Blonde Rattlesnake, Julia Bricklin
Blonde Rattlesnake, Julia Bricklin
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Blonde Rattlesnake
Burmah Adams, Tom White, and the 1933 Crime Spree that Terrorized Los Angeles

Author: Julia Bricklin

Narrator: Callie Beaulieu

Unabridged: 6 hr 15 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/01/2019


Synopsis

Nineteen-year-old Burmah Adams, a hairdresser and former Santa Ana High School student, spent her honeymoon on a crime spree. She and her husband of less than one week, White, an ex-con, robbed at least twenty people in and around downtown L.A. at gunpoint over an eight-week period. But the worst of their crimes was the shooting of a popular elementary school teacher, Cora Withington, and a former publisher, Crombie Allen, who was teaching her how to drive his new car.

A few days later, a watchful pair of patrolmen in a Westlake neighborhood called their detective colleagues at the Los Angeles Police Department; they had spotted a car that looked like one the duo had stolen days before. Two of these detectives dressed as mechanics and kept an eye on the apartment building until Burmah and Thomas appeared one afternoon. As police swarmed the building, Burmah tried to hurl herself out of a third–story window, while Thomas shot at officers and was immediately gunned down and killed.

Blond Rattlesnake reveals the events that brought Adams and White together and details the crime spree they committed in the sweltering hot days and nights of Los Angeles in the height of the Great Depression.

About Julia Bricklin

Julia Bricklin has authored a dozen articles in well-respected commercial and academic journals, such as Civil War Times, Financial History, Wild West, True West and California History, and spent several years contributing to Forbes.com. Bricklin grew up in southern California, obtained a journalism degree at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and worked in the TV/film industry for fifteen years before obtaining her master's degree in history at Cal State Northridge. In addition to serving as associate editor of California History, the publication of the California Historical Society, she is a professor of history at Glendale Community College. She lives in Studio City, California.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Valerity (Val) on April 08, 2019

3.5 out of 5 Stars This turned out to be an interesting read about a media-heavy story back in the nineteen thirties about a five-days married couple, Burmah Adam White and Tom White, who were tracked down by law enforcement after a crime spree in Los Angeles that really had people on edge. They’d me......more

Goodreads review by Whistler's on July 11, 2024

The economy rises and falls, but crime is a steady occupation. True crime is not my preferred genre, but I enjoyed this one. The author is an excellent writer who's produced a well-researched look at a time and place (L.A. during the Great Depression) that interests me. Sadly, many of the questions i......more

Goodreads review by Patrick on June 21, 2019

Most true crime fans know the story of Bonnie & Clyde. Their story is woven into the fabric of American folklore. A less well-know couple, Burmah Adams and Tom White had their own eight weeks of fame (or infamy), not in the mid-west, but in sunny Los Angeles. L.A. could well be taken as ground zero......more

Goodreads review by Kari on May 20, 2022

Blonde Rattlesnake by Julia Bricklin delves into the corruption of Los Angeles, the news media influence, and the crimes of Burma Adams and Tom White. I had not heard of this true crime and the spree this couple went on. It was fun to read about a true crime story I had heard nothing of. I felt like......more

Goodreads review by Michelle on May 29, 2019

Blonde Rattlesnake Burmah Adams, Tom White, and the 1933 Crime Spree that Terrorized Los Angeles by Julia Bricklin Rowman & Littlefield Lyons Press History , True Crime Pub Date 01 Jun 2019 I am reviewing a copy of Blonde Rattlesnake through Rowan Littlefield and Netgalley: Burmah Adam’s was born in January......more