San Francisco Scandal

12/2/2025

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
Some time in 1913, A. H. Wood moved into the Fillmore Hotel located at Fillmore Street and Golden Gate Avenue. To all appearances he was a 50-something businessman, but within a few months he would be dead, and the truth was exposed.

A. H. Hammett (1857-1914)

Mr. Wood was an alias being used by was Alfred Haywood Hammett, better known to his Arkansas friends as "Woody". He was a prosperous merchant, with seven children who had all reached adulthood and married. He sold his business in Wittsburg, Arkansas and became involved in politics, then he was elected as sheriff of Cross County. After this he ran and won the office of county clerk.

It was after Mr. Hammet became county treasurer in 1912, that his life started to unravel. His wife Katie died in September, and he was embroiled in a bitter political fight with enemies. This was only two months after securing the position of treasurer.

Among his friends was Frank Shoemaker, another merchant, who had recently married pretty Sallie Wood, daughter of a prosperous farmer. However within three weeks of the nuptials, Sallie told her sister she was taking a visit to Los Angeles and San Francisco for health reasons. Her new husband stayed behind in Arkansas.

The scandal of a double murder involving a man and his niece brought to light their true identities

It seemed nobody noticed that the county treasurer disappeared from town within days of Mrs. Shoemaker leaving. What they did notice was that A.H. Hammett, who was always considered a respectable citizen had embezzled $40,000 of the county funds. He left one of his sons only a short note. No doubt they saw no connection between a 54-year-old disgraced politician, and a 22-year-old dissatisfied bride.

Cross County offered a reward for finding A.H. Hammett, but nothing came of it. By then it was ascertained he had taken $40,000 in cash and $30,000 in scrips. None knew what had become of Sallie Shoemaker as well. The speculation ended in January, 1914.

On the night of January 16, 1914 Hammett and a friend Edward Roberts had attended the picture show. Roberts dropped off the man he knew as A.B. Wood at the Fillmore Hotel, and went on to his home. There he found Blanche Wood, hysterical with worry, claiming her "uncle" had left behind a note that read: "All my friends have deserted me since I lost my money."

A reward was offered to locate A.H. Hammett

Roberts accompanied her back to the hotel., and started talking to Hammett about the note. Unexpectedly Sallie walked to a desk, pulled out a revolver and shot herself in the chest. Hammett, stepped over her body, took the gun, and shot himself in the chest as well.

Police questioned Roberts who said that he knew his friend was using an assumed name, however he didn't know what his real name was. According to Roberts he suspected his friend was possibly a Tennessee Supreme Court Judge who had run into some problems. He knew the woman as Blanche Wood, his niece. As to what caused Hammett to become suicidal is unknown, since in 1913 Wood had told him he had bought and sold a restaurant business. The woman known as his niece had literary aspirations who wrote short stories and motion picture plays.

Sallie had been using her sister's name of Blanche in her impersonation.

The disgraced Sallie Shoemaker was unclaimed and buried in San Francisco

Within a week of the suicide, Lieutenant Jones with the U.S. Army representing the San Francisco Lodge of the Knights of Pythias, to which Hammett had belonged, accompanied the body back to Arkansas.

Hammett's family demanded a postmortem examination in order to accept the suicide theory since they held the belief that he was possibly murdered. The exam found one gunshot wound near the heart, which severed the artery, and powder burns surrounded the wound.. Several hundred friends came from throughout the county to attend the funeral.

In the meantime Sallie Shoemaker was unclaimed by her family, and buried in San Francisco. Later her body was reinterred in Oakland Cemetery in Fordyce, Arkansas. It seemed that embezzling county funds was forgivable, but abandoning your husband was not.