"Discusses the hundreds of murders that occur in Los Angeles each year, and focuses on the story of the dedicated group of detectives who pursued justice at any cost in the killing of Bryant Tennelle"--Publisher's description.

Murder in California: Serial Killers and Unsolved Murders profiles some of California’s most infamous murder cases. The edition photographically transports you to actual murder sites along with images related to the case and perpetrator(s). The images and accompanying profiles offer a descriptive account and follow-up aftermath providing an important understanding into the far-reaching effects of each crime. Convicted killers and their confirmed victims are identified. For criminals still living, their current incarceration location is provided. A directory of precise crime site locations is included. The captured snapshots portray visual testimonies of extinguished lives removed by acts of violence. Crime scenes often revert back into unremarkable landscape or unassuming buildings over the ensuing years and decades. Several have altered little since their moment of infamy. Many are passed daily by pedestrian and vehicular traffic unaware of a location’s unique significance. California has been the site for many notorious serial killers. The following are portrayed in this edition: Zodiac Serial Killer: Public and media taunting Charles Manson’s serial killing clan Dorothea Puente: The elderly and frail targeted and eliminated for profit Efren Saldivar: Caregiving medical homicide The Unabomber: His UC Berkeley experience Zebra Killings: San Francisco’s racially targeted genocide Heaven’s Gate Cult mass suicide Edmund Kemper III: Monstrous hitchhiking murders Bittaker and Norris: Torture van murders Juan Corona: Migrant workers serial killer Richard Trenton Chase: The vampire killer The Speed Freak Killers and their burial bone yards Herbert Mullin: Killing for earthquake preventiveness David Carpenter: The devil behind bifocals and a stutter Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple Massacre: Lost in a jungle mass suicide The Hillside Strangler Duo: Killing Cousins Rodney Alcala: A beastly killing machine slaying beauty Richard Ramirez: Satan’s ambassador Golden State Killer: The triumph of forensic tracking A Black Hand of Death and Inhumanity (Jose Manuel Martinez) A Killing Rampage Preying On Society’s Most Vulnerable Population (Jon David Guerrero) The Santa Rosa Hitchhiking Murders: preying on the innocent David Nadel: The death of a man and rebirth of a performance icon Torrey Pines Beach: Sands, Secrets and A Butterfly Dancer The continued fascination with the Black Dahlia Murder Fatty Arbuckle’s sex and homicide scandal A Classic Mob Contract Killing Of An Unwanted Distraction Was a 1963 beachfront slaying a prelude to future Zodiac terror? Geneva Ellroy: The transference of tragedy into literary expression A Double Tragedy Complicated By Mysterious Scenarios (Spreckels Mansion Death) Kym Morgan: Death by classified advertisement Kevin Collins: A solitary bus bench memorial to every parent’s nightmare Unauthorized Celebrity Biography Comics and A Founder’s Murder (Todd Lawrence) Ted Healy: The suspected homicide of the fourth Stooge The Resolute Will to keep William Desmond Taylor’s murder unsolved A Contract Killer Terminated By His Own Profession (Frank Bompensiero) Ramona Irene Price strolls innocently into a vanished past Raymond Washington: A cycle of senseless violence devours the Crips gang founder The Senseless Murder of a Catholic Priest on Holiday (Monsignor Louis Gutierrez)

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.

On Memorial Day 1933, Stanford executive David Lamson found his wife, Allene, dead in their Palo Alto home. The only suspect, he became the face of California s most sensational murder trial of the century. After a judge sentenced him to hang at San Quentin, a team of Stanford colleagues stepped in to form the Lamson Defense Committee. The group included poets Yvor Winters and Janet Lewis, as well as the Sherlock Holmes of Berkeley, criminologist E.O. Heinrich. They managed to overturn the verdict and incite a series of heated retrials that gripped and divided the community. Was Lamson the victim of aggressive prosecutors, or was he a master of deception whose connections helped him get away with murder? Author and Stanford alum Tom Zaniello meticulously examines the details of a notorious case with a lingering legacy."

Homicide represents the result of an exhaustive search of the world literature regarding homicide. More than 7,000 entries have been compiled from references selected from major indexes in libraries from outstanding universities, government agencies, and military posts; science libraries; law libraries; and the Library of Congress. Each entry features a one- or two-word annotation that indicates whether it is an article or a book, and all entries conform to the American Psychological Association stylebook guidelines. Key-word and author indexes provide quick access to works pertaining to particular subjects or by a certain author.

In 1992, while working for the Tulare County Probation Department, assigned to the Tulare County Courthouse, I first ran across copies of transcripts of taped interviews with a murder suspect accused of murdering an ll year old girl. The case involved rape, sodomy, and brutal damage to the victim. The transcripts were captivating. Because of my duties, I couldn?t personally follow the trial which was still in progress, but I followed the case in the daily tabloids. Because of the length of the trials (and there was more than one) I eventually lost track of the proceedings until a conviction was finally rendered. It would take a decade and the ?Freedom of Information Act? before I gave thought to writing about April?s murder. The ?thought? would eventually give me reason to question my sanity. I had been doing research on April?s death for several months: death certificate, birth certificate, old newspaper articles, talking to old acquaintances at the Tulare County Sheriff?s Office. The work was interesting, but often tedious, boring labor. The process of compiling data is very impersonal and has no life of its own. Early in 2002, I decided to visit April?s grave at the Tulare District Cemetery, Tulare, California. I did my research prior to visiting the cemetery; April was located in the southeast section, marker 544. My daughter, Sheri, accompanied me for the purpose of photographing the site. We wandered around the approximate location with negative results, and decided to separate to cover more territory. After a short time, Sheri yelled out, ?Dad, her she is!? My knees almost buckled. I was shocked, what was going on? I didn?t move for a moment; it dawned on me slowly?April was no longer just an interesting story, set in black and white print, April was a person who had walked this earth. The steps I took towards the marker were small, and staggered. I looked down at the small marker bearing her name, pinched in tightly between two other headstones. APRIL HOLLEY-Apr. 24, 1977-Dec. 3, 1988 . You cannot etch in stone, ?Here lies a young child, taken early in her life by someone who decided she did not need to live any longer.? As I was getting ready to leave the cemetery, a couple of thoughts crossed my mind as I glanced down at the headstone one last time. On one side lay an uncle almost unknown to her, the other side a complete unknown. April would be forever alone. The second thought was a resolve to tell her story to the best of my limited ability.