"MURDER IN CALIFORNIA: The Topography of Evil
Notorious California Murder Sites"

“The second edition of “Murder in California: The Topography of Evil” is Marques Vickers’ visual return to 108 infamous crime scenes detailing the shocking and often searing narratives behind each tragedy. Over 225 images amplify insight by escorting the reader to the crime location, offering a critical context and perspective for understanding.

The captured snapshots portray visual testimonies of extinguished lives removed by acts of violence. Crime scenes often revert back into unremarkable landscape or unassuming buildings over the ensuing years and decades. Several have altered little since their moment of infamy. Many are passed daily by pedestrian and vehicular traffic unaware of a location’s unique significance.

California has been the residence for many notorious profiled individual and serial killers including the Zodiac, Ted Unabomber Kaczynski, Charles Manson, Sirhan Sirhan, Jim Jones, Richard Allen Davis, David Carpenter, The Menendez Brothers, Juan Corona, Rodney Alcala, Phil Spector, Dan White, Juan Corona, Richard Ramirez and Scott Peterson. The media has christened some monikers including the Trailside Killer, Children of Thunder, Co-ed Killer, Vampire of Sacramento, Zebra Killers and the Death House Landlady.

The state has been the death site of notable victims including Senator Robert Kennedy, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, Supervisor Harvey Milk, Mobster Bugsy Siegel, Black Panther Huey P. Newton, Journalist Chauncey Bailey, Nicole Simpson-Brown, Rapper Notorious B.I.G., Polly Klaas, Lacy Peterson, the Heaven’s Gate cult, singers Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke and actors Haing Ngor, Ramon Novarro and Sal Mineo.

The Murder in California edition profiles are segmented into nine categories including assassinations, abductions, historical legacies, reckless homicides, chance encounters and manslaughters, law enforcement fatalities and controversies, unsolved murders, rampage and serial killers.

Within the context of examining each profile, many important issues and questions are raised without necessarily culminating in resolution. These include capital punishment, racial perceptions, contributing parental influences, media reporting, public opinion, juvenile sentencing, self-incrimination protections and the impartiality of our judicial system.

 An extensive and updated listing of fatality victims is included along with convicted and deceased killers. Each living convict still registered within the United States penal systems is identified by their current penitentiary residence.

Vickers’ own introduction to the consequences of murder began with the 1968 killings of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jenson by the Zodiac killer in the author’s hometown. Faraday was an acquaintance of Vickers through Boy Scouts and his older sister knew both victims. His reflections on the trauma inflicted on his intimate suburban community correspond with the realization that a single homicide affects far more individuals than simply the victim. Hundreds and often thousands may be touched by the arbitrariness and unfairness of life being terminated abruptly and prematurely.

Cases Profiled (By Sequential Order and Category):
Assassinations:
Oakland School Superintendent Dr. Marcus Foster, Mobster Bugsy Siegel, Journalist Chauncey Bailey, Mickey and Trudy Thompson, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, Rapper Christopher Wallace (Notorious B.I.G.), The Marin County Courthouse Shootout Massacre, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Hitman Joseph The Animal Barboza, Vic Weiss and the Wonderland Gang.

Abductions:
Patty Hearst, Nicholas Markowitz, Brooke Hart, The Onion Field Killings, Polly Klaas, Ramona Irene Price, Cal Poly Student Kristin Smart, Kevin Collins, Rachel Newhouse, Aundria Crawford and Karen Mitchell.

Historical Legacies:
Fung Little Pete Jing Toy, Charles Crawford, US President Warren Harding, Ned Doheny and Hugh Plunkett, Mary Ellen Pleasant, Orcutt Freeway Sniper, Miles Archer and Eastside Salinas Gang Killings.

Chance Encounters and Manslaughter Killings:
Ennis Cosby, Diane Whipple, Haing Ngor, Huey P. Newton, Johnny Stompanato, Barbara Graham, Marvin Gaye, Phil Hartman, Phil Spector, Ramon Novarro, Ronni Chasen, Sal Mineo, Sam Cooke and Father Eric Freed.

Unsolved Murders:
The Black Dahlia, Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen, Bob Domingos and Linda Edwards, Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders, Crips Gang Founder Raymond Washington, David Nadel, Geneva Ellroy, Virginia Rapp, Kym Morgan, William Desmond Taylor, Ted Healy and the Visalia Ransacker.

Rampage Mass Murders:
Elliot Rodger, The Helzer Brothers, Bruce Pardo, The 101 California Building Rampage, John Linley Frazier, Edward Charles Allaway, Golden Dragon Restaurant, Meritage Salon, John Kenney, Frederick Martin Davidson, Lynwood Jim Drake, High School student Andy Williams, Oikos University Shootings, Nicolas Holzer, the Cleveland Elementary Schools in San Diego and Stockton and Marcus Wesson.

Premeditated Murders:
Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten, Laci Peterson, John Morency, Artie Mitchell, Nicole Brown-Simpson, Menendez Brothers, Bonnie Lee Bakley, Vincent Brothers, Marin County Barbeque Killings and Ewell Family Executions.

Law Enforcement Fatalities and Controversies
Captain Walter Auble. Oscar Grant III, Newhall CHP Massacre, Office Thomas Guerry, Oakland Macarthur Boulevard Shooting, Demetrius DeBose, Policeman Matthew Pavelka and the North Hollywood Bank of America Shootout.

Serial Killings:
Zodiac Killer, Charles Manson, Dorothea Puente, Efren Saldivar, Ted Unabomber Kaczynski, The Two Night Stalkers, The Zebra Killings, Heaven’s Gate Suicide, Edmund Kemper III, Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris, Juan Corona, Richard Trenton Chase, Speedfreak Killers, Herbert Mullin, David Carpenter, Reverend Jim Jones and the People’s Temple Massacre, Hillside Strangler and Rodney Alcala.

“FISH HEAD BEACH: The Silent and Senseless Murders of Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen"  

“Fish Head Beach: The Silent and Senseless Murders of Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen” is a photo edition showcasing the Sonoma County beach and infamous 2004 crime site. Marques Vickers 95+ photographs capture the picturesque ocean and isolated shoreline that captivated the young midwestern couple prior to their execution during the late evening of August 14, 2004.

Cutshall, 22 and her fiancé Allen, 26 were shot to death as they slept in separate sleeping bags on an obscured stretch of Fish Head Beach. They settled upon their sleeping arrangements during a weekend getaway from work because all of the nearby town of Jenner’s accommodation properties were fully booked. Their bodies were not discovered until Wednesday, August 18, when a Sheriff's helicopter was dispatched following a report of a man who was stranded on a cliff above Fish Head Beach. The helicopter spotted the bodies and notified the department.

None of Cutshall's or Allen's belongings had been taken, ruling out robbery as a motive, and neither of the campers had been sexually assaulted. Their car, a battered red Ford Tempo was parked in a pullout spot on the side of Highway 1 in Jenner and untouched. A silent, single bullet to the skull had killed each. The evening overcast, common to northern Sonoma County, masked the moon and neither likely had any advanced warning that they were not alone.

Despite exhaustive efforts by detectives, the scant evidence, no apparent motive and minimal clues have yielded no solid leads or suspects. A decade later, the case remains cold but open. The principal beach landmarks and disturbingly potential clues described in police reports have changed little.

Sonoma County’s Russian River empties into the Pacific Ocean through a gulch severing Goat’s Rock Beach and Fish Head Beach adjacent to the town of Jenner, California situated on a winding stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway (California Highway 1). Like generations of precedent visitors Cutshall, 22, and Allen were moved by the splendor. Each recorded their impressions during the sunset of August 14, 2004 in a personal travel journal.

“The sun is going down in the horizon,” Lindsay wrote. “All I see is the beams shining on the cliff face. And I know that God is awsome (sic). I look around and I see his creation all around me.” Jason wrote: “As I stir this Mac & Cheese I think to myself what a wonderful life. I’ve just spent two awsome (sic) days with my fiancé Lindsay. Can life ever be so perfect. Only with a person who is so great. God gives me this privilege in life and He has given me a wonderful woman to enjoy it.”

It was the final entry recorded in their travel journal the day of their death.