Beneath the fog and tech glitz lies a city forged in chaos: Ohlone shellmounds bulldozed for condos, vigilantes hanging innocents, and a gold rush so savage, miners ate rats in collapsed mine shafts. This isn't a tourist guide, it's the raw autopsy of a metropolis that rose from ashes... six times.
Truths Buried by the Fog:
✅ Ohlone Genocide: Sacred shellmounds paved for Union Square, while missionaries recorded deaths as "divine will."
✅ Gold Rush Cannibalism: Snowbound miners devouring the dead in Sierra camps funded SF's "elegant" mansions .
✅ 1906 Lies: City leaders burning corpses secretly to hide 3,000+ deaths and lure investors .
✅ WWII Betrayal: Pier 35 deportation pens ⚓ where Japanese families boarded trains to camps, weeks before their shops "mysteriously" burned .
Verified SF Native's Review:
*"My great-grandma survived the '06 quake-she whispered about body pits in Golden Gate Park. This book confirms her darkest stories: the Vigilance Committee's lynching trees, the Tong gangs' opium tunnels under Chinatown. Finally, a history that doesn't whitewash the stench of greed."* - Luis R. (Verified Purchase)