these individual stories are not only mini-biographies but also an informal history of California. Straightforward accounts of how the condemned went to the gallows. A thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening read, well-written and accessible. Accessible history and noir that doesn't require reading in a linear fashion.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.Ī great deal of research went into this book, and that research has paid off. Illustrated throughout with authentic and haunting prison photographs of each of the condemned men, the crimes and punishments of a vanished era are brought into a sharp and realistic light. Readers take a trip back in time to the hard-boiled early 20th-century California that inspired the novels of Dashiell Hammett and countless other crime writers. This wealth of previously unpublished historical detail gives a vivid view of the sociology of early 20th-century crime and of the resulting prison life. Based on a treasury of historical information that has been hidden from the public for nearly 70 years, the full stories of these 93 executed men are presented in this collection including their origins, their crimes, the investigations that brought them to justice, their trials, and their deaths at the gallows.
From 1895 to 1937, 93 men were hanged at California's Folsom State Prison, and this book is the first to tell all of their stories, recounting long-forgotten tales of murder and swift justice, or sometimes, swift injustice that hanged an innocent man.
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