Shanghai Twins: It's Nighttime in Shanghai, Do You Know Where Your Children Are?

The Shanghai Twins by Herman Franck, Esq. In 1935 my grandparents decided to leave their small town roots of Spokane, Washington and Lewiston Idaho, and moved to Shanghai, China. This period was quite an exciting time for Shanghai. There was a country inside a country known as the International Settlement. Within the safe walls of the international settlement, a french society, english society, russian society, german sector and American sector were set up, complete with their own courts, police, and state sovereignty. This was a time of contrasts in Shanghai. Many chinese would come to the city from the hinterlands of china hoping for food, jobs, and a way to support their families. Many would starve to death en route, a tragedy that became the birthing grounds of the Peoples Republic of China. Within the walls of the international settlement aristocratic europeans and adventurous americans put on their tuxedos and long dinner dresses and danced to the wee hours at the local clubs. The chinese mafia merged with russian mafia elements, and created a back story of crime. The crimes were of all sorts: extortion, gambling, prostitution, drugs, and one crime that comes center stage in this story, the kidnapping and sale of newborn children. I first discovered this story not long after my graduation from law school. I was visiting with my eighty something grandmother, Ms. Rhoda Marion Franck, who explained her story of living in Shanghai during the 1930s. My grandfather was a mild mannered Dutch blooded banker's accountant, a self taught CPA from the State of Washington. She was an english blooded pioneer woman that had come from a family of small town lawyers and judges. Hers was a story of wanting to transform from a scholarly country gal to a metropolitan society woman. She was caught up in a dance to find her way from who she really was to someone she really wasn't. If there is a lesson from this story, it has to do with enjoying the real person you are, and realizing the quest to be someone you are not can have a price far beyond your means. She told me the story of the Franck twins born in Shanghai who disappeared. She never did find them. I came up with a concept of what happened, who did it, how and why they did it, and how when it comes to all things rich and lovely on the outside, there is so often a dark and psychotic inside. The story is called The Shanghai Twins.