"A fascinating collection of lynchings, shootouts, and assassinations that occurred in California spanning the 1850's to the modern era. As a native Californian, I recognized many of the communities discussed, which gave the book an added interest, but the morbid tales are interesting enough to appeal to those who have never visited the state. Even more interesting are the historic lynching photographs that accompany many of the stories. Horrifying and fascinating."

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Product Description

When it comes to Hollywood movie shootouts, lynchings, and assassinations the storyline almost always follows the same arc:

--the bad guys abuse the good guys,
--the good guys take the high road until the bad guy has gone too far, or,
--the good guys pick off the bad guys, one by one, in an increasingly dramatic fashion.

But, in reality, justice--especially California justice--is never so black and white. Sometimes it is difficult to tell the victims from the perpetrators.
From the Oregon border to the Mexican Border; from an 1850 Squatter's Riot to a bloody 2003 confrontation at a Ukiah Wal-Mart, David Kulczyk probes California's most notorious shootouts, lynchings, and assassinations--always leaving the final judgement to the reader.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #756996 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 180 pages

About the Author
David A. Kulczyk is a Sacramento based freelance writer and award-winning author of short fiction. His work has appeared in the Sacramento News and Review, Chico News and Review, East Bay Express, and SF Guardian. He is also an associate editor for Maximum Ink Music magazine.

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Customer Reviews

O. J., where you goin' to with that knife in you hand?
"I'm goin' to cut down my old lady, you know I caught her messin' 'round with another man."

California Justice. Yeah, it's a little screwy. Here Mr. Kulczyk gives us over 30 vignettes of what's passed for justice in the Golden State: lynching galore, Bugsy Siegel riddled with bullets in a Hollywood mansion, the saga of Sirhan Sirhan (the assassin so nice they named him twice), and Dan White's infamous Twinkie defense (look out, though, because the Twinkie defense is not mentioned by that name). California Justice is fine reading whether you're on the toilet or in your living room.

Disclaimer: O. J. "Class-Act-All-the-Way" Simpson does not show up here, nor does "Hey Joe' by Jimi Hendrix.

Poetic Justice
California Justice is an well researched and eminently readable compendium of some of the most interesting cases of crime and punishment (often by mobs) in California from the 19th to the 21st century. Included are the more famous examples of Sirhan Sirhan killing Robert F. Kennedy, the mob rubbing out fellow gangster Bugsy Siegel, and the assassination of San Francisco's Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk by Dan White; but also more obscure though equally fascinating stories of the Golden Dragon Massacre, the (not so) Brite Brothers, and the last lynching in California in 1947.

The author does a great job of bringing these true sagas to life by adding just the right amount of detail and by keeping the stories moving along at a brisk pace. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in history, offbeat characters, or crime.

We Were Out There Havin' Fun, In The Warm California Sun
Like many, I've done my time in California -- from a wide-eyed seaside / Disneyland vacationing kid in my Beach Boys shirt to a failure at any cost San Francisco rock star to a back of the hand L.A. style working class fool. People have been California Dreamin' since before the gold rush, pouring in from every corner of the globe, for some reason always expecting something better. There are more broken hearts in the Golden State than anyplace on earth.

In his excellent book CALIFORNIA JUSTICE, David Kulczyk gives us a fast paced, page turning foray into the dark side of the dream. As if he found a cache of secret documents hidden buried beneath the HOLLYWOOD sign, Kulczyk unveils the lurid and disturbing true history of lynchings, (based on their frequency, when it comes to guilty pleasures, evidently murder in the name of justice is hard to beat.), shootouts, assassinations, and guns in the desperate or sadistic hands of crazies, drunks, gangsters, punks, and heretofore decent citizens, all who for their own reasons just want someone dead. Like a kid glued to the rear window of your cursing Dad's car as he maneuvers past a smash-up - you can't look away.

Kulczyk's highly tuned, unforgiving prose gives hope that a detective novel or noir screenplay might be forthcoming from his pen. After all, the best noir is set in California. When things come apart in paradise, they come apart hard and fast. In the Promised Land it's just not supposed to be that way.