Death in California: The Bizarre, Freakish, and Just Curious Ways People Die in the Golden State [Paperback]

David Kulczyk (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2009

With details about grim and grisly fatalities, this history of California’s arcane deaths encompasses the murders and accidents that at one time shocked the West Coast. The stories of hangings, gun accidents, suicides, crashes, and overdoses of both the famous and obscure offer a bizarre and lighthearted, if sometimes perverse, glimpse into the Golden State’s strange past. From the tragic tale of 14 tourists swept to their deaths over Vernal Fall in pastoral Yosemite National Park and the gritty details of Bob “Bear” Hite overdosing on heroin in a seedy Hollywood nightclub to the shocking chronicle of a 10-ton jet crashing into a Bay Area kitchen, this zany collection is delightfully weird and enthrallingly human.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Once the reader gets into the somewhat voyeuristic rhythm of wondering who's going to 'get it' next and how, Kulczyk's assemblage of well-researched stories becomes very addictive."  —Chico News & Review

"A quirky compendium . . . an unforgettably compelling account of grisly mishaps, dark twists of fate, and ill luck of the worst kind."  —Midwest Book Review California Bookwatch

"Tells a story of thirty-one shocking murders and accidents that stunned the very soul of the state and took place between 1852 and 2007."  —Sacramento Book Review

"[This book] pairs regional history with a fine survey of death . . . packed with irony and strange circumstances and perfect for any general California lending library." —Midwest Book Review California Bookwatch, (March 2011)

About the Author

David Kulczyk is a historian and author whose work has appeared in the Chico News and Review, the East Bay Express, the Sacramento News and Review, and the San Francisco Guardian. He is the author of California Justice. He lives in Sacramento, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 169 pages
• Publisher: Linden Publishing (October 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1884995578
• ISBN-13: 978-1884995576
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #957,717 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born to first-generation Americans in Bay City, Michigan, David Kulczyk (pronounced Coal-check) is a Sacramento-based historian, freelance writer and award-winning author of short fiction. He entered college at the age of 40 after working as a factory worker, sous chef, musician, warehouseman, fish butcher, process server, barista and bike messenger. Kulczyk's work has appeared in the SF Guardian, the East Bay Express, the Chico News and Review, Maximum Ink Music Magazine, The Isthmus, Madison Magazine, the Seattle Times, Pop Culture Press, Strange Magazine and the Sacramento News and Review. He is the author of Death in California: The Bizarre, Freakish, and Just Curious Ways People Die in the Golden State and California Justice: Shootouts, Lynchings and Assassinations in the Golden State (available from Craven Street Books).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Easy Read, March 29, 2010

By 

Barbara Badham "book woman" (petaluma, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death in California: The Bizarre, Freakish, and Just Curious Ways People Die in the Golden State (Paperback)

This is what I call a great little "popcorn" book. Each short chapter can be read, with pictures and all, without reference to any other. So you can pick it up and put it down, as you might with bathroom reading material. There are some famous cases here, like the mysterious death of President Harding or the explosion in the Caldecott Tunnel or the helicopter accident that killed Bill Graham. But there are also esoteric ones, some from long ago and about people unknown, who merit inclusion only because their manner of death was somewhat quirky. Personally, having been born and raised in the Golden State, I didn't find anything particularly "Californian" in the way that they died, as crime and freakish accidents can happen anywhere. But don't let that stop you, as this book is morbidly good fun. (There is even a convenient map to help you get your bearings as to who died where.)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unforgettably compelling account of grisly mishaps, dark twists of fate, and ill luck of the worst kind, December 20, 2009

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death in California: The Bizarre, Freakish, and Just Curious Ways People Die in the Golden State (Paperback)

Death in California: The Bizarre, Freakish, and Just Curious Ways People Die in the Golden State lives up to its title as a quirky compendium of true stories of unusual ways people have met their ends in California - from the tragedy of 14 tourists swept over Vernal Fall in Yosemite National Park, to Bob "Bear" Hite's overdose on heroin at Hollywood nightclub, to a 10-ton jet that crashed in a Bay Area kitchen. Here are suicides, homicides, one-in-a-million deadly accidents, and more. A handful of vintage black-and-white photographs pepper this unforgettably compelling account of grisly mishaps, dark twists of fate, and ill luck of the worst kind.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Esoteric Morbidity!, August 31, 2010

By 

The Comtesse DeSpair (http://asylumeclectica.com) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death in California: The Bizarre, Freakish, and Just Curious Ways People Die in the Golden State (Paperback)

This is another wonderful little dare-you-to-put-it-down anthology of Horrible Things that have happened in the Golden State. What I love most about David's anthologies (his previous work was California Justice) is that many of the stories he writes about occurred in my old neck of the woods (Northern California near Chico), an area that isn't often discussed in books. The fascinating but true stories he dredges up make me wonder why on earth I hadn't done research of this variety myself when I lived there. How much more enriching would my trips to various destinations in the state have been if I'd known the morbid history that played out there? The answer: Much more enriching. Of course. As they will be the next time I visit them with Death In California in hand!

This particular volume is my favorite of his tomes, as it discusses a wide variety of interesting deaths from murderous drunken pioneers, wicked stepmothers, and doomed snake charmers to plane crashes, mysterious celebrity deaths, and toddlers trapped in wells. Some of the stories you will no doubt have heard before, though rarely told as well, but the best tales are the ones veiled in obscurity - like the Wheatland Hop Riot of August 3, 1913, where a labor dispute ended with three men dead and several injured. It was the second major labor dispute in United States history - and I'd never heard of it before.

Another highly fascinating tale is that of The Ape Boy, Gordon Stewart Northcott, who raped and murdered several boys at the Wineville Chicken Ranch in Los Angeles County. In fact, the photographs of Northcott that accompany the text are creepy enough all by themselves!

However, for me, the best part of the book comes early on, when David tells a story that is all too rarely voiced in California history: the plight of the Native Americans of the state, who had lived in peace and prosperity for thousands of years before they were hunted, double-crossed, enslaved, and impoverished by the invading pioneers. In fact, reading a few of the stories left me hungry to learn more about the atrocities. Perhaps the most disgusting was the poisoning of hundreds of Shasta Indians at a treaty-signing feast on November 4, 1851. Stories like this really put into perspective the horrible price paid for Manifest Destiny.

I sincerely hope David keeps up the good work. There are so many obscure tales just waiting for him to get out the shovel and exhume them. I'm looking forward to his next collection of esoteric morbidity!