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About this Book
Ah, carefree California—the land of beaches,
sunshine, celebrities … and so many shocking and gruesome ways to die. David
Kulczyk, the dean of offbeat California history, chronicles 31 bizarre and
grisly true stories in his new book, Death in California: The Bizarre,
Freakish, and Just Curious Ways People Die in the Golden
State.
Kulczyk turns a sardonic, but always humane, eye to strange and gruesome
events from the earliest California pioneers to the present day. A grimly
humorous history of hangings, murders, accidents, overdoses, suicides,
and fatal stupidity, Death in California offers a bizarre, lighthearted and
cheerfully perverse glimpse into California’s deadly past.
From the tragic tale of 14 tourists swept to their deaths over Vernal Fall
in pastoral Yosemite National Park, and
the gritty details of Bob “Bear”
Hite overdosing on heroin in a seedy Hollywood nightclub, to the shocking
chronicle of a 10-ton jet crashing into a Bay Area kitchen, this zany
collection is delightfully weird and enthrallingly human.
About the Author
Born to
first-generation Americans in Bay City, Michigan, David Kulczyk (pronounced
Coal-check) is a Sacramento-based historian, freelance writer and
award-winning author of short fi ction. He entered college at the age of 40
after working as a factory worker, sous chef, musician, warehouseman, fish
butcher, process server, barista and bike messenger. Kulczyk’s work has
appeared in the SF Guardian, the East Bay Express, the
Chico News and Review, Maximum Ink Music Magazine, The
Isthmus, Madison Magazine, the Seattle Times, Pop
Culture Press, Strange Magazine and the Sacramento News
and Review. He is also the author of California Justice: Shootouts,
Lynchings and Assassinations in the Golden State (available from Craven
Street Books).
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