Last Night in San Francisco
Tech's Lost Promise and the Killing of Bob Lee
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3.8 • 5 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Bad Blood meets Burn Book in this exposé about tech icon Bob Lee—and what his life and 2023 murder tell us about San Francisco in the Internet Age
FOR FANS OF GOING INFINITE AND SUPER PUMPED: Sex and drugs, parties and violence, genius coders and VC tycoons—welcome to the rip-roaring world of the American tech industry
The full story of an industry, a city, and two men—one who got everything he ever wanted, one who never got what he thought he deserved—and what happened the night it all came apart.
Like his many peers in the tech industry who had poured into San Francisco over the last two decades, Bob Lee was remaking the world, building the most familiar parts of our digital lives, a lead innovator at one start-up after another, such as Google, Android, Square, and CashApp.
When Lee was found stabbed to death one night on the streets of San Francisco, the city’s many critics knew exactly what it meant. Just like they had been saying, the city was violent, dangerous, and out-of-control. San Francisco was so bent on creating a liberal utopia that it was failing at its most basic tasks—to keep its citizens safe.
It’s a familiar story—familiar and wrong. Bob Lee was a man without limits, and he had a recklessness that led to his triumphs as well as his downfall.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Lucas debuts with a bracing work of true crime. CashApp developer Bob Lee (1979–2023) was known to his friends and colleagues as "Crazy Bob," an indefatigable worker and partier who also managed to be a devoted husband and father. That reputation had waned somewhat by April 2023, when a divorced Lee was stabbed to death underneath the Bay Bridge in the early morning hours. Local news and social media exploded with speculation that spun the tragedy as an indicator of San Francisco's supposed descent into anarchy, but evidence soon emerged that the culprit was a man named Nima Momeni—a fellow techie who knew Lee personally. In addition to unpacking Momeni's motives, which involved a relationship between Lee and his sister, Lucas paints a wry portrait of the Golden City ("You can walk past the Zodiac killer and not even know it—they never caught him") and dives deep into the struggles with drugs like cocaine and ketamine that Bob and his ilk had. The resulting narrative is rigorously reported, well written, and difficult to put down. It's a memorable depiction of the seamy side of Silicon Valley.
Customer Reviews
Last Night in San Francisco is excellent!
It reads like you’re having a thrilling conversation with someone who really knows San Francisco and the tech industry. It is a fascinating page turner- and I don’t know the tech industry or the city well. Terrific book.