California's Lamson Murder Mystery: The Depression Era Case that Divided Santa Clara County

Tom Zaniello

Oct 2016 · Arcadia Publishing

About this ebook

On Memorial Day 1933, Stanford executive David Lamson found his wife, Allene, dead in their Palo Alto home. The only suspect, he became the face of California's most sensational murder trial of the century. After a judge sentenced him to hang at San Quentin, a team of Stanford colleagues stepped in to form the Lamson Defense Committee. The group included poets Yvor Winters and Janet Lewis, as well as the "Sherlock Holmes of Berkeley," criminologist E.O. Heinrich. They managed to overturn the verdict and incite a series of heated retrials that gripped and divided the community. Was Lamson the victim of aggressive prosecutors, or was he a master of deception whose connections helped him get away with murder? Author and Stanford alum Tom Zaniello meticulously examines the details of a notorious case with a lingering legacy.

About the author

Tom Zaniello taught film and cultural studies and directed the honors program at Northern Kentucky University. His interest in the Lamson murder mystery developed during his graduate studies at Stanford University and he has since returned to Santa Clara County to research this book. He has been active as a film programmer for the Hill Center in Washington, D.C., as well as for the London and Liverpool Labor Film Festivals. He currently has two books in print from Cornell University Press on labor films. His works-in-progress include a "psycho-cinematic biography" of Alfred Hitchcock and a study of scandalous religious trials in Victorian England.