Crimes of the Times

Armed with a new kind of bomb, militant unionists were waging a nationwide campaign of industrial sabotage against their perceived enemies. In 1910, they set their sights on the West Coast's biggest target. The result, now largely forgotten, was one of the deadliest terror attacks in the country's history.

When a violent felon with a long record kidnapped a 12-year-old girl from a slumber party in Northern California in 1993, it triggered a massive search -- and far-reaching changes in the law.

Robert Blake, the star of "In Cold Blood," played killers with unsettling intensity and spoke openly of his own dark impulses. As his fame faded, he was charged with murdering his wife. The star witnesses: his former stuntmen.

William Mulholland was the water boss who made L.A. possible. His reputation gave him unchecked authority as a dam builder. In 1928, that led to one of America's deadliest disasters--and the question of whether it was a crime.

From his law office in downtown Los Angeles, an attorney named Leon Lewis ran a clandestine operation to thwart Nazi and fascist plots in the 1930s and 40s to kill Jews in Southern California. His work went unseen and uncelebrated until long after his death.