Fix for Safari Freezing Entire System

Question

You can read the EXPLANATION or just jump right to the SOLUTION.
EXPLANATION
So in the past two days my Safari started freezing after using it for a mere few minutes.  I'd get the spinning beachball and my system became unresponsive.   I couldn't force close anything nor could I even access the force-close window (command+option+ESC).
This problem was also affecting Apple Mail because it uses Safari/WebKit to preview HTML in the messages.
I tried repairing permissions, I tried disabling extensions, etc.  Nothing worked.  While I was doing this, I pulled my MacBook Pro out of my bag and started using it to try and get some work done in my office concurrently.  Well, all of a sudden IT started crashing with Safari as well!
This got my thinking, perhaps there was a bookmark or setting issue that was being synced via iCloud.  So I unchecked Safari sync from the iCloud Preferences panel and also inside iCloud Drive.
I then followed the instructions below, which basically removes all of my Safari prefs, bookmarks, etc and reverts it to a clean, pristine install.  Yes I lost my bookmarks.  I have backups and will manually add them again.  I've been using Pocket (GetPocket.com) anyway so no big loss to me.
Regardless, I've been using Safari for the past 30 minutes with my extensions re-installed and no freezing, no issues at all.
Taken from: Reset Safari Settings/Preferences
Note: The following will make a backup of all of your Safari prefs and copy it to a folder on your Desktop.  It will then reset Safari to default.
SOLUTION:
Open a terminal window and just copy/paste the following into the terminal window and press RETURN / ENTER:
mv ~/Library/Safari ~/Desktop/Safari-`date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S`; \
rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches/Apple\ -\ Safari\ -\ Safari\ Extensions\ Gallery; \
rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches/Metadata/Safari; \
rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari; \
rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.WebKit.PluginProcess; \
rm -Rf ~/Library/Cookies/Cookies.binarycookies; \
rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/Apple\ -\ Safari\ -\ Safari\ Extensions\ Gallery; \
rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.LSSharedFileList.plist; \
rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.RSS.plist; \
rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist; \
rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.WebFoundation.plist; \
rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.WebKit.PluginHost.plist; \
rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.WebKit.PluginProcess.plist; \
rm -Rf ~/Library/PubSub/Database; \
rm -Rf ~/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/com.apple.Safari.savedState
Hope this helps other folks until the actual culprit is identified.
Best,
M.

Answer 1

UPDATE:
I copied my Bookmarks.plist file back to my Library/Safari folder from the copy that was created in the Safari backup folder on my desktop in the previous message.  Safari continues to work and I have my bookmarks back.
Michael