California

Name: Deadly San Diego
Brand: Steve Willard
SKU: 9781467152792
Price: 16.79 USD
Availability: InStock

Plan all your California getaways with our Golden State catalog. Whip up the coast on the PCH to old San Francisco, where Gold Rush fever is slow to fade. Leave some flowers for Cecil B. DeMille and Johnny Ramone at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Get a progress report on the receding waters of the Salton Sea and the expanding minds in Northridge. From the fertile fields of Nevada County to the Venice Beach Boardwalk, experience the largesse and diversity of California's history with our California history books. [View all California books]

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Deadly San Diego

$23.99 $16.79 Save 30%

The Napa Murder of Anita Fagiani Andrews

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

Marriage, Murder, and Betrayal in Nineteenth-Century California

$23.99 $16.79 Save 30%

Murders, Mysteries, and Misdemeanors of Hollywood and Los Angeles

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

San Diego Murder & Mayhem

$16.99

The McGlincy Killings in Campbell, California

$16.99

Murder and Mayhem in the Napa Valley

$16.99

Murder in Visalia

$16.99

Murder & Mayhem in the Crescenta Valley

$16.99

California's Lamson Murder Mystery

$16.99

Murder in Visalia

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

California's Most Notorious Crimes

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

The McGlincy Killings in Campbell, California

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Murders, Mysteries, and Misdemeanors in Southern California

$22.99 $16.09 Save 30%

San Diego Murder and Mayhem

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Wild Tulare County

$19.99 $15.39 Save 23%

Murder and Mayhem in the Napa Valley

$19.99 $15.39 Save 23%

Murder & Mayhem in the Crescenta Valley

$19.99 $15.39 Save 23%

Deadly San Diego

9781467152792

$23.99 $16.79 Save 30%

Delve into a world of cold cases, serial killers and false confessions pulled straight from the archives of the San Diego Police Department. From a rash of attacks in Balboa Park to the slayings of two police officers that remain unsolved to this day, detectives have investigated several vexing and violent cases over the years. In 1931, the murder of ten-year-old Virginia Brooks was initially linked to serial slayer Gordon Stewart Northcott, later hanged for his crimes, while the mysterious death of young Dalbert Aposhian languished for seventy-two years before modern forensics closed it. Join author Steve Willard as he pulls back the curtain on San Diego's dark side.

The Napa Murder of Anita Fagiani Andrews

9781467147415

$21.99 $17.49 Save 20%

In 1974, the brutal murder of Anita Fagiani Andrews, a fifty-one-year-old former beauty queen and mother of two, shook the small working-class town of Napa. Detectives, criminalists and forensic experts raced to identify who'd struck Anita down in her own bar, but despite their efforts, the case went cold. Decades passed, during which the town grew into a world-renowned wine region and tourist destination, but the case remained an open question. After thirty-seven years, thanks to DNA evidence, the killer--imprisoned for a different murder--was finally found and brought to justice. Join author and retired judge Raymond A. Guadagni as he tells the story of the shocking murder, the investigation and the subsequent trial over which he presided in 2011.

Marriage, Murder, and Betrayal in Nineteenth-Century California

9781634993470

$23.99 $16.79 Save 30%

In 1832, the captain of the brigantine Catalina ordered Scotsman James Black, dying of typhus, abandoned at Monterey, California. Nursed by J. B. R. Cooper's wife, Black survived to hunt the last of California's sea otters, defend San Francisco from invading Russians under General Vallejo, and drive cattle to feed gold rush miners.

Black's ranching and dairy empire, founded on a single Mexican land grant, ultimately encompassed 20,000 Marin County acres. Black, his wife, and daughter enjoyed the privileges of the landed gentry until January 1864 when his cherished wife died in their son-in-law's dental chair. An obsessive resentment, excesses of whisky, and a scheming second wife consumed Black's bereavement.

Augustina learned after her father's death that she had been written out of his will. For four years and across two counties, she fought her stepmother for a fair portion of her father's $15,000,000 estate. After multiple notorious trials, Augustina gained a partial victory¬--but would she receive the land and gold the jury awarded her?

Murders, Mysteries, and Misdemeanors of Hollywood and Los Angeles

9781634992817

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

Murder is shocking. The savagery of Elizabeth Short's (also known as the Black Dahlia) slaying was beyond anything Los Angeles, indeed the U.S., had experienced. Short would not be the only young woman in Los Angeles during the 1940s to suffer at the hands of a brutal and sadistic killer, a killer who was never caught. Senseless murder, rape, and robbery were a common thread throughout the streets of Los Angeles of the mid-twentieth century. Men and women without much hope, and even less money, were all too often the victims and the perpetrators. However, the wealthy were not exempt. Love, rage, jealousy, and money were all reasons for the murders, mysteries, and misdemeanors covered in this book, from one end of Los Angeles to the other.

Murder in Visalia

9781625859808

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

One October morning in 1979, a stamp and coin dealer was gunned down in his Visalia shop. There were no witnesses. Persistent police efforts across jurisdictional lines connected it to another death. Two months earlier, the body of a Fresno coin dealer was found locked in the trunk of his car. The trail of evidence led to a most unlikely suspect. Author Ronn M. Couillard, retired judge and former Visalia district attorney, lays out the facts in this compelling case from the investigation to the court proceedings and the surprise that almost derailed the conviction.

California's Most Notorious Crimes

9781634994491

$24.99 $17.49 Save 30%

California is known as the "Golden State." However, it is has been said that "all that glitters is not gold." Within the pages of this book are true stories including the murder of a family for a 7.5-million-dollar inheritance, and a landlady accused of murdering seven tenants and burying them in her yard. Read about the murders of twenty-five farm workers buried in peach orchards, and a child who was murdered and buried in a pet cemetery. There is the case of the man wanted in forty-three states for passing half-a-million dollars in fraudulent checks using 350 aliases. Also, within the book are the true stories of how twenty-six children and their school bus driver were buried alive, and how a simple shoplifting incident led to a bunker hidden in the woods where forty-five pounds of charred human remains were found. California mafia figures, "The Mick" and the "Capone of Los Angeles," are featured in this book, along with an espionage case that resulted in more than a million top military secrets sold to the Soviet Union.

The McGlincy Killings in Campbell, California

9781467138437

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

On the morning of May 27, 1896, the peaceful township of Campbell awoke to shocking news. Six people were brutally murdered at the home of Colonel Richard P. McGlincy, one of the town's most respected citizens. The suspect, James Dunham--the colonel's son-in-law--fled the scene and disappeared into the hills of Mount Hamilton overlooking Santa Clara County. This heinous crime triggered a massive, nationwide manhunt while investigators pieced together the details. Author Tobin Gilman examines the mind and motives of the killer, the sensational media coverage and the colorful personalities associated with the protracted and unresolved pursuit of justice.

Murders, Mysteries, and Misdemeanors in Southern California

9781634993241

$22.99 $16.09 Save 30%

Southern California can be called a sunny place for shady people. Its criminal history is as rich and varied as anywhere. Old West outlaws, serial killers, gangsters and thieves have all robbed, raided, killed and died south of Sacramento. Home to the movie business, Los Angeles has long been a place of bright lights and dark deeds.

Major Raymond Lisenba, California's last man to hang, committed murder-by-rattlesnake. Fueled by a half-pint of illegal whiskey, Dallas Egan danced his way to the gallows. "Yacht Bandit" Lloyd Sampsell cruised California's coast like a latter-day buccaneer, only visiting dry land for another robbery. Joaquin Murieta terrorized the goldfields and Southern California, entering Californian history and folklore in the process.

Billy Cook entered popular culture (and San Quentin's gas chamber), inspiring The Doors' "Riders on the Storm" and classic film The Hitcher. James "Rabbit" Kendrick's execution inspired friend and fellow-convict Merle Haggard to go straight. Haggard immortalized Kendrick with country classic "Sing Me Back Home."

Some are well-remembered, others long forgotten, but all have their own place in California's chronicles of crime.

San Diego Murder and Mayhem

9781467138550

$21.99 $15.39 Save 30%

Early twentieth-century San Diego was growing fast, and the officers sworn to protect the city encountered more than their fair share of wily lawbreakers. From a shootout with a lone gunman in Mission Hills to gunfights with a gang of bank robbers that involved enthusiastic bystanders hoping to assist, detectives and patrolmen alike tried to maintain the peace. They encountered unexpected bodies, confronted car thieves and pursued criminals through neighboring states and into Mexico. Join author Steve Willard as he unearths stories directly from the case files of the early San Diego Police Department.

Wild Tulare County

9781609495091

$19.99 $15.39 Save 23%

In the 1800s, Tulare County, California, was a hotbed of desperate characters whose deadly gunplay and murderous inclinations left a trail of bodies across the region. Although the Central Valley now makes its name in agriculture, Tulare County was once a bastion of the Wild West with a lineup of hardened criminals that has scarcely been equaled in the annals of crime. Train bandits, coldblooded murderers and callous outlaws armed with shotguns and butcher knives plagued Visalia, Porterville and other sleepy central California towns. Join historian and retired Visalia Police captain Terry Ommen as he relates the transgressions of Tulare County's roughest characters, including thrilling tales of the pistol-packing Mason-Henry Gang, a deadly duel between politically divided journalists and vigilante justice exacted by angry mobs.

Murder and Mayhem in the Napa Valley

9781609495442

$19.99 $15.39 Save 23%

The picturesque vineyards of California's Napa Valley, one of the world's premier tourist destinations, disguise a tangled history of lawlessness, depravity and frontier justice. Some crimes were committed over debts, some for retribution and others in the name of love. Famed photographer Eadweard Muybridge killed a man for seducing his wife but was acquitted. Other criminals were not so lucky and met the gallows, like murderer William Roe, the state's final public execution. From the Pomo massacre--the first criminal case heard by the California Supreme Court--to the cold cases that continue to haunt the region, Napa Police Detective Todd Shulman decants the crimes of the Napa Valley, memorializing the victims and honoring the efforts of local law enforcement.

Murder & Mayhem in the Crescenta Valley

9781609499976

$19.99 $15.39 Save 23%

The pleasant neighborhoods of the Crescenta Valley offer no hint of the many violent and heinous crimes that have occurred between the San Gabriel and Verdugo Mountains. But ties to such macabre episodes as the Onion Field murder and the search for the Hillside Strangler left lasting scars here. Infamous criminals such as mafia boss Joe "Iron Man" Ardizzone, red-light bandit Caryl Chessman and accused yacht bomber Beulah Overell have left a black eye on La Cresecenta's history--not to mention the "Rattlesnake Murder," "Female Bluebeard" and "Santa Claus Killer." Join historians Gary Keyes and Mike Lawler as they expose the crimes and criminals that have inflicted murder and mayhem in Glendale, La Crescenta, Montrose and La Canada Flintridge.