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Many years before his marriage to Alma de
Bretteville,
Adolph Spreckles had a serious dispute with M. H. de Young, publisher of the San
Francisco Chronicle.
After a particularly vitriolic article had appeared in the
Chronicle, Spreckles stormed into the newspaper offices, pulled out a pistol,
and shot the surprised de Young, who was seriously injured, and saved from death
by a book he was holding that stopped one of the bullets that would have entered
his heart. A judge and jury let
Spreckles off, agreeing with his defense of temporary insanity and "self defense."
One of the results was that the wealthy and influential de
Young daughters, roughly Alma's age, would have nothing to do with her. San
Francisco society divided along the line -- you were of the de Young faction, or
the Spreckles faction, with only the most independent and courageous partaking of
both.
Alma had enormous fun with this. When she and the de Young
daughters would appear at the same society function, the de Young girls would
invariably cut her dead, and on at least one occasion, she remarked to her
companions in her loud, raspy voice, "Don't pay any attention, dear. They
haven't spoken to me since my husband shot their father."
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