Category sacramento crime
Illusion of Truth events
Illusion of Truth is just about ready to hit the shelves. It’s going to be a busy release with events in El Dorado Hills, Sacramento, Pleasanton, San Francisco, and Corte Madera coming up fast. Something fun we started last year is a preorder event the month before the book’s release. To celebrate the new release […]
The Waiting
I’m sharing this post from my friend George Cramer’s excellent blog. Go check him out here! The Waiting… Who knew Tom Petty would have been a prophet when he wrote The Waiting? Because waiting is the hardest part. If you’ve been in the traditional publishing trenches for more than a minute, you know that the industry […]
Sacramento Serial Killer–What it Took to Bring Down the Golden State Killer
The Visalia Ransacker, The Original Nightstalker, The East Area Rapist–these were all names for the man later known as the infamous Golden State Killer. Now in 2023, we’ve discovered Joseph DeAngelo, Jr., was the man responsible for thirteen murders and more than fifty rapes during his decades long crime spree. What took so long to […]
A New California Serial Killer on the Prowl
We know California has been a serial killer’s paradise since the 1970’s. More serial killers hunted in the state than all the others combined. While others may have racked up higher body counts, (think Ridgway and Dahmer) we seem to have lived with more than our share. The Sacramento region attracts the most with 15% […]
California’s Recently Uncovered Serial Killer
Serial killers are creatures of habit. It’s part of what often keeps them undetected for years. That same habit, often turns into a pattern, and patterns are a serial killer hunter’s best friend. Patterns helped to unmask the Golden State KiIler, Joseph DeAngelo, Jr, and the Toolbox Killers, Bittiker and Norris. These killers sought specific […]
Sacramento Serial Killer — Profile of a Second Chance
Digging around in Sacramento’s history isn’t for the faint of heart. The Gold Rush town was lawless and bloody with a reputation for quick frontier justice. Yet on a few occasions, the hand of mercy reached out and offered a second chance to a killer. Ida Brewer was a sex worker in the 1850’s who […]
Sacramento Serial Killer – Ted Kaczynksi
Depending on the definition used, a serial killer is one who murders two or more victims, in separate instances (FBI Serial Murder Symposium – 2005). Theodore “Ted” Kaczynksi meets this standard as a serial killer in the classic sense–three victims were killed during his sixteen bomb, seventeen-year long domestic terror campaign as the Unabomber. One […]
Killer Mom
Sacramento has experienced more than its share of notorious murders and serial killers. This one often slips under the radar, but is one of the most brutal cases I’ve come across. I’m always amazed by the media interviews after a murderer is discovered living next door. It’s always some form of, “He was such a […]
Sacramento Unsolved
Another year gone and another silent anniversary without answers. Twenty-eight years have passed since the 1991 slaying of an entire family in the upscale Land Park neighborhood of Sacramento. On January 15, 1991, Marcy Jacobs didn’t show up to work as a data processing technician at the Department of Justice. A concerned co-worker called the […]
Two of Sacramento’s Cold Case Murders
I’ve written about Sacramento’s serial killer connection with notorious murderers who hunted in the city, like Morris Solomon, and The I-5 Strangler. With 15% of the nation’s serial killers roaming our streets, it comes as no surprise that the number of unsolved homicides in the county is an astonishing 431 unanswered deaths. In the last […]
James L'Etoile 