Dead Reckoning

Loren Rhoads, the author of "222 Cemeteries to See Before You Die," "Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel," and many more morbid books of nonfiction and fiction, joins Courtney and Beth to discuss their mutual love of cemeteries, why it's not so weird to visit burial grounds when you travel, and the intricacies of translating a cemetery-tourism book into Russian.

Sources:

Loren Rhoads' website: https://lorenrhoads.com/

Loren's books: https://lorenrhoads.com/shop/

Loren on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morbidloren/

Loren on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/morbidloren.bsky.social

Did you know that there's an entire armada's worth of abandoned ships under the Financial District in San Francisco? Or that ships have been wrecking on something called THE DEVIL'S TEETH near our coastline for centuries? Well since we are a MARITIME HISTORY PODCAST now, you can hear all about it!

Courtney takes us through the history of ships being abandoned and wrecked in the Bay, how we rescued shipwrecked people, and why the hell lighthouses took so long to get out there. Along the way we visit a disturbing grave from the 1870's.

AHOY, Y'ALL!

Sources:

Underwater topographical map of the Bay: https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/hqfyiw/sf_golden_gate_bathymetry/

Original Bay Coastline https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~320831~90089998:Map-of-The-City-Of-San-Francisco,-C

A "Forest of Masts" https://www.nps.gov/safr/learn/historyculture/buried-ships-of-san-francisco.htm

Old Ship Saloon https://www.sfheritage.org/heritage-in-the-neighborhoods/old-ship-saloon/

Foghorns https://www.goldengate.org/bridge/history-research/bridge-features/foghorns-beacons/

Bar Pilots on the Bay https://www.youtube.com/@sfbarpilots

Map of Shipwrecks https://nmssanctuaries.blob.core.windows.net/sanctuaries-prod/media/archive/shipwrecks/city-of-rio-de-janeiro/poster_shipwrecks.jpg

Mysterious Burial at Franklin Point (Alta) https://www.altaonline.com/dispatches/a36562585/shipwreck-franklin-point-lydia-lee/

The indigenous people of San Francisco were just minding their business (for at least 10,000 years) when Spanish missionaries showed up, dropped a church on them and opened the city's first settler cemetery. In this episode, we look at the history of Mission San Francisco de Asís (that's Mission Dolores to you) and its churchyard, which now holds about 11,000 graves — more than half of them indigenous — and just a couple hundred headstones. Tune in to find out how this burial ground became one of the only remaining marked cemeteries in the city.

Sources:

"San Francisco's Forgotten Cemeteries: A Buried History" by Beth Winegarner: https://www.bethwinegarner.com/san-franciscos-forgotten-cemeteries

Mission District watershed map: https://explore.museumca.org/creeks/images/OMMission900.jpg

St. Francis of Assisi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi

"MIssion Dolores," FoundSF: https://www.foundsf.org/Mission_Dolores

"Mission Plank Road," FoundSF: https://www.foundsf.org/Mission_Plank_Road

"Mission Dolores Curator Aims to Humanize Site's Indigenous Dead," Mission Local: https://missionlocal.org/2024/03/mission-dolores-curator-aims-to-humanize-sites-indigenous-dead/

Belle and Charles Cora https://www.instagram.com/p/C2xlslevN-9/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

COURTNEY AND BETH at Mission Dolores for Mission Local! https://missionlocal.org/2026/01/sf-dead-reckoning-podcast-beth-winegarner-courtney-minick/

You've probably heard about Jim Jones, the People's Temple, and the infamous mass killing at Jonestown, but did you know that all of this kicked off in San Francisco? That Jim Jones was deeply entangled with city leadership, participating in corruption and cover-ups? It's … not great!

Join Courtney and Beth for the real story of People's Temple: How they settled in San Francisco, placed their cronies at every level of government, and co-opted the civil rights and social justice movements of the era to their own nefarious ends. Beth also tells us how the tragedy and controversies live on through ongoing issues with the victims' burial monument in Oakland.

Jonestown Archive at SDSU

A Thousand Lives by Julia Scheeres

Season of the Witch by David Talbot

Last Podcast on the Left: Jonestown

Latest on Buck Kamphausen's legal situation: https://www.vallejosun.com/vallejo-businessman-faces-new-fines-for-funeral-home-businesses/

Corruption in San Francisco Agencies:

In the Department of Public Works

In the Department of Building Inspection

In the PUC

On the Planning Commission

Long before we had protracted, bad-faith government arguments over the political football of welfare, food, and medical aid, we had ALMSHOUSES. If you were poor, sick, or hungry in the United States, this is where you went for help. Were they great? Probably not! Were they better than the workhouses in England that sold your body after you died? Yes!

Join Courtney and Beth to learn about the Almshouse in San Francisco, which opened in the 1850s and is now a skilled nursing facility. We trace the origins of indoor and outdoor poor relief in the US, talk about what the women of the Almshouse were up to, and speculate wildly on whether people are buried on the property.

Laguna Honda - architectural review that includes history

Encyclopedia Britannica article

• On Social Services

Almshouse Women

Book - In the Shadow of the Poorhouse by Michael Katz

Social Welfare History Project

KEDITS on Substack - modern labor economy analysis

San Francisco just agreed to pay $750,000 in a settlement to a former investigator for the Medical Examiner's office, who says she was fired after she accused the office's director of throwing away a human skull. Beth and Courtney talk about the lawsuit, allegations of bullying and bigotry in the Medical Examiner's office, and the unidentified man whose remains are at the center of the story.

Sources/For further reading:

"SF Medical Examiner Lags in Ruling on Deaths" https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/s-f-medical-examiner-lags-in-ruling-on-deaths-5006771.php#photo-5500915

"San Francisco to Pay $750K in Lawsuit Alleging Top Official Threw Away Human Skull" https://www.kqed.org/news/12072739/san-francisco-to-pay-750k-in-lawsuit-alleging-top-official-threw-away-human-skull

"S.F. to pay $750K after employee says she was fired for reporting missing skull" https://archive.is/20260414221457/https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/s-f-to-pay-750k-to-employee-over-missing-skull-22204428.php#selection-1565.0-1565.272

San Francisco Superior Court, case number CGC-24-612139 at SF County Civil Court Case Info https://sf.courts.ca.gov/online-services/case-information

"Roaches, worms, and hellish elevator rides: SF's crumbling courthouse" https://sfstandard.com/2024/11/18/inside-crumbling-san-francisco-hall-of-justice/

"San Francisco settles suit involving Jeff Adachi autopsy dispute" https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigation/san-francisco-jeff-adachi-autopsy/3177264/

"Supervisors denounce leak of police report on death of Jeff Adachi" https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/supervisors-denounce-leak-of-police-report-on-death-of-jeff-adachi/article_30220e50-3c05-548e-a57d-48d96bf99a9d.html

"SFPD rate of solving crimes, already well below the national average, gets worse" https://missionlocal.org/2022/04/sfpd-rate-of-solving-crimes-already-well-below-national-average-gets-worse/

"The year in crime 2024: 4 charts that tell the story" https://sfstandard.com/2026/01/02/san-francisco-2025-crime-stats/

On national rape kit backlogs https://www.endthebacklog.org/what-is-the-backlog/

Who were San Francisco's abortion doctors? In the second part of our look at this history, Beth introduces us to three practitioners, including a son who took up the family business after his father retired, and an iconoclastic woman who built a successful practice and never lost a patient.

Sources:

"Murder. Death from an Abortion…The Body Exhumed… Result of a Post Mortem Examination… Arrest of Dr. Charles O'Donnell," Daily Alta California, Volume 23, Number 7630, 11 February 1871

"The Unrepentant Abortionist," Rae Alexandra, KQED

"Inez Burns," Here Lies a Story

Statistics from the Guttmacher Institute:

https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-united-states

Wellness Quackery in the the early 19th Century - one example The Macabre History of the Crescent Hotel

Age Gaps in Teen Pregnancies and Teen Pregnancy Statistics

Domestic Violence and Pregnancy

Inez Burns

Entrance to Charles C. O'Donnell's Cozy Castle in Glen Ellen

Abortion was a booming business in San Francisco in the 19th and early 20th centuries. As in many parts of the country, women here sought ways to manage their lives and families, and doctors practiced often dubious procedures in an ever-changing legal landscape. In this episode, we start off with a fatal case in which a doctor went on trial for murder, and we look at the history of abortion practice and law, locally and across the U.S.

Sources:

"Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers," Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English, 1973

"Abortion in America : the origins and evolution of national policy, 1800-1900," James C. Mohr, 1978

San Francisco Call, Volume 108, Number 121, 29 September 1910: https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC19100929.2.11.1

For information on abortion providers, services, and laws in the US: I Need An A

Acid Attacks: Pakistan's Worst Social Epidemic

Evie Magazine, Ballerina Farms, and the Yassification of Christian Nationalism

Peter Thiel's Investment Firm is Backing a Menstrual Cycle-Focused "Femtech" Company

What is the Comstock Act? Center for Reproductive Rights

This Podcast Will Kill You: Pregnancy

The Comparative Safety of Legal Induced Abortion and Childbirth in the US

The True Story Behind the Welfare Queen Stereotype

Buck v. Bell + The Right to Self Determination: Freedom from Involuntary Sterilization Abortion Everyday: Tradwife Classes for High Schoolers?

Production Note

We recorded this episode in two sessions so you may come across some differences in audio, or you may not notice at all. Fingers crossed for the latter. - CK

Do you have a favorite cemetery and, if so, why is it City Cemetery, which currently lies hidden under Lincoln Park Golf Course and the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco? You know the one, with 20,000 people lying unmarked and invisible? Come with us on a journey back to the Gold Rush, where not one, but two cemeteries were closed and moved to the newest municipal burial ground, CITY CEMETERY, where they would eventually be abandoned and turned over to golfers and museum-goers. If you liked hearing about the PIT OF BONES at Fort Mason and Yerba Buena Cemetery, you'll love finding out what a CHARNEL HEAP is in this episode.

Show Notes

San Francisco's Forgotten Cemeteries: A Buried History: https://www.bethwinegarner.com/san-franciscos-forgotten-cemeteries

Here Lies A Story : Lost Cemeteries of San Francisco

https://hereliesastory.com/lost-cemeteries-of-san-francisco/

SF Genealogy, City Cemetery: https://mail.sfgenealogy.org/doku.php?id=san_francisco_history:cemeteries:city

Alma de Bretteville Spreckels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alma_de_Bretteville_Spreckels

Tunnel boring machine "Big Alma"

Richard Barnes, "Still Rooms and Excavations:" https://www.richardbarnes.net/still-rooms/883irtu53jjpubdflaiy0p67uosyrz

Nikki the Archaeologist:

https://www.instagram.com/nikki.the.archaeologist/

City Cemetery landmarking: https://www.sfheritage.org/community/lincoln-park-officially-designated-as-a-city-landmark/

Steven Welch, a fifth-generation funeral director at San Francisco's Duggan's Funeral Service, joins Beth and Courtney to share what mortician life is like, both today and historically. He also dishes about the embalming job on Pope Francis, how HBO's "Six Feet Under" feels torn from the pages of his own family's life, and how cremation services leave room for funerary malfeasance.

Links:

Jessica Mitford, "The American Way of Death" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Way_of_Death

Valencia Street funeral home map, FoundSF: https://www.shapingsf.org/images/fall2021/Corridor to Colma 11x17_final smaller.pdf

Pope Francis' embalmed hands: