Shanghai Kelly: San Francisco's Most Dangerous Host

In 1875, a San Francisco saloon owner threw a free birthday party for 100 strangers. By morning, every single one of them was unconscious, loaded into cargo nets, and sold to three ships bound for China. This is the story of Shanghai Kelly — the man who turned kidnapping into an industry. From the trapdoors of the Barbary Coast to a Supreme Court ruling that said shanghaied sailors didn't deserve protection under the 13th Amendment, this episode covers the full machinery of 19th-century crimping — and the man who ran it better than anyone.