Notorious Women of Old California: Madams, Murderers, Schemers and Dreamers

Early California had its share of colorful residents, men and women alike. After gold was discovered in the largely uninhabited territory in 1849, people flooded in from around the world to seek their fortune, building a bustling international population in accelerated time. It was the natural place for unconventional types to thrive, and the first 50 years of California statehood produced more than its share of fascinating characters, many of them female. For instance, there’s Madame Mustache who was a first-rate gambler known throughout the West for her agile fingers at vingt-et-un and the dark line of hair on her upper lip. There was Jeanne Bonnet, a French cross-dresser who caught and sold frogs for a living and launched a crusade to single-handedly liberate prostitutes from their pimps. Sadly, she was murdered, inspiring the never-solved San Miguel Mystery. And what about the Countess de Henriot who sashayed into San Francisco’s Palace Hotel one day with a dozen trunks and servants in tow? She served prospective husbands fine champagne and caviar and let them fawn all over her for months…until somebody started asking questions about her origins. There are these and many more eccentric personalities to discover in this compendium of notorious women of old California, from swindlers to performers to murderers and beyond.