Crimewave

Murder and Mayhem in the Far West, 1850-1900

When on May 12, 1848, Sam Brannan walked down San Francisco’s Market Street, holding high a bottle of gold dust and shouting, “Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!” he initiated the great California Gold Rush. As prospectors flooded into California, they also caused a surge in crime. In Crimewave author Matt Bernstein presents twenty-four of the most audacious and chaotic incidents in the Far West, bringing to light stories from frontier California that have too long remained hidden.

Benjamin Franklin Washington, great-grandnephew of George Washington himself, fought in the Sacramento Riot of 1850 and participated in a duel against a rival newspaper editor in San Francisco. Lucius Fairchild, who would become a Civil War hero, witnessed the rise of a vigilance committee in San Andreas and its deadly aftermath. Charles Cora, a New Orleans gambler, helped spark the largest vigil