The Murders That Made Us
How Vigilantes, Hoodlums, Mob Bosses, Serial Killers and Cult Leaders Built the San Francisco Bay Area
by Bob Calhoun
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Pub Date 4 May 2021 | Archive Date 30 Apr 2021
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Description
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 the city’s earliest days, where vigilantes hung perps from buildings and newspaper publishers shot it out on Market Street, to the kidnapping of Patty Hearst and the Zodiac Killer, crime has made the people of San Francisco who they are. Murder and mayhem are intertwined with the city’s art, music, and politics. The Great 1906 Earthquake that burned down the old Barbary Coast 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 acid dealer slayings that made the Haight too violent for even Charles Manson. The ’70s ground to a halt with San Francisco pastor Jim Jones forcing his followers to drink cyanide-laced punch in Guyana, and the assassination of gay icon Harvey Milk. With each tale of true crime, The Murders That Made Us will take you from the violence that began in the original Gold Rush into the brutal displacement of today’s techie ruination.
Available Editions
| ISBN | 9781770415492 |
| PRICE | |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Reviewer 493301
This is a well-written book about murderers and con men and how true crime is intertwined with the art, music, and political scenes in the history of San Francisco. The author's deadpan and tongue-in-cheek humor was a bonus that turned a dry historical overview into an enjoyable read. True crime buffs will enjoy this book.
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book to read and review. The opinions expressed here are my own honest opinions written voluntarily.
Michael G, Reviewer
The Murders That Made Us by Bob Calhoun is a quirky little book. It tells the story of the San Francisco Bay area through the last 150 years or so through the crimes that took place there. At first glance, the idea seems more than a little absurd, but as you get in the book it does actually cover a fair amount of history from lynching and newspaper shootouts to Jim Jones and the Twinkie defense murder of Harvey Milk and others. All of this ends up wrapped in the unique culture of the day in San Francisco.
A book about some fairly grizzly murders and other crimes would seem to be very dark and brooding but somehow Calhoun manages to keep the tone fairly upbeat and the pace quick. This really helps the reader get lost within this very unique history. It’s really hard for me to ask anything more from The Murders That Made Us because it’s already a completely unexpected book in that one would not expect one to be able to do a history around such a macabre topic.
The Murders That Made Us is a fun twist on the history of a great American city.
Cat D, Bookseller
I read a lot of true crime titles and I found this brisk history of the San Francisco area, through the prism of crime, fresh and interesting. A good mix of the infamous and the more niche cases. Calhoun's book got me intrigued enough to seek out more information about the Jonestown massacre. Great for true crime buffs and history nerds.
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Edited by Joanna Cannon
Biographies & Memoirs, Health, Mind & Body, Nonfiction (Adult)
