Book excerpt: “Murder in California: Abductions, Assassinations and Police Related Murders” profiles some of California’s most infamous murder cases. The edition more photographically transports you to several of the murder sites where the homicides occurred and/or images related to the case and perpetrator(s). The images and profiles offer a descriptive account, detailed location, and trial aftermath providing an important understanding into the further reaching effects of each crime. Convicted killers and their confirmed victims are identified. For criminals still living, their current incarceration location is provided. The captured snapshots portray visual testimonies of extinguished lives removed by acts of violence. Crime scenes often revert back into unremarkable landscape or unassuming buildings over the ensuing years and decades. Several have altered little since their moment of infamy. Many are passed daily by pedestrian and vehicular traffic unaware of a location’s unique significance. California has been the site for many notorious homicides. The following are portrayed in this edition: The San Jose Kidnapping of Brooke Hart and Resulting Mob Justice Eureka’s Karen Mitchell: Vanishing Into Speculation Kristin Smart: The Tangled Web Involving Fifth Amendment Silence Nicholas Markowitz: The Stolen Boy and Unforeseen Execution An Execution Amidst Rural Darkness: The Onion Field Killings The Patty Hearst Kidnapping: The Final Nail into the Coffin of Idealism Polly Klaas: The Abrupt Death of Innocence Rex Allen Krebs: Predestined Towards Violence The Mob Permanently Severs Relations With Bugsy Siegel Fung Little Pete Jing Toy: 19th Century San Francisco’s Chinatown Gangland Slaying Chauncey Bailey: The Price of Constitutional Protection Joseph The Animal Barboza: The Inevitability of a Lifestyle Path Dr. Marcus Foster: The Marginalized Assassination The Marin County Courthouse Shootout: Thirty Minutes That Forever Altered Courtroom Security Procedures The Mickey and Trudy Thompson Morning Driveway Execution The Political Killings of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk The East/West Coast Vendetta and Killing of Christopher Wallace a.k.a. Biggie Smalls Senator Robert F. Kennedy: The Assassination of Hope The Contract Killing of Vic Weiss: The Payback For Stealing Charles Crawford: The Fixer Loses His Influence The Wonderland Gang Killings and Fantasy Sex Industry The Slaying of Captain Walter Auble and Impressive Public Response Demetrius DuBose: A Shooting Death of the Nearly Famous Lovelle Mixon: A Desperate Final and Fatal Gamble Towards Escape The Newhall Shootout and Deadliest Firefight in California Highway Patrol History The North Hollywood Bank of America Doomed Heist and Subsequent Warfare Policeman Matthew Pavelka: Officer Down From Following A Fateful Back Up Oscar Grant III: When The Facts Behind a Killing Become Secondary Officer Thomas Guerry: A Legacy Award For An Abruptly Ended Life Author Marques Vickers’ own introduction into the expansive consequences of murder began with the 1968 killings of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jenson by the Zodiac killer in the author’s hometown. His writings detail the influence a homicide reverberates beyond simply the victim. Hundreds and often thousands may be touched by the arbitrariness and unfairness of life being terminated abruptly and prematurely.