Dead Reckoning

About Dead Reckoning

Welcome to Dead Reckoning, the podcast where death isn't the end of the story. Hosted by writer and creator Courtney Minick, and journalist and author Beth Winegarner, based in San Francisco. Produced by Carolyn Kissick and Here Lies a Story. Artwork by Dante Silliman.

Publisher

Dead Reckoning Podcast

Category

history · news

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

6 May 2025

Latest episode

25 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

17 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   25 Sept 2026

   Shipwrecks of San Francisco: Who wants a ride on the breeches buoy?

   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/

2. 

   4 Sept 2026

   Mission Dolores Cemetery: That's foreshadowing, you guys!

   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/

3. 

   29 May 2026

   The People's Temple: A San Francisco Story

   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. Show Notes Jonestown Archive at SDSU (https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/) 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

4. 

   6 May 2026

   SF Almshouse: a little anti-Irish sentiment, a little ghost story.

   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. Show Notes Laguna Honda - architectural review that includes history Encyclopedia Britannica article On Social Services Almshouse Women (https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2967126.pdf) Book - In the Shadow of the Poorhouse by Michael Katz Social Welfare History Project KEDITS on Substack (https://www.kedits.com/) - modern labor economy analysis

5. 

   20 Apr 2026

   The Medical Examiner and the Missing Skull (allegedly)

   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. Show Notes 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/

6. 

   18 Apr 2026

   Abortion in San Francisco 2: The villain edit

   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," (https://www.instagram.com/p/CdJx5eQv2CH/) 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

7. 

   20 Mar 2026

   Abortion in San Francisco 1: A black market

   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 (https://www.ineedana.com/) 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 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22270271/) 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

8. 

   6 Mar 2026

   City Cemetery: It's Just Like "Poltergeist"

   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/

9. 

   5 Dec 2025

   Interview with funeral director Steven Welch: The Pope's hands

   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:

10. 

    14 Nov 2025

    Bubonic Plague in San Francisco: You can't quarantine rats

    What do you know about the bubonic plague? Probably that it killed a lot of people, it broke out in the middle ages, and rats were somehow involved. . . but did you know we ACTUALLY HAD A PLAGUE OUTBREAK IN SAN FRANCISCO? That's right, in 1900 the plague came to the city, and it wreaked havoc for 8 years. Join us for a journey through crowded tenements, racist blockades, wooden pallets full of fleas, quack medicine, corporate conspiracies, and finally, FINALLY some actual science. Show Notes The Great Mortality (https://share.google/JEsyzl2L9K0GaeTbk) by John Kelly Plague and Fire: Battling the Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown (https://share.google/3F13WivL0JS4NMDmU) by James C. Mohr The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco by Marilyn Chase The Plague Comes to San Francisco @ Here Lies a Story Plague at the Golden Gate American Experience City of Plagues (https://g.co/kgs/q5P3vXt) by Susan Craddock

11. 

    24 Oct 2025

    San Francisco's pesthouse: Not a hospital!

    If you got sick with a visible disease in 19th century San Francisco, you wouldn't be taken to a doctor or a hospital. You wouldn't be given chicken soup and penicillin. You'd be forcibly removed in a zinc-lined cop carriage to a set of nasty, claptrap, decrepit cottages in Potrero Hill known as the PESTHOUSE. And you guys thought Covid-19 quarantine was bad! References "Driven by Fear: Epidemics and Isolation in San Francisco's House of Pestilence," Gunter Risse "[The Origin of the Word Quarantine](https://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/the-origin-of-the-word-quarantine/#:~:text=But to find the origin,to mid-14th century Europe.)," Science Friday "City of Plagues (https://g.co/kgs/q5P3vXt)," Susan Craddock "The Pest House (https://hereliesastory.com/the-pest-house/)," HLAS [including a map of the location] The David Rumsey Map Collection (https://www.davidrumsey.com/) The Chinese Exclusion Act Visiting Hawaii's Tragic and Remote Leprosy Colony (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpR54iv5c0U) "The Sick Rose (https://share.google/pMsAVhCPAFPx3d6UF)," Richard Barnett "And the Band Played On (https://share.google/6EuNOX5kDdjKHMOQ2)," Randy Shilts Ward 86 at San Francisco General Hospital (https://hividgm.ucsf.edu/ward-86) An 1896 etching from the San Francisco Call of the San Francisco Pesthouse Annex

12. 

    2 Oct 2025

    Interview with "Too Poor to Die" author Amy Shea

    Do you know what happens to people when they die in poverty and estranged from family? We talk to writer and advocate Amy Shea about her book, "Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins," in which she looks at how society treats poor, homeless and marginalized people in life, and how that connects to their outcomes when they die. We also chat about a resurgence of anti-poverty laws in the Bay Area and beyond. Sources and additional reading: "Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins," Amy Shea: https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/too-poor-to-die/9781978843981/ Equitable Disposition Alliance: https://equitabledisposition.org/ "A Certain Kind of Death," dir. Grover Babcock and Blue Hadaegh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErooOhzE268&pp=ygUdYSBjZXJ0YWluIGtpbmQgb2YgZGVhdGggbW92aWU%3D "The Potter's Field," dir. Edward Heavrin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwN_rfOoIuA "The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels," Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/669835/the-unclaimed-by-pamela-prickett-and-stefan-timmermans/ "Ashes to Admin: Tales from the Caseload of a Council Funeral Officer," Evie King: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76699588-ashes-to-admin "The Lonely Death of George Bell," N.R. Kleinfeld, New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/nyregion/dying-alone-in-new-york-city.html "Dying old: and preferably alone? Agency, resistance and dissent at the end of life," Allan Kellehear: http://ijal.se/article/view/1183

13. 

    12 Sept 2025

    The History of Medical Cadavers: Never enough bodies

    How did all those bones end up in a pit at Fort Mason? The Anatomy Act, that's how! In this episode, Courtney takes us through the history of using human cadavers to learn about medicine — whether people liked it or not. What started out as punishment for criminal acts turned into punishment for being poor. We'll talk about how this practice evolved from England to the US, from the East Coast to the West, and how the bodies of the poor and marginalized fed the study of medicine and anatomy. Links & References Death, Dissection, and the Destitute (https://g.co/kgs/S4hDcPc) by Ruth Richardson The Butchering Art (https://g.co/kgs/Ekv34XG) by Lindsay Fitzharris Archaeology and Bioarchaeology of Anatomical Dissection at a Nineteenth-Century Army Hospital in San Francisco (https://g.co/kgs/vCj9LGi) by Willey et al On Penn's dubious collection of human remains China Turns Out Mummified Bodies for Display Surgeon's Hall Museum, Edinburgh (https://museum.rcsed.ac.uk/) - home of Burke's death mask Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach Reuters Investigates: The Body Trade Photo of a Mortsafe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortsafe) A note from Courtney On Mathus: The Malthusian theory - sometimes called the Malthusian trap - posits that if population growth outpaces agricultural production, famine will result, which will lead to more poverty and declining birth rates, leading to societal collapse. His work was used to justify eugenic forms of population control (Including the New Poor Acts) - and although Malthusianism has since come to be identified with the issue of general over-population, the original Malthusian concern was more specifically with the fear of over-population by the dependent poor. Still not a fan.

14. 

    22 Aug 2025

    Fort Mason Burial Pit: The world's worst layer cake

    Workers clearing lead-contaminated soil at Fort Mason in 2010 got an unpleasant surprise when they uncovered a pit full of body parts dating back to the 19th century. Beth shares the research into who these early San Franciscans were, why they were buried in a Fort Mason courtyard, and the man most likely responsible: A U.S. Army surgeon named Edwin Bentley. Sources: "Archaeology and Bioarchaeology of Anatomical Dissection at a Nineteenth-Century Army Hospital in San Francisco," edited by P. Willey, Peter Gavette, Eric J. Bartelink and Colleen F. Milligan: https://upf.com/book.asp?id=9781683402664 "Now and Then: Fort Mason," National Park Service: https://www.nps.gov/goga/learn/photosmultimedia/now-and-then-foma.htm Dr. Edwin Bentley. Image courtesy of the NIH's National Library of Medicine: https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101416384-img?qvq=q:bentley;lc:NLMNLM~1~1&mi=5&trs=8 Check out the books we are reading https://bookshop.org/lists/dead-reckoning-sources

15. 

    7 Aug 2025

    Yerba Buena Cemetery: Everyone had broken noses

    There's an unmarked cemetery in the heart of San Francisco, where hundreds, possibly thousands, of graves rest beneath the popular destinations like the Main Library, the Asian Art Museum, and the United Nations Plaza. Beth takes us through the history of this place, once called Yerba Buena Cemetery, and touches on the history of SF burials before and during the Gold Rush. Sources: "San Francisco's Forgotten Cemeteries: A Buried History" by Beth Winegarner: https://www.bethwinegarner.com/san-franciscos-forgotten-cemeteries "Archaeological monitoring and architectural documentation : San Francisco Main Library project, site of the former City Hall completed in 1897," City and County of San Francisco: http://sflib1.sfpl.org/record=b1554397~S1 From San Francisco Call, Volume 75, Number 69, 7 February 1894

16. 

    1 Aug 2025

    Dead Reckoning - Official Trailer

    Welcome to Dead Reckoning, the podcast where death isn't the end of the story. Hosted by writer and creator Courtney Minick, and journalist and author Beth Winegarner, based in San Francisco. Produced by Carolyn Kissick and Here Lies a Story. Artwork by Dante Silliman.

17. 

    6 May 2025

    Dead Reckoning Intro

    Welcome to Dead Reckoning - the podcast where death isn't the end of the story. Hosted by writer and creator Courtney Minick, and journalist and author Beth Winegarner, coming to you live from San Francisco. Produced by Carolyn Kissick and Here Lies a Story. Artwork by Dante Silliman.