#SOCIALITE LIFE TV TRIAL#

Given de Bretteville’s social standing before she met Anderson, it’s a wonder that her name wasn’t tarnished after the trial. She could have easily been one of the unlucky ones, however. Years later, de Bretteville looked back on the trial, rather pleased that it was “the time I sued for personal defloweration, and by God, I won.” “When he gave it to her, she put it on her finger, and holding it up to the light in a transport of joy, said: ‘Ain't it grand?’ ‘It ought to be, it cost enough,’ was Anderson’s reply,” the Call reported. Anderson alleged that he had a problem saying no, and only agreed to buy it after de Bretteville “gave him no peace” until he did. “She just stooped down and kissed me and then straightened up again.”ĭespite the gifts and kisses, Anderson staunchly denied that he ever intended to marry de Bretteville, even after he bought her a pricey $375 marquise ring. “She was too tall,” Anderson said, according to a 1902 report by the San Francisco Call. The statue featured at the top was modeled after Alma de Bretteville Spreckels.

The second time she kissed him, Anderson contended he couldn't avoid her advances because she was 6 feet tall - a towering figure compared to him.Ī view of the construction of the St. He told jurors that while they were on a drive, she leaned in to steal a kiss, which he said caught him by surprise. It was his assertion that de Bretteville pursued him, even when it came to their first kiss. Finding a new suitor after a failed engagement would prove to be harder - if not impossible - for a woman, so these suits, in some ways, worked as a form of justice.īack in the courtroom of 1902, de Bretteville told jurors that Anderson grumbled about how much he’d spent on her, but also once threatened to end his life if she ever left his side.īut Anderson had a different recollection of their fling. Conversely, the man could carry on scot-free. If a couple had premarital sex without eventually walking down the aisle, a woman’s social standing could forever be ruined. The implication of a failed engagement was sometimes that the woman was no longer a virgin.

#SOCIALITE LIFE TV TRIAL#

The trial of 1902 turned her into somewhat of a celebrity, after she successfully won the case against Anderson and was awarded the sum of $1,250 (about $43,048 today) in damages.ĭe Bretteville’s case, known then as a “ heart-balm suit,” wasn’t uncommon in the 1900s, when women could successfully win lawsuits if they could prove that they were swindled out of an engagement. So begins the story of Alma de Bretteville, who became one of the city’s prominent philanthropists and the recent inspiration behind a San Francisco pop-up, Big Alma. (Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library) ‘Big Alma’ wins the case (Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library) A young Alma de Bretteville Spreckels pictured in 19 respectively.

A young Alma de Bretteville Spreckels pictured in 19 respectively.

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