This account of the struggle to bring law and order to a city rich with gold rush money, at odds with Mexican bandits, and teeming with forty-niners and confederate sympathizers chronicles the chaotic early days of Los Angeles, which boasted the highest homicide rate in America by 1850. From profiles of the frontier-style lawmen hired to stop the initial mayhem to an analysis of the city's modern sheriff's office—the largest in America—this book draws comparisons between the uproar of the early days, the racial tensions that erupted during the Watts riots, and the safety issues that preoccupy the police force today.