True Crime

""California Banditos"" presents extraordinary, little-known tales of the infamous bandits and highwaymen who plied their trade in early California.

Punctuated by gunshots and posse hoofbeats, these true tales, many told for the first time, illustrate, in both words and rare photographs, perilous trails and dangerous men from a time gone forever. Profiling men such as stagecoach robber Shorty Harris, who just wanted to buy a restaurant with his loot and find some peace, and Black Bart, the most famous stagecoach robber ever, who robbed 28 stages in eight years and between robberies led the life of a society gentleman in San Francisco, this collection illustrates a desperate breed of fascinating characters who added their stories to the legends of the Old West.

Documenting the murders in San Francisco that captivated both the city and the country, this dynamic history shows how the Bay Area can compete with Paris, London, and New York in the splendor of its suspenseful, horrifying, and audacious misdeeds. From the Montgomery Street killing of James King of William, editor of the Daily Evening Bulletin, in 1856 and the sensational trial of the early-movie comedian Fatty Arbuckle who was accused of killing a showgirl at a party in the St. Francis Hotel to the shocking ""City Hall Murders"" in which former city supervisor Dan White killed Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, the homicides chronicled have been selected because a convergence of personality, circumstance, character, and geography makes them peculiarly San Franciscan. In addition to the facts, the historical importance of each of these crimes--whether they changed a law or revealed a shortcoming in society--is analyzed.