Glamorous Depravity: A History of San Francisco Crime
Paul Drexler
San Francisco has always been a city of poets and criminals. Local poet Kenneth Rexroth put it best, “San Francisco is the only American city which was not founded overland by the westward spreading puritan tradition. It was settled mostly by gamblers, prostitutes, rascals, immigrants and fortune seekers who came across the Isthmus and around the Horn.”
The California discovery of gold in 1848 brought a different group of immigrants. They were not running from persecution and tyrants. They were racing toward riches. The freedom they sought were open spaces, open attitudes, cheap land and, in many cases, freedom from legal authorities.
Week 1 Introduction to San Francisco Crime history: Crimes of All Nationalities – 1850-1950
• The Australians
• The Irish
• The Chinese
• The French
• The Italians
Week 2 Serial Killers
The Unkindest Cut of All -Buck Kelly
The Gorilla Killer-Earle Nelson
The Buttermilk Bluebeard-Alfred Cline
The Grandma From Hell -Iva Kroegar
The Murderous Millionaire -William Thoreson
Week 3 Masters of Escape
A Study in Phrenology-William Fredericks
Manhunt -Joe Tanko
King of the Escape Artists-Roy Gardner
The Yacht Bandits-Ethan McNabb and Lloyd Sampsell
Week 4
Dangerous Dames
The Deadly Chocolatier- Cordelia Botkin
The Jazzmania Murderer - Dorothy Ellingson
The Duchess: A Female Fagin-Juanita Spinelli
Con Artists
The Great Diamond Hoax- Arnold Slack
Big Bertha -Bertha Heyman
The Man of a 1000 Aliases -Andrew John Gibson
The Father of Electric Medicine -Dr Albert Abrams
Week 5 Unsolved Mysteries: Who was Erdnase?, The Preparedness Day Bombing, The Zodiac Killer
Week 6 A Crooks Tour of the Barbary Coast (OFFSITE: Details will be provided to enrolled students)
Paul Drexler is the Director of Crooks Tours of San Francisco. He has written extensively on the history of San Francisco crime and currently writes a column “Notorious Crooks” for the San Francisco Examiner. He has given walking tours on crime history to over 1,000 people and have appeared on The Discovery ID Network show Deadly Women as an expert on San
Francisco murderesses.
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