"Extortion"

History Watch
"Extortion"
One of the City of San Rafael’s most prized possessions is the Falkirk mansion located on Mission Avenue behind city hall.  The city obtained the Dollar mansion in 1974 and it has been used as a wonderful venue to rent out for parties and other events. 
But did you know that it was almost destroyed on two occasions?  In the early 1970’s, developers wanted to purchase the mansion and tear it down and build condominiums. There was such an outcry about destroying the house, that the City of San Rafael put a bond initiative on the ballot to obtain money to purchase the property. The initiative was approved by voters and the building was saved and the city took possession of it.
The other time it was almost destroyed is a little bit more interesting.  Our story starts in 1888, when Lumberman Robert Dollar, his wife and two children moved to San Rafael and purchased a house located at Forbes and J Street, where they lived for many years.  Robert Dollar got involved in shipping after he moved to California where he started the Robert Dollar Steamship Line in San Francisco.  His business became very successful over the years and he amassed a great fortune.
After moving into the Forbes avenue house, (still stands there today) he wanted a larger place to live, so he purchased a piece of property on Mission Avenue between what is now C Street and E Street on the north side of the street.  He built a great home there and he and his family moved in in 1907.  He named the house Falkirk, named after the town in Scotland, where he was from.
Robert Dollar continued to build his shipping company, taking over a large building in San Francisco which he turned into his headquarters.  He commuted every day from San Rafael to San Francisco, to oversee his operation, which made him a very rich man. 
In early 1932, Robert Dollar died at the age of 88 in his San Rafael home.  His wife, Margaret, continued to live in the house, and a relative, J. Harold Dollar took over the company’s operations.
The family was just beginning to recover from the shock of Dollar’s death, when evil struck.  On December 22, 1932, an anonymous letter was sent to Margaret Dollar from a group calling itself the “Unemployed Secret Union.”  The typed letter, using poor grammar, demanded that the Dollar family pay the sum of $5,000 to their organization.  The letter demanded that the payment be made in ten and twenty-dollar bills. The Dollar family was instructed to leave a package containing the money at the foot of Portsmouth Square in San Francisco at midnight on Christmas Eve.
To give the family a little incentive to pay up, the letter went on to state that a large amount of dynamite had been placed in the Falkirk Mansion and in their ten story San Francisco office building, and the explosive charges could be set off remotely at any time.
Upon reading the letter, Margaret Dollar handed it over to J. Harold Dollar, who promptly notified San Francisco Police Chief Quinn.  Chief Quinn assigned the case to Lt. James Malloy, head of the Crime Prevention Bureau, for him to investigate and he immediately sprang into action.
Malloy rounded up eight detectives and they went to the Dollar Steamship office in San Francisco, where they conducted a very detailed search of the building that lasted 18 hours.  Another group of officers, assisted by the San Rafael Police Department, conducted a comprehensive search of the Dollar Mansion.  Nothing was found at either location.
However, it would be two days until the drop-off was scheduled and officers were not about to let anything happen to the famous and very rich Dollar family.  Officers were placed around the clock at Falkirk and at the San Francisco office.  In addition, a large string of floodlights was placed around Falkirk so any intruder could be spotted.  Margaret Dollar stayed in the house during this time, however J. Harold Dollar thought it would be a good time to go with his family to his vacation home in Humboldt county.  Two officers were assigned to watch his Piedmont Mansion while he was gone.
On Christmas Eve, December 24, 1932, Lt. James Malloy and Policewoman Mary Powers went to Portsmouth Square where they left an empty package a little before midnight. Malloy and Powers, along with a small army of officers then hid in the bushes where they had a view of the package.
Not 30 minutes later, a figure of a man appeared from the shadows and he walked right up to the package.  He picked it up and began to walk off.  Before he got too far, he was surrounded by a small army of officers and he was taken into custody.  The suspect was identified as Natividad Perez, 50 years old, who was a well-known criminal to the San Francisco Police Department.
Perez was taken to police headquarters where he was grilled about the case. He insisted that he was out for a walk when he noticed the package and he picked it up to see what it was.  He denied that he had been involved in any type of extortion plot.  Officers felt that he was not the mastermind of the operation and that perhaps someone else was using him to pick up the money.
Details about what happened to Perez became a little fuzzy after his arrest.  SFPD stated that they turned Perez over to Federal Immigration officials on Angel Island, however when the press inquired as to Perez’s whereabouts, Immigration officials at the San Francisco office and on Angel Island denied that they had him.  At the same time, the SFPD stated that they did not know where he was, although it was apparent that he was no longer in San Francisco. 
Speculation was that Perez was quickly deported as there was not enough evidence to charge him with a crime and officials wanted to keep the Dollar family satisfied that they would no longer be in any danger.
Attached are two photos.  The first one is of suspect Natividad Perez, and the second one is of Falkirk Mansion, still standing today after two attempts to destroy it.
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Copyright 2019 Harry Barbier – All Rights Reserved

 Suspect Natividad Perez

Falkirk Mansion