Tag: San Francisco

• Lloyd Sampsell, California’s ‘Yacht Bandit.’

  

  A free chapter from my latest book ‘Murders, Mysteries and Misdemeanors in Southern California,’ out now online and in bookstores. “I don’t know why this should bother me, but why in the hell should people be interested in what the condemned man ate for breakfast?” – Sampsell just before his execution.    Lloyd Sampsell was […]

  CrimeScribe

  July 27, 2021

  History, True Crime, Uncategorized

  Alcatraz, Arizona, Arthur Smith, Associate Warden Douglas Rigg, Bonnie and Clyde, buccaneers, Byron Eshelman, California, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, California Penal Code, capital punishment, Caryl Chessman, Coast Guard, Condemned Row, crime, crime and punishment, death penalty, Death Row Chaplain, death sentence, Earl Warren, Ethan McNabb, executed, execution, Father Dingberg, Federal Judge Louis Goodman, Folsom, gallows, gas chamber, Green Mountain Boys, Hangman's Hall, History, Jazz Age, Los Angeles, Mexico, murder, Public Enemy Number One, Revolutionary War, Roaring Twenties, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Quentin, San Quentin Prison, Seacrest Finance Company, Seattle, Sovereign, true crime, Tucson, US Supreme Court, Vancouver, Warden Harley Teets, William Bagley, Yacht Bandit

• The Broderick-Terry duel of 1859, the last notable duel in California.

  

  The duel between US Senator David Broderick and David Terry, former Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court is a rollicking tale of friendship-turned-feud; politics, pistols, slavery and slander. Their duel on 13 September 1859 would have made a terrific historical novel or movie and still might. Duels over political disagreements, personal enmity and often […]

  CrimeScribe

  September 13, 2020

  History, Press And Politics, True Crime, Uncategorized

  37th Texas Cavalry, 49ers, 8th Texas Cavalry, Aaron Burr, abolitionist, Adairville, African-Americans, Alexander Hamilton, America, American Civil War, Americans, Appomattox, Arizona, Attorney-General, Bowie knife, Brodericl-Terry duel, Calhoun Benham, California, California Constitution, California Supreme Court, Chief Justice, Chivs, Civil War, Codo Duello, Colonel David Terry, Confederacy, Confederate, Confederates, David Broderick, David Colton, David Neagle, David Terry, Democratic Convention, Democratic Party, Democrats, Deputy US Marchal, duel, duelling, duelling pistols, duellists, duels, Federal Government, Fort Sumter, Frederick Douglas, free soil, gentleman, gentlemen, habeas corpus, History, insurrection, Intercontinental Hotel, Jim Bowie, judge, judges, justice, Kansas, Kentucky, Lake Merced, Lathrop, Lecompton Constitution, Marshal Franks, Merced, Mexico, Missouri, Munsey's, Munsey's Magazine, murder, murderer, murderers, murered, Native Americans, New Jersey, Northern California, Northerners, Palmito Ranch, Politics, Portsmouth Square, POTUS, President, President Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, pro-slavery, Reconstruction, Russelville, San Francisco, San Francisco Vigilance Committe, sbolitionists, Senator, slavery, South Carolina, Southern, Southern Confederacy, Southern gentleman, Southern gentlemen, Southerner, Southerners, statehood, Stephen Douglas, Stephen Field, Sterling Hopkins, Stockton Rural Cemetery, Tennessee, Texas, Tombstone, Treasury Secretary, Union, United States, US Attorney-General, US Attorney-General William Miller, US Senator, US Senator William Sharon, US Supreme Court, US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Field, War Between the States, War of Northern Aggression, Warner Cope, Weehawken, William Miller, William Sharon

• On This Day in 1909 – The Santa Clara Valley Bank Robbery, the world’s first using a getaway car.

  

  To this day many people, including crime buffs, believe the world’s first bank robbery involving a getaway car was performed in France. The quasi-Anarchist Bonnot Gang are often credited with being first, escaping in a stolen Delauney-Belleville after robbing the Societe Generale bank in Chantilly, France on 21 December 1911. This isn’t accurate, although the […]

  CrimeScribe

  August 3, 2020

  History, True Crime, Uncategorized

  Arch Clement, bank robbery, bank robers, bankrobbers, banks, Baron Lamm, Belle Starr, Bonnot Gang, bushwhackers, California, California Penal Code, Californians, Chantilly, Charles Makley, Clinton, Coffeyville, Dalton gang, Dillinger GAng, Ed Shouse, Ford, France, Frank James, Frank Smith, Fred Carr, hanging judge, Harry Pierpont, Henry Starr, Hermann Lamm, Indian State Penitentiary, Indiana, James Brown, James Clark, James-Younger Gang, Joe Willetts, John Dillinger, Judge Parker, Kansas, Lamm method, Lamm technique, Leo Nevins, Leon Nevins, Lewis estes, Los Angeles Herald, Michigan City, Model T Ford, Oakland, Oklahoma, Oklahoma Jack, Prussian Army, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Societe Generale, Stroud, Thomas Flyer, Valley Bank, Walter Dietrich, Willie Sutton

• On This Day in 1913 – Jacob Oppenheimer, California’s ‘Human Tiger.’

  

  “The sooner I can cash in my chips the better, as it will save me a lot of trouble and unhappiness.” Jacob Oppenheimer after receiving his death sentence. Caged tigers are solitary, predatory creatures. Constantly pacing their cages, they can inflict violence, disfigurement and death in a split second without as much as a second’s […]

  CrimeScribe

  July 12, 2020

  History, True Crime, Uncategorized

  Alcatraz, April Moore, California, California Penal Code, Carl Panzram, Caryl Chessman, Condemned Row, crime, executed, execution, Folsom, Folsom’s 93, Folspm Prison, gallows, Governor Hiram Johnson, Gus Ringolsky, hanged, hanging, Human Tiger, Jacob Oppenheimer, James Johnston, John Phillip Sousa, Johnny Cash, Mumia Abu-Jamal, murder, murderer, murderers, New York, Northern California, Oakland, psychopath, Robert Harmon, Robert Wells, San Francisco, San Quentin, Section 4500, Sing Sing, State of California, tiger, true crime, US, USA, Walter Ross, Warden James Johnston

• On This Day in 1851 – Josefa ‘Juanita’ Segovia, rough justice or legal lynching?

  

    Present-day California is often seen as the most liberal, tolerant state in the Union. It‘s sold with images of sunshine, surfing, and hippies; a relaxed, easy-going kind of place where, within reason, anything goes. This is a fallacy. While 1967 might have been California’s ‘Summer of Love’ July of 1851 wasn’t. Certainly not for […]

  CrimeScribe

  July 5, 2020

  History, True Crime, Uncategorized

  1848, 1849, 1850, 1851, 1967, America, American, Anglos, Arizona, California, Californians, capital punishment, circuit judge, Colorado, Craycroft Saloon, crime, crime and punishment, crime history, criminal history, Cyrus Aiken, death penalty, Downieville, Foreign Miners Tax Act, Frederick Cannon, gold, Gold Rush, Golden State, hanged, hanging, History, hung, J.D. Borthwick, Jersey Bridge, Joaquin Murieta, Josefia Segovia, Juanita, lynch law, lynched, lynching, Mexican, Mexican War, miner’s justice, miners law, murder, murdered, murderer, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon Territory, Rio Grande, Sacramento, San Francisco, State of California, statehood, Summer of Love, Sutter’s Mill, Texas, Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, truecrime, United States, USA, Utah, Wyoming, Yuba County, Yuba County Court of Sessions, Yuba River