Untragically Hip

Even from beyond the grave, the Mitchell Brothers continue their crusade to ruin as many lives as possible and lower the tone of the overall culture. First, Jim and Artie set up their peep show/striptease "Theatre." Then they took porn movies mainstream with "Deep Throat." Then, Jim murdered Artie (while trying to "save" him) and spent 3 years in prison. Jim finally gave up the ghost a few years back, although the Mitchell's Bros. Theater continues to do gang busters business.

All the while, the Brothers were literally the toast of the town, as much a part of SF's "free wheeling" culture as bath houses and the Grateful Dead. They even had political patrons (just like Jim Jones!); ex-DA Terence Hallinan was their attorney, for example, and Willie Brown showed up at Jim's funeral. If SF has "guys behind the guys," surely the Mitchells were among that select group. We thought we would be spared any more from the Mitchells when Jim died, but the ghost is still in the machine: Porn King's Son Held On Murder Charge

The Mitchell Brothers family, which pushed all things X-rated into San Francisco's social consciousness and was later rocked by fratricide, has recorded a tragic new chapter with the arrest of the son of one of the porn kings on charges of bludgeoning to death the mother of his young daughter.

James Raphael Mitchell of Pittsburg, the 27-year-old son of Jim Mitchell, allegedly beat Danielle Keller to death with a baseball bat Sunday evening at the home she shared with her mother in Novato, then fled with the couple's daughter - who turned 1 year old that day.

With police around the state hunting for him, Mitchell was arrested just before midnight after he pulled off Interstate 80 in Citrus Heights (Sacramento County). His daughter, Samantha Mitchell, was unharmed.

One thing you have to realize is that Jim Jr. is a rich kid - a trust fund baby who "owns" the Mitchell Bros. Threatre through a trust set up by his dad. The Mitchells were a millionaires, and Jr. grew up very comfortably in Marin County. So spare me the "another tragic chapter for the Mitchell family"-style headlines. People have been winking and chortling over the Mitchells for decades even as the sleaze and criminality of the whole family has become more and more obvious.

Only SF's progressive Left could simultaneously lionize a pair of violent pornographers on one side of the City while standing up for "exploited" women on the other. By contrast, "hypocritical" conservatives only have to worry about the occasional adulterer. I know which side most of us would choose, if a time came for choosing.