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Barbara Graham might have been a diabolical dame in a hard-boiled detective story--beautiful, sexy, and deadly. Charged alongside two male friends in the murder of an elderly widow during a botched robbery attempt, "Bloody Babs" became the third woman executed in California--after a 1953 trial that played out before standing-room-only crowds captured the imaginations of journalists, filmmakers, and death penalty opponents. Why, Kathleen A. Cairns asks, of all the capital cases in the twentieth century, did Graham's have such political resonance and staying power? Leaving aside the question of guilt or innocence--debated to this day--Cairns examines how Graham's case became a touchstone in th...
?Crack shot.? ?Enigma woman.? ?Good with ponies and pistols.? ?A much-married woman.? ø What if such an unconventional woman?and the press unanimously agreed that Nellie May Madison was indeed unconventional?were to get away with murder? Shortly after her husband?s bullet-riddled body was found in the couple?s Burbank apartment, police issued an all-points bulletin for the ?beautiful, dark-haired widow.? The ensuing drama unfolded with all the strange twists and turns of a noir crime novel.øøøøøø ø In this intriguing cultural history, Kathleen A. Cairns tells the true tale of the first woman sentenced to death in California, Nellie May Madison. Her story offers a glimpse into law and disorder in 1930s Los Angeles while bringing to life a remarkable character whose plight reflects on the status of woman, the workings of the media and the judiciary system, and the stratification of society in her time. An intriguing cultural history, Cairns?s re-creation of the case from murder to trial to aftermath casts an eye forward to our own love-hate affair with celebrity crimes and our abiding ambivalence about domestic violence abuse as a defense for murder.
In spite of these challenges, front-page women played a significant role in reshaping public perceptions about women's roles."--BOOK JACKET.
The brief history of this controversial and experimental women's prison posed questions about crime and rehabilitation that remain unresolved today.
"This biography of Rose Elizabeth Bird is an overdue look at California's first female supreme court chief justice, against the backdrop of California's political and cultural climate in the 1970s and 1980s"--
At Home in the World examines the extraordinary and largely unheralded role women played in forging the modern environmental movement, specifically in California.
When Walter the Whistler Bear is tempted down the mountain in search of a snack, he hops into a garbage truck where he gobbles up a feast, falls asleep, and accidentally arrives in Vancouver. As Walter wanders through Stanley Park, he soon discovers that bears are not the most welcome of visitors. Well, that is, until he meets a friendly boy with his tiny teddy and the trio’s fun-filled adventure begins. This amusing rhyming book will delight parents and children alike. Walter the Whistler Bear is an adventurous tale about exploring new places, making friends and (most importantly) about finding food.
Are there any genuinely wild places left in Britain and Ireland? Or have we tarmacked, farmed and built ourselves out of wildness? In his vital, bewitching, inspiring classic, Robert Macfarlane sets out in search of the wildness that remains.
Unleash the untamed passions of the underworld in these deliciously wicked tales of paranormal romance. Orla, youngest daughter of the Fairy Queen, is almost as famous for her powers of seduction as she is for her rebellious nature.
Al Capone, George "Machine Gun" Kelly, Alvin Karpis, "Dock" Barker—these were just a few of the legendary "public enemies" for whom America's first supermax prison was created. In Alcatraz: The Gangster Years, David Ward brings their stories to life, along with vivid accounts of the lives of other infamous criminals who passed through the penitentiary from 1934 to 1948. Ward, who enjoyed unprecedented access to FBI, Federal Bureau of Prisons, and Federal Parole records, conducted interviews with one hundred former Alcatraz convicts, guards, and administrators to produce this definitive history of "The Rock." Alcatraz is the only book with authoritative answers to questions that have swirled about the prison: How did prisoners cope psychologically with the harsh regime? What provoked the protests and strikes? How did security flaws lead to the sensational escape attempts? And what happened when these "habitual, incorrigible" convicts were finally released? By shining a light on the most famous prison in the world, Ward also raises timely questions about today's supermax prisons.