Though it has specific geographic borders, La Crescenta is politically split, straddling portions of unincorporated Los Angeles County, Glendale, and even a portion of Los Angeles itself. The Tongva Indians roamed the valley for hundreds of years until cattlemen moved in and loggers harvested the tall trees in the canyons above. Then came orchards, sanitariums, resort hotels, and, ultimately, suburban sprawl. These bucolic hills belied a penchant for archly conservative politics, but the peace of the valley was shattered not by Nazis or Klansmen, but rather by forces of nature: windstorms, fires, earthquakes, and, most severely, flash floods. In his book Man in Control of Nature, naturalist John McPhee wrote extensively about the La Crescenta floods. Despite the turbulence, La Crescenta has evolved into a quiet bedroom community in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.

Despite being within the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the Crescenta Valley manages to retain its small town flavor due to its geography--a small valley nestled between two mountain ranges--and the people who prefer this way of life. The community is marked not only by what has changed, but more importantly, by what has not.

The city of La Ca±ada Flintridge is made up of the nearly century-long communities of La Ca±ada--once a mosaic of ranchlands honeycombed with vineyards and olive and citrus groves--and Flintridge, an affluent enclave and health resort in the early 1900s. La Ca±ada's various neighborhoods were renamed La Ca±ada Flintridge during the city's incorporation in 1976. Known for its excellent schools and as a gateway to the Angeles National Forest, La Ca±ada is also home to Descanso Gardens, an internationally known 165-acre botanical garden sold to Los Angeles County by former Los Angeles Daily News tycoon Manchester Boddy, and to NASA's esteemed Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), located on the city's northwest border.

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.

"A history of the noteworthy transgressions and crimes committed over the years in the Crescenta Valley"--