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Wilbur S. Pierce, an East Bay lawyer and defense counsel in the case of an $800 million oil swindle lawsuit, is assassinated as he strolls with his family outside his Richmond home. "Well they got me," Pierce says, after a man jumps out of a touring car filled with armed men and opens fire with a shotgun. Hundreds of locals are believed to have lost large sums of money in the so-called Golet oil merger scheme, and would have a motive for revenge. — Jan. 10
Little boys around the Bay are emulating Berkeley tennis star Helen Wills, wearing white visors and swinging homemade racquets — even as she loses the world championship to French star Suzanne Lengley in Paris. — Feb. 17
Fugitive Theodore Eggers, sought by Canadian and U.S. authorities as the "daredevil hijacker king," is captured after a $5 robbery of a waiter at a Post Street hotel. Most infamous for rescuing one brother and shooting another during an escape from the city's Federal Building, Eggers is undone when his partner in crime, Ted Crankshaw, fractures both legs while jumping two stories from the hotel's window. — April 18
Called by Fire Chief Thomas Murphy the most hazardous blaze since '06, 25-alarms-worth of fires break out in the city over a two-hour period. The biggest is at Ewing Field where, during a ballgame, the grandstands and bleachers in the southern half of the park go up in flames and send burning cinders to start roof fires on 25 neighboring houses. Fourteen are injured and damages are estimated at $307,500. — June 6
Undercover federal prohibition agent Clarence Zumalt is recognized by his prey, jumped and locked in a room in an apartment building at Geary and Hyde. Unfortunately for the bootleggers, there is a phone in the room and Zumalt calls fellow agent Carl Ahlin. Ahlin rushes down and sees Zumalt in a window, signaling the room number. "Dashing up to the door, Ahlin burst it open, and found himself in a room with four men. He kicked open a second door in the room, and released Zumalt before the four realized what had happened." One bootlegger escapes and three are arrested. — July 17
More than 500 ranch workers flee for their lives when the San Joaquin River rips a hole in a levee and floods 3,500-acre Bethel Island, 15 miles east of Antioch, under 10 feet of muddy water. — August 8
In an array of assaults across the city, six scab carpenters are attacked as they leave work sites and four strikers are arrested. — Sept. 19
Celebrations are set to honor Mission Dolores' 150th birthday. "She's very much like a little, old mother who cannot quite comprehend the swiftness of the years which have turned her baby into a strong, young giant. But, small among the younger buildings which hem her in, Mission Dolores stands contentedly today, turning upon Dolores street and the hurrying traffic which has invaded it, the same tranquil face she has worn for one hundred and fifty years." — Oct. 3
Police are looking for a "suave, dark-skinned, easy-talking" killer the public has dubbed the "Dark Strangler." Believed to be a drifter who has already murdered seven elderly women from Portland to Santa Barbara, his latest victim is Mrs. William Anna Edmonds, strangled and robbed in her Fulton Street home. — Nov. 20