List of homicides in California

This is a list of notable homicides in California. This list includes notable homicides committed in the U.S. state of California that have a Wikipedia article on the killing, the killer, or the victim. It is divided into four subject areas as follows:

1. Multiple homicides – homicides having multiple victims, including incidents involving spree killers, acts of terrorism, two mass homicides involving criminal acts causing airline crashes, and a mass suicide directed by a cult leader. The article includes sub-lists for homicides involving school shootings, familicides, and police shootouts.
2. Serial killers – persons who murder three or more persons with the incidents taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them
3. Single homicides – notable homicides involving a single fatality, including homicides involving celebrities as victims or perpetrators
4. Bias homicides – includes attacks directed against Native Americans (a more complete list of those incidents is set forth in the California genocide article), Asian immigrants, members of a religious group, and individuals based on sexual orientation

Multiple homicides

Listed in chronological order

No.	Incident	Location	Date	Deaths	Description	Sources
1	Lexington murders	Lexington	1883-03-11	2	Double murder, two of the perpetrators were hanged	[1][2][3]
2	Los Angeles Times bombing	Los Angeles	1910-10-1	21	Union member bombed the Los Angeles Times building	[4]
3	Adele Ritchie	Laguna Beach	1930-04-24	2	Prima donna of comic opera who shot and killed a set designer and then shot herself	[5]
4	Pacific Air Lines Flight 773	Contra Costa County	1964-05-07	44	Pilot of airliner shot during flight causing plane to crash	[6]
5	1965 Highway 101 sniper attack	Orcutt	1965-04-25	4	16-year-old youth opened fire on cars traveling along the 101 freeway	[7]
6	Tate–LaBianca murders	Los Angeles	1969-08-08/10	8	Murders perpetrated by members of the Manson Family, victims included actress Sharon Tate	[8][9][10][11]
7	William Ray Bonner	Los Angeles	1973-04-22	7	Rampage shooting by former service station attendant	[12][13]
8	1974 Los Angeles International Airport bombing	Los Angeles	1974-08-06	3	Bombing by Yugoslavian immigrant in Pan Am's international terminal killed three and injured 36	[14]
9	Golden Dragon massacre	San Francisco	1977-09-04	5	Gang-related shooting at Chinese restaurant	[7]
10	Robert Alton Harris	San Diego	1978-07-05	2	Murdered two teenagers eating cheeseburgers in a supermarket parking lot; executed in 1992, first person executed in California since 1967	[15][16]
10	Moscone–Milk assassinations	San Francisco	1978-11-27	2	San Francisco Supervisor Dan White shot Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk	[17]
11	Keddie murders	Keddie	1981-04-11	4	Unsolved quadruple homicide of one woman and three children at the Keddie Resort	[18][19]
12	Wonderland murders	Laurel Canyon	1981-07-01	4	Unsolved murder of four persons at a drug house, also known as the "Laurel Canyon Murders"	[10][20]
13	San Ysidro McDonald's massacre	San Ysidro	1984-07-18	23	Mass shooting at McDonald's restaurant	[21]
14	Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771	San Luis Obispo County	1987-12-07	43	Plane crashed after being hijacked	[22]
15	Richard Farley	Sunnyvale	1988-02-16	7	Workplace shooting at ESL Incorporated	[23][24]
16	1991 Sacramento hostage crisis	Sacramento	1991-04-04	6	Hostage crisis at Good Guys store in Florin Mall, 40 hostages held at gunpoint	[25]
17	Lynwood Drake	Morro Bay/Paso Robles	1992-11-07	7	Spree killing at two homes and a card club	[26]
18	101 California Street shooting	San Francisco	1993-07-01	9	Mass shooting at offices of Petit & Martin law firm	[7]
19	O. J. Simpson murder case	Los Angeles	1994-06-12	2	Unsolved murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. O. J. Simpson tried and acquitted	[10][7]
20	Heaven's Gate	Rancho Santa Fe	1997-03-26	39	Mass suicide by cult members at direction of cult leader[27]	[28]
21	Black Widow Murders	Los Angeles	1999, 2005	2	Two elderly women convicted of murdering two vagrants, the first in 1999 and the second in 2005	[10]
22	Glenn Helzer	Concord	2000	5	Former leader of the "Children of Thunder" cult murdered five people as part of an extortion plot	[29][30]
23	2001 Nevada County shootings	Nevada County	2001-01-10	3	Shooting spree by 40-year-old man with semi-automatic pistol	[31]
24	2002 Los Angeles International Airport shooting	Los Angeles	2002-07-04	3	Gunman opened fire at ticket counter of El Al, Israel's national airline	[32]
25	2004 Jenner, California, double murder	Jenner	2004-08-14	2	Young Midwestern couple shot as they slept on a Sonoma Coast beach	[33]
26	2005 Glendale train crash	Los Angeles	2005-01-26	11	Suicidal man parked on tracks and caused crash of Metrolink commuter train	[34]
27	Goleta postal facility shootings	Goleta	2006-01-30	8	Spree killing by former postal worker	[35]
28	Murder of Jan Pawel and Quiana Jenkins Pietrzak	Riverside County	2008-10-15	2	Married couple tortured, sexually assaulted and shot by four Marines	[36]
29	SiPort shooting	Santa Clara	2008-11-14	3	Former employee returned to workplace and shot the CEO and two other executives in the head	[37][38][39]
30	Daniel Wozniak	Los Alamitos	2010-05-21	2	Struggling actor murdered soldier to steal his combat pay and then murdered a friend of the soldier to make it appear the soldier killed her and then disappeared	[40][41]
31	2011 Seal Beach shooting	Seal Beach	2011-10-12	8	Mass shooting at a hair salon, deadliest mass shooting in Orange County history	[7]
32	Southern California Edison shooting	Irwindale	2011-12-16	3	Workplace shooting	[42][43]
33	2012 Ingleside, San Francisco homicide	San Francisco	2012-03-23	5	Murder of family of Chinese immigrants, sometimes called the "Lei family quintuple slayings"	[44][45]
34	Murder of Ming Qu and Ying Wu	Los Angeles	2012-04-11	2	Chinese graduate students at USC shot to death while sitting in their BMW near campus	[46]
35	Murders of Claudia Maupin and Oliver Northup	Davis	2013-04-14	2	Torture, mutilation and murder of elderly couple in their home, perpetrator a 15-year-old psychopath	[47]
36	2015 San Bernardino attack	San Bernardino	2015-12-02	16	Terrorist attack by Muslim couple on public health department Christmas party	[48]
37	San Francisco UPS shooting	San Francisco	2017-06-14	4	Workplace shooting at UPS facility	[49]
38	Rancho Tehama shootings	Rancho Tehama	2017-11-13	6	Shooting spree in which five were killed and 18 injured at 8 crime scenes	[50]
39	Yountville shooting	Yountville	2018-03-08	5	Murder-suicide shooting at Veterans Home of California	[51]
40	Thousand Oaks shooting	Thousand Oaks	2018-11-07	13	Mass shooting at Borderline Bar and Grill	[52]
41	Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting	Gilroy	2019-07-28	4	Mass shooting at garlic festival	[53]
42	Orinda shooting	Orinda	2019-10-31	5	Mass shooting during a house party	[54]
43	2019 Fresno shooting	Fresno	2019-11-17	4	Mass shooting at football watch party	[55]
44	Aguanga shooting	Aguanga	2020-09-07	7	Mass murder at residence used to grow illegal marijuana	[56]
45	2021 Orange, California office shooting	Orange	2021-03-31	4	Shooting at office building	[57]
46	2021 San Jose shooting	San Jose	2021-05-26	10	Mass shooting at transit rail yard	[58]
47	2022 Sacramento shooting	Sacramento	2022-04-03	6	Mass shooting by multiple shooters in downtown Sacramento	[59]

School shootings

Listed in chronological order

No.	Incident	Location	Date	Deaths	Description	Sources
1	California State University, Fullerton massacre	Fullerton	1976-07-12	7	School shooting perpetrated by university custodian	[7][60][61]
2	Cleveland Elementary School shooting (San Diego)	San Diego	1979-01-29	2	16-year-old girl shot 11 persons, killing two	[60]
3	Cleveland Elementary School shooting (Stockton)	Stockton	1989-01-17	5	School shooting	[7][60]
4	Lindhurst High School shooting	Olivehurst	1992-05-01	4	School shooting perpetrated by former student	[60]
5	San Diego State University shooting	San Diego	1996-08-15	3	Graduate student shot and killed three professors at engineering building	[7]
6	Costa Mesa school car attack	Costa Mesa	1999-05-03	2	Man drove his Cadillac into preschool playground and opened fire, killing two and wounding five	[62]
7	2001 Isla Vista killings	Isla Vista	2001-02-23	5	Vehicular homicide and assault near UCSB campus, perpetrator was son of director Dan Attias	[63][64]
8	Santana High School shooting	Santee	2001-03-05	2	School shooting perpetrated by 15-year-old student	[7][60]
9	2012 Oikos University shooting	Oakland	2012-04-02	7	Mass shooting at Korean Christian college	[7][60]
10	2013 Santa Monica shootings	Santa Monica	2013-06-07	6	Spree shooting at Santa Monica College campus following domestic dispute and house fire	[60]
11	2014 Isla Vista killings	Isla Vista	2014-05-23	7	Perpetrator conducted vehicular homicide and murder with knives in Isla Vista (close to UCSB), killing six UCSB students and himself. Perpetrator was son of director Peter Rodger.	[65]
12	2016 UCLA shooting	Los Angeles	2016-06-01	3	Unsuccessful Ph.D. student shot his thesis adviser, his estranged wife, and himself	[66][67]
13	2017 North Park Elementary School shooting	San Bernardino	2017-04-10	3	Man shot his estranged wife at the school where she worked and a student standing behind her and then killed himself	[68]
14	2019 Saugus High School shooting	Santa Clarita	2019-11-14	3	Student age 16 shot five schoolmates, killed two, then killed himself	[60]
15	Union City, California elementary school double murder	Union City, California	2019-11-20	2	Boys ages 11 and 14 shot in school parking lot by two gang members	[69][70]

Familicides

Listed in chronological order

No.	Incident	Location	Date	Deaths	Description	Sources
1	James Dunham	Campbell	1896-05-26	6	Killed his wife, 3 members of her family and 2 household servants	[71]
2	George Hassell	Whittier	1917, 1926	13	Spree killer, killed his wife and three children in Whittier, then killed his second family in Texas in 1926	[72][73]
3	Ralph Works	Pasadena	1941-08-08	2	Murder-suicide in which former professional baseball pitcher shot himself and his wife	[74]
4	Barbecue murders	Terra Linda	1975-06-21	2	Married couple murdered in their home by adopted daughter and her boyfriend who attempted to dispose of bodies by burning in a barbecue pit	[7]
5	Judith Barsi	Canoga Park	1988-07-25	3	Murder suicide in which father killed his 10-year-old actress-daughter and wife	[75]
6	Ramon Salcido	Sonoma/Cotati	1989-04-14	7	Spree killer of six family members and workplace supervisor	[76][77]
7	Lyle and Erik Menendez	Beverly Hills	1989-08-20	2	Shotgun murders of José and Mary Louise ("Kitty") Menendez by their sons	[10][7]
8	Betty Broderick	San Diego	1989-11-05	2	Convicted of murdering her ex-husband and second wife, later depicted in A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story	[10]
9	Dana Ewell	Fresno	1992-04-19	3	Ordered the killing of his father, mother and sister	[78]
10	Marcus Wesson	Fresno	2004-03-12	9	Father murdered his family	[9][7]
11	Covina massacre	Covina	2008-12-24	10	Christmas Eve shooting by family member wearing Santa suit	[9][10][7]
12	Hart family murders	Mendocino County	2018-03-26	8	Murder-suicide in which white lesbian couple murdered their six adopted black children and then killed themselves	[79][80]

Police shootouts and killings

Listed in chronological order

No.	Incident	Location	Date	Deaths	Description	Sources
1	Walter H. Auble	Los Angeles	1908-09-09	1	Police chief of Los Angeles shot and killed by a burglary suspect while trying to make an arrest	[81]
2	September 1937 Folsom escape attempt	Folsom	1937-09-19	5	Attempted prison escape in which the warden, two guards, and two prisoners were killed; five others involved in the attempt were executed	[82][83]
3	The Onion Field	Los Angeles	1963-03-09	1	Kidnapping and murder of LAPD officer, later a book by Joseph Wambaugh	[10]
4	Murders of Theodore L. Newton Jr. and George F. Azrak	Anza	1967-06-17	2	Two Border Patrol agents kidnapped and murdered by marijuana smugglers	[84][85]
5	Marin County Civic Center attacks	San Rafael	1970-08-07	4	Kidnapping of judge followed by shootout with police, led to manhunt for Angela Davis	[86][87]
6	Newhall incident	Valencia	1970-04-05	5	Shootout in which four California Highway Patrol officers were killed, deadliest day in California law enforcement history	[88][89]
7	Symbionese Liberation Army shootout	Los Angeles	1974-05-17	6	Members of the group shot or burned in South LA house during shootout with LAPD	[90][91]
8	Norco shootout	Norco	1980-05-09	3	Shootout between five heavily armed bank robbers and sheriff deputies, one officer and two perpetrators killed; eight other officers, a civilian, and two perpetrators injured	[92]
9	North Hollywood shootout	North Hollywood	1997-02-28	2	Shootout between police and bank robbers wearing body armor, both bank robbers killed	[93]
10	Kevin Gaines	Los Angeles	1997-03-18	1	Police officer who also worked security for Death Row Records and was living with Suge Knight's estranged wife was shot by an undercover LAPD detective	[94]
11	Stevenson Ranch shootout	Stevenson Ranch	2001-08-31	2	Shootout resulting in deaths of a convicted felon and a sheriff's deputy	[95]
12	2009 shootings of Oakland police officers	Oakland	2009-03-21	5	Wanted felon shot two officers during a traffic stop, then shot and killed two SWAT officers	[96][97]
13	Christopher Dorner shootings and manhunt	Southern California	2013-02	5	After being fired, former LAPD officer killed two civilians and two law enforcement, manhunt ended in shootout at cabin in Big Bear	[98][99]
14	2013 shooting of Santa Cruz police officers	Santa Cruz	2013-02-26	3	Two police officers shot and killed, perpetrator then killed in shootout with police	[100]
15	Luis Bracamontes	Sacramento	2014-10-24	2	Undocumented immigrant opened fire on sheriff's deputies, killing two; Donald Trump ran an ad blaming Democrats for the murders	[101][102]
16	2020 boogaloo murders	Oakland Ben Lomond	2020-05-29 2020-06-06	2	Two ambush-style attacks occurred against security personnel and law enforcement officers in California. The attacks left two dead and injured three others.	[103][104]
17	2023 Goshen shooting	Goshen	2023-01-16	6	Execution-style killing of six persons, including a 10-month-old baby at a house where a search warrant had been executed one week earlier as part of a drug investigation	[105]
18	2023 Monterey Park shooting	Monterey Park	2023-01-21	12	Mass shooting at a dance studio following Lunar New Year celebration on nearby street	[106]
19	2023 Half Moon Bay shootings	Half Moon Bay	2023-01-23	7	Mass shooting/workplace violence at two farms	[107]

Serial killers

Listed in chronological order by date of earliest homicide

No.	Incident	Location	Date	Deaths	Description	Sources
1	Earle Nelson	California, Oregon +	1926–1927	22–29	Known as the "Gorilla Man", the first serial killer in USA to receive widespread media attention	[108]
2	Wineville Chicken Coop murders, Gordon Stewart Northcott	Wineville	1926–1928	3+	Series of abductions and murders committed by a 19-year-old farmer, his mother, and his nephew	[10][109]
3	Bouncing Ball Killer	Los Angeles	1959–1960	6–7+	Serial killer also known as the Rubber Ball Strangler	[110][111][112][113][114][115]
4	Patrick Kearney	Southern California	1962–1977	21–43	Serial killer and child molester, a list of men believed to be victims was found in his trunk	[10][116]
5	Zodiac Killer	San Francisco	1968–1969	5–37	Killed three couples and a cab driver and wrote 15 letter to local newspapers, including cryptograms and clues	[8][117]
6	Rodney Alcala	California	1968–1979	8+	Serial killer sometimes known as "The Dating Game Killer" because he won an episode of The Dating Game television show	[10][61][118]
7	Samuel Little	19 states	1970–2005	60–93	Confessed to murdering 93 women, most prolific serial killer in U.S. history	[9]
8	Juan Corona	Sutter County	1971	25+	Mexican serial killer who was convicted of the murders of 25 migrant farm workers found buried in shallow graves in peach orchards along the Feather River in Sutter County	[9][119]
9	Randy Kraft	Southern California	1971–1983	16–67	Known as the "Scorecard Killer", raped and murdered at least 16 young men	[8][9][120][10][61]
10	Santa Rosa hitchhiker murders	North Bay	1972–1973	7+	Female hitchhikers found nude in rural areas of Sonoma and Santa Rosa Counties	[8]
11	Zebra murders	San Francisco	1973–1974	15–73+	Racially-motivated attacks by a group of four black serial killers	[121]
12	Doodler	San Francisco	1974–1975	6–16	Unidentified serial killer who sketched his male victims before having sex with and killing them	[8]
13	Joseph James DeAngelo	California	1974–1986	13	Serial killer and rapist	[8][9]
14	William Suff	Lake Elsinore	1974–1992	13+	Serial killer known as "The Riverside Prostitute Killer" and "The Lake Elsinore Killer"	[122]
15	Gypsy Hill killings	San Mateo County	1976	5+	Homicides of young women and girls by a suspected serial killer known in media as the "San Mateo Slasher"	[123][124]
16	Steven David Catlin	Bakersfield, Fresno	1976–1984	3	Convicted of murdering two wives and his adoptive mother	[125]
17	Hillside Strangler	Los Angeles	1977–1978	12	Serial killers later identified as cousins Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono Jr.	[9][10][20]
18	Roger Kibbe	Sacramento	1977–1987	8+	Serial killer and rapist known as the "I-5 Strangler"	[126]
19	Joseph Naso	Northern California	1977–1994	6–10	Serial killer and rapist	[127]
20	Richard Trenton Chase	Sacramento	1977–1978	6	Serial killer, necrophile, and cannibal that murdered 6 men, women, and children at random in a month long killing spree	[128]
21	Skid Row Stabber	Los Angeles	1978–1979	12	Unsolved murders of homeless people	[129]
22	Gerald and Charlene Gallego	Sacramento	1978–1980	10	Serial killers who kidnapped and murder teenagers after keeping as sex slaves	[130]
23	Joseph Edward Duncan	California, Idaho	1978–2005	5–8	Convicted serial killer and child molester	[131][132]
24	Terry Peder Rasmussen	California, New Hampshire	1978–2002	6+	Serial killer sometimes known as "Bob Evans" and "The Chameleon Killer"	[133]
25	Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris	Southern California	1979	5	Known as the "Tool Box Killers", murdered and raped five teenage girls	[134]
26	William Bonin	Southern California	1979–1980	21–36+	Serial killer, pederast and sex offender who committed the rape, torture, and murder of a minimum of 21 young men and boys	[8][9][10][61][135]
27	David Carpenter	San Francisco	1979–1981	8–10+	Serial killer known for stalking and killing victims in state parks near San Francisco, also known as the Trailside Killer	[136]
28	Doug Clark (serial killer)	Los Angeles	1980	6+	Serial killer with accomplice Carol Bundy known as the "Sunset Strip Killers"	[137]
28	David Mason	Oakland	1980	5–6	Serial killer killed at least four elderly people; executed in 1993	[138][139]
30	Dorothea Puente	Sacramento	1982–1988	9	Ran a boarding house and murdered elderly and mentally disabled boarders before cashing their Social Security checks	[140]
31	Leonard Lake and Charles Ng	Calaveras County	1983–1985	11–25	Ex-Marine who had a cabin that he described as a "dungeon" where he kidnapped, raped, and murdered women	[9][136]
32	Speed Freak Killers	San Joaquin County	1984–1999	4–19	Methamphetamine users convicted of four murders	[141]
33	Grim Sleeper	Los Angeles	1984–2007	10–25+	Serial killer who received nickname when he appeared to have taken a 14-year break from his crimes, from 1988 to 2002	[8][9][10][142]
34	Richard Ramirez	Los Angeles, San Gabriel Valley	1984–1985	13	Serial killer known as the "Night Stalker"	[8][9][136][10][61][143]
35	Michael Hughes (serial killer)	California	1986–1993	7+	Former security guard who killed women living or working on the streets	[9][120][144]
36	Joseph Danks	Los Angeles	1986–1990	7	Murdered 6 homeless men in a month long killing spree, and strangled his cellmate after being convicted	<ref"Man Gets Death Sentence for Killing Cellmate". Los Angeles Times. Apr 4, 1993.</ref>
37	Chester Turner	Los Angeles	1987–1998	15+	Convicted of murdering 10 women; another man was earlier wrongfully convicted for his crimes	[9][120]
38	Efren Saldivar	Glendale	1988–1998	6–200+	Respiratory therapist at Adventist Health Glendale, killed patients by injecting a paralytic drug inducing cardiac and respiratory arrest, known as Angel of Death	[10][145]
39	Keith Hunter Jesperson	California, Oregon	1990–1995	8–185	Known as the "Happy Face Killer" because he drew smiley faces on his many letters to the media and authorities	[146]
40	Michael Gargiulo	Southern California	1993–2008	3–10	Serial killer known as The Hollywood Ripper	[147]
41	Wayne Adam Ford	California	1997–1998	4+	Long-haul driver murdered and dismembered three sex workers and a hitchhiker	[9][148]
42	Pittsburg serial murders	Pittsburg	1998–1999	5	Killings of one man and four women, some of the victims either engaged in prostitution or were drug addicts	[149][150][151]
43	Cary Stayner	Mariposa County	1999	4	Serial killer who killed women near Yosemite	[9][152]

Single homicides

Listed in chronological order

No.	Incident	Location	Date	Description	Sources
1	Virginia Rappe	San Francisco	1921-09-09	Silent film actress, comedian Roscoe Arbuckle tried and acquitted of manslaughter	[153]
2	William Desmond Taylor	Los Angeles	1922-02-01	Director of 59 silent films shot in the back at his apartment, unsolved, subject of frenzy of sensationalist press coverage	[154]
3	Murder of Marion Parker	Los Angeles	1927-12-17	12-year-old girl abducted and murdered, billed as "the most horrible crime of the 1920s" by the Los Angeles Times	[155][156]
4	Brooke Hart	San Jose	1933-11-09	Son of department store owner kidnapped and murdered, perpetrators then lynched	[157][158]
5	Sleepy Lagoon murder	Commerce	1942-08-02	Murder of José Gallardo Díaz, who was discovered unconscious and dying near a swimming hole	[10][159]
6	Barbara Graham	Burbank	1943-03-09	Murdered widow Mabel Monohan in home burglary; Graham later depicted in I Want to Live!	[10][7][160]
7	Black Dahlia	Los Angeles	1947-01-14	Unsolved murder and mutilation of 22-year-old woman	[10][153][161]
8	Bugsy Siegel	Beverly Hills	1947-06-20	Mobster murdered in his Beverly Hills home, shot through window with .30 caliber military M1 carbine	[10][162]
9	Murder of Johnny Stompanato	Beverly Hills	1958-04-04	Murder of Lana Turner's boyfriend by Turner's 14-year-old daughter Cheryl Crane	[10][7][153][163]
10	Elizabeth Ann Duncan	Ventura	1958	Woman hired hitman to kill her daughter-in-law; last woman executed in California	[10][164]
11	Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer	Mission Hills	1959-01-21	Former child star shot and killed trying to collect a $50 debt	[165][166]
12	Karyn Kupcinet	West Hollywood	1963-11-28	Actress murdered six days after assassination of President Kennedy, prompting John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories	[167]
13	Sam Cooke	South Central Los Angeles	1964-12-11	R&B singer shot and killed by motel manager	[10][7]
14	Murder of Cheri Jo Bates	Riverside	1966-10-30	18-year-old college freshman stabbed and slashed to death on grounds of Riverside City College	[168]
15	Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy	Los Angeles	1968-06-05	Assassination at the Ambassador Hotel by Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan	[10]
16	Ramon Novarro	Laurel Canyon	1968-10-30	Actor murdered by brothers hired for sexual services	[10][7]
17	Killing of Meredith Hunter	Alameda County	1969-10-24	Killed by members of Hells Angels during Altamont Free Concert by The Rolling Stones	[169]
18	Marcus Foster	Oakland	1973-11-06	Superintendent of Oakland school district assassinated by the Symbionese Liberation Army	[170]
19	Murder of Arlis Perry	Stanford	1974-10-12	Newlywed murdered inside Stanford Memorial Church, solved 40 years later with DNA evidence	[171]
20	Murder of Betty Van Patter	San Francisco	1974-12-13	Bookkeeper for Black Panther Party was beaten to death, unsolved, she had reportedly threatened to make public her discovery that the party doctored its books	[172]
21	Sal Mineo	West Hollywood	1976-02-12	Actor stabbed in the heart by a mugger	[10][7][165]
22	Danny Lockin	Anaheim	1977-08-21	Actor stabbed over 100 times by man he met in a gay bar	[173][174]
23	Murder of Mary Quigley	Santa Clara	1977-09-10	High school senior attended a beer party and was discovered the next day hanging from a chain-link fence in a park near the site of the party, case solved 30 years later with DNA evidence	[175]
24	Glen Stewart Godwin	Palm Springs	1980	Murdered drug dealer Kim LeValley, stabbing him 26 times, later escaped from prison and was on FBI's 10 most wanted list	[176]
25	Murder of Suzanne Bombardier	Antioch	1980-06-22	14-year-old honor roll student raped and murdered by a convicted sex offender and dumped in the San Joaquin River	[177][178]
26	Dorothy Stratten	Los Angeles	1980-08-14	Playboy Playmate and actress murdered by her estranged husband and manager Paul Snider	[10][7][20]
27	Death of Susan Louise Jordan	Riverside	1980-10-28	15-year-old girl abducted and dragged to an orange grove where she was raped and strangled	[179]
28	Dominique Dunne	Los Angeles	1982-11-04	Actress murdered by ex-boyfriend	[10][165]
29	Killing of Marvin Gaye	Los Angeles	1984-04-01	Shot and killed in an altercation with his father	[10][7]
30	Killing of Roberta 'Bibi' Lee	Oakland	1984-11-04	UC Berkeley student killed by her boyfriend	[180]
31	Herb Wallerstein	Los Angeles	1985-09-27	Television director and producer was killed with a baseball bat by his Salvadoran housekeeper, she was found not guilty in light of testimony of physical abuse by Wallerstein	[181]
32	Murder of Michele Avila	Los Angeles	1985-10-01	Murder of 17-year-old girl by her former best friends and rivals	[182][183]
33	Murder of Sherri Rasmussen	Van Nuys	1986-02-24	Woman beaten and shot by female LAPD officer	[184][185]
34	Death of Dag Drollet	Los Angeles	1987-05-16	Shooting of Cheyenne Brando's boyfriend by her brother Christian Brando, who pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter	[10][186]
35	Rebecca Schaeffer	Los Angeles	1989-07-18	Murder of actress by 19-year-old obsessed fan/stalker Robert John Bardo	[10][20][187]
36	Huey P. Newton	Oakland	1989-08-22	Murdered on the streets of Oakland	[7][188]
37	William Arnold Newton	West Hollywood	1990-10-29	Gay pornographic actor (stage name Billy London) murdered and placed in dumpster with head and feet in plastic bags	[189]
38	Killing of Latasha Harlins	South Central Los Angeles	1991-03-16	Fatal shooting of 15-year-old African-American girl by Korean-American convenience store owner	[10]
39	Murder of Lea Mek	El Monte	1993-12-03	Cambodian refugee and gang member killed in a gang shooting in a pool hall, incident triggered a chain reaction of gang violence	[190]
40	Murder of Polly Klaas	Petaluma	1993-10-01	12-year-old kidnapped during a slumber party and later strangled by Richard Allen Davis	[191]
41	Sara Kruzan	Riverside	1994-03-09	Sexually trafficked at age 16, she shot and killed the surrogate father who was trafficking her, later became an anti-trafficking activist	[192][193]
42	Murder of Stephanie Kuhen	Los Angeles	1995-09-17	Three-year-old girl killed by gang gunfire; President Bill Clinton condemned the incident and promised funding to fight gangs	[194]
43	Haing S. Ngor	Los Angeles	1996-02-25	Academy Award winning actor murdered in robbery outside his house	[10][7][195][196]
44	Murder of Ennis Cosby	Los Angeles	1997-01-16	Son of Bill Cosby shot in the head in robbery attempt at the Mulholland exit to the 405 freeway	[7][197]
45	Murder of the Notorious B.I.G.	Los Angeles	1997-03-09	Murder of rapper in drive-by shooting	[198]
46	Phil Hartman	Encino	1998-05-27	Actor/comedian shot by his wife as he slept	[10][7][199]
47	Murder of Michelle O'Keefe	Palmdale	2000-02-22	18-year-old aspiring actress murdered on way home from shooting a Kid Rock video, featured on America's Most Wanted and Dateline NBC	[200][201]
48	Bonny Lee Bakley	Los Angeles	2001-05-04	Wife of actor Robert Blake shot and killed in parked car at restaurant, Blake was tried and found not guilty	[10][7][202]
49	Murder of Samantha Runnion	Stanton	2002-07-15	Five-year-old girl abducted from her home and murdered	[203][204]
50	Murder of Laci Peterson	Modesto	2002-12-24	Murder of pregnant woman by her husband, Scott Peterson	[136][7]
51	Murder of Lana Clarkson	Alhambra	2003-02-03	Murder of actress by record producer Phil Spector	[10][7][165]
52	Murder of Yetunde Price	Compton	2003-09-14	Half-sister and personal assistant to Venus and Serena Williams killed in gang shooting in Compton	[205][206]
53	Tara Correa-McMullen	Inglewood	2005-10-21	Actress who played gang member Graciela on TV series Judging Amy shot in front of an apartment complex	[207][208]
54	Murder of Chauncey Bailey	Oakland	2007-08-02	Journalist shot by member of a crime syndicate he was investigating for a story	[209]
55	Murder of Jamiel Shaw II	Los Angeles	2008-03-02	17-year-old high school player shot by two Hispanic men while returning home from Beverly Center	[210]
56	Murder of Sandra Cantu	Tracy	2009-03-27	Former Sunday school teacher kidnapped, raped, and murdered eight-year-old girl	[211]
57	Death of Michael Jackson	Los Angeles	2009-06-25	Physician Conrad Murray found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for improperly administering the anesthetic drug propofol	[212]
58	Ronni Chasen	Beverly Hills	2010-11-16	Hollywood publicist shot and killed while driving home as part of a random robbery	[10][7][213]
59	Murder of Jeff Hall	Riverside	2011-05-01	Leader of neo-Nazis shot to death by his 10-year-old son	[214]
60	Murder of Michelle Le	Hayward	2011-05-27	Nursing student murdered by a woman who believed Le had an affair with her boyfriend	[215][216]
61	Death of Elisa Lam	Los Angeles	2013-02-19	Body recovered from a water tank after a stay at the Cecil Hotel, later the subject of the Netflix series Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel	[10][217]
62	Murder of Gabriel Fernandez	Palmdale	2013-05-24	Eight-year-old boy beaten to death by mother and her boyfriend, long history of abuse overlooked by county child protective services, depicted in the Netflix series, The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez	[218][219]
63	Suge Knight	Compton	2015-01-29	Convicted of voluntary manslaughter for crashing car into and killing Terry Carter and injuring a second man	[10][220]
64	Murder of Madyson Middleton	Santa Cruz	2015-07-25	8-year-old girl lured into another apartment where she was strangled and placed in a dumpster by a 15-year-old boy	[221]
65	Nipsey Hussle	Los Angeles	2019-03-31	Rapper shot at least 10 times in parking lot of a clothing store, two others wounded	[222]
66	Murder of Brianna Kupfer	Los Angeles	2022-01-13	24-year-old University of California, Los Angeles student stabbed and murdered by a 31-year-old man with an extensive criminal record.	[223][224]
67	2022 Laguna Woods shooting	Laguna Woods	2022-05-15	Mass shooting at Geneva Presbyterian Church, five injured, one killed	[225][226]

Bias homicides

Listed in chronological order. NOTE: A more complete list of killings of indigenous peoples of California during the California Indian Wars is presented in the article on California genocide.

No.	Incident	Location	Date	Deaths	Description	Sources
1	Sacramento River massacre	Upper Sacramento Valley	1846-04-05	120–700	Mass shooting of Wintu people on banks of Sacramento River, perpetrated by soldiers led by John C. Frémont	[227][228]
2	Sutter Buttes massacre	Sutter Buttes	1846-06		Murder of California Indians by militarized expeditionary band led by John C. Frémont, estimated Native American deaths range from several hundred to several thousand
3	Bridge Gulch massacre	Trinity County	1852	150	Massacre of Wintu people in retaliation for killing of Col. John Anderson	[227]
4	Yontoket massacre	Yontocket	1853	400–500	Massacre of Tolowa people in northwestern California	[227]
5	Mendocino War	Mendocino County	1859–1860	283+	White settlers known as the "Eel River Rangers" killed at least 283 Indian men	[227]
6	1860 Wiyot massacre	Humboldt County	1860	80–250	Massacre of Wiyot people by white settlers	[227]
7	Los Angeles Chinese massacre of 1871	Los Angeles	1871-10-24	19	Racial massacre targeting Chinese immigrants	[10][229]
8	San Francisco riot of 1877	San Francisco	1877-07-23/25	4	Three-day pogrom against Chinese immigrants	[230]
9	Trout Creek Outrage	Truckee	1876-06-17/18	1	Anti-Chinese violence in which cabins housing Chinese immigrants were set on fire and shot fired as they fled, killing one and wounding another	[231]
10	Los Angeles Jewish Community Center shooting	Granada Hills, Los Angeles	1999-08-10	1	White supremacist opened fire with an Uzi at the North Valley Jewish Community Center, killing one and injuring four	[232]
11	Murder of Gwen Araujo	Newark	2002-10-04	1	Teenager beaten and murdered by four men with whom she had been sexually intimate after discovering she was transgender	[233]
12	Murder of Larry King	Oxnard	2008-02-14	1	15-year-old student shot twice by fellow student, a gay-bias crime, later the subject of the HBO documentary Valentine Road	[234]
13	2017 Fresno shootings	Fresno	2017-04-13/18	4	Shooting spree aimed at whites by alleged black supremacist	[235]
14	Killing of Anthony Avalos	Lancaster	2018-06-21	1	Mother and her boyfriend beat to death her 10-year-old son, allegedly due to belief that he was gay	[236][237]
15	Poway synagogue shooting	Poway	2019-04-27	1	Shooting at Chabad center during Passover holiday, three injured	[238]
16	Killing of Vicha Ratanapakdee	San Francisco	2021-01-28	1	84-year-old Thai American killed by being pushed to the ground during wave of anti-Asian violence during COVID-19 pandemic	[239]

See also

• California genocide
• List of shootings in California
• List of people executed in California
• List of violent incidents at the Cecil Hotel

Further reading

• "Forgotten California Murders 1915 to 1918", David Alexander Kulczyk, 2021
• "Murderers In California: The Unforgettable True Stories of Compulsive Serial Killers on the West Coast", Brenda Brown, Ryan Becker, 2020
• "Murder in California: Serial Killers and Unsolved Murders", Marques Vickers, 2019