I am working on a senior thesis for California State University, Stanislaus. It has to do with the existence of rough-and-tumble brawling in gold rush California. In Herbert Asbury's book, The Barbary Coast, he mentions two characters who were said to have engaged in this style of brawling: Billy Smith, a hoodlum, and Billy Maitland, a crimp. If anyone has any more information on these two men (say, a book specifically on the San Francisco hoodlums) please notify me. I already have Bill Pickelhaupt's book, Shanghaied in San Francisco, which gives more information on Maitland, but I am looking for anything else on these two men. Thank you very much.

-- Richard Ravalli (rjravall@toto.csustan.edu), April 24, 1998