Our story originates in San Francisco’s Barbary Coast. The calendar is opened to Christmas Eve 1896. The “Coast” not for the faint hearted. It has more than just a “bad” reputation, even the police feared to enter the “Coast.”
24 December 1896 San Francisco Call. “FATALLY SHOT IN A SALOON” “Dave Fauss Fires Three Bullets into Joseph Manning.” “The Wounded Man Said the Trouble Was Over a Women named Sophie Smith.” “So Quietly and Quickly Was the Deed Done That Fauss Succeeded in Making His Escape.” Joseph Manning, an ex- baseball player, 36 years of age, was shot three times and fatally wounded in Henry Hoffman’s saloon, 112 Fourth Street, last evening. Manning and a companion were seated at a table in the saloon playing a friendly game of cards about 6 o’clock and several men were standing at the bar Manning was sitting facing the entrance. The people in the place were startled by hearing three shots tired in rapid succession and on wheeling around saw Manning with a groan fall to the floor. Manning’s companion was standing with a glazed look on his face, and simultaneously all hands ran out of the saloon to look for the man who had fired the shots, but he had disappeared as if the earth had swallowed him up. The only man who saw the would be murderer was a man who does odd jobs around the saloon. He saw a short man with a revolver in his band running out of the saloon. Neither of the bartenders saw him enter or leave the saloon, nor any of the customers at the bar; at least, according to their statement. They accounted for it by saying that they were too much taken by surprise and did not turn around quick enough, not thinking for a moment that the shots had been fired in the saloon. The Southern police station was notified and Policemen TL Ryan and Ed O’Dea were promptly detailed on the case and commenced a vigorous search for the shooter. Manning was taken to the Receiving Hospital in the ambulance and Dr. Bunnell found that the three bullets had entered the right breast, each about an inch and a half apart. Each went clear through his body, piercing the right lung, and Dr. Bunnell expressed the opinion that the wounds would prove fatal. Manning at first said he did not know who fired the shots, but later, in making an ante-mortem statement to Corporal Cub, he said the man was Dave Fauss and the trouble was over a woman named Sophie Smith. Monday night he and Fauss had a fight over the woman and Fauss, who is older and smaller than Manning, threatened to “get even,” as he got the worst of the fight. Manning, Fauss and Sophie Smith lived at 520 Mission Street, and each man was jealous of the other’s attentions to her. Fauss in 1887 was short-stop of the Iowa baseball team, when Manning took his place. It is said that Fauss has borne a grudge against Manning since then, believing that he intrigued to succeed him, and that had as much to do with the shooting last evening as the woman Smith. Manning died about 10 PM.”
25 December 1896 San Francisco Call “FAUSS IS NOT YET CAPTURED” “Steady and Careful Search Being Made for Him.” “Twenty Years Ago He Was One of the Best-Known Ball-Players.” “The Police Have Issued a Circular Giving a Description of the Murderer.” A steady and careful search has been made by detectives and policemen specially detailed for David Fauss, alias “Little Dave,” the murderer of Joseph Manning, but he is still at large. Every avenue of escape has been guarded, and his capture is only a question of time. An eye-witness of the shooting called on Captain Lees yesterday and said he was in the door of the saloon when he heard the three shots fired. Fauss hurried out of the saloon with the smoking revolver in his hand, and turned into Minna Street toward Fifth, putting the revolver into his pocket as he walked along. That was the last seen of him. Sophie Smith, the woman over whom Manning, before his death, said the trouble arose, was found in a “‘dive” on the Barbary Coast early yesterday morning in a state of maudlin intoxication. She was taken to a lodging-house and will be asked
to make a statement when she is sober enough to do so. She has for years been known to the police as a dissolute woman and has several times been arrested for vagrancy. Captain Lees has issued the following notice to all the police stations and sent it broadcast: Arrest for murder David Fauss, alias Little Dave, who murdered Joseph Manning at 112 Fourth Street December 23. Description: Height, 5 feet 8 inches; age, about 50; weight, 160 pounds; heavy chested and square-shouldered; dark swarthy complexion, dark brown mustache; bow-legged; wore dark shabby suit and dark box hat. Fauss was a baseball-player and first baseman with the Knickerbockers late in the seventies and early eighties. He also played with the Olympics in Washington, DC in 1871. In 1879 he played with the Cincinnatis and came to this City in 1882, playing with the Buffalos and Omaha’s and has since then remained here. Fauss lodges at cheap lodging-houses and hangs around second-class drinking saloons and fleeces “suckers” with the aid of a woman. According to the police Manning and Fauss are believed to have quarreled over swindling a “sucker” in the Knickerbocker saloon, 906 Kearny Street, on Monday night, which resulted in the murder. Fauss accused Manning of standing in with the woman against him and they had a fight in the saloon. Little is known about Manning. A few people south of Market Street were acquainted with him, but few of them knew anything about his history other than he
claimed to have been an ex-baseball player. The police have searched everywhere for a photo of Fauss, but have failed to find, one. He is believed to be in hiding in the City and as he is personally known to several of the officers who are searching for him he cannot, it is thought, possibly escape.”
25 December 1896 Washington baseball fans are shocked to read the following. ““Davy Force, the old ball player
Davey Force – nicknames, Wee Davy or Tom Thumb
a fugitive.” Joseph Manning, an ex-baseball player who was recently shot by “Davy” Force, formerly a famous ball player, died yesterday in San Francisco, The police are looking for Force. Force played on the Washington nine in 1886 Washington’s first year in the league He came here from Providence with Joe Start, Paul Hines, Cliff Carroll, Dupee Shaw and Barney Gilligan He dropped out of the baseball world after that, and it is said he has been leading a wild, reckless life.”
2 January Sporting Life While the message of peace on earth, good will to men, re-echoed from zone to zone the news was flashed from San Francisco that “Davy” Force was a murderer.
Here is the story as told by wire: “San Francisco, Dec. 24. Joseph Manning, an ex-baseball player, who was shot by David Force, also a professional ball player, died today: The police are looking for Force. Force played in the big league of the East at various times, was the star of the St. Louis, Cincinnati and Buffalo Clubs. He was a high-salaried man His position was at shortstop, though he filled almost any position on the diamond. He dropped out of the baseball world some years ago, and it is said he had been leading a wild, reckless life. Of Manning, the ball players know little.”
“Among the League players of the 70’s and early 80’s few were better known that short stop Davy Force, and all old-time patrons of the game will recall the short squat, bow-legged little short stop, who is his Jay was considered the champion shortstop of the profession. His last professional engagement was with Cincinnati. After 1890 he dropped out of public view. Some years ago he was in the employ of the Otis Elevator Company, of which Mr. AG Mills, ex-president of the league, is secretary, and we were not aware that he had lost his position, and drifted to California. By the way, there must be something in the air of that glorious climate of the Golden State to arouse the spirit of combativeness, for Charley Sweeney, who helped Providence land a pennant, is at San Quentin, serving a sentence for manslaughter. Joseph Manning as a ball player was not known to the profession at large, while the real Davy Force is reported to be working quietly in New York, as will be seen from the dispatch below.
Special to “Sporting Life:” New York, Jan. 31. A. G. Mills, who as president of the National League rescued base ball from the infamous gambling fraternity and placed the national pastime upon a solid foundation, and who was also the author of the original National Agreement, yesterday issued the following public statement to relieve the minds of the friends of Davy Force, the veteran ball player, who was reported to have killed a man in San Francisco: New York. Dec. 28. I have been shown an item in a recent Philadelphia paper, purporting to be a dispatch from San Francisco, under date of December 24th, in which it is stated that Joseph Manning, an ex-base ball player, who was shot by David Force, died that day: also that the police are looking for Force. From the further description of Force in the dispatch it might be inferred that the person against whom this serious charge is made is Davy Force, who was well and favorably known for many years in professional base ball circles as one of the star short stops of the profession. I have, known Davy Force almost continuously since I engaged him in 1867 to play in the Olympic Base Ball Club, of Washington. For the last seven years he has been in the employ of the company of which I am an officer, and is a steady, hard-working man, and I fully believe his statement that he never knew a Joseph Manning, and that he has never had any serious difficulty with or made an assault of any kind upon any ball player either during or since his professional career. It is quite evident that this is a case of mistaken identity so far as Davy Force is concerned, and I deem it due to him to make this statement. AG Mills
The Davy Force matter resurfaces in the press.
16 January “Sporting Life” is in receipt of a letter from the detective office of the San Francisco Police Department, requesting a photograph of the veteran, David Force. In connection with this the following from the Washington “Post” is interesting: “A local detective called on President Nick Young yesterday and asked for a description of Dave Force, the fugitive ex-ball tosser, who is accused of inserting lead into the shape of a San Francisco man. The only mental note that Uncle Nick ever took of Davy was in Nick’s language: “Force was about 5 feet 6, a little bowlegged, stock of build; never drunk at least he didn’t when I knew him was a fair hitter, and death to a ground ball. This description of Davy is scarcely as graphic as the Bertillon picture of criminals, but it was the best Nick could do. Imagine a Sleuth piping a crime with nothing but the ground ball theory to follow. The detective told Mr. Young that the Frisco police had notified the police departments all over the country to get out on the coach line and watch for Davy.” Evidently the San Francisco police still believe that the ex-player Force is the man they want for murder, despite the original Davy’s statement that he has not committed any crime and has not been in California.
It isn’t until April that the Davy Force matter appears to be resolved.
10 April San Francisco Call “DID HE MURDER JOE MANNING?” “Officer Clark Thinks He Has Spotted the Man.” ”Arrests on Suspicion a Professional Tramp Known as Mickey. “The Hobo Says He Can Prove He Was Doing Time When the Murder Occurred.” The police believe they have landed the murderer of Joe Manning, Manning, a Barbary Coast rounder, was shot down in cold blood in Kayser’s saloon, 104 South Third Street, on the evening of December 24. The murder was a particularly dastardly one, and the escape of the perpetrator was extremely annoying to the police, as the crime was committed in the presence of several people, yet no reliable clue could be secured as to the identity of the murderer. The latter circumstances was owing largely to the character of the inmates of the resort, who have no friendship for police methods, and partly, perhaps, to the suddenness of the onslaught, the crime having been committed and the murderer having escaped before the spectators realized what had happened.
Manning, according to the confused story which was gleaned from the witnesses, was sitting in the saloon, when his assailant rushed in and with an oath fired point blank at him, and without
stopping to ascertain the extent of his malefaction hurried away and was lost in the crowd on the street. Among those who saw the shooting a number were found who claimed it was done by a man, once a professional ball-player, known as David Foss. The detectives wonted on this clue for a long time, and at last managed to locate Foss. He was located in the far East, and was able to prove conclusively that he was not in the vicinity of San Francisco at the time of the murder. At this point the sleuths were for a time stalled. A short time ago Police Officer LC Clark was notified by a friend that the murderer of Manning was not Foss, but a man known among the knights of the road as Mickey. Thursday a man seeking a dime approached Clark’s informant while the latter was conversing with the officer who was in citizen’s dress. Clark was informed that the man was wanted and the mendicant was put under arrest for begging. Yesterday Sophie Smith, a character well known on the “coast,” identified Mickey as a man she had left to consort with Manning previous to the murder. Mickey, who gave his name as Lane when arrested but afterward admitted he was known as PA Mickey, denies any knowledge save that which is common property among the “hoboes.” He says he can easily prove that he was “doing ten days ” for vagrancy, under the name of Frank Johnson, at the time of the murder. Mickey is a professional tramp. He says he has been on the road ever since the war.
At this point the trail goes cold. Did PA Mickey kill Joseph Manning or was it someone else? We do know that Davy Force was innocent.
