Robert Graysmith

Zodiac

A former "San Francisco Chronicle" reporter continues his account of the series of murders committed in California beginning in 1968, by revealing the final solution to the crimes that had baffled investigators for more than thirty years.

The Identity of America's Most Elusive Serial Killer Revealed

Zodiac Unmasked

the true story of the original Tom Sawyer--and of the mysterious fires that baptized Gold Rush-era San Francisco

Black fire

The Trailside Murders Above the Golden Gate (Onyx)

The Sleeping Lady

Traces the lesser-known story of a volunteer fireman, marine engineer and poker buddy of Mark Twain who inspired the character of Tom Sawyer, describing his pivotal contributions to the hunt for a serial arsonist in 1850s San Francisco. 30,000 first printing.

The True Story of the Original Tom Sawyer--And of the Mysterious Fires That Baptized Gold Rush-Era San Francisco

Black Fire

Reveals the identity of London's Jack the Ripper and details his murders in San Francisco

The Case of Jack the Ripper Finally Solved... in San Francisco

The Bell Tower

During the 1920s, in more than a dozen cities, over four years, and across two continents, women were being butchered. Eyewitneses claim the perpetrator was a hulking Bible-carrying brute who lumbered on all fours, and laughed maniacally with each new slaughter. The crimes haunted San Francisco Police Captain Charles Dullea, the last honest cop in one of the most notoriously corrupt departments in the country. But nothing could have prepared Dullea for where the case- and the truth-would take him.

The True Story of the Hunt for One of America's First Serial Killers

The Laughing Gorilla

A former San Francisco Chronicle reporter continues his account of the series of murders committed in California beginning in 1968, in which letters were sent to the Chronicle announcing the crimes and signed with a symbol from the Zodiac, by revealing the final solution to the crimes, which baffled investigators for more than thirty years. Reprint.

Presents the case history of alleged Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski, from his Harvard education and career as a mathematics professor to his reclusive, hermit-like existence, eighteen-year killing spree, and dramatic arrest. Reprint.

A Desire to Kill

Unabomber

The first biography of the little-known real-life Tom Sawyer (a friend of Mark Twain during his brief tenure as a California newspaper reporter), told through a harrowing account of Sawyer's involvement in the hunt for a serial arsonist who terrorized mid-nineteenth century San Francisco. When 28-year-old San Francisco Daily Morning Call reporter Mark Twain met Tom Sawyer at a local bathhouse in 1863, he was seeking a subject for his first novel. As Twain steamed, played cards, and drank beer with Sawyer (a volunteer firefighter, customs inspector, and local hero responsible for having saved ninety lives at sea), he had second thoughts about Shirley Tempest, his proposed book about a local girl firefighter, and began to envision a novel of wider scope. Twain learned that a dozen years earlier the then eighteen-year-old New York-born Sawyer had been a “Torch Boy,” one of the youths who raced ahead of the volunteer firemen’s hand-drawn engines at night carrying torches to light the way, always aware that a single spark could reduce the all-wood city of San Francisco to ashes in an instant. At that time a mysterious serial arsonist known by some as “The Lightkeeper” was in the process of burning San Francisco to the ground six times in eighteen months – the most disastrous and costly series of fires ever experienced by any American metropolis. Black Fire is the most thorough and accurate account of Sawyer’s relationship with Mark Twain and of the six devastating incendiary fires that baptized one of the modern world’s favorite cities. Set amid a scorched landscape of burning roads, melting iron warehouses, exploding buildings, and deadly gangs who extorted and ruled by fear, it includes the never-before-told stories of Sawyer’s heroism during the sinking of the steamship Independence and the crucial role Sawyer and the Torch Boys played in solving the mystery of the Lightkeeper. Drawing on archival sources such as actual San Francisco newspaper interviews with Sawyer and the handwritten police depositions of the arrest of the Lightkeeper, bestselling author Robert Graysmith vividly portrays the gritty, corrupt, and violent world of Gold Rush-era San Francisco, overrun with gunfighters, hooligans, hordes of gold prospectors, crooked politicians, and vigilantes. By chronicling how Sawyer took it upon himself to investigate, expose, and stop the arsonist, Black Fire details – for the first time – Sawyer’s remarkable life and illustrates why Twain would later feel compelled to name his iconic character after his San Francisco buddy when he wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

The True Story of the Original Tom Sawyer--and of the Mysterious Fires That Baptized Gold Rush-Era San Francisco

From National Bestselling author Robert Graysmith comes the original book about the mysterious UNABOMBER, the elusive mailbomber who baffled authorities for 17 years, creating the longest and most expensive investigation in FBI history. November 15, 1979, the cockpit crew aboard American Airlines Flight No. 444 felt a concussion, a “thump,” and heard a “loud sucking noise” come from the area of the forward cargo hold. The sleek, silver outer skin of the fuselage began to peel and blister, just outside where the bags of mail were stored. Panic set in as acrid, dense clouds of black smoke billowed into the passenger cabin. The plane descended from 30,000 ft at twice the normal velocity, over 600 mph. The crew made a harrowing landing, the doors immediately flew open, and plumes of smoke roiled out. At its center lay a peculiarly made device, built from commonplace odds and ends, with one strange distinction–some key components were made from wood and carved by hand. This time no one was killed, but that would soon change. Who was this man? What was with his strange fascination against technology? And what made him so elusive? What reviewers are saying about Unabomber: A Desire to Kill: “The work of a careful and conscientious investigative reporter . . . thought provoking . . .”--Bill Tafoya, Expert FBI Profiler, Crime and Justice International. “An intensive portrait of the Unabomber”--Variety.

The author provides a psychological portrait of Kaczynski and questions the FBI's efforts in uncovering the Unabomber.

From the Bestselling Author of 'Zodiac' , 'Auto Focus' and 'Black Fire'. DAVID FINCHER WAS AFTER THE TRUTH. WITHOUT IT, HE WOULD NOT SHOOT ZODIAC. For nearly two decades, Hollywood had been trying to make a movie of Zodiac, and for nearly two decades, it had failed. In 2003, producer Brad Fischer, and screenwriter Jamie Vanderbilt attempted the undoable, and set their sights on the one filmmaker they felt unequalled for the helm: director David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club). Fincher’s eye for detail, probing mind, and unrelenting quest for answers made him ideal. His personal connection to the case made him perfect. From Hollywood boardrooms to remote fog-shrouded crime scenes, they battle a huge script that refuses to be beaten, a case that refuses to be solved, and a running time and budget that threaten their film. Follow as they track down missing witnesses, gather the original investigators, visit the original crime scenes, discover boxes of Zodiac case files from an attic, unearth new clues, a videotape of the prime suspect’s police interrogation, and a surviving victim who doesn’t want to be found. To keep Fincher on board, and get their film greenlit, it will take cold leads, private eyes, new evidence, and most of all, perseverance. “He’s hooked. If he doesn’t make the film, he’ll solve the case.” —Detective Ken Narlow “SOMETHING DRAWS THE GIRL’S attention,” David Fincher said. The maverick director paused at the spot along the shore Captain Ken Narlow had indicated. Something was not right. Fincher looked down at the rocky ground and the steep slope of the rotting tree as if he had not seen them before. Without a word he wheeled and walked some distance around to the adjacent peninsula. The retired detectives watched the celebrated filmmaker follow the curve of land and circle to a little inlet on the other bank. His head was down as he took long, athletic strides. Suddenly, he knelt and studied the ground. He picked up a fistful of earth, let it drift between his fingers, and watched as the wind carried the reddish particles away. He looked up at the road high above where the victims’ car had been found, then looked back at the tree. Next, he tossed a few rocks in the air and gazed to the center of the lake where it was a couple hundred feet deep. Fincher wondered what other mysteries might be buried there. Further up, underneath the dam at Devil’s Gate, was the narrow point of Putah Creek. Fincher returned from his scouting trip and made an announcement. His voice was confident and clear, ringing out over the lake. “The other side of the little island out there is much more vertical than this side,” he said. “I think that is the actual murder site.” “Let’s go over and take a look,” Narlow said and started north with Jamie Vanderbilt. “I’m not one hundred percent convinced this is the place.” When Narlow reached the other side of the inlet, he clapped a hand to his forehead and then hailed Fincher and the rest of the men across the water. “My God!” he hollered, “I took you to the wrong spot!” In that arcane way he had of penetrating to the heart of a riddle, Fincher had discerned the truth. He became quiet as he began working the puzzle of the open taxi door, the blood that should have been elsewhere, a bloody print that belonged to no one, and the shot nobody heard. “David’s considered one of the touchiest and weirdest directors by executives, but as a writer I consider him the nicest and most normal of them all. But maybe the same thing that is wrong with him is wrong with me.” —Jamie Vanderbilt, screenwriter

Robert Graysmith

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