San Francisco's Hottest Cold Case

How I Exposed a Police Cover-Up and Solved My Father's Murder

By: Jon Kinyon

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

"Something clearly stinks in how police handled this case."
- Tony Serra, famed Civil Rights Attorney

Andy Kinyon was a gifted salesman, a hustler in the best sense of the word. He became the top earner for the publisher of LOOK Magazine at the age of 22 in 1965. That same year, he befriended notable figures like Ken Kesey, Owsley Stanley, and Jerry Garcia. Andy was among the first to join the counter-culture movement in Haight-Ashbury and worked for Bill Graham and Chet Helms, conducting psychedelic light shows for performances by Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and many others.

In 1968, as the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood was overtaken by homeless runaways, pimps, and speed dealers, Andy relocated to North Beach. His penthouse apartment became a hub for famous and not-so-famous people alike. Unfortunately, tragedy struck in the early morning hours of January 22, 1972, when he was found stabbed and slashed to death in the stairwell of his residence. Andy was just 29 years old. The killer -or killers- were never brought to justice.

Over the next four decades, the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) refused to let the victim's family access any evidence related to the case. Inspector Frank Falzon, the lead detective, lied to the family about key facts and never revealed the prime suspect’s true identity. To this day, the SFPD continues to obfuscate and cover up the truth about the crime and refuses to run DNA tests on physical evidence.

In 2010, Andy's son, Jon Kinyon, took on a 10+ year-long private investigation into his father's murder. Through iron-willed determination and relentless sleuthing, he tracked down long-lost witnesses, discovered disturbing facts, and dug up long-buried evidence. Jon's work ultimately forced the SFPD to finally name the prime suspect as "the person responsible for the death of Andy Kinyon" and close the case.

This book is not a typical cold case story or a tale of police corruption. It is a "true-crime memoir,” as James Ellroy calls it, a deeply personal account of the investigation, as well as a universal commentary on the pursuit of justice. This tour de force sheds some light on the earliest days of the hippie movement in the Bay Area, as well as the workings of the shadowy San Francisco Crime Family (also known as the Lanza Crime Family: a La Cosa Nostra crime syndicate), providing some information that has not been widely known or published before.

Excellent book, but a very sad story of injustice

Excellent story and telling of it. I was very saddened, however, to hear how this case was handled, how Andy never received justice, how the Kinyon family was treated, and how a career criminal and killer was constantly given special treatment and never brought to justice. As a retired detective and a current PI, it was extremely frustrating listening to how the police didn’t do what they were supposed to and how they constantly brushed off the Kinyon family. They should be ashamed of themselves and very poorly represented police officers and detectives. However, I’m glad the Kinyons received some manner of closure. I hope that one day soon, someone with courage at SFPD will do the right thing and bring true closure to this case. In the end, God will deliver justice.

Excellent! Read this book! If you love true crime, you should definitely read/listen

Even the virtual voice is better than many ppl. I never heard of this crime(s)
before- amazing!