Ep. 4—The Story of Johnny Ochsner, The Rich Kid Romeo, and the Lovesick Stowaways

by kbronson | Jul 22, 2025 | Episodes

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, this is Knox Bronson at the Secret History of Frisco podcast. We have a rather remarkable episode today. It is the story of an Oakland man, two women who followed him across the Pacific as stowaways, one from San Francisco to Hawaii, one from Hawaii back to California, with dreams of matrimony, and a third woman with whom he eloped to Reno after jilting the first two. It is also the story of underage sex, burglary on a high seas luxury liner, the intervention of the FBI, naval officers, juvenile court, and one mother very determined to protect her randy son from what she perceived as ever-circling gold-diggers.

[transition]

Newspapers in this era, the Thirties and Forties, carried a tremendous amount of local news, often of a very personal nature. The story of Oakland oil heir Johnny Ochsner and his failed romantic escapades went on for years and the stories were carried in newspapers around the world.

As Johnny’s story began in 1946, when he was 19, the biggest movie of the day was the noir classic, “The Postman Always Rings Twice.”

The Secret History of Frisco

Elmer “Bones” Remmer

After stealing a million dollars from the Cal-Neva Lodge in the 40s, Bones came to San Francisco and became the king of vice.

Jimmie Tarantino

Editor of the Hollywood Life scandal sheet, extortionist, blackmailer, Freddie was the prince of smears and innuendo.

Bill Wren

Managing Editor of the SF Examiner, Bill Wren ran the city and didn’t like to pay the bookies when he lost a bet.

Bob Patterson

As Freddie Francisco, Bob was the biggest gossip columnist of all, also a convicted embezzler and thief. A great writer, too.

Shell Cooper

Bones Remmer’s lieutenant. Cooper and Varni’s bar was a feeder saloon to nearby brothels and filled with b-girls.

Sally Stanford

Sally ran the city’s high-end brothels, catering to the city’s power elite. She eventually became the mayor of Sausalito.

Frank Sinatra

Frank was an early investor in Hollywood Life magazine. After Jimmie shook him down for $8K, Jimmie had to leave LA.

Mickey Cohen

Mickey Cohen was Hollywood’s flamboyant gangster, the southern California equivalent to Bones Remmer

Thomas Lynch

San Francisco’s District Attorney. An ally of Bill Wren, he went after the purveyors sin in the city’s Tenderloin district.

Herb Caen

Gossip columnist at the SF Chronicle and creator of the modern myth of San Francisco, cool grey city of love.

Louella Parsons

Syndicated Queen of Gossip and screenwriter for William Randolph Hearst’s newspaper and radio empire.

Estes Kefhauver

The Senator’s committee revealde the extent and scope of organized crime’s influence over the United States.



“Will Freddie Francisco, former inmate of Sing Sing, be permitted to sit arrogantly upon a throne of pen and ink and splash spiked words that cause tears and unhappiness to S.F. business men and their families?

“Freddie Francisco, alias Bob Patterson, once posed as a member of royalty. He assumed the title of a Count, under the name of Maximilian B.H.M. Carlton as the son of Marquis of Gahnst and a subaltern in the Black Watch regiment, and as such was arrested in Tucson, Arizona and on Jan. 27, 1928, was arrested for grand larceny by the Chicago Police. (Can you picture columnist Francisco as a count?)”—Jimmie Tarantino, Hollywood Life Magazine.

“It doesn’t take much to produce a good merchant of cash-and-carry love: just courage, an infinite capacity for perpetual suspicion, stamina on a 24-hour basis, the deathless conviction that the customer is always wrong, a fair knowledge of first aid, do-it-yourself gynecology, judo, and a tremendous sense of humor. Aside from these basic talents, a good madam must possess an understanding of female psychology (in the broadest sense), a knowledge of quick therapies for restoring drunks to a state of locomotion (out the door), and a grasp of techniques for the eradication of pimps. With these qualities, and a few others, you may develop into a self-respecting madam. —Madam Sally Stanford (allegedly ghost-written by Freddie Francisco himself)