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.