I Want to Live: The Trial of Barbara Graham aka “Bloody Babs” : Abused Sex Worker or Murderer?

In 1955, the gas chamber at San Quentin claimed its third woman in California history. But who was Barbara Graham—a mistreated person entangled in a web of circumstances, or the cold-blooded killer known to the media as "Bloody Babs?”

Born to a teenage mother in Oakland, Barbara's early life read like a manual for disaster: reform schools, teenage marriage, petty crime, and a desperate search for belonging. By age thirty, she had transformed herself from a small-time grifter into a sophisticated con artist in the neon-lit underworld of post-war Los Angeles. But it was her alleged role in the brutal murder of elderly widow Mabel Monohan that would cement her place in criminal history.

This meticulously researched account peels back the layers of one of America's most controversial cases. Moving beyond the tabloid headlines and Hollywood dramatizations, we explore the perfect storm of factors that led to that fatal night in Burbank – and the subsequent trial that captivated a nation. Was Graham truly the cold-blooded killer prosecutors painted her as? Or was she, as she maintained until her final breath, a victim of circumstantial evidence and society's hunger for a female villain?

From the smoky card rooms of San Francisco to the cold corridors of death row, this unflinching biography examines not just a crime, but an era.

The distinction between justice and spectacle was hazy, "bad girls" in the news sold papers, and a beautiful woman's history could push her into the gas chamber.

Through extensive court records, personal correspondence, and interviews with those who knew her, this definitive account challenges everything you think you know about Barbara Graham. More than just another true crime story, it's a haunting meditation on justice, gender, and the American nightmare.

You'll never forget the woman who went from teenage runaway to Death Row, and whose final words – "Good people are always so sure they're right" – still echo through the halls of criminal justice history.