accused, for if accusation without conviction is a disqualification for public office, then no one can be secure from unjustified destruction."
Two Marin county cases involved minors, and Friscophile columnist Herb Caen added another note: "John 'Honey Bunny Boo' Breckenridge, the Sharon scion who once announced he'd have an operation to become a woman, is in St. Francis Hosp. for surgery but not THAT kind. " "Brace yourself," warned Terrence O'Flaherty in the CHRONICLE, "The fairies are taking over television." But he was just talking about the surprising audience ratings. of TV shows based on the old Grimm and Anderson tales . . . Millie Robbins' CHRONICLE column reported the visit to Frisco by Thelma Holland, recalling the visit 75 years ago of her famed father-in-law, Oscar Wilde, who came carrying violets, a camellia and a pansy given him by admirers. Mrs. Holland, who has been make-up advisor to Queen Elizabeth, is wife of Wilde's younger son, Vyvyan Holland (the boys' names were changed after the trial) whose book, SON OF OSCAR WILDE we recommended some time back.
Police intensified drive on "rounding up undesirables" in effort to find "the murderer of an elderly woman" ... handing out vagrancy charges wholesale to homosexuals along with "sex degenerates, thugs and hoodlums." Hand-picked group of 30 police inspectors continued their roundup at various city parks and known hangouts. Add two mystery deaths... apparent suicide of a New York student in Telegraph Hill area and a young man found dead, nearly nude, in a hotel room where he'd registered a few hours earlier with a sailor, who gave name of Jack Doran.
Police were having troubles of their own: Patrolman Brian McDonnell sued by housewife who charged
rough handling, profane and obscene language, repeated false arrests and accusations... bringing on relapse of tuberculosis; Patrolman Anthony Troche was called on pan a second time for friendly calls on call girls while he was supposedly on duty; and Sgt. John J. O'Connell suspended for allegedly attempting to cover up the beating of a civilian drinking companion by Patrolman Robert Hanson. O'Connell admitted meeting the victim outside Ingleside station and urging him to make a cash settlement . . . Its the old story
but who watches the "watchers?"
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In a CHRONICLE interview, Customs Bureau officials in San Francisco admitted that, in the average week, they held out some 700 pieces of mail, "suspected of being subversive or obscene" about one publication in 20 entering Frisco from abroad, ranging from Chinese and Soviet magazines to Pierre Louys' APHRODITE, Ginsberg's poem HOWL and the avant guarde magazine, THE MISCELLANEOUS MAN. "The person whose mail is held up never knows" this, "it is understood, reduces the danger of law suits against the Customs Bureau." And where do clerks in the Custom Dept. derive the right to sieze property without due process and destroy it secretly in a deliberate conspiracy to circumvent Constitutional guarantees? IF the material is actually either obscene or subversive, the lawful owners still have the right to have that proved in Court.
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Calif. Atty. General "Pat" Brown had an aide pick up 50 "sexy" magazines on Frisco newsstands, and began a personal perusal of them to see if they may violate laws against obscenity and pornography but said he didn't want to get into any controversy on censorship. He's already up to his neck in attempt to suppress CONFIDENTIAL and WHISPER. The latter publication has sued