OLLI Plus at SF State: "Murder and Vengeance in the South Bay"
Overview
During the 1930s, kidnappings became the “felony of fashion.” Kidnappings occurred all over the US for enormous amounts of ransom money.
This talk will explore the story of a then little-known agricultural town in the South Bay that became nationally known for all the wrong reasons: a notorious kidnapping, a senseless, cruel murder and an outraged citizenry. The story includes a surprising number of ties to San Francisco. Please note that several images of male nudity will be projected during the talk.
About Our Speaker
Monika Trobits has lived in San Francisco for more than 40 years. A New Yorker by birth and a San Franciscan by choice, she’s been studying San Francisco and California history since the mid-1980s. Over the years, she evolved into a local historian, a walking history docent and a published writer of non-fiction works about San Francisco and the Bay Area.
Her articles include: “Urban Legend or Not: The questionable circumstances surrounding the death of a president in 1920s-era San Francisco,” published by The Institute for Historical Study (2019) and "Dashiell Hammett's San Francisco in the 1920s," published in The Argonaut (2011). She’s also written two books: Bay Area Coffee: A Stimulating History (2019) and Antebellum and Civil War San Francisco: A Western Theatre for Northern & Southern Politics (2014).
Monika was recently interviewed by KQED in connection with a 1990 protest against Folgers Coffee. The interview was posted on May 3 and can be accessed on KQED’s home page: www.kqed.org under the Arts & Culture tab, Food & Drink.
Monika earned a B.A. in political science and history from San Francisco State University. She’s been teaching San Francisco history classes for OLLI since 2016.
About OLLI Plus at San Francisco State University
OLLI Plus is a premiere Interest Group at OLLI SF State; a membership in OLLI SF State is required to join. OLLI Plus offers on-campus lectures twice a month from September through July, each meeting is followed by social time with coffee and cookies. The cost is $35 for the series of approximately 20 hourlong talks. A half year (March - July) costs $20 for 10 talks. Read more about OLLI Plus. Learn about membership at OLLI SF State.