Main description:

San Francisco's Queen of Vice uncovers the story of one of the most skilled, high-priced, and corrupt abortion entrepreneurs in America. Even as Prohibition was the driving force behind organized crime, abortions became the third-largest illegal enterprise as state and federal statutes combined with changing social mores to drive abortionists into hiding. Inez Brown Burns, a notorious socialite and abortionist in San Francisco, made a fortune providing her services to desperate women throughout California. Beginning in the 1920s, Burns oversaw some 150,000 abortions until her trial and conviction brought her downfall.

In San Francisco's Queen of Vice, Lisa Riggin tells the story of the rise and fall of San Francisco's "abortion queen" and explores the rivalry between Burns and the city's newly elected district attorney, Edmund G. "Pat" Brown (father of the present governor of California). Pledging to clean up the graft-ridden city, Brown exposed the hidden yet not-so-secret life of backroom deals, political payoffs, and corrupt city cops. Through the arrest, prosecution, and conviction of Burns, Brown used his success as a stepping-stone for his political rise to California's governor's mansion.

Featuring an array of larger-than-life characters, Riggin shows how Cold War domestic ideology and the national quest to return to a more traditional America quickly developed into a battle against internal decay. Based on a combination of newspaper accounts, court records, and personal interviews, San Francisco's Queen of Vice reveals how the drama played out in the life and trial of one of the wealthiest women in California history.

Contents:

List of Illustrations
Preface
Prologue: The Beginning of the End
Part 1: The Queen Bee
Chapter 1. On Trial
Chapter 2. From the Palace to a Tent . . . and Back Again
Chapter 3. Love Pirate
Chapter 4. Off the Hook
Chapter 5. "Miss X"
Chapter 6. The Fixer
Part 2: Edmund "Pat" Brown
Chapter 7. "Five-to-One" Odds
Chapter 8. A "New Broom"
Chapter 9. Cops and Robbers
Chapter 10. Disappeared
Part 3: The Supervisor and the Socialite
Chapter 11. Houseguests
Chapter 12. On the Lam
Chapter 13. "The Prophet"
Chapter 14. Death House
Part 4: A Grand Fight
Chapter 15. The Lone Holdout
Chapter 16. "Accomplices and Co-Conspirators"
Chapter 17. A Grand Fight
Chapter 18. The End of the Road
Part 5: Follow the Money
Chapter 19. "Baghdad by the Bay"
Chapter 20. Wise Guys
Chapter 21. Murder "Mis-Trial"
Chapter 22. The Corrupt and Contented IRS
Chapter 23. The Kefauver Committee
Chapter 24. "Hello Again"
Part 6: The Bone Rattler
Chapter 25. Official Closets
Chapter 26. "That Big Wind"
Epilogue: Death and Taxes
Notes
Bibliography
Index