Women Who Kill Men: California Courts, Gender, and the Press exam­ines the role that gen­der played in the tri­als of women accused of mur­der in California between 1870 – 1958. The authors trace the chang­ing views of the pub­lic towards women and how these views may have affect­ed the out­comes of the cas­es. Some defen­dants faced the death penal­ty and were exe­cut­ed; some were spared. Often the pub­lic was deeply fas­ci­nat­ed with all aspects of the tri­al and pun­ish­ment. The book, writ­ten by Gordon Morris Bakken and Brenda Farrington, pro­vides in-depth details of 18 mur­der tri­als through court records and news coverage. 

Gordon Morris Bakken is a pro­fes­sor of his­to­ry at California State University, Fullerton. Brenda Farrington is a lec­tur­er in the his­to­ry depart­ment at Chapman University. (G. Bakken and B. Farrington, ​“Women Who Kill Men: California Courts, Gender, and the Press,” orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished by University of Nebraska Press 2009; pub­lished in paper­back and elec­tron­i­cal­ly, 2013; DPIC post­ed, May 10, 2013). See Women and Books.

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