Lurid crimes of California by county

[XemaSab]

Alameda County: Patty Hearst kidnapping.

Alpine County
Amador County
Butte County

Calaveras County: The Ng/Lake murders.

Colusa County
Contra Costa County
Del Norte County
El Dorado County

Fresno County: Marcus Wesson, who killed his whole family, including his grown daughters their children who were also his own children through incest with his daughters.

Glenn County

Humboldt County: That freak who walked into the Sheriff's Department with a breast in his pocket.

Imperial County
Inyo County
Kern County
Kings County
Lake County
Lassen County

Los Angeles County: The OJ Simpson murders, the Manson Family killings, and the assasination of RFK.

Madera County

Marin County: Winnifred Wright polygamy/child abuse case and the Trailside murders.

Mariposa County: The Yosemite Tourist killings.

Mendocino County
Merced County
Modoc County
Mono County
Monterey County
Napa County

Nevada County: The Donner Party.

Orange County
Placer County
Plumas County
Riverside County

Sacramento County: Dorothea Puente murders.

San Benito County
San Bernardino County

San Diego County: Brenda Ann Spencer, who shot up a schoolyard saying "I don't like Mondays."

San Francisco County: Moscone-Milk assasinations.

San Joaquin County: Cleveland Elementary School shootings.

San Luis Obispo County
San Mateo County
Santa Barbara County
Santa Clara County
Santa Cruz County

Shasta County: Murder of a gay couple by the same brothers who set fire to synagogues in the Sacramento area.

Sierra County
Siskiyou County

Solano County: Zodiac murders.

Sonoma County: Two people shot while camping on the beach in 2004. Also the Polly Klaas kidnapping and murder.

Stanislaus County: Scott Peterson.

Sutter County

Tehama County: Woman kidnapped and held captive for 7 years.

Trinity County
Tulare County
Tuolumne County
Ventura County
Yolo County
Yuba County

[mcctatas]

1. So I take it you don't work for the California bureau of tourism

then?

[XemaSab]

4. If you want to tour lurid crime scenes, I'm sure that can be arranged

:P

[mcctatas]

6. I live in Ed Gein and Jeffrey Dahmer country...

nothing shocks me;)

[XemaSab]

7. Check the cheese...

:scared:

[mcctatas]

8. The cheese is fine...

it's the bratwurst you have to worry about :evilgrin:

[Lil Missy]

2. I didn't see the Rodney King verdict, nor the Robert Blake aquittal in there.

Both were total bullshit.

Only in CA.

[XemaSab]

3. I went for only the top one or two for each county

LA County has DOZENS of suitable cases... the Black Dahlia being another item on the list of lurid crime in LA.

[Lil Missy]

9. I've never understood that case. It was before my time.

I've also been confused about the Claus von Bülow case, although I know that wasn't tried in CA.

Did he, or didn't he? I've never been sure about it.

[Kerrytravelers]

5. My, aren't we in a light and bouncy mood tonight?

:rofl:

I grew up in Zodiac country. :scared:

[Lil Missy]

10. Oh, there was also the very tragic story about Adam Walsh.

And Polly Klass.

In my neighborhood in the 80's, there was a pervert serial killer of young boys, named John Jubert, that killed and sexually mutilated several young boys. He was found and convicted of the child murders, and has since been put to death.

Edit: How could I forget the Harvey Milk murder case, and the "Twinkie defense".

[Adsos Letter]

11. Zodiac....

you can also put him under Napa (Berryessa murders) and San Francisco (Paul Stine murder)

[mitchum]

12. Your thread title is like catnip to me

I'm familiar with 95% of the cases you cited.
It's a hobby of mine

[XemaSab]

13. Can you think of any I missed?

:shrug:

[AlCzervik]

14. Lyle and Eric Menendez?

[moriah]

15. The Black Dahlia!

Can't forget Elizabeth Short.

[mitchum]

17. The very busy Randy Kraft and...

Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris (my wife was a teenager in Calif when the latter two were on the loose and to this day will still not park beside a van)

[XemaSab]

33. Good call

:scared:

[Bossy Monkey]

18. That moron in San Ysidro

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/07/18/news/top_stories/16_42_237_17_04.txt

[moriah]

16. Did Marcus Wesson copycat Ronald Gene Simmons (AR) or vice-versa?

From Wikipedia:

Ronald Gene Simmons, Sr. was a retired United States Air Force sergeant who killed sixteen people, fourteen of whom were members of his family, and wounded four others.

...

Ronald Simmons’s child by his own daughter Sheila, Sylvia Gail, was strangled, and finally his grandson Michael. Simmons laid the bodies of his whole family in neat rows in the lounge. All the corpses were covered with coats except that of Sheila, who was laid in state covered by Rebecca Simmons’s best tablecloth.

[XemaSab]

30. I don't think it was a copycat crime at all, I think the dude was just CRAZY

Marcus Delon Wesson (born August 22, 1946) is an American man convicted of nine counts of first-degree murder and 14 sex crimes, including the rape and molestation of his underage daughters. His victims were his own children, fathered by incestuous relationships with his daughters and nieces, as well as the children by his wife. His is, to date, Fresno, California's worst mass murderer. After a March 12, 2004 standoff with police over a child custody issue, the nine bodies were discovered in a bedroom filled with antique coffins, each victim having been shot through the eye.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Wesson

[Starry Messenger]

19. San Mateo County: Waterdog Lake

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/05/BAGJIE3BNB1.DTL

Dunkle, now 44, lived in Belmont in November 1981 when 15-year-old John Davies disappeared from a home where Dunkle often went to visit him and his brother. The teen's parents, Joan and Jim Davies, became leaders in a Bay Area effort to find missing children and spent more than $20,000 trying to locate their son, a computer whiz at Serra High School.

The killing was still unsolved in October 1984, when 12-year-old Lance Turner disappeared from soccer practice at Ralston Intermediate School and was found stabbed to death that evening at nearby Waterdog Lake.

Two years later, Dunkle, serving a prison sentence for burglary, admitted both killings to a cellmate and later to the FBI, the court said. He drew a map that led police to the remains of John Davies, who had been stabbed to death. A psychiatrist quoted him as saying that he first became aware of wanting to kill someone in the sixth grade and that while alone with Davies, "I thought to myself, 'You have got someone out alone in the middle of nowhere. Here is your chance.' "


I was in 8th grade at Notre Dame Elementary when this one happened.

[Kickin_Donkey]

20. I'm a native Northern California and remember these ...

Solano County: In 1999, Xiana Fairchild, age 7, went missing on her way to the bus stop. Her skull was found across the Bay in a remote area of Santa Clara County in 2001.

Sutter County: Juan Corona murders; he was convicted in 1973 of killing 25 itinerant laborers and burying them in orchards along the Feather River.

Yuba County: In 1992, Eric Houston shot and killed one teacher and three students in a siege at Lindhurst High School (Olivehurst).

Madera County: In 1976, a whole busload of 26 schoolchildren from Chowchilla and the bus driver were kidnapped, then forced into an underground cell. They escaped and all made it out alive.

Then there was the girl in the late 1970s, Mary Vincent, who was raped and had her arms hacked off, who was found walking naked and dazed along I-5 in one of the counties of the San Joaquin Valley.

[Kickin_Donkey]

21. And lets not forget ...

San Joaquin County: In 1989, Patrick Purdy opened fire at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, killing five children, all Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees.

[XemaSab]

22. I was just coming here to post the Chowchilla school bus kidnapping.

Can't believe I forgot that last night! :scared:

[XemaSab]

23. Santa Barbara: Michael Jackson, San Diego: Heaven's Gate

n/t

[SidneyCarton]

24. Riverside County: The first Zodiac Murder (Cheri Jo Bates) and the Riverside Prostitute Killer

[Taverner]

25. Modesto is home to Carey Staynor, Chandra Levy and Scott Peterson

Need I say more?

[onager]

26. 1958 Cult Suicide Bombing--An L.A. Prototype!

The Fountain of the World cult, started in the late 1940's by "Krishna Venta," actually an ex-con named Frank Pencovic.

Pencovic, who stated in April 1948, "I may as well say it: I am Christ. I am the new messiah," and who claimed to have led a convoy of rocketships to Earth from the extinct planet Neophrates, legally changed his name to "Krishna Venta" in the California Courts in 1951.

According to disgruntled apostles, at some point Venta demanded that the wives of cult members...ahem..."cleave only unto him." Since any cult leader worth his salt needs scandals about sex AND money, Venta was also accused of swindling cult funds.

On Dec. 10, 1958, two of those disgruntled apostles strapped dynamite to their bodies and made Venta extinct.

Those known to have had peripheral exposure to the Fountain include Susan Atkins, Charles Manson, and Christian singer/songwriter Keith Green.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna_Venta

[XemaSab]

27. Orange County: "Freeway Killer" Randy Kraft

n/t

[XemaSab]

28. :hic:

n/t

[XemaSab]

29. Santa Cruz: Kemper and Mullen, among other serial killers

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[XemaSab]

31. San Luis Obispo: USAir Flight 1771

[XemaSab]

32. Riverside: Jimmy Swaggart arrested for patronizing a prostitute

Hey, nobody said "lurid crimes" all had to be murders, rapes, and kidnappings. :P

[XemaSab]

34. Santa Clara County: The case "River's Edge" was based on

n/t

[XemaSab]

35. :hic:

[XemaSab]

36. Contra Costa County: East Area Rapist (also believed to be the Original Night Stalker)

n/t

[XemaSab]

37. Updated list:

Alameda County: Patty Hearst kidnapping.

Alpine County
Amador County
Butte County

Calaveras County: The Ng/Lake murders.

Colusa County

Contra Costa County: East Area Rapist (also believed to be the Original Night Stalker).

Del Norte County
El Dorado County

Fresno County: Marcus Wesson, who killed his whole family, including his grown daughters their children who were also his own children through incest with his daughters.

Glenn County

Humboldt County: That freak who walked into the Sheriff's Department with a breast in his pocket.

Imperial County
Inyo County
Kern County
Kings County
Lake County
Lassen County

Los Angeles County: The OJ Simpson murders, the Manson Family killings, and the assasination of RFK.

Madera County: Chowchilla School Bus Kidnapping.

Marin County: Winnifred Wright polygamy/child abuse case and the Trailside murders.

Mariposa County: The Yosemite Tourist killings.

Mendocino County

Merced County: Steven Staynor kidnapping.

Modoc County
Mono County
Monterey County

Napa County: The Zodiac Killer

Nevada County: The Donner Party.

Orange County: "Freeway Killer" Randy Kraft

Placer County
Plumas County

Riverside County: Riverside prostitute killer. Jimmy Swaggart busted with a hooker.

Sacramento County: Dorothea Puente murders. Vampire of Sacramento.

San Benito County
San Bernardino County

San Diego County: Brenda Ann Spencer, who shot up a schoolyard saying "I don't like Mondays." The "moron in San Ysidro." Heaven's Gate.

San Francisco County: Moscone-Milk assasinations.

San Joaquin County: Cleveland Elementary School shootings.

San Luis Obispo County: USAir Flight 1771

San Mateo County: Jon Dunkle, who stabbed three boys to death.

Santa Barbara County: Michael Jackson molestations.

Santa Clara County: The case "River's Edge" was based on.

Santa Cruz County: Kemper and Mullen, among other serial killers

Shasta County: Murder of a gay couple by the same brothers who set fire to synagogues in the Sacramento area.

Sierra County
Siskiyou County

Solano County: Zodiac murders. Xiana Fairchild.

Sonoma County: Two people shot while camping on the beach in 2004. Also the Polly Klaas kidnapping and murder.

Stanislaus County: Scott Peterson.

Sutter County: Juan Corona murders.

Tehama County: Woman kidnapped and held captive for 7 years.

Trinity County
Tulare County
Tuolumne County

Ventura County: The East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker

Yolo County

Yuba County: School shooting at Lindhurst High School

[XemaSab]

38. Siskiyou: Lynching in 1947 for cattle rustling

n/t