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Here Are Some of the Darkest True-Crime Stories from California

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Here Are Some of the Darkest True-Crime Stories from California ����✉ CALIFORNIA Newsletter: Here are some of the darkest true-crime stories from California A Los Angeles police ofcer stands at the corner of 2nd and South Spring streets in downtown Los Angeles. (Francine Orr/ Los Angeles Times) By ALICE WALTON AND SHELBY GRAD SEP. 5, 2016 | 11:20 AM Good morning, it is Monday, Sept. 5. On this sunny Labor Day, we are taking a detour into noir. There’s been quite a bit of true-crime reporting in the Essential California newsletter the past week because of The Times’ series “Framed,” about a bizarre incident in Irvine. We’d like to welcome our new readers who have signed up to receive Essential California through “Framed,” and offer a holiday change-up from our usual format for our many longtime readers, with a special edition of the newsletter devoted to California crime. The traditional Essential California will return Tuesday. Below is a selection of classic true-crime tales published over the years in The Times as well as many other publications. Every story here is tragic in its own way, but each reveals something about the human condition and the state in which we live: “Nightmare on Elm Drive”: The Menendez Brothers. By Dominick Dunne, Vanity Fair The Grim Sleeper and the forgotten serial killer of South L.A. By Christine Pelisek, L.A. Weekly Rape, lies and a nightmare made real. By Christopher Goffard, Los Angeles Times In the footsteps of a prolific California serial killer. By Michelle MacNamara, Los Angeles Magazine “Trouble in Lakewood” and the “spur posse.” By Joan Didion, The New Yorker Charles Manson’s home on the range. By Gay Talese, GQ/The Daily Beast A group of friends go to the desert. Four don’t return. By J.R. Moehringer, Los Angeles Times The man in the woods: A manhunt and a hunt for the truth. By Ashley Powers, California Sunday Four children are murdered, and Koreatown is left asking why. By Mona Gable, Los Angeles Times The Zankou Chicken Murders. By Marx Arax, Los Angeles Magazine The Boy in the Chimney and an unspeakable murder in South L.A. By Hector Becerra, Los Angeles Times Christopher Dorner: A rouge ex-cop goes hunting. By Christopher Goffard, Kurt Streeter, Joel Rubin and Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times Who killed the gangster’s daughter? Was it Robert Durst? By Lisa DePaulo, New York Magazine Dying young in Watts. By Jocelyn Y. Stewart, Los Angeles Times A son errand, gunshots and a quest for justice in South L.A. Jill Leovy. Los Angeles Times A cold-case murder of a young woman in Valley points to a decorated LAPD cop. By Mathew McGough, The Atlantic Searching for my father’s murderer. By Mark Arax, Los Angeles Times The fake Rockefeller of San Marino. By Mark Seal, Vanity Fair The other school shooting. By Jay Caspian Kang, New York Times Magazine The LAPD’s gangster squad battled the mob, at a dear price. By Paul Lieberman, Los Angeles Times A missing persons case in gentrified downtown L.A. By Josh Dean, Medium The endless fall of Suge Knight. By Matt Diehl, Rolling Stone The oddity of dying in Los Angeles. By Ben Ehrenreich, Los Angeles Magazine Finding Marlowe: A detective story takes unexpected twist. By Daniel Miller, Los Angeles Times The Last Ride of Jesse James Hollywood. By Jesse Katz, Los Angeles Magazine The Angel of Death stalks a Glendale hospital. By Paul Lieberman, Los Angeles Times The fractured life of a notorious child killer. By Nora Zamichow, Los Angeles Times Murder in suburbia: “Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream.” By Joan Didion Longform/Saturday Evening Post A cold case revived, and questions for the LAPD. By Joel Rubin, Los Angeles Times Is this man the most corrupt cop in L.A.?. By Edward Humes, Los Angeles Times The West Hollywood doctor and the (almost) perfect murder. Doug Smith Los Angeles Times The Hollywood murder house. By Jeff Maysh, Medium A witness takes a brave stand, and her mother pays the price. By Scott Glover and Joel Rubin, Los Angeles Times Haunted by a distant verdict: The Bruce Lisker story. By Matt Lait and Scott Glover, Los Angeles Times Alice Walton Alice Walton is a former reporter and co-author of the daily newsletter Essential California. Prior to joining the Los Angeles Times, Walton spent three years with 89.3 KPCC public radio. She also created and produced her own political blog, the City Maven. Walton is a graduate of USC and received her master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She left The Times in 2016. Shelby Grad Twitter Email Facebook Shelby Grad oversees California and Metro coverage for the Los Angeles Times..
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