Home Back My Cart : 0 item(s)

 

THE CALIFORNIA SNATCH RACKET

THE CALIFORNIA SNATCH RACKET
Price: $16.95
Product ID : 12-877

Purchase

Description

Subtitle: "Kidnappings During the Prohibition and Depression Eras." In California in the 1920s and 1930s, kidnapping—nicknamed the “snatch racket” by a cynical newspaperman—was the most booming criminal enterprise around. Driven by greed, desperation and sometimes plain stupidity, ransom artists preyed indiscriminately on Hollywood socialites, wealthy heiresses and even poor people who couldn’t pay a dime. Every new disappearance sold more newspapers, but for both the kidnappers and their unfortunate victims, even the simplest caper often went tragically wrong. “California Snatch Racket” brings this dark and forgotten era into shockingly vivid life. Richly illustrated, “California Snatch Racket” reflects newspaper, police, court and prison accounts of the times written in a style that places the reader on the scene. Avoiding supposition and sensationalism, the book offers true accounts of the crimes and the people. These 15 bizarre, often ironic tales illustrate the complex cruelties that flourished in the Golden Era of the Golden State. A modern city rises and lynches a pair of kidnappers. A victim begs leniency for his kidnapper in a case where a technicality demands the death penalty. A couple of college kids imitate the Leopold and Loeb kidnapping to prove their intellectual prowess and famed evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson fakes her own kidnapping to cover up an affair. “California Snatch Racket” recounts its stories in the manner of the times, while leaving judgment to the courts and the readers.

Products You May Like

  • THE CASTLES OF THE ASSASSINS

    THE CASTLES OF THE ASSASSINS $21.95
    $13.17

    For nearly 150 years the secret society of the Assassins used subterfuge, intimidation, and assassination to control the Middle East from Syria to Persia. This vast reign of terror reached its zenith in the eary 12th century. By 1256 the Assassins had disappeared without a trace. This is the account of the 1960 British expedition to the Alamut Valley in north Iran, to search for the remains of the Assassins castles.

  • THE VALLEYS LEGENDS & LEGACIES, VOL V

    THE VALLEYS LEGENDS & LEGACIES, VOL V. cover image $18.95
    $11.37

    In this, the fifth volume of her award-winning collection of vignettes, we are treated to cultural evenings at the Barton Opera House, damp Kings River revival meetings, exhilarating afternoons at the races, and family trips to the coast. Within these pages, you will meet bankers and bandits, physicians and postmasters, editors and evangelists...even a paperhanger who dazzles his audience at the elegant Pleasanton Hotel with his mind-reading shenanigans. It’s all part and parcel of our fruitful Valley’s legends and legacies.

  • UNDERDOGS TO WONDERDOGS: Fresno State's Road to Omaha and the College World Seri

    UNDERDOGS TO WONDERDOGS: Fresno State's Road to Omaha and the College World Seri $34.95
    $20.97

    The rollercoaster ride that produced one of the most improbable championships in college sports history is captured in remarkable detail in this new release. Featuring over 100 full-color photos, riveting radio play-by-play excerpts, and telling comments from the "Wonderdogs" themselves, this book takes you inside Fresno State's unprecedented string of upsets that ended with the school's first NCAA baseball championship. Eavesdrop in the dugout as the team stares elimination in the face six times on its way to the title. Go beyond the big swings, diving catches, and knee-buckling curveballs to discover the deeper meaning in the six-week journey from 89th in the country to the top of that College World Series dogpile. From their stoic skipper to his team full of "sixth graders at recess," you'll get to know the key figures who turned adversity into triumph on a scale usually only found in fantasy. Written in the unique storytelling style of the team's radio announcer, Underdogs to Wonderdogs spins an exhilarating, heart-warming, and inspirational tale that just so happens to be true. Lending additional perspective to the significance of Fresno State's win is a chapter packed with exclusive comments from opposing coaches, local and national media, and luminaries long associated with the program. This book makes a great gift for the baseball lover in your life, and even non-sports fans will be drawn to the human side of one team's magical metamorphosis.

  • Crossing California: A Cultural Topography of a Land of Wonder and Weirdness

    Crossing California: A Cultural Topography of a Land of Wonder and Weirdness $14.95
    $8.97

    A Cultural Topography of a Land of Wonder and Weirdness by Sam McManis Sacramento Bee journalist Sam McManis spent five years on the road trying to find the real California. He discovered that there is more than one California, but every different California is equally weird and wonderful. Worlds collide and commingle: the neo-hippies with the rednecked farmers; the urban sophisticates with the quirky desert dwellers; the Hollywood power brokers with the Outsider Artists. Brought together in a bouillabaisse of voices, Crossing California will make you see the state in an entirely new light. From the briny scent of Fisherman’s Wharf to the fragrant sage scrub of Imperial County; from the otherworldly starkness of Death Valley to the crashing waves and flexing muscles at Venice Beach, Crossing California gives readers a first-hand experience. McManis has stalked the tony aisles of the newly minted Broad Museum in gentrified downtown Los Angeles, and quick-footed it through the International Banana Museum along the desiccated shores of the moonscaped Salton Sea. He has inadvertently gotten his car stuck in a tree at a cheesy drive-thru giant Sequoia roadside attraction along the hemp highway between Mendocino and Humboldt, and witnessed, with both fascination and can’t-look-away horror, grown men and women, sans children and sans inhibitions, belt out full-throated versions of "Let It Go" at a Disneyland sing-along. All told, Crossing California is a trip. Audience: Readers interested in California culture, history, oddities, and humor. About the Author: Sam McManis is a former columnist and feature writer for the Sacramento Bee. He is a four-time winner of the Society of Features Journalism awards and three-time Best of the West honoree. He also has been a staff writer and editor at the San Francisco Chronicle and a sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times. His profiles and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and elsewhere. He lives and writes in Washington state. $14.95 US • Trade Paperback • 6" x 9" • 280 pages ISBN 978-1-61035-313-7

  • When San Francisco Burned: A Photographic Memoir of the Great San Francisco Eart

    When San Francisco Burned: A Photographic Memoir of the Great San Francisco Eart $21.95
    $13.17

    Early one spring morning, disaster struck San Francisco, and a young man grabbed his camera and started documenting the destruction and death surrounding him. Fearlessly going to the center of the devastation, the man captured scenes of fires, collapsing buildings, and people fleeing for their lives—scenes that no one else had a chance to record. His photographs were preserved in a family photo album, unseen by the public for over a hundred years. When San Francisco Burned presents for the first time the photographs that young man, L ouis P. Selby, took of the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906. These amazingly detailed and dramatic photographs show the earthquake and its aftermath from a street-level perspective, giving readers an unprecedented look at what it was really like to be in San Francisco during those terrible days. Selby’s photographs document the immediate damage of the earthquake; horrific action shots of fire consuming San Francisco; the heroic efforts of police, soldiers, and ordinary citizens to maintain order and protect the people; the somber ruins of San Francisco after the blaze; the misery and pluck of the refugee camps; and the city’s earliest days of rebirth and rebuilding. These unique, never-before-published photographs show the horrors of the earthquake and fire—and the stubborn resistance of the people of San Francisco—like you’ve never seen them before. An invaluable addition to the historical record, When San Francisco Burned is a must-have book for anyone who loves San Francisco and its history.

Call us: 800-345-4447

Full Website