San Francisco Express Times

Marvin Garson was a graduate of the University of California and a veteran of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, where he edited an FSM newsletter, Wooden Shoe, along with his wife Barbara Garson. He started the Express Times with co-founder Bob Novick.{{cite book|last=Glessing |first=Robert |title=The Underground Press in America |publisher=University Press|date= 1971|page= 32}} Some members of the San Francisco Oracle collective were also involved in the paper's birth.

The Express Times featured a weekly cooking column, 30 Recipes Suitable for Framing, written by Alice Waters and illustrated by David Lance Goines.{{cite web |last1=Helms |first1=Laura McLaws |title=Episode 11: David Lance Goines |url=https://www.sighswhispers.com/episodes/episode-11-david-lance-goines |website=Sighs and Whispers Podcast |access-date=26 August 2023|date=May 17, 2021}} Regular contributors included Todd Gitlin, Greil Marcus, Paul Williams, Sandy Darlington, and Marjorie Heins.{{cite book|last=Applegate |first=Edd |title=Literary Journalism: A Biographical Dictionary of Writers and Editors|publisher=Greenwood |date=1996 |page= 160}} Catherine Yronwode, later known for her work in the comics industry, co-wrote a weekly astrology column for the Express Times. Staff photographers were Jeffrey Blankfort, followed by Nacio Jan Brown and Robert Altman. Cartoons and illustrations were provided by Jaxon, the syndicated editorial cartoons of Ron Cobb, and Sharon Rudahl.{{Cite web|title=Wimmen's Studies – Comix Grrrlz|url=http://comixgrrrlz.pl/2010/05/25/wimmen%e2%80%99s-studies/|access-date=2020-12-06|language=pl-PL|archive-date=January 1, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150101063601/http://comixgrrrlz.pl/2010/05/25/wimmen%E2%80%99s-studies/|url-status=live}}

During the year of its existence, highlights included extensive on-the-scene coverage of student rioting and the prolonged strike at San Francisco State University, and Lenny Heller's serialized novel of guerrilla warfare in the United States, Berkeley Guns.

In December 1968 editor Marvin Garson spent 20 days in jail in Chicago as a result of his participation as a journalist in a police and protester skirmish during the Democratic National Convention in August.{{cite news|title=The System Does Not Work|first=Marvin |last=Garson |work=San Francisco Times Express |date=January 1969}}

Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show that the Express Times was one of a number of underground newspapers successfully infiltrated by the FBI, which had a paid informant on the staff.{{cite book|last=Armstrong |first= David |title=A Trumpet to Arms: Alternative Media in America|publisher=South End Press|location=Boston|date= 1981|page= 145}}

{{anchor|Good Times}}

{{about|the San Francisco-based newspaper|the Santa Cruz-based newspaper|Good Times (newspaper)}}

Image:sf good times apr 9 1971 cover.jpg

The renamed Good Times paper debuted in April 1969; the all-volunteer editorial collective was made up of residents of the Good Times Commune. Under this regime, the paper's contents and publication schedule were a good deal more relaxed than when it was the San Francisco Express Times.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

Jesse Drew of the San Francisco digital archive Found SF described Good Times this way:

{{blockquote|Good Times was the paper the radical left depended upon to keep up with the anti-war movement, the trials of political prisoners like the Soledad Brothers and Angela Davis, political corruption in San Francisco, and general communal information like vegetarian recipes and holistic health care. The all-volunteer collective put out Good Times on a regular bi-weekly, weekly, and then twice-a-week basis until sputtering out in the summer of 1972.{{cite web|first=Jesse|last=Drew|author-link=Jesse Drew|title=Good Times Collective: Historical Essay|work=Found SF|url=https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Good_Times_Collective}} }}

Underground cartoonist Harry Driggs served as Good Times{{'s}} art director and staff cartoonist; he recruited fellow underground cartoonists Trina Robbins{{cite book|last=Robbins |first=Trina |author-link=Trina Robbins|title=Last Girl Standing |publisher=Fantagraphics Books |date=2017|page=139|isbn=9781683960140}} and Guy Colwell[http://lambiek.net/artists/c/colwell_guy.htm Colwell bio at Lambiek.net's Comiclopedia.] as contributors (Collwell, in fact, joined the Good Times Commune). Writer Nina Serrano wrote a series of articles on the Los Siete trial and contributed poetry to Good Times.

When Good Times decided to accept pornographic display advertising and classified sex trade advertising in early 1970, feminist staff members staged an action to prevent this from happening.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} When male staffers at Good Times tried to put out a special "Sex" issue, women staffers stole the mock-ups and page layouts and burned them.{{cn|date=March 2024}}

In 1977, Allan Francovich and Gene Rosow produced and directed a documentary on the newspaper titled San Francisco Good Times, which included appearances by such notable figures as Pete Townsend of The Who and Timothy Leary.{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0163191/|title=San Francisco Good Times|work=IMDb}}

The History Channel's 2009 television program MysteryQuest speculated that a member of the Good Times Commune, Richard Gaikowski (1936–2004), was a possible suspect in the unsolved San Francisco Zodiac Killer case.{{Cite episode |title=San Francisco Slaughter |series=MysteryQuest |network= |station=History Channel |date=30 September 2009 |season=1 }} His appearance resembled a composite sketch of the killer, and a police dispatcher who had been contacted by the Zodiac, identified a recording of Gaikowski's voice as being the same as the Zodiac's.{{cite news |date=May 6, 2010 |title=This is the Zodiac speaking: Will the Zodiac murder cases ever be solved? |work=Martinez News-Gazette |url=http://www.martinezgazette.com/news/story/i927/2010/05/06/zodiac-speaking-will-zodiac-murder-cases-ever-be-solved |access-date=August 10, 2011 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120903151215/http://www.martinezgazette.com/news/story/i927/2010/05/06/zodiac-speaking-will-zodiac-murder-cases-ever-be-solved |archive-date=September 3, 2012 |url-status=dead}}

In 2021, Newsweek published an article that also mentioned Gaikowski in relation to the Zodiac killings.{{cite news|title=Who Is The Zodiac Killer? Full Suspect List After Gary Poste's 'Identity Revealed'|date= Oct 7, 2021 |url=https://www.newsweek.com/zodiac-killer-suspect-investigation-new-evidence-gary-poste-1636501|first=Soo |last=Kim|work=Newsweek}}

• List of underground newspapers of the 1960s counterculture

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite web|title=THE SAN FRANCISCO EXPRESS TIMES aka THE GOOD TIMES|work=Zodiac Killer Facts|url=https://zodiackillerfacts.com/The%20San%20Francisco%20Express%20Times%20aka%20Good%20Times.htm}} — history of the publication and excerpts from various articles
• {{cite web|url=https://voices.revealdigital.org/?a=cl&cl=CL1&sp=CCGHEDJ&ai=1&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN---------------1 |title=San Francisco Express Times|work=Independent Voices|publisher=Reveal Digital}}
• {{cite web|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.28044074|title=San Francisco Good Times|work=Reveal Digital |author1=Mot |author2=Jeanie |author3=Marcia |author4=Jeanie |last5=Milburn |first5=Donald |last6=Winsboro |first6=Philip |author7=Sandy |date=1971 |volume=4 |issue=21 }}

Category:1968 establishments in California

Category:Alternative weekly newspapers published in the United States

Category:Counterculture of the 1960s

Category:Newspapers established in 1968

Category:Publications disestablished in 1972

Category:Underground press