Download or read book Notorious San Francisco written by Rj Parker and published by . This book was released on 2019-05-03 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: San Francisco, a city founded in part by criminals, was once one of the most dangerous cities in America. Its Barbary coast was called "a unique criminal district that was the scene of more viciousness and depravity, but it possessed more glamour, than any other area on the American continent." "San Francisco Notorious" brings back the glamorous depravity and noir atmosphere that made it the premier location for murder thrillers like "The Maltese Falcon," "Vertigo," and "Zodiac." This book contains more than 20 compelling tales of serial killers, deadly women, con-men, masters of escape, and unsolved mysteries. San Franciscan criminals were as colorful as the city they inhabited. Take William Thoreson, a murderous millionaire who hid the nation's largest private armory in his Pacific Heights mansion. Then there's Isabella Martin, the murderous "Queen of Grudges" who tried to poison an entire town, or Ethan McNabb and Lloyd Sampsell, the "Yacht Bandits," who used a luxurious sloop as a getaway vehicle for their dozens of bank robberies. Most of these unusual cases are largely unknown and have never appeared in book form. Included are cases that are still mysteries today, including the mysterious tale of the Zodiac Killer, complete with a new analysis and a startling new theory on the murder.
Download or read book San Francisco Crime Stories written by Darrin Edwin Atkins and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2005 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Murders That Made Us written by Bob Calhoun and published by ECW Press. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 170-year history of the San Francisco Bay Area told through its crimes and how they intertwine with the city’s art, music, and politics In The Murders That Made Us, the story of the San Francisco Bay Area unfolds through its most violent and depraved acts. From its earliest days when vigilantes hung perps from downtown buildings to the Zodiac Killer and the kidnapping of Patty Hearst, murder and mayhem have shaped the city into the political and economic force that she is today. The Great 1906 Earthquake shook a city that was already teetering on the brink of a massive prostitution scandal. The Summer of Love ended with a pair of ghastly drug dealer slayings that sent Charles Manson packing for Los Angeles. The 1970s come crashing down with the double tragedy of Jonestown and the assassination of Gay icon Harvey Milk by an ex-cop. And the 21st Century rise of California Governor Gavin Newsom, Trump insider Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Vice President Kamala Harris is told through a brutal dog-mauling case and the absurdity called Fajitagate. It’s a 170-year saga of madness, corruption, and death revealed here one crime at a time.
Download or read book Zebra written by Clark Howard and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2020-05-26 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edgar Award Finalist: The true story of a string of brutal crimes committed in the name of religious fanaticism and racial hatred in 1970s San Francisco. In the early 1970s, a small band of well-dressed, clean-cut African American men began terrorizing the residents of San Francisco with guns and machetes. Their victims ranged from a teenage Salvation Army cadet to a middle-aged Jordanian grocer to an eighty-one-year-old janitor. The streets became deserted and tourism plunged. It took months before the culprits could be identified, with the help of an informer. They were members of a Black Muslim cult aspiring to earn the title “Death Angel” by slaughtering white victims. Combining history and dramatic recreations, this is the “repellent but riveting” in-depth story of a horrifying killing spree and the fanatical hatred that drove it—and the SFPD’s desperate quest to take the culprits down (Kirkus Reviews). “[Clark Howard’s] pounding narrative meticulously describes the so-called Zebra killings of 1973–74, when 23 white San Franciscans were murdered or maimed by a group of Black Muslim extremists. In the retelling, the cold jargon of police files leaps starkly to life.” —Time
Download or read book San Francisco Thrillers written by John Miller and published by Chronicle Books (CA). This book was released on 1995 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: San Francisco is the ideal place for murder, mystery, and malevolence. Far beneath the swinging coils of the Golden Gate Bridge, in a dank set of abandoned prison cells, a strange caretaker with evil intentions plots his nefarious deeds. Atop the hills of Pacific Heights, an innocent young woman rides an evening cable car, stalked by her handsome fiance. In a seedy bar on Fifth Street, a stone-faced man awaits his next victim. These and other eerie and exciting stories can be found in San Francisco Thrillers, the first anthology of mysteries and thrillers set in the City by the Bay, and illustrated with the haunting vintage photographs of Francis Bruguiere.
Download or read book Murder by the Bay written by Charles F. Adams and published by Quill Driver Books. This book was released on 2005 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Murder has a long and distinguished history in San Francisco. The city and its Bay Area can stand proudly with Paris, London, and New York in the splendour of its misdeeds -- murders that have suspense, horror, audacity, and flair. The homicides chronicled in Murder by the Bay have been selected because a convergence of personality, circumstance, character, and geography makes them peculiarly San Franciscan. Each of these crimes illustrates an historic importance, each has impacted its times -- either in the course or application of the law or in the manner in which the affair revealed a shortcoming in society. They range from the Montgomery Street killing of James King of William, editor of the Daily Evening Bulletin, in 1856 to the sensational trial of early movie comedian Fatty Arbuckle who was accused of killing a showgirl at a party in the St. Francis Hotel to the shocking "City Hall Murders" in which former city supervisor Dan White killed Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. Most were solved, some were not. They are murders that fascinated the city and frequently the country, sometimes for weeks, often for years and even decades.
Download or read book Historic Photos of San Francisco Crime written by and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2009-11-01 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long after the gold rush had faded into history, San Francisco was still earning its title as the capital of the Wild, Wild West. Beneath its cosmopolitan, urbane veneer, the city at the dawn of the twentieth century still seethed with crime. Raucous crowds still gathered at the Old Barbary Coast dives and dance halls, hangouts for thieves and prostitutes, and by 1906, San Francisco’s elected officials had embarked on a spree of corruption that would eventually result in grand jury indictments, a kidnapping, bombings, and at least one murder. With over 200 high-quality images, Historic Photos of San Francisco Crime sifts through the city’s misdeeds, murder, and mayhem, from the tongs and hatchet men of Old Chinatown to civil disobedience and protests at City Hall in the 1960s. The Preparedness Day Bombing of 1916, the trials of Roscoe "Fatty” Arbuckle for murder of Hollywood starlet Virginia Rappe, the lynching of the Howard Street Gang, the lethal Longshoremen’s strike and street riots of 1934, and the 1946 "Battle of Alcatraz” are just a few of the stops along the route of this riveting tour of San Francisco’s underworld.
Download or read book The Valley of the Shadow of Death written by Kermit Alexander and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-09-22 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Former NFL star Kermit Alexander tells the ... true story of the ... massacre of his family and his subsequent years of despair, followed by a spiritual renewal that showed him a way to rebuild his family and reclaim his life"--Amazon.com.
Download or read book The Toughest Gang in Town written by Kevin J. Mullen and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Celebrated Criminal Cases of America written by Thomas Samuel Duke and published by . This book was released on 1910 with total page 728 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Double Play written by Mike Weiss and published by Addison Wesley Publishing Company. This book was released on 1984 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The city of San Francisco and, to a lesser extent, the nation were throttled in November 1978 when a former city supervisor named Dan White opened fire and killed Mayor George Moscone and city supervisor Harvey Milk. Author Mike Weiss' book is one of the few that ticks down the seconds to the double killing and, though no one knew it at the time, to a social uprising that left much of the city in ruin. That Harvey Milk was the city's first openly gay official sparked a fury in the city's dense homosexual population and ignited speculation that White's motive, in part, was his acknowledged anti-gay position. For many, that two men were gunned down for such a hallow reason was perhaps only a small part of the complete story, and Weiss' book mercifully does not blame White's crime solely on homophobia. Instead, we get a picture of a professionally and financially desperate man whose act may have been largely to avenge his not being reinstated to his job after he resigned. Weiss' vivid reconstruction of the personalities and politics that were on a collision course emerges as an informative commentary on a major event in the city's rich history.
Download or read book Young Queer and Dead written by Reagan Martin and published by Absolute Crime. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Read about one of the most overlooked serial killers The Zodiac Killer may have been San Francisco's most notorious serial killer, but another equally cruel killer was also stalking the streets at the same time, and, just like the Zodiac Killer, has never been arrested for his crimes. The difference is, while the Zodiac Killer's murder spree was heavily publicized, this other killer, nicknamed The Doodler, went unreported by the media and is nearly unknown today. How did this ruthless killer become almost forgotten? Because he didn't target helpless women or children--he targeted gays--and in the 70s many people believed they had it coming; if they would just stop being gay, then all would be well. In this gripping short book, you will go on the trail for one of the most brutal killers who ever lived. Read about why his victims were disregarded by a homophobic press, and how he was positively identified by three escaped victims...only to walk away free without being arrested.
Download or read book Dark and Tangled Threads of Crime written by William B. Secrest and published by Quill Driver Books. This book was released on 2004 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He came to California with the great Gold Rush, but instead of riches, Isaiah W. Lees discovered his great talent for solving crimes and catching criminals. He captured stage robbers in Missouri, tracked con men to New York and caught the notorious eastern bank robber, Jimmy Hope in the middle of a San Francisco heist. San Francisco in the 1850's, was the gateway to the gold fields, a city filled with adventurers, outlaws, con men and desperadoes of every description. In 1853 Isaiah Lees was appointed the first Chief of Detectives on the new Police Force and during nearly fifty years he acquired an amazing record. An innovator of police methods, Lees easily eclipsed such legendary lawman as Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp. When he retired as chief in 1900, the San Francisco Chronicle stated that ""in point of service, no one has ever equaled the record of Lees."" He was the right man, in the right place, at the right time, and this is his exciting, true story, told here for the first time.
Download or read book Haunted San Francisco written by Rand Richards and published by Heritage House Publishers. This book was released on 2004 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From North Beach to South of Market to Golden Gate Park and points in between, ghosts have made their spectral presences known.
Download or read book Arresting Dress written by Clare Sears and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2015-02-20 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1863, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors passed a law that criminalized appearing in public in “a dress not belonging to his or her sex.” Adopted as part of a broader anti-indecency campaign, the cross-dressing law became a flexible tool for policing multiple gender transgressions, facilitating over one hundred arrests before the century’s end. Over forty U.S. cities passed similar laws during this time, yet little is known about their emergence, operations, or effects. Grounded in a wealth of archival material, Arresting Dress traces the career of anti-cross-dressing laws from municipal courtrooms and codebooks to newspaper scandals, vaudevillian theater, freak-show performances, and commercial “slumming tours.” It shows that the law did not simply police normative gender but actively produced it by creating new definitions of gender normality and abnormality. It also tells the story of the tenacity of those who defied the law, spoke out when sentenced, and articulated different gender possibilities.
Download or read book Black Fire written by Robert Graysmith and published by Crown. This book was released on 2013-10-29 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first biography of the little-known real-life Tom Sawyer, told through a harrowing account of Sawyer's involvement in the hunt for a serial arsonist who terrorized mid-nineteenth century San Francisco. When San Francisco Daily Morning Call reporter Mark Twain met Tom Sawyer in 1863, he was seeking a subject for his first novel. He learned that Sawyer was a volunteer firefighter, local hero, and a former “Torch Boy,” racing ahead of hand-drawn fire engines at night carrying torches to light the way. When a mysterious serial arsonist known as “The Lightkeeper” was in the process of burning San Francisco to the ground, Sawyer played a key role in stopping him, helping to contain what is now considered the most disastrous and costly series of fires ever experienced by an American metropolis. By chronicling how Sawyer took it upon himself to investigate, expose, and stop the arsonist, Black Fire details Sawyer’s remarkable life and illustrates why Twain would later feel compelled to name his iconic character after him when writing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. A vivid portrayal of the gritty, corrupt, and violent world of the Gold Rush-era West, Black Fire is the most vibrant and thorough account of Sawyer’s relationship with Mark Twain, and of the devastating fires that baptized San Francisco.
Download or read book Lanza s Mob written by Christina Ann-Marie DiEdoardo and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2016-06-27 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presenting sociological as well as historical perspectives, this book supplies readers with a fascinating, unprecedented look at the most successful organized-crime family they've probably never heard of. From the 1920s until the early 21st century, one Sicilian mob family defied everyone from the California attorney general to J. Edgar Hoover to chart their own American Dream. Unlike their flashier rivals in New York and Chicago who met their end by the knife, the bullet, or a judge's gavel, this crime family prospered and grew alongside their adopted home of San Francisco. This book tells how they did it. Readers will learn how the Lanzas managed to retain control of their patch from the end of Prohibition through the Summer of Love and into the beginnings of the dot-com era, gaining insight into not only what the west-coast branch of the Mob did, but also why they did it. The documentation of how this mostly unknown crime syndicate formed, evolved, and eventually folded is set against the backdrop of the city of San Francisco transforming itself from a gritty port and manufacturing hub dominated by Italian- and Irish-Americans into the multicultural intellectual and services capital it is today.
