“Recounts all the twists and turns of the case . . . two jury trials, a surprising appellate court ruling . . . and, decades later, a shocking development” (Visalia Times Delta). 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. Includes photos!

Despite a decline in the number of murders in the United States since the 1960s, thousands go unsolved each year. As of 2013, the solve rate was at an all-time low at only 65 percent of the total committed. The 15 murders profiled in this book were committed between 1958 and 2014. The oldest of the set involves the bizarre murder of Pearl Eaton, one of the famous Ziegfeld Follies Girls of the 1920s. From the beginning, the crime had no leads or suspects and remains among the coldest of the 15 unsolved crimes. The most recent – the murder of four members of the McStay family found buried in the California desert in November 2013 – is under active investigation.

Examine the evidence in this volume of notorious true crimes that remain unsolved, from mystifying heists to shocking murders and more. Cold Cases: A True Crime Collection features case file facts, fascinating details, and chilling testimonies of the world’s most famous cold cases. Written for true crime junkies and armchair detectives, this book delves into the investigations of JonBenét Ramsey, the Black Dahlia, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft, the Cleveland Torso Murders, and more. Each chapter examines the facts, while also illuminating the many theories surrounding these baffling cases: - The Zodiac Killer - The disappearance of Natalee Holloway - The murder of JonBenét Ramsey - The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist - The Kingsbury Run murders, aka the Cleveland Torso murders - The Black Dahlia murder - The Freeway Phantom murders - D. B. Cooper’s airplane heist - The Amber Alert case (the death of Amber Hagerman) - The Golden State Killer

The second edition of “Murder in California: The Topography of Evil” is Marques Vickers’ visual return to 108 infamous crime scenes detailing the shocking and often searing narratives behind each tragedy. Over 225 images amplify insight by escorting the reader to the crime location, offering a critical context and perspective for understanding. 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 residence for many notorious profiled individual and serial killers including the Zodiac, Ted Unabomber Kaczynski, Charles Manson, Sirhan Sirhan, Jim Jones, Richard Allen Davis, David Carpenter, The Menendez Brothers, Juan Corona, Rodney Alcala, Phil Spector, Dan White, Juan Corona, Richard Ramirez and Scott Peterson. The media has christened some monikers including the Trailside Killer, Children of Thunder, Co-ed Killer, Vampire of Sacramento, Zebra Killers and the Death House Landlady. The state has been the death site of notable victims including Senator Robert Kennedy, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, Supervisor Harvey Milk, Mobster Bugsy Siegel, Black Panther Huey P. Newton, Journalist Chauncey Bailey, Nicole Simpson-Brown, Rapper Notorious B.I.G., Polly Klaas, Lacy Peterson, the Heaven’s Gate cult, singers Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke and actors Haing Ngor, Ramon Novarro and Sal Mineo. The Murder in California edition profiles are segmented into nine categories including assassinations, abductions, historical legacies, reckless homicides, chance encounters and manslaughters, law enforcement fatalities and controversies, unsolved murders, rampage and serial killers. Within the context of examining each profile, many important issues and questions are raised without necessarily culminating in resolution. These include capital punishment, racial perceptions, contributing parental influences, media reporting, public opinion, juvenile sentencing, self-incrimination protections and the impartiality of our judicial system. An extensive and updated listing of fatality victims is included along with convicted and deceased killers. Each living convict still registered within the United States penal systems is identified by their current penitentiary residence. Vickers’ own introduction to the consequences of murder began with the 1968 killings of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jenson by the Zodiac killer in the author’s hometown. Faraday was an acquaintance of Vickers through Boy Scouts and his older sister knew both victims. His reflections on the trauma inflicted on his intimate suburban community correspond with the realization that a single homicide affects far more individuals than simply the victim. Hundreds and often thousands may be touched by the arbitrariness and unfairness of life being terminated abruptly and prematurely. Cases Profiled (By Sequential Order and Category): Assassinations: Oakland School Superintendent Dr. Marcus Foster, Mobster Bugsy Siegel, Journalist Chauncey Bailey, Mickey and Trudy Thompson, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, Rapper Christopher Wallace (Notorious B.I.G.), The Marin County Courthouse Shootout Massacre, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Hitman Joseph The Animal Barboza, Vic Weiss and the Wonderland Gang. Abductions: Patty Hearst, Nicholas Markowitz, Brooke Hart, The Onion Field Killings, Polly Klaas, Ramona Irene Price, Cal Poly Student Kristin Smart, Kevin Collins, Rachel Newhouse, Aundria Crawford and Karen Mitchell. Historical Legacies: Fung Little Pete Jing Toy, Charles Crawford, US President Warren Harding, Ned Doheny and Hugh Plunkett, Mary Ellen Pleasant, Orcutt Freeway Sniper, Miles Archer and Eastside Salinas Gang Killings. Chance Encounters and Manslaughter Killings Ennis Cosby, Diane Whipple, Haing Ngor, Huey P. Newton, Johnny Stompanato, Barbara Graham, Marvin Gaye, Phil Hartman, Phil Spector, Ramon Novarro, Ronni Chasen, Sal Mineo, Sam Cooke and Father Eric Freed. Unsolved Murders: The Black Dahlia, Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen, Bob Domingos and Linda Edwards, Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders, Crips Gang Founder Raymond Washington, David Nadel, Geneva Ellroy, Virginia Rapp, Kym Morgan, William Desmond Taylor, Ted Healy and the Visalia Ransacker. Rampage Mass Murders: Elliot Rodger, The Helzer Brothers, Bruce Pardo, The 101 California Building Rampage, John Linley Frazier, Edward Charles Allaway, Golden Dragon Restaurant, Meritage Salon, John Kenney, Frederick Martin Davidson, Lynwood Jim Drake, High School student Andy Williams, Oikos University Shootings, Nicolas Holzer, the Cleveland Elementary Schools in San Diego and Stockton and Marcus Wesson. Premeditated Murders: Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten, Laci Peterson, John Morency, Artie Mitchell, Nicole Brown-Simpson, Menendez Brothers, Bonnie Lee Bakley, Vincent Brothers, Marin County Barbeque Killings and Ewell Family Executions. Law Enforcement Fatalities and Controversies Captain Walter Auble. Oscar Grant III, Newhall CHP Massacre, Office Thomas Guerry, Oakland Macarthur Boulevard Shooting, Demetrius DeBose, Policeman Matthew Pavelka and the North Hollywood Bank of America Shootout. Serial Killings: Zodiac Killer, Charles Manson, Dorothea Puente, Efren Saldivar, Ted Unabomber Kaczynski, The Two Night Stalkers, The Zebra Killings, Heaven’s Gate Suicide, Edmund Kemper III, Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris, Juan Corona, Richard Trenton Chase, Speedfreak Killers, Herbert Mullin, David Carpenter, Reverend Jim Jones and the People’s Temple Massacre, Hillside Strangler and Rodney Alcala.

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.

This suspenseful true story of a drug cartel hitman who got away with murder after murder in California's Central Valley over three decades reveals how the criminal justice system fails our most vulnerable immigrant communities. On the surface, fifty-eight-year-old Jose Martinez didn't seem evil or even that remarkable—just a regular neighbor, good with cars and devoted to his family. But in between taking his children to Disneyland and visiting his mom, Martinez was also one of the most skilled professional killers police had ever seen. He tracked one victim to one of the wealthiest corners of America, a horse ranch in Santa Barbara, and shot him dead in the morning sunlight, setting off a decades-long manhunt. He shot another man, a farmworker, right in front of his young wife as they drove to work in the fields. The widow would wait decades for justice. Those were murders for hire. Others he killed for vengeance. How did Martinez manage to evade law enforcement for so long with little more than a slap on the wrist? Because he understood a dark truth about the criminal justice system: if you kill the "right people"—people who are poor, who aren't white, and who don't have anyone to speak up for them—you can get away with it. Melding the pacing and suspense of a true crime thriller with the rigor of top-notch investigative journalism, The Devil's Harvest follows award-winning reporter Jessica Garrison's relentless search for the truth as she traces the life of this assassin, the cops who were always a few steps behind him, and the families of his many victims. Drawing upon decades of case files, interrogation transcripts, on-the-ground reporting, and Martinez's chilling handwritten journals, The Devil's Harvest uses a gripping and often shocking narrative to dig into one of the most important moral questions haunting our politically divided nation today: Why do some deaths—and some lives—matter more than others? "Meticulously researched and tightly woven, The Devil's Harvest is an important story because it tells us that if [this] can happen in one place, then it can happen in any place. And that's damn scary." —Michael Connelly, New York Times bestselling author of The Closers, The Lincoln Lawyer, and The Night Fire

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)