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Summary:

"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"-- [Provided by publisher]
"Lisa Riggin tells the story of the rise and fall of 1940s San Francisco abortionist Inez Brown Burns, who made a fortune by providing her services to desperate women throughout California before the city's newly elected district attorney, Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, exposed the hidden, yet not so secret life of backroom deals, political payoffs and corrupt city cops"-- [Provided by publisher]

Table of Contents:

• Prologue: The Beginning of the End
• Part 1: The Queen Bee
• On Trial
• From the Palace to a Tent and Back Again
• Love Pirate
• Off the Hook
• "Miss X"
• The Fixer
• Part 2: Edmund "Pat" Brown
• "Five-to-One" Odds
• A "New Broom"
• Cops and Robbers
• Disappeared
• Part 3: The Supervisor and the Socialite
• Houseguests
• On the Lam
• "The Prophet"
• Death House
• Part 4: A Grand Fight
• The Lone Holdout

• "Accomplices and Co-Conspirators"
• A Grand Fight
• The End of the Road
• Part 5: Follow the Money
• "Baghdad by the Bay"
• Wise Guys
• Murder "Mis-Trial"
• The Corrupt and Contented IRS
• The Kefauver Committee
• "Hello Again"
• Part 6: The Bone Rattler
• Official Closets
• "That Big Wind"
• Epilogue: Death and Taxes.

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Author/Creator:

Riggin, Lisa , author

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

San Francisco's queen of vice: the strange career of abortionist Inez Brown Burns [by Riggin, L.]

Other Related Resources:

Online version: San Francisco's queen of vice [by Riggin, L.] (Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [2017] — ISBN 9781496203052; LCCN 2017032325)

Subjects:

Burns, Inez Brown — Health

Clinic managers — California — San Francisco — Biography

Abortion services — California — San Francisco

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Prologue: The Beginning of the End -- The Queen Bee. On Trial; From the Palace to a Tent ... and Back Again ; Love Pirate ; Off the Hook ; "Miss X" ; The Fixer -- Edmund "Pat" Brown. "Five-to-One" Odds ; A "New Broom" ; Cops and Robbers ; Disappeared -- The Supervisor and the Socialite. Houseguests ; On the Lam ; "The Prophet" ; Death House -- A Grand Fight. The Lone Holdout ; "Accomplices and Co-Conspirators" ; A Grand Fight ; The End of the Road -- Follow the Money. "Baghdad by the Bay" ; Wise Guys ; Murder "Mis-Trial" ; The Corrupt and Contented IRS ; The Kefauver Committee ; "Hello Again"--The Bone Rattler ; Official Closets ; "That Big Wind" -- Epilogue: Death and Taxes.
Description based on print version record.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Call Numbers:

RG734 .R54 2017eb

ISBNs:

9781496203052 (electronic bk.)
1496203054 (electronic bk.)
9781496202079 [Invalid]
1496202074 [Invalid]

Other Control Numbers:

1581621 (source: EbpS)
[Unknown Type]: ybp14771739