Andrew Chamings

A Calif. teen trusted ChatGPT for drug advice. He died from an overdose. "Who on earth gives that advice?"

terrifying story here on a teenager who died of an overdose after asking chatgpt for drug advice. brilliant reporting from my colleagues @leddder.bsky.social and @stephco.bsky.social www.sfgate.com/tech/article...

For Calif.'s worst college football team, a 0-287 slump is the tip of a scandal Are the Oaks an aspiring folktale or an ill-fated fantasy?

As the nation turns to the best college football programs in the country this weekend, we turn our attention to one of the worst: Lincoln University, a downtown Oakland school whose head coach, and athletic director, threatened me at the end of our interview. www.sfgate.com/collegesport...

finally, somewhere I can really listen to that mariah carey christmas song. alone, in a robot car in san francisco

'Death trap' in SF Bay: New owners take over controversial private island The island was once a billionaire kitesurfing club with two helipads.

Private Bay Area island that once held an illegal kitesurfing club with two helipads and a lounge — who guests included Sergey Brin and Larry Page — is now a death trap according to its new owners. But they’re ready to save it.

via @andrewchamings.bsky.social
www.sfgate.com/local/articl...

thank you guys!!

Congratulations, @andrewchamings.bsky.social!

Read Andrew's @longreads.com story, "Madness, Melancholy, or Murder," in which he returns to his childhood home in the UK to investigate the mysterious deaths of the Luxton siblings.

longreads.com/2025/03/06/m...

Some exciting news. My first book, Bodies in a Windswept Land, will be published by @stmartinspress.bsky.social. It’s about the mysterious tragedy of the Luxton deaths that happened near my childhood farm in Devon, and the myths that linger in the fields there. Big thanks to my agent Jessica.

SF institution hangs protest banners as federal agents are sent to Bay Area "Pity the nation whose leaders are liars."

The same week the Trump administration announced that federal agents were to be sent to the Bay Area, one of the city’s most cherished institutions — City Lights Bookstore — raised banners with a message on defying authoritarianism.

via @andrewchamings.bsky.social
www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/a...

The return of the San Francisco star who lost it all "A journey to get to this point that I think most people would find unbelievable."

Last year editor at large @andrewchamings.bsky.social unpacked the legacy of Girls' frontman Christopher Owens. A generic band profile won't work for us, this is such a good story because it revisits an important era of SF music history with a new hook (and killer hed) www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/a...

Here's a PITCH CALL for the #freelancewriters out there. I'm looking for Bay Area stories on venues, characters, trends and historical stories, TV/movies/music with SF ties. $250-$400+. Email me with an angle, not just a topic, and include a headline. cc @studyhall.bsky.social Here's examples... 🧵

L'ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Lift to the Scaffold) [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

the first seven seconds of this track is too much. imagine making that sound open.spotify.com/album/4pocTD...

I missed this good stuff

The reunion no one thought would last brings Los Angeles to tears Paul McCartney was seen filming the show on his phone.

something special is happening at these oasis shows www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/a...

Dignity Health. good lord.

'It will haunt them forever': California hospital accused of losing bodies Families searched for loved ones. A Calif. hospital allegedly knew they were dead.

This is a real life horror story. Two sisters told me they searched in drains and ditches for their missing sister, until her body was found in a warehouse. They weren’t the only ones. Dignity Health has been accused of losing bodies and worse. Investigation here: www.sfgate.com/bayarea/arti...

Journalists writing about one of the most notable & popular American institutions - our National parks - drives readership.

Shocking details emerge about Tahoe Super Bowl party that left 4 dead A man known as "Frog" has been arrested on suspicion of supplying the friends fentanyl outside a South Lake Tahoe church.

“As the evening wore on, some of the friends allegedly started taking what they thought was cocaine. By the morning, four were dead. A man known as ‘Frog’ has now been arrested on suspicion of supplying the friends fentanyl.”

via @andrewchamings.bsky.social www.sfgate.com/renotahoe/ar...

I feel dumb for being an American Threats to U.S. passport holders. Compromised news outlets. Constant cuts and layoffs. Drew Magary writes on his life under President Donald Trump.

"I live in a country that lived fast and is now dying young." from @drewmagary.bsky.social www.sfgate.com/politics/art...

A San Francisco mother of 7 vanished in 1966. Her mystery is finally solved Nearly 60 years after she vanished, the mystery of Dorothy Vaillancourt's disappearance has been solved.

In 1959 a bloodied and beaten woman approached the front steps of one of the most famous homes in San Francisco. The nurse who saved her would disappear a few years later. The recent identification of the ‘Marin County Jane Doe’ has unraveled a decades long mystery www.sfgate.com/bayarea/arti...

A family of 9 lived in a San Francisco Painted Lady, then the mother disappeared Nearly 60 years after she vanished, the mystery of Dorothy Vaillancourt's disappearance has been solved.

"Once a happy family living in one of SF’s most famous homes — the Blue Painted Lady — the Vaillancourts’ perplexing case involves a brutal attack in Alamo Square, an orphanage in Ukiah & a mysterious Nazi sergeant who can’t be found."

via @andrewchamings.bsky.social www.sfgate.com/bayarea/arti...

Are you feeling uncertain about whether you "should" visit a national park in the near future? Do you have a trip to a national park planned that you're now reconsidering? I'd love to hear from you for an upcoming #nationalparks story!

'It was chaos': The history of San Francisco's most unforgettable TV ad In 2005, Sony spent over a million dollars to swarm SF streets with 250,000 bouncy balls, breaking windows and destroying cars in the process.

I remember this ad airing in the UK so clearly, it was a year or two before some friends and I moved to San Francisco. That beautiful José González cover too. Wonderful dive into a real cultural touchstone from two decades ago from @dangentile007.bsky.social. www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/a...

This story started as an investigation into the mysterious deaths of three siblings on a farm near my childhood home. But it’s really about the countryside where I grew up, the beautiful rolling hills of Devon and the secrets they sometimes hide.

Madness, Melancholy, or Murder: An Ancient English Farm’s 50-Year-Old Mystery  - Longreads Andrew Chamings returns to his childhood farmland to investigate the mysterious deaths of the Luxton siblings. What really happened down that dark country lane?

"What happened in those hours, between the gunshot at dawn waking Robbie and Frances and their final moment in the garden must have been pure hell."

Growing up on an English farm, @andrewchamings.bsky.social heard tales of the violent deaths of three local siblings:

Madness, Melancholy, or Murder: An Ancient English Farm’s 50-Year-Old Mystery  - Longreads Andrew Chamings returns to his childhood farmland to investigate the mysterious deaths of the Luxton siblings. What really happened down that dark country lane?

Growing up on the farm in England I heard stories about the mysterious shotgun deaths of three siblings a few miles down the valley. I went to the old farmhouse where the bodies were found to investigate the tragedy, and my childhood, for @longreads.com longreads.com/2025/03/06/m...

How the Bay Area became the home of an international sporting craze The single-largest tournament for the hit 2000s video game 'Super Smash Bros. Melee' takes place each year in the Bay Area — and started in a barn in Antioch.

For SFGATE I wrote a dispatch from Genesis X2 the country’s largest and most prominent Super Smash Bros tournament that has become a Bay Area esports institution thanks to the boys from NorCal who started it and the legacies it’s helped create. www.sfgate.com/sports/artic...

Strange new details emerge about the Bay Area Zizian 'death cult' A sprawling web of violence across America has been linked to a fringe group of radical Berkeley pseudo-intellectuals known as the Zizians.

We spoke with some people close to the Zizian death cult to learn about their past. After a string of killings across America, three members, including the leader, are on the run. Read here: www.sfgate.com/bayarea/arti...

Agreed.

California's most photographed tree should be allowed to die The Lone Cypress at Pebble Beach on the California coast is one of the world's most photographed trees, and a multi-billion dollar company is keeping it alive.

I wrote about the most photographed tree in the world, and why we should let it fall into the ocean @sfgate.com www.sfgate.com/centralcoast...

String of recent killings linked to Bay Area 'death cult' A string of recent killings across the United States have been tied to fringe online group the Zizians, described as a "death cult."

The Bay Area tech scene-tied "Zizian" group has been linked to two recent killings, one in California and one in Vermont.
from @andrewchamings.bsky.social
www.sfgate.com/bayarea/arti...