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Cahill (Thomas J.) Papers
SFH 15
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Table of contents
Title: Thomas J. Cahill Papers
Date (inclusive): 1936-2002
Date (bulk): bulk
Identifier/Call Number: SFH 15
Creator:
Cahill, Thomas J.
Physical Description:
7 cartons, 2 oversize flat boxes
(10.7 Cubic Feet)
Contributing Institution:
San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 557-4567
info@sfpl.org
Abstract: Cahill's papers document his professional and public life from the 1940s-until his death in 2001, tracing the trajectory of
his career as a San Francisco Police Department officer, homicide inspector, deputy chief of police, and chief of police;
as well as his public life after he retired from SFPD, when he continued to be a prominent public figure and public speaker.
The collection consists of police records, mainly from an undercover vice investigation from the 1950s; correspondence; scheduling
diaries; speech materials; papers from conferences and events; certificates and awards; newspaper clippings and publications,
the bulk of which feature or include Cahill; photographs, and audiorecordings.
Language of Materials: Collection materials are in
English.
The collection is open for research. Photographs may be viewed during the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection's
open hours.
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the City Archivist.
[Identification of item], Thomas J. Cahill Papers (SFH 15), San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.
Gift from John M. Cahill, son of Thomas J. Cahill, June 3, 2003.
Researchers are encouraged to see also the San Francisco History Center’s Biography Files for a file on Cahill and the Mayoral
Papers of George Christopher, Jack Shelley, and Joseph Alioto for further documents concerning issues and events of the time.
Processed by Larissa C. Brookes in 2006 and completed by Wendy Kramer in 2010. Updated by Katherine Ets-Hokin in 2017.
Photographs have been transferred to the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection.
The following publications have been transferred to the San Francisco History Center's book collection and may be found in
the online catalog: The San Francisco Committee on Crime, Moses Lasky and William H. Orrick, Jr., Co-Chairmen. A Report on
the San Francisco Police Department, Part I: The Eighth Report of the Committee. San Francisco: June 9, 1971. 163 pp.
The San Francisco Committee on Crime, Moses Lasky and William H. Orrick, Jr., Co-Chairmen. A Report on the San Francisco
Police Department, Part II: The Ninth Report of the Committee. San Francisco: June 17, 1971. 205 pp.
Thomas J. Cahill started his working life humbly as an ice-delivery man in San Francisco in 1931. By 1958 he had become San
Francisco's Chief of Police, responsible for the oldest police force west of the Mississippi River. Cahill focused his ambitions
on making San Francisco a safer city, instituting novel and sometimes controversial approaches, working with the FBI and U.S.
Congress, and addressing scores of audiences throughout his career and retirement to discuss crime control and prevention.
Cahill was born in Chicago in 1910, though he spent most of his early life in Ballylarkin, County Kilkenny, Ireland, where
his grandfather had a 165-acre farm. Cahill's father left Ireland for Chicago as a young man but decided shortly after Cahill
turned two to return to Ireland. Cahill was educated at Callan Christian Boys School and also at Ring College, in County
Waterford, Ireland, where he trained as a teacher. Cahill also learned to speak, read, and write Gaelic fluently.
Even though he was raised in Ireland, Cahill grew up listening to his father enthrall neighbors and friends with stories about
America. Cahill promised himself he would return one day.
On February 2, 1930, when he was nineteen, Cahill began his journey to the U.S., traveling with a cousin who was returning
to his father's ranch in Alhambra, California. The Great Depression had only recently begun but was still causing record
unemployment, and Cahill found few jobs on his own. He worked on his uncle's ranch before heading north to San Francisco,
where he tried to join the police force. However, regulations required applicants to have lived in San Francisco for at least
five years before applying.
Instead, Cahill found work delivering ice blocks. In this job, Cahill learned "every nook and cranny" of San Francisco (O'Riordan),
knowledge that became handy when he served as a patrol officer. After Cahill realized electric refrigerators would soon replace
iceboxes, and with the encouragement of his new wife, Margaret, he entered the police academy, starting the six-week course
in July 1942.
At the police academy, Cahill's fellow cadets named him likeliest to become police chief (see Series 3, Public Relations and
Research). After graduating from the academy, Cahill patrolled streets as an officer in the Potrero Division. By 1950 he
had become an inspector in the SFPD's homicide detail, working on at least one important case with the man who would become
the next police chief, Francis (Frank) Ahern.
Mafia-related crime, such as murders and bookmaking, were one of Cahill's concerns as a police officer and, later, as a homicide
inspector. After a man's garroted body was found inside a car trunk in the Marina, Cahill and Ahern educated themselves thoroughly
in Mafia connections, names, and activities in the U.S. The two believed that the murder had been a Mafia killing.
Their investigative work earned them nationwide attention. In 1950, Cahill and Ahern testified in the San Francisco visit
by the Senate Crime Investigating Committee, an inquiry instigated by Senator Estes Kefauver (Tenn.). Both inspectors won
high praise from Kefauver's committee, having compiled the most extensive collection of information about the Mafia that the
committee had seen.
Frank Ahern became Chief of Police in 1956, naming Cahill his Deputy Chief of Police shortly after. Ahern's tenure as chief
was brief, ending on September 1, 1958, when he died at a baseball game at the now-demolished Seal Stadium. Mayor George Christopher
named Cahill Chief of Police shortly after Ahern’s death, on September 5, 1958.
One of the innovative approaches Cahill took as police chief was to introduce police community relations programs, which allowed
citizens an official, public forum in which to discuss their opinions – negative or positive – about the police force. The
first such programs in San Francisco were in the Potrero, Northern, and Haight Ashbury-Golden Gate Park Divisions, the latter
being introduced in January 1963. Cahill also introduced Tactical Crime Prevention Squads and a Canine Unit, explaining that
dogs were much easier to stop than bullets.
Cahill was active in safety and crime-related concerns outside the SFPD. He served on President Lyndon B. Johnson's Commission
on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice from July 1965 to June 1967, appearing on Meet the Press to discuss the Commission’s
findings. He also served as president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police from October 1968 to the following
October.
Urban rioting, increasingly violent protests, armed militias, rising crime, and the lowering level of respect held for police
officers challenged Cahill in his final years as police chief. Reacting to rising crime rates, Cahill encouraged the public
to "rise up and support law enforcement" and urged the press to publicize police accomplishments rather than failures ("Chief
Cahill in Strong Talk"). However, Cahill's exhortations no longer resonated so strongly with audiences. In the 1950s, Cahill
told high school students they could choose one of two paths – one path leading to an upstanding life and the other to the
electric chair. By the mid-1960s, such speeches were no longer successful.
Yet Cahill did not rely on pleas to the public to reduce crime and violence. He also researched possible sources and ramifications
of civil unrest, preparing a remarkable report, The Outlook for Civil Disobedience, in 1967. In addition, the SFPD prepared
128 Hours: A Report of the Civil Disturbance in the City & County of San Francisco. This report presents the SFPD's examination
of police, government, and individual action that occurred after a police officer fatally shot an African-American youth in
Hunter's Point on September 27, 1966.
Cahill retired as police chief on February 4, 1970. Then-mayor Joseph Alioto had requested Cahill's retirement, as the mayor
sought to infuse the police department with "new blood" (Raudebaugh). San Francisco, like almost every major U.S. city, had
been experiencing a relentless increase in crime; its police force had also not changed enough under Cahill to attract and
retain qualified police officers. Under the existing seniority system, new recruits faced seven or eight years of night duty.
This system also required new recruits to wait twelve to fifteen years before being promoted to sergeant.
After leaving the SFPD, Cahill continued to work in the law-enforcement field and serve the public. He joined the Pacific
Telephone and Telegraph Company as Chief Special Agent, a position he held until July 1, 1975, shortly after he reached his
mandatory retirement age. He also ran successfully for a position on the San Francisco Charter Revision Committee. Cahill
lived a highly public life, accepting frequent offers to address various civic, community, and professional groups.
Cahill died of heart failure on October 12, 2002, at age 92. Despite his advancing years, he continued to be actively involved
in public concerns until his death, making speeches and writing letters. He was survived by his third wife, Elizabeth (Wright),
and four children: Thomas, Jr.; John; Edward; and Elizabeth.
Sources:
"Chief Thomas J. Cahill: A Life in Review," The Watch Report, Fall/Winter 1998.
O’Riordan, Mikel. "Pillars of the Community," The Irish Herald, October 1996.
Ostrow, Al. "Detective Team on Trail of the Mafia," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 20, 1951.
"'People’s Commission' Sets Berkeley Probe", San Francisco Examiner, February 5, 1970.
Raudebaugh, Charles. "Why It Happened", San Francisco Chronicle, February 5, 1970.
Rubenstein. Steve. "Mourners Remember Cahill," San Francisco Chronicle, October 18, 2002.
"Stage Is Set for the Kefauver Committee's Big Show", New York World-Telegram and Sun, March 10, 1951.
Cahill's papers document his professional and public life from the 1940s until his death in 2001, tracing the trajectory of
his career as a San Francisco Police Department officer, homicide inspector, deputy chief of police, and chief of police;
as well as his public life after he retired from SFPD, when he continued to be a prominent public figure and public speaker.
The collection consists of police records, mainly from an undercover vice investigation from the 1950s; correspondence; scheduling
diaries; speech materials; papers from conferences and events; certificates and awards; newspaper clippings and publications,
the bulk of which feature or include Cahill; photographs, and audiorecordings.
Most of the photographs document events held in honor of Cahill, with a few photographs from trips or enclosed with correspondence.
Occasions include a testimonial dinner on June 23, 1967, the Hall of Justice rededication ceremony of March 10, 1994, and
Cahill's 90th birthday party. A small number of photos are unidentified and/or undated and have been arranged in a separate
series. Many of the photographs have been removed from scrapbooks and photo albums:
photographs from the testimonial dinner, June 23, 1967 were originally housed in two albums; the Hall of Justice rededication
ceremony photos were housed in three albums; and photos from Cahill's trip to Buenos Aires, Dec. 1-18, 1968 are still mounted
on the disbound album pages.
Sound recordings are included in the police records of Series 1 and as part of Cahill's professional activities in Series
3.
While much of the material is partially or completely unidentified, portions that have been identified are described below
in Series descriptions.
Arranged into five series: 1. San Francisco Police Department Records; 2. Correspondence; 3. Professional Activities 4. Clippings
and Printed Material; 5. Photographs.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Vice control -- California -- San Francisco.
Law enforcement -- United States.
San Francisco (Calif.) -- Social conditions.
Sound recordings.
Police chiefs -- California -- San Francisco.
Police chiefs -- California -- San Francisco -- Photographs.
San Francisco (Calif.). Police Dept
Cahill, Thomas J.
Cahill, Thomas J. -- Archives
Audiorecordings recorded in multiple formats, including wire spools, Memovox, reel-to-reel tapes, and phonographic discs (33
1/3 and 78 rpm).