearlessly faced both criminal and civil libel charges) and his minister-turned-mayoral nemesis (dubbed (correctly) as a "gross, sensual libertine" and "a drunken, foul-mouthed visitor at houses of ill-fame").
The story may have you thinking of the Soviet-era concept of Mutual Assured Destruction, for these two men, possessed by their hatred, ravaged one another and themselves too. Along the way we witness journalists committing assaults and shootings, judges beating journalists in the streets, and "the occasional act of rascality" that characterized the entire town at the time.
The story has a wide cast of characters, including the publisher’s brother and the mayor’s son. The Kalloch-de Young feud has got to be the most amazing family feud since the Hatfields and McCoys. The most potent weapons were words, and de Young in particular could sling his arrows true. Of the mayor-minister, he wrote: "[He is] an adulterer, a liar, a thief, a Turk in sentiment, an accepter of bribes, and the biggest scalawag generally that ever disgraced a public office or a church."
Curiously enough, this book was one of the last ever reviewed by the Chronicle, which ceased publication this year (sigh). Like its founder, it couldn’t live forever. Charles de Young died at age 36; the Chronicle made it to age 134. Larger-than-life characters do have a habit of dying an early death of some dramatic cause, so I am compelled to express a final thank you to the Chronicle and its founder for bequeathing this legendary feud for the enjoyment of true crime fans.
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