San Quentin State Prison

Cocktail Week Events and Beyond This Weekend, Sept. 21-23

If you thought that this past week was boozy, well, this weekend might take us back to Barbary Coast-era lows of sobriety. Cocktail Week wraps up this weekend with plenty of daytime drinking starting with a pub-crawl today and the grand finale at the St. George Spirits party that has been consistent ... More >>

Marin Fugitive Jumps Off Bridge, Then Foolishly Swims Toward San Quentin Prison

Criminals will do the darndest things. And when we say darndest, we mean stupidest. On Sunday, alleged police evader Kathryn Tynes reportedly jumped off the San Rafael Bridge in a futile attempt to dodge police. According to news reports, the 30-year-old Novato woman was treading in freezing water f ... More >>

Californians to Decide Whether to Abolish the Death Penalty

The Golden State will finally get a chance to kill the death penalty.A measure to abolish capital punishment in California qualified for the November ballot, Secretary of State Debra Bowen confirmed yesterday evening. The measure -- dubbed the SAFE California Act -- calls for doing away with death r ... More >>

Binh Thai Luc Pleads Not Guilty to All Charges of Murdering Ingleside Family

Binh Thai Luc, the suspect accused of killing five people at an Ingleside home on March 23 appeared in court today where he pleaded not guilty to all charges. Decked out in an orange sweatshirt and orange pants with a chain belt cuffing his hands at his waist, Luc, 35, slowly shook his head as Judg ... More >>

Merle Haggard vs. San Francisco: Five Songs in Which Country's Best Works Through His Issues With the Bay

The Hag will make you eat that gee-tar, hippies​Merle Haggard may contain multitudes, but he tends to feel just one of those multitudinous things at a time - and to feel it so hard and pure that he seems to have forgotten all the previous things he's felt that might not square with it. Perha ... More >>

Eddy Zheng's Deportation Case Will Not Die

In the final battle. ​In 2005, the East Bay Express published a story called "The Last Stand of Eddy Zheng."  Well, it's been six years and Zheng is still standing -- in more or less the same spot. But now the man who was paroled only to face deportation is seeing his saga enter its final rou ... More >>

Polly Klaas' Father Calls Woman Dating His Daughter's Killer An 'Extremely Disturbed Girl'

A familiar face?​A few SF Weekly readers have sounded off about our cover story last week, remarking that Samantha Spiegel, the 19-year-old art student from San Francisco who says she'd consider having a baby with Polly Klaas' murderer, bears a troubling resemblance to Klaas herself.Spiegel does h ... More >>

Deadbeat San Francisco Garage Asks Board to Endorse $30 Million In Federal Stimulus Loans

Now that's what I call "shovel ready."​The nonprofit that operates the parking garage serving the de Young Museum is three years behind on its $100,000 annual rent payments owed the city. But that hasn't stopped the Music Concourse Community Partnership from requesting that the Board of Supervisor ... More >>

Albert Greenwood Brown Execution: Court of Appeal Demands Judge Reconsider Delay

California Department of CorrectionsAlbert Greenwood Brown, convicted rapist and murderer, may live to breathe another day​SF Weekly earlier reported that Albert Greenwood Brown's 9 p.m. Thursday execution would come just three hours before the expiration of one of the drugs that would kill him. T ... More >>

Terminal People

The closure of the Transbay Terminal was a chance to help some of the city’s most hardcore homeless. But many didn’t want help, and others couldn’t be helped.

George Hatton Smithey, Found Hanged in San Quentin Cell, Had Just Beaten Death Penalty

George Hatton Smithey beat the death penalty -- but instead died by his own hand​George Hatton Smithey, the San Quentin death row prisoner found hanged with bedsheets in his cell Saturday, had just won a legal motion to have the possibility of the death penalty eliminated -- horrifying the survivo ... More >>

San Francisco Murderer Frank Baca Accused of Killing Fellow Prison Inmate

​San Franciscan Frank Baca, already in prison serving a life sentence for murder, is now accused of killing a fellow inmate. Authorities say the 49-year-old Baca yesterday stabbed a convicted thief to death in the recreational yard at Donovan State Prison east of San Diego. The motive is not yet k ... More >>

The Tonga Room -- Historical or Hysterical?

You and I are passing through history. But the Tonga Room? It is history.​The term "only in San Francisco" is overused. That's a given. But, honestly, in how many cities would one open the paper to read about a brewing preservation battle between developers and tiki bar enthusiasts -- with the cit ... More >>

San Francisco Star Photographer Jim Marshall Dies

​Few photographers become as legendary as the performers they capture, but Jim Marshall was a different breed of camera man. He was San Francisco's portal into a classic era of jazz and rock 'n' roll, his portraits of Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Rolling Stones, and, perhaps most famously, Joh ... More >>

S.F. Could Improve its Anti-Smoking 'Test Score' -- By Forbidding You To Smoke In Your Own Home

You're under arrest, mister...​Earlier this week, the American Lung Association released its annual "Tobacco Policy Report Card," grading cities on how effectively they limit smoking. The city of Richmond -- which is cursed with a reputation as a great place to have a cigarette shot out of one's m ... More >>

Is 'Night Stalker' Richard Ramirez Responsible for an Unsolved 1984 S.F. Murder?

A police mugshot of Richard Ramirez​The San Francisco Police Department just issued an advisory stating that a press conference to be held at 3 p.m. today at the Hall of Justice will explore the possibility that serial killer Richard Ramirez, aka "the Night Stalker," (so named for his propensity t ... More >>

New DNA Evidence in Old Homicide Case Points to the 'Night Stalker'

Anna McCarthyDid you hang around the 'Loin in 1984? Does this face ring a bell?​On April 10, 1984, San Francisco police found 9-year-old Mei Leung's dead body in the basement area of the residential hotel at 765 O'Farrell Street where she lived with her family. Her 8-year-old brother was the last ... More >>

Jerky Boy

Damisi Carter couldn't become a cop, so he started crank-calling the police.

Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?

Last Night: Santana at the Fillmore

Snitch

Deanna Johnson testified against a murderer to save her son. But in the projects, truth comes at a price.

Spearhead in Golden Gate Park Saturday: Free!

Repertory Film Listings

Cell Phoney

Making phone calls from jail, Harley Mike allegedly helped three prisoners escape and conned parole agents, sheriff's deputies, and judges.

Deep Doo-Doo

A modern-day Bonnie and Clyde are after your money again

Repertory Film Listings

KRON's Last Gasp

How a once-proud San Francisco television station became ground zero in the nation's most controversial experiment in local TV news.

Newsom Unleashed

"I told him I'll go after any mayor that didn't try to improve conditions." – Bay View Publisher Willie Ratcliff

Hire Me!

Infiltrator has figured out how to solve the so-called unemployment problem

Yo Soy Centroamericano

Why vote Kerry? Exhibit No. 1: George W. Bush has shamelessly hired the dangerous figures behind the Iran-Contra Affair into senior diplomatic posts.

Reps Etc.

Reps Etc.

A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance

After 30 years of being single, this retired schoolteacher was ready to get it on

Five Best San Francisco Movies

Common Cents

The Chronicle should stop the dubious "news stories" and openly rail against a sales tax hike that hurts its major advertisers -- and slaughters the poor

Throwing Away the Key

Why Gov. Davis' just-say-no parole policy is wrong, Exhibit No. 1: Eddy Zheng has earned a college degree in prison, sings in a church choir, works with at-risk youth, has the support of clergymen, college professors, his prison counselor, and the

Best Batterer Betterer

Hamish Sinclair

Founder, Manalive

Best District Attorney

William H. Langdon

Father Figure

Oakland DJ Moda plays proud papa to local audiences, deck jockeys -- and his career

Johnny Cash; Merle Haggard

Cash: American III: Solitary Man (American) / Haggard: If I Could Only Fly (Anti/Epitaph)

Moon Over Marin

Paul Nave's championship proves fleeting

Riff Raff

Slap Shots

Letters

Riff Raff

Fewer Pen Pals

As more prisons move to ban skin mags, California prisoners' rights lawyers turn a deaf ear to inmates' howls

Recordings

Samples

Hard Labour

Love's Labour's Lost imprisons with its verse; My Piece of the Sky incarcerates the audience