Chuck O'Connor (1909-2000) spent five decades sharing adventures with the most notorious criminals in America's underworld, including Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, Frank Costello, Mickey Cohen, Godfather Vito Genovese, Joe Valachi, Whitey Bulger and John Paul Chase. He also ran the largest West Coast heroin trafficking ring with the Waxey Gordon syndicate.
His story ends happily, but it came with an unimaginable journey of pain and darkness.
“My criminal career, encompassing over fifty-five years, was to bring me before the bar of justice twenty-seven times, which resulted in my confinement in five penitentiaries and two mental hospitals.”
Chuck O'Connor, Folsom State Prison, 1927 (Photo Source: California State Archives)
At the age of 7 in 1916, Chuck became a street urchin in San Francisco's crime-ridden Tenderloin District after witnessing the murder of his mother by his abusive, alcoholic father at their breakfast table. Raised in a bordello and earning a living as a newsboy, he quickly became streetwise and gained the respect of the neighborhood gangsters, thieves, gamblers, harlots and politicians. After escaping an abusive orphan asylum and hopping a freight train, Chuck was taken in, raised, and educated by Blackie Carroll, leader of one of America's biggest crime syndicates of railway yeggmen (safe-crackers). Chuck was soon train-hopping throughout the untamed country - robbing banks, blowing up safes, smuggling heroin, all while passing through hobo jungles, opium dens, and prisons.
The proceeds of his efforts and criminal activities amounted to, what would be today, millions. On the debit side – he spent almost thirty years in durance vile. The raw records of his life reflects his addiction to morphine, heroin, and a dalliance with opium smoking for over twenty-five years, followed by an addiction to alcohol for more than a decade. But despite his actions, Chuck was loved and respected by his fellow criminals. He was a man of character, and a gifted artist with a pure heart – a man who knew how to give and love unconditionally, which ultimately led to his redemption.
At the age of 70, after decades in numerous penitentiaries and a life spent hooked on heroin and alcohol, Chuck was broken and destitute. He attempted suicide by trying to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge, only to be rescued at the last moment by a police officer. This event led to a remarkable transformation - he dedicated the remainder of his life to recovery. In 1984, with the financial backing of rock star Huey Lewis, Chuck started a halfway house and rehabilitation center called the O'Connor House/Marin Services For Men in Marin County, California.
“Through making amends, remembering, forgiving, and mostly through giving without expectations, I found redemption. And by giving myself to others, the gaping and gnawing emptiness at the center of my being has become filled with a light as boundless as it is selfless.”