The trial of Frank J. Egan — public official, former police officer, and celebrated personality — and the surrounding murder case captured the imagination of 1930s San Francisco. With as many as fifty news reporters covering San Francisco’s criminal courts, the four major newspapers devoted a small army of reporters to the sensational trial. As a result, much of the investigation was conducted by reporters who sought out every potential witness and lead. The pressure to break the next big headline was paramount.

The trial’s characters and surprising twists and turns are beyond what a fiction crime writer could credibly invent, and the facts in this case remain unique in the annals of crime.

FROM THE PREFACE BY JEFF ADACHI:
“I hope you find Frank Egan’s case as fascinating as I did. It is a story of a man who reached great heights and, in the end, lost it all. As writer Rudyard Kipling once said, ‘If you can meet with triumph and disaster, treat those two imposters just the same.’ That would have been good advice for Frank Egan.”

FROM THE FOREWORD BY DUFFY JENNINGS:
“Lawyers, much like authors, must be storytellers. They must be able to weave an accurate and compelling account of a case that also has a clear beginning, middle, and end. What Jeff Adachi has done with The Case of San Francisco Public Defender Frank Egan is just that.”