Murder Site of Sam Spade's Partner from "The Maltese Falcon"
Burritt St. at Bush (Above the Stockton Tunnel)
14" X 10"
14" X 10"
A telephone-bell rang in darkness. When it had rung three times bed-springs creaked, fingers fumbled on wood, something small and hard thudded on a carpeted floor, the springs creaked again, and a man’s voice said.
“Hello…Yes, speaking…Dead?...Yes…Fifteen minutes. Thanks.”
This is how Sam Spade first learns of the murder of his partner, Miles Archer, in Dasheill Hammett’s novel, The Maltese Falcon. At the crime scene “where Bush Street roofed Stockton before slipping downhill to Chinatown," Spade discovers how his partner had been shot point blank, fell through a flimsy wooden railing and landed on a large rock fifteen feet below.
Archer’s wife had planned to divorce him and marry Spade. This makes Spade a prime suspect.
Brigid O'Shaughnessy had come to the office of Spade & Archer earlier that day and asked them to trail a Floyd Thursby. Archer takes the job and is murdered that night. Thursby is killed about an hour later. So begins the story of the Maltese Falcon. At its conclusion O"Shaughnessy - an inveterate liar - is exposed as the murderer.
According to The Dashiell Hammett Tour, columnist Warren Hinckle collaborated with innovative advertising copywriter Howard Gossage to place a plaque on the site. When Gossage died in 1969, Hinckle stored the plaque and forgot about it. About five years later someone spray painted "Miles Archer was shot here," on a sidewalk at Bush and Stockton. Hinckle remembered the plaque and retrieved it. On February 12, 1974 it was placed on the wall at Burritt Street by James Kennedy, the owner of the building; Marino Nibbi, a contractor; and City Supervisor Quentin Kopp.
“Hello…Yes, speaking…Dead?...Yes…Fifteen minutes. Thanks.”
This is how Sam Spade first learns of the murder of his partner, Miles Archer, in Dasheill Hammett’s novel, The Maltese Falcon. At the crime scene “where Bush Street roofed Stockton before slipping downhill to Chinatown," Spade discovers how his partner had been shot point blank, fell through a flimsy wooden railing and landed on a large rock fifteen feet below.
Archer’s wife had planned to divorce him and marry Spade. This makes Spade a prime suspect.
Brigid O'Shaughnessy had come to the office of Spade & Archer earlier that day and asked them to trail a Floyd Thursby. Archer takes the job and is murdered that night. Thursby is killed about an hour later. So begins the story of the Maltese Falcon. At its conclusion O"Shaughnessy - an inveterate liar - is exposed as the murderer.
According to The Dashiell Hammett Tour, columnist Warren Hinckle collaborated with innovative advertising copywriter Howard Gossage to place a plaque on the site. When Gossage died in 1969, Hinckle stored the plaque and forgot about it. About five years later someone spray painted "Miles Archer was shot here," on a sidewalk at Bush and Stockton. Hinckle remembered the plaque and retrieved it. On February 12, 1974 it was placed on the wall at Burritt Street by James Kennedy, the owner of the building; Marino Nibbi, a contractor; and City Supervisor Quentin Kopp.