Michael Gaffey

Michael Gaffey (January 21, 1893 - March 4, 1961) was the police chief of San Francisco between 1951 and 1955.

Early life

Gaffey was born in County Roscommon, Ireland near Ballinasloe in 1893, moved to San Francisco at the age of twenty and joined the police department in 1921. Gaffey was awarded the Purple Heart for his service in World War II.

Television

According to University of San Francisco historian, John B. Mc Gloin, S.J., in 1950, Dragnet based in Los Angeles was one of the most popular radio crime-dramas. San Francisco Mayor Elmer Robinson asked Chief Gaffey to contact Los Angeles Police Chief William H. Parker, "for tips on how to handle "show business" to make a crime drama based in San Francisco." NBC owned Dragnet. The Columbia Broadcasting System produced The Lineup on radio 1950-1953 and CBS television 1954-1960. During end credits of The Lineup, Chief Gaffey's name appeared in the same manner as Chief Parker on Dragnet. The show would be remembered by the syndicated name of San Francisco Beat. Gaffey was pleased by the no nonsense acting by Warner Anderson as Lieutenant Ben Guthrie and Tom Tully as Sergeant Matt Grebb. Quinn Martin recalled in 1971, The Lineup aka San Francisco Beat when he created The Streets of San Francisco.

Actions

In 1954, he disbanded the "super" vice squad claiming that prostitution, gambling, and bookmaking in SF had dropped to an "irreducible minimum." ^[1]

After goading by the San Francisco Examiner, he decided in 1954 to “clean the homosexuals from the streets” and joined forces with Federal Police I4 to clamp down on five taverns and connect “sex deviates” to the corruption of minors, believing that public morality directly translated into criminal regulation.^[2]

He is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California.

Sources

• Nan Alamilla Boyd, Wide Open Town UC Press ISBN 0-520-20415-8
• Obituary, San Francisco Chronicle March 6, 1961
• California Deaths, 1940–1997

References