Not Just Evil

This searing true crime narrative captures all of the courtroom drama of California's first insanity plea, sparked in 1927 by a crime that horrified the nation and a trial that transfixed it, putting Hollywood's influential young movie industry on the stand for one deranged man's murder of a young girl.

---

- One of the most famous cases in history to involve Hollywood and the movie industry, ushering in an era in which crime and Hollywood were in the papers in tandem, and the public’s appetite for scandalous stories out of Los Angeles was first whetted

- Wilson captures the twists and turns of the trial, one that set case law precedent.

- The case proved a watershed moment for criminal defense, as California's first insanity plea. Wilson captures the uncharted territory of crminal defense in a way that is absorbing to readers of today.

- The author was a detective for over thirty years, working on some of the most high-profile cases in the United States. He worked on the defense for Sirhan Sirhan, Arthur Breamer, James Earl Ray, and Eldridge Cleaver. While working for Hal Lipset in San Francisco, he was part of the first team hired to investigate the Watergate burglary.