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• Stories of Service: Volume 2

  $24.95 $14.97 0 review(s)

  
  

  Subtitle: Valley Veterans Remember World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Cold War. The San Joaquin Valley?s rich history of courage, military service, duty and honor is preserved for future generations in Janice Stevens? new book Stories of Service, Volume II: Valley Veterans Remember World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Cold War (Craven Street Books, November 2011). In this fascinating sequel to Stevens? original Stories of Service, ordinary soldiers, sailors, airmen and civilians from the Valley tell in their own words their experiences during a half century of armed conflict. The one hundred personal memoirs in Stories of Service, Volume II record Valley veterans? trials, tragedies and triumphs from Pearl Harbor to the Mekong Delta. These are stories of harrowing combat, separation from loved ones, survival in POW camps, boredom, fear, bravery, victory and returning home ? plus all the bizarre, incongruous and humorous events of wartime and military service.

• CALIFORNIA DAY OF THE GRIZZLY

  $25.00 $15.00 0 review(s)

  
  

  In 1769, some 10,000 grizzlies roamed California. One hundred years later, these magnificent beasts faced extinction. Today they are long gone. In The Day of the Grizzly, prominent California historian William Secrest, Sr. (California Desperadoes, When the Great Spirit Died) tells the fascinating story of the most ferocious animal in the West and how it met it’s demise at the hand of man. Grizzlies were slaughtered out of fear, used for meat, and even forced to fight with bulls for the sheer sport of it. Day of the Grizzly includes the story of the life of greatest bear man of them all—Grizzly Adams! As with all of Secrest’s books this one is lavishly illustrated with contemporary photographs and engravings. Some never published before.

• Choose Your Weapon

  $16.95 $10.17 0 review(s)

  
  

  Choose Your Weapon: The Duel in California, 1847–1861 describes in graphic detail the major figures, causes, and means by which the Golden State’s 75 “affairs of honor” of that timeframe were fought. The number of shootouts between these “gentleman” was greater than that of any other state during those years. Because so many duels were fought over politics, the book reveals much about the major politicians and newspaper editors of that era. In addition, there is a great deal of irony. For example, in 1850 Assemblyman George Penn Johnston crafted a bill that provided severe penalties for anyone convicted of dueling. Still, it remained impossible to empanel a jury that would convict a duelist. Eight years later this same legislator sent a challenge to a member of the State Senate, and, in the shootout that followed, killed him. Though found not guilty, he was the first duelist to be tried under the very statute he had written. New evidence also reveals there was far more paradox than previously imagined regarding the infamous duel between U.S. Senator David C. Broderick and State Supreme Court Justice David Terry. One of the most grueling duels ever to take place on the frontier was the 1853 faceoff between U.S. SenatorWilliam Gwin and Congressman Joseph W. McCorckle. Fought in the hills above bucolic San Mateo with 54 caliber Mississippi Yagers at forty paces, by dint of several miracles neither was killed. In summary, Choose Your Weapon provides readers with an invaluable historical primer on California’s Golden Era, as well as the tumultuous temperament of its pioneer politicians and newspaper editors. Audience: California history readers. About the Author: Christopher Burchfield has been researching and writing about the Gold Rush Era of California for more than thirty years. Over this period he and his wife, Genendal, have traveled up and down the state, scouring its libraries and history centers, from Barstow to Yreka, often camping out under some very inclement weather conditions. He has had over 100 articles published in various magazines. $16.95 ($21.95 Canada) • Trade Paperback • 6" x 9" • 260 pages ISBN 978-1-61035-277-2

• MURDER IN THE GARDEN, VOL. 2

  $18.95 $11.37 0 review(s)

  
  

  Subtitle: "More Famous Crimes of Early Fresno County." With a foreword by William Secrest, Sr. Presenting 16 famous cases from Fresno, California, set mainly in the first part of the 20th century, author Scott Morrison -- a long-time detective in the Fresno sheriff's office - brings to life fascinating cases of murder and mayhem from Fresno?s past. The book introduces memorable figures such as Fresno?s ?Old Broom Man? and ?Black Widow,? and one chapter focuses specifically on all the men from Fresno County who have ever been executed by the State of California?s justice apparatus. ?Murder in the Garden, Volume 2? offer commentary that compares these sensational past cases to current high-profile criminal cases. A consideration of the changing face of crime, this history reveals a modern upswing in child abuse, multiple murders, and kidnapping cases and highlights the extended nature of the current legal process as compared to the open-and-shut character of the early 1900s.

• Pardon My Hearse: A Colorful Portrait of Where the Funeral and Entertainment Ind

  $16.95 $10.17 0 review(s)

  
  

  Even celebrities die — and he was the man who picked up the bodies! Allan Abbott ran the leading mortuary in Hollywood and got an unprecedented glimpse of how celebrities really live and die. The Forrest Gump of the funeral industry, Abbott was everywhere celebrities died, from helping to prepare Marilyn Monroe’s body to standing next to Christopher Walken at Natalie Wood’s funeral. Now in his new memoir Pardon My Hearse, Abbott tells the rags-to-shroud story of how he went from a young man with a hearse to the funeral director to the stars — a rollicking, unexpectedly hilarious story of glamorous funerals, mishaps with corpses and true-life glimpses of celebrities at their most revealing moments. When he wasn’t transporting celebrity corpses, Abbott used his funeral limos to transport living celebrities to Hollywood parties and rented his vast collection of cars and funeral props to movie and TV productions. Pardon My Hearse presents a dazzling A-List of celebrities, living and dead, whom Abbott encountered during his career, including Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Joe DiMaggio, Robert Redford, Frank Sinatra and others. Pardon My Hearse takes readers behind the scenes to tell the secrets of Marilyn Monroe’s funeral (where Abbott acquired the most unlikely souvenir of Monroe’s falsies) and dishes the inside story of disgraced crematorium operator David Sconce, who ordered an attack on Abbott’s business partner Ron Hast to cover up Sconce’s criminal mishandling of bodies and remains. Abbott also shares gruesome details of removing corpses from the devastation of the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, reburying corpses dislodged from the 1978 mudslide that swept through the Verdugo Hills Cemetery and more. A treasure trove of insight and gossip you can’t get anywhere else, Pardon My Hearse is an eye-opening look at secret Hollywood from the man who literally knows where the bodies are buried.

• DEATH IN CALIFORNIA

  $15.95 $9.57 0 review(s)

  
  

  Subtitle: "The Bizarre, Freakish, and Just Curious Ways People Die in the Golden State." This book?s aim is to encompass shocking murders and accidents that at the time shook the very soul of Californians, but eventually and gratefully faded from memory. California has always been a destination for people with dreams of fame and fortune. Anything is possible in California, and when anything is possible, death always lurks nearby. ?Death in California? is a historic manuscript detailing the more arcane ways people have died in the Golden State. The thirty-one vignettes in ?Death in California? range from a description of being one of the fourteen different tourists to be swept to their deaths over Vernal Falls in Yosemite National Park, to singer Bob ?Bear? Hite of the blues/boogie band Canned Heat overdosing on heroin in a seedy Hollywood nightclub. The book?s diverse set of deaths include a tale of torture and murder by a chicken farmer in the desert in 1926, as well as the tragedy of a 10- ton jet airplane crashing into a Bay Area apartment kitchen in 1973. The litany of freakish and bizarre deaths in California also include hangings, gun accidents, crashes and suicide. Social status is no barrier: both the famous and obscure are profiled.