5 comments about You Got Nothing Coming: Notes From a Prison Fish.

1. The following is from "Reality Bites"
   By Meghan O'Rourke
   Posted Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2006, at 12:52 PM ET
   
   "In 2002, a man published a memoir chronicling his substance abuse and the months he spent in jail after committing a crime. When a reporter discovered that the memoir was built around a fabrication, the author defended his embellishments in the name of literary license: "What I was doing was a literary genre known as a memoir," he explained, and pointed to a disclaimer in his book noting that identifying details had been changed. The man was not James Frey. He was Jimmy A. Lerner, the author of You Got Nothing Coming: Notes From a Prison Fish, published by Broadway Books. The fabrication was a significant one. The book describes Lerner's murder of a thuggish 6-foot-3 maniac he calls "the Monster," in a drug-fueled fight to the death in a hotel room. In fact, as David Kirkpatrick later reported in the New York Times Magazine, Lerner had actually killed a 5-foot-4 former medical equipment salesman who may not have been armed."



2. I read this thinking it would be more of a "Prison Survival" type book, and I picked this up on a novelty. What I found was a very interesting page turner about how a seemingly regular 9-5 person let his bad choices lead him into a situation where he landed in prison for murder.
   
   I don't want to say that Jimmy had it easy in prison, becuase nothing about jail is easy. However, he did get lucky in that he made friends with the right people. Jimmy seems like a likable, friendly and trustworthy guy, and it is what kept his head above water while doing time.
   
   Most of this book is about Jimmy's time in prison. However, the last chapter deals with the events that led him there.
   
   I really became engrossed in the story and was reading late into the nights to finish this. This book still leaves a few unanswered questions, and I would be interested in reading a "part II" to this to see how 'OG' finished out his time, and how his life is going now.
   
   I liked this book, I don't know if it is entirely truthful, but I still enjoyed it.



3. For about the first chapter, I was impatient to learn about the author's crime. I guess I needed to know if I should sympathize with him or keep my emotional distance. Then I stopped caring, because his prison experiences were so fascinating, and I was kept busy laughing out loud at his sardonic asides. Lerner does tell the story of the murder at the book's conclusion, and I was grateful to discover that his actions seemed pretty darn justifable, because by then I thoroughly liked the guy.



4. I loved this book. The author really has an ear for the lingo and an eye for a situation. I think that you will like this book as well.
   
   Just read an account elsewhere that the author likely is far more guilty of outright murder than he makes out. In that, he is the typical "innocent" con.
   
   But, that said, I read the book several times over the last year or so. He finds funny situations - made up or not.



5. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the first half of this book. The reason I only rate it a three out of five is because the last half of the book was so incredibly boring and self-serving, as Lerner tries to justify the crime for which he was imprisoned.
   
   What is most important in this book is the essence of the prison experience that Lerner writes about. Any informed reader can sort out the BS that Lerner weaves into the retelling of his prison experience. I actually found depth and meaning into his contrasting his prior life as a cubicle worker with the prison experience.
   
   Some parts of the book had me laughing out loud. I also thought about the meaning and message of this book for a long time after I'd finished reading it. The book is worth reading and skipping over the self-serving part of the book when Lerner goes into the details of the murder that sent him to prison.

5 comments about Confessions of a Second Story Man: Junior Kripplebauer and the K & A Gang.

1. I am a philadelphian interested in the city's history. I have found that this book has provided insight into a section of philadelphia that i have traveled through but had no in depth knowledge of. The characters described in the narrative were colorful and resourceful,yet in the end met the end that was inevitable. A few of the main characters found some redemption,others did not. There is no fantasy in this book,it is hard realism. Mr. Hornblum is a competent chronicler



2. I grew up in Kensington and know several of the people referenced in the book. Therefore; the book probably had more impact on me than it would on others, but it is an interesting book much in the same vain as the movie Good Fellows. If you like stories about wise guys and crooks it is a great read



3. Excellent book!!!! My father was "Raybo". He would have really enjoyed reading this book. Just as your dad had changed, mine did too. The stories from back then were fun to listen to over the years, but it was his past. I remeber him telling me his stories, and the funny comments he would say. I always wondered if he just added that stuff to make the story amusing, but when the author talks about when my dad got shot in the leg and he told the bartender to leave his drink he'd be back by last call I couldn't help but laugh. He REALLY was like that! He was always a funny guy:-)
   
   I thought I was gonna die when I saw my fathers picture in this book as I stood in Barnes and Noble. I couldn't believe it!!!!!
   
   P.S. EVERYTHING they did was against the law.....DUH



4. This is a very accurate book. I knew most of the people in this book because I grew up with them. Some were my friends.Many years later, as a detective at East Detectives , in Philadelphia, I saw them frequently.
   As luck would have it, they were under arrest at those times. I was probably most friendly with Donnie Abrahms, known as "Don the Dude".
   I was sorry to see he was still in the old neighborhood. At least he isn't in prison or dead as most of the old crowd is. This was very nostalgic reading for me.



5. This is a facinating book about what was essentially Philadelphia's Irish Mob. A tough as nails group of burglers, and stick up men, who were not only exceedingly clever, but could fight and kill with the best of them as well. Even the Philly Mob (The Bruno/Scarfo/Merlino Family) and the Philly Black Muslim Mob, were wary of crossing into these guys territory or messing with them in or out of prison.
   
   This book shows their transformation from first class burglars in the 50's, 60's and mid 70's to a powerfull organized crime group in the 80's and 90's, who ran a multimillion dollar "meth" ring, and did contract murder for the Italians. Like the Westies in NY and the Winter Hill Mob in Boston, the K&A boys were the last of the old time Irish mob, who ruled their territory with utter ruthlessness and cunning.

5 comments about When Corruption Was King: How I Helped the Mob Rule Chicago, Then Brought the Outfit Down.

1. This is a great story of the past.We would like to know what the current situation is in Chicago? Who's in charge? Who is the new Pat Marcy? Will There be a Sequel?



2. This is a poorly wriiten account of one turncoat in the world of Chicago crime. Nothing new here and for the most part it is a boring story that I could not finish.



3. Robert Cooley was a former cop who studied law and became one of the top hustlers in the Criminal Courts Building. After years of fixing cases for the mob dominated First Ward Democratic Organization, Cooley turned informant and helped the United States Attorney for the Northeastern District of Illinois indict and convict a variety of political hoodlums.
   
   
   The negative publicity from the resulting scandal was so great that when the City Council proposed a redistricting map the former First Ward was eliminated and renumbered out of existence. The newly drawn First Ward no longer includes the downtown business district.
   
   Sadly, the book documents how the leading members of the city's legal profession and political establishment have tolerated widespread corruption and facilitated its longevity through bribing members of the local judiciary. Even murder cases could be fixed for a price.
   
   Cooley is not a hero or a saint and at times his claimed contrition seems somewhat false and selfserving. It does seem that he discovered some dregs of conscience about the same time he was about to be dropped by the leaders of the Outfit. Whether or not he was to be frozen out of the action or found dead in the trunk of an abandoned car is for the reader to decide. Cooley is now in the Federal Witness Protection Program.
   
   Local law enforcement and a series of elected Cook County State's Attorneys abandoned any pretense of prosecuting organized crime and political corruption decades ago. No meaningful prosecutions have occurred without the participation of the US Attorney. On many occasions, the power elite have succeeded in placing players in the Federal Prosecutor's office as well.
   
   What is particularly disturbing to many Chicagoans, even after repeated Federal prosecutions over the past quarter of a century, is the knowledge that many crooked political officeholders and judges remain in office having escaped the net. Some of the former Federal prosecutors who worked on the Operation Gambat (short for "gambling attorney" a code name that recognized Cooley's habitual gambling) cases are now in private practice defending the criminal suspects who are the successors to those that they formerly indicted and convicted.



4. Having lived in Chicago for years I relished this book. Reading it was like sitting in a dive bar and listening to the outrageous, hilarious, and probably sociopathic Sout' Side guy next to you tell tales of Windy City corruption so depraved you know they've got to be true.



5. great book, fast read, incredible content, very well written. this mafia lawyer snitch turned corruption fighting superhero is a must read. he presents all his own crimes, scummy dealings and ripoffs with an air of nobility, so take it with a grain of salt, the guy cant admit when he is wrong. the good thing is he can admit when the mafia is wrong, and goes about setting them up and recording them in the most outrageous fashion, netting mass convictions and (hopefully) forever altering the way the political and legal systems of chicago work.

No comments about Vlad the Impaler - The Real Dracula (Biography).

5 comments about Hoax, The.

1. The drama of this tale makes it a page turner (or in the case of an audiobook a long-listener). Yet it is, at its center, somewhat unsatisfying because the author and main character seems blissfully unaware of how his behavior might affect others. As he flies around the world on his mad adventure, enjoying his extramarital affairs with seemingly little reflection as his wife is committing bank fraud for him at home, he lies to friends and business partners as if the whole matter were out of his control.
   
   The amazing coincidences, strokes of luck and close calls are the stuff of great fiction. As the author writes himself into his own movie, his fictional autobiography and the fiction he must create for the people at McGraw Hill become simply two parts of one elaborate writing project. As you see him encounter one close call after another, you want him to get away with it, yet you know that there is only one possible outcome. He's going to be caught.
   
   The book becomes much less satisfying as it moves into Irving's downward trajectory as his hoax is unraveled and the consequences loom, as it certainly was for the author. The pain inflicted on his wife through both the legal ramifications of the hoax and the revelation of Irving's affairs are difficult to read. Irving does express remorse for that and for lying to one or two friends, but in general he seems to view his hoax as a victimless joke.
   
   McGraw Hill is a corporation done in by greed in his tale, and the people who were duped and whose reputations surely took a beating, most likely would find that compounded by this book. Their crime was believing Irving and standing behind him, and for that the author says at one point that he sometimes thought he should cheer about what he had done-- that he had exposed the limits of corporate greed and stupidity.
   
   I was especially bothered by way one of the editors, a woman who he chose as his first patsy because she had been loyal to him throughout his career, was voiced in the audio book edition. While it is difficult for an actor to differentiate between all the character's voices, I found it distracting that this publishing professional spoke like a bubble-headed valley girl. She may not have come across as quite so unintelligent and easily fooled in the Irving text, as she did in the audio version in which she spoke like an unreflective teenager discussing the latest MTV reality show. This seemed particularly unfair to this listener.
   
   So why were the McGraw Hill team so easily hoodwinked? I do not believe it was a simple case of greed and corporate stupidity. There was certainly some group-think and excitement over possibly having the coup of their careers might have clouded their judgement. But they were fooled for the same reason the story fascinates the reader-- who would have the audacity to claim to have written the autobiography of a living person and think they could get away with it? Only someone truly crazy would think that the living person and his organization would ignore such a thing. The unlikeliness of such a scenario is bound to make people believe. The lie is more credible than the truth.
   
   In the end, I was left with the feeling that the damage his caper caused to other people (with the exceptions of his wife and children) was more fictional to the author than the Howard Hughes he created in his mind.
   
   When he is asked if he would do it again, he says he would not. But his remorse is not for others. He says he would not repeat his fraud because "I have lost too much."
   
   I was taken by the audacity and cleverness of the hoax, and propelled by the drama, I would like to have had a more sympathetic main character. Of course, that is a lot to ask from a book by someone with the personality to pull such a thing in the first place.



2. Love him or hate him, Clifford Irving sure can write. The Hoax is an absolute page turner from start to finish; I am about three quarters of of the way through the book and counting the minutes until I can return home and dive into it again. Clifford Irving lived an incredible life even before turning to forgery: living on a houseboat in Kashmir, living in Mexico, a couple of European wives, an internationally famous mistress, and then fleecing a major US corporation. It is just a great read!



3. Well I can't review this book silly Amazon, your website is so non-surfer friendly I didn't see that it automatically defaults to my last SENT address, rather than MY current address which is my billing address. Would make sense don't you think to default to the billing address. So I never recieved this product. I'm still drilling for oil up above the Arctic circle (-60F), hope your car is running nicely.



4. A pretty good description of a con. The author details how he hoodwinked McGraw Hill and was eventually caught. The coup of this story is how far he was able to go with his cleverness.



5. Before James Frey bogus biography of A Million Little Pieces, there was Clifford Irving!
   
   Now unlike Frey, Irving tried to write an autobiography of Howard Hughes. In the 1970, Irving was a hack spy novelist and Hughes was a reclusive millionaire who was in hiding. Irving prayed upon the Cloistered Hughes mythos, thinking that he would never come out and state Irving's book was a fake and a fraud. However the literary liar was exposed for what and who he was...And It didn't take Oprah to do it!
   
   Irving's biography showcased how he and a few other did a bogus con game on the publishing industry, which amazed many..and still does today. His book is a great tale of how he perpetrated his scam. This book read like a mystery story, but its all true. What amazes me is that it really happened.
   
   Narrative talent Joe Barrett is a marvel at creating verbal characters that seem real. I know I have never heard Clifford Irving speak... but in listening to him create Irving on audio, i assume I have.
   
   The biography is better on audio. It give this book more diamensions to this literary shell game and will amaze the audio listeners. Barrett tone is fast paced. I do not know who the director of this production was, but I would love to shake his/her hand on a job well done.
   
   The Hoax is no lie..it is a true chance to hear a con man spit cider in your ear as he did with the press and the publishing industry in the 1970's. In the audio format, this memoir makes the listener a willing partner on the plans and keeps you riveted like a great mystery novel, but its actually happened.
   
   Don't be fooled, the Hoax is not a fix at all. It is a sure bet to get on audio
   
   Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

3 comments about Toppamono: Outlaw, Radical, Suspect, My Life In Japan's Underworld.

1. This is quite a good read which I can recommend to anybody who likes to read that genre which Japan produces so much of so well: The personal reminiscence. This particular one is penned by a chap who was able to make strides in two worlds, the so-called Underworld and the above-board one occupied by the likes of you and I. Author was born into a Kansai region Yakuza family of some means, albeit perhaps deplorable ones, which afforded him the opportunity to get an unusually good education despite his best efforts. This recounting is the fifty year trajectory of the man's life as he went from neighborhood tough to University-enrolled student activist (often of the most violent kind) to scandal rag newshound to General Manager of Yakuza-affiliated family construction (well, destruction, actually) business to Yakuza enforcer and point man to Bubble economics land speculater and enabler, to authorial spokesman for the Burakumin, traditional gangster and Third Country National minority. Although Mr. Miyazaki is not the most talented author, he is a wonderful raconteur with a gift for the nifty vignette that will often have you laughing or sympathizing with the subject of his little stories. The difficulty with this book is that there is a lot of information contained in it that has cultural taglines significant only to a Japanese of the author's era and while the Western authors tried to edit much of it out, there are large bits of the book that get bogged down in detail that make little sense to and hold less interest to the western audience. I am speaking directly to the authors years spent in protest whilst enrolled at Waseda University. I know from anecdotal experience that the student activism that occurred on Japanese campuses during the 1960's still has reverberations in Japanese contemporary culture, but much like the exploits of Weather Underground or the Berkeley Califorinia culture of the same era, this is historical ephemera that is hard-pressed to hold one's interest for long. Overall, this is definitely a worthwhile read, it would have been a spell-binding one if the author had chosen to go into more detail. H'mmm, and finally, this author does not entirely convince me that he is NOT the 'Fox-eyed Man' of the Morinaga scandal.



2. Toppamono is a speedy, exciting and somewhat bumpy ride through the first 50 years of the author's life as yakuza scion, student subversive, criminal suspect, paparazzi reporter and eye-witness to the expansion and eventual bursting of Japan's bubble economy. Although neither an intellectual nor a gifted writer, Miyazaki tells a riveting tale of postwar Japan as it successfully pulls itself out of poverty only to devour itself with greed. Like his life, his writing style is unpretentious and choppy, and he frequently flits back and forth between personal observations, historical events and the nitty-gritty now. However, there is method to Manabu, as he concludes in the Epilogue. And this is where things go a little bit loopy. Toppamono, one must not forget, was written for a Japanese audience, whose weltanschauung differs considerably from that of Americans and that of Europeans. Throughout Toppamono, Miyazaki's sympathy for Japan's gangster class is never far from the surface, and he frequently hints at an expanded role in society for the yakuza. In the book's Epilogue, he fesses up, describing the ideal future as one where the chivalrous yakuza will join with its Korean and Chinese counterparts to punch a hole in global Western culture and recreate a brave new world; and as one in which the scar-faced will rightly return to their roles as community cops and enforcers of corporate and political purity. Cuckoo. Fortunately, his sentimentality can be put down to his yakuza roots, and the reader doesn't have to take Miyazaki's opinions too seriously to enjoy what is a rollicking story and an important piece in the literary jigsaw of post-war Japan.



3. Toppamono is a Japanese phrase for someone who pushes ahead regardless. Miyazaki Manabu has been doing just that for the last sixty-one years -- regardless of the law, regardless of social convention, and now, alas, regardless of his readers' patience. Eighty-plus pages describing the student riots of the 1960s are used mostly to recount how the writer charged around Tokyo hitting people over the head with lumps of wood. Coming early in the 460-page book, this section presents a strong disincentive to finish it. But that's a pity, because there's some fascinating stuff later.
   
   And earlier, for that matter. Miyazaki's description of the milieu into which he was born is riveting. He was the son of a Kyoto gang boss and made his entrance back in the days when yakuza were mostly working men, tough and industrious. His father specialized in demolition and selling off whatever could be salvaged from the postwar ruins. To call the competition fierce is a serious understatement. It was as if the war was still being fought -- not the war against the Allies (interestingly, MacArthur and his army of occupation aren't even mentioned) but the endless skirmishing over limited resources which characterized so much of Japan's history. In the late 1940s they were scarcer than ever. The gangs staked out their own territory, and any incursion was a call to battle. Members would gather in the boss's house, dressed in black so the blood would not be visible if they were hurt, and turn the tatami over so they wouldn't slip. Armed with shotguns, bamboo spears, swords, and sticks of dynamite, they drank, and awaited the enemy's assault.
   
   It was an unorthodox childhood, and not surprising that Miyazaki turned out as he did, with a propensity to rely on violence and intimidation. His story has a larger-than-life quality, from bankruptcy and massive debt to the dazzling glitter that was Tokyo in the 1980s. "Beneath society's peaceful façade there is always a storm blowing," he writes at the end of Toppa Mono. "It tosses people together and reeks of sweat and cosmetics, sometimes even of blood. I have lived all these years thinking it wasn't such a bad smell." He has passed on a strong whiff of it in this book.

5 comments about Against All Hope: A Memoir of Life in Castro's Gulag.

1. Give a copy of this book to all your friends wearing Che t-shirts. After so many descriptions of beatings and hunger strikes, you become numb to the next ones. I recall the AI campaigns in the 70s-80s to send letters and postcards to the Cuban and Soviet embassies just to remind them that the world was watching. Sadly today AI has degenerated into just another wacko outfit. The UN comes in for a beating of its own in this book, as it just sat back and closed its eyes, passing resolutions against Israel and other nonsense instead of putting pressure on Cuba. This continues today with Zimbabwe, NK, and others.
   
   Take a look at "The Aquariums of Pyongyang" for a look at the same song, different verse.



2. Another Amazon reviewer got it right when he wrote that this book should be given to all one's deluded friends sporting hip "Che" T-shirts. This eye-opening, stomach-churning account of the author's 22 years in Cuban prisons, the conditions of which make Shawshank seem like a Club Med, demolishes the romanticized memory of "freedom fighters" like Che and exposes the lie that Castro's Revolution created a socialist paradise. And it highlights Communism's inability to understand or erase one of the most important traits of human nature: our hunger for individual freedom and personal dignity.
   
   Valladares wastes no time plunging us into a hell Dante himself could barely have imagined - on page one he is abducted in the middle of the night by the political police on trumped-up charges (having been denounced, he feels, by a jealous coworker for his disapproval of Castro's embrace of Communism), and before his prison odyssey is over, he endures and observes the worst extremes of totalitarian repression. The tension and the drama never let up, and often reach the breaking point. The litany of sadistic human rights abuses goes on page after page, every page; the degree of physical and psychological cruelty is so incomprehensible as to nearly defy belief. And yet Valladares and others maintain an almost superhuman strength of character and will to live that are inspirational and humbling. Amazingly, there are even flashes of humor and an ultimate triumph in this maddening and disturbing memoir.
   
   Against All Hope is one of the most gripping books you will ever read. It has a compelling social conscience and an inspirational message of hope, faith, courage, determination, and even love, and it will leave you with a changed perspective on yourself and the world.



3. A beautiful and terrifying memoir of Castro's Cuba. This man suffered unspeakable injustices at the hands of Castro's servants. The honesty and heartfelt memories of this man persecuted by the Communists is one of the best memoirs I have ever read. Wonderful testimony to the bravery and courage of the human spirit in the face of horrible odds.



4. I read this book in Spanish, in condensed form, when I was fourteen years old. (1987, to be exact) Twenty-one years later, I still think about it. It made an anti-Communist out of me, and made me absolutely abhor what Fidel and Raul have done to such a beautiful island as Cuba, and to its people, for almost fifty years.
   
   Sure, you might say they have "free health care". Trust me: they have paid a terrible price for "free."
   
   It should be a must-read, together with Vaclav Havel's essays, for those who need to know what Communism really is: the rottenness of the soul, and an ideology borne out of the bowels of hell itself. Nothing else can describe it.
   
   Viva Cuba Libre! (And this from a boricua.)



5. Mandatory reading for humans, along with Jorge Masetti's In the Pirate's Den, which allows to see the other side: the middle-class, comfortable punk turned communist, the appropriate accolyte for Castro's genocide.
   
   This book is a victory of faith and resistance against totalitarianism. Castro deceived the poor, the peasants of Cuba, he perverted the revolution those humble people were expecting. Castro had declared a thousand times that he was not a communist and that the revolution was "greener than palm trees", but when he got the power he proclaimed unashamedly the true nature of his beast.
   
   This books stands as an invaluable monument to the Cubans whom Castro broke but never bent. Those who refused to say: "Yes, Commissar, I have done wrong. I accept Political Rehabilitation because I see now that communism is the only just system, and it alone can bring happiness to humanity" (p.358).
   
   Notes on communism: "The authorities thought, moreover, that weeding out the cabecillas (leaders) would leave the less educated, less 'dangerous' prisoners, lacking leadership, easier to manipulate ... but if there is any ideology based completely on a misunderstanding of human behavior and the workings of men's psyche, their motivations, that ideology is without doubt marxism ... time would show that every man's conscience, system of values, and personal pride were what led him to resist. No man needed another to show him the way" (p.219).
   
   "A communist always seems to prefer an angry, blurted, uncontrolled manner (of speech from their opponents). The truth, spoken calmly to his face always exasperates him. As what I said was unarguable, the two men turned angrily and walked away." (p.477).
   
   I have to encourage the reader to get hold of this astounding book if only for the story of Alfredo Izaguirre (pp.239-242): "The only prisoner I know of who never performed any forced labor for his jailers -not even a minute's. It is fitting that his name go down in the history of the rebellion of the Cuban political prisons."
   
   On Castro's true revolutionary companions: (Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo) "led the bloody fighting against Batista's Army (in the mountains of Escambray), he had the sympathy of every peasant there -but Eloy had fought to establish a truly democratic system in Cuba, not another dictatorship. Therefore when he saw that Castro was becoming a tyrant, he fled the country; a while later he came back with a small group of armed men who tried to reach the mountains to continue the struggle. But he was trapped, captured and sentenced to 30 years in prison".
   
   "Rafael del Pino had been one of Castro's closest allies when Castro was in Mexico preparing the Granma landing. One night Castro confided his plans for Cuba to Rafael, and Rafael was so shocked at their totalitarian aspect that he abandoned Fidel. Castro never forgave Rafael that 'betrayal' ... Rafael was jailed". In 1977 he died in jail. "No one ever saw the body. The Ministry of the Interior flatly refused to turn it over to his family."
   
   "Ex-commander Mario Chaves, who had assaulted the Moncada barracks with Castro, been in prison with him, and accompanied him on the Granma landing, was brutally beaten (in jail) and literally dragged to the punishment cells" (p.458)
   
   Pierre Golendorf, a French marxist intellectual who had come to Cuba and worked for the Cuban government ... realized that the island was one big farm that Castro ran like a slave plantation ... he wrote letters about the lie the revolution had turned into ... the political police accused him, like everyone who stood up to the revolution, of being an agent of the CIA. He got 3 years and 2 months in prison. "The tribunals do nothing but read sentences (imposed by politicians)". Spain is not very different today. See how judge Gómez de Liaño was disposed of his toga for sentencing a big pro-government media shot (the El País media group).
   
   Children of the Devil: "One would naturally assume him to be a doctor, but he wasn't. He had been a traveling salesman for medical supply companies. This man, "Dr" Herrera Sotolongo, a Spanish communist, had fled to Cuba because of the civil war in Spain, and thanks to the solidarity of the Cuban revolution with Spanish communism, he had become chief of all medical services of all jails and prisons in Cuba. And you always had to call him doctor, or he wouldn't answer you. He knew nothing at all about medicine, of course, but he was a man the leader could trust." (p.233-234)
   
   The Western world's ignominious role: Conversation between Martha, Valladares' wife, and Pierr Schori, social-democrat big shot in Sweden: "-So if you know there's an implacable dictatorship in Cuba, if you know all liberties have been suspended, why don't you speak out? -Because that would be giving the Americans a publicity weapon." (!!) "Schori warned her not to speak to the press about this interview. Perhaps he didn't want to provoke Fidel."
   
   This undescribable book by Valladares, who should be the president of Cuba and give Castro a tour of his own jails and lacks, ends by remembering one of the anonymous victims in this genocide, a Christian martyr at his moment of death: "a heart overflowing with love, raising his arms to the invisible heaven and pleading for mercy for his executioners. 'Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.' And a burst of machine-gun fire ripping open his breast."
   
   Valladares writes beautifully, and even through all the horrors od more than 20 years of torture described here he keeps a tone of hope, of mysterious sanity and confidence all along, and which assures him that what he's doing is write, according to his conscience and to the power the Almighty God sustains him with. Why is this book unpublished in Spanish-speaking countries or so hard to find? That's another ignominy.

5 comments about Frank Nitti: The True Story of Chicago's Notorious Enforcer.

1. Author Ronald Humble mentions a number of things I wasn't aware of prior to reading this book on Frank Nitti. Humble mentions that Nitti was likely responsible for the hit on Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak in retaliation for Cermak's sending two men to eliminate Nitti. Giuseppe Zangara was chosen by the mob to assassinate Cermak because Zangara was in debt to the mob, and if he didn't carry out the hit he and his family would suffer torture and death. If Zangara did as the mob ordered, the mob would see that Zangara's family was taken care of in a positive way. Author Humble draws comparisons between the assassinations of Mayor Cermak and President John Kennedy. Zangara and Lee Oswald were both expendable. Zangara was quickly eliminated through execution, and didn't dare express what he knew due to concern for his family. Oswald was quickly eliminated by Jack Ruby. Author Humble also states Nitti was likely in on the rub out of despised enemy Machine Gun Jack McGurn, and north sider Hymie Weiss. The author wonders whether Nitti's death was a suicide or was he a victim of foul play. I would stick with a suicide due to his reluctance to return to prison. Finally the author spends quite a bit of time on Nitti as he was portrayed on television and in the movies showing how much coverage he was given in this area. When the author isn't sure about events in Nitti's life he makes sure to point that out. I found the book very worth while and one that should interest those who enjoy mob-related books.



2. Far too little research has previously been available about Frank Nitti, Capone's "Enforcer" and the public face of the Chicago Outfit after Capone was sent to prison, but anyone with an interest needs look no further than this book. Ron Humble, in what can only be described as an amazing researched book, has brought Frank Nitti back to life within these pages and has revealed the complex and contradictory gangster in a way that no other writer has ever been able to do. This is a highly readable (although filled with great detail) book that no one with a serious interest in the Chicago gangland era should be without. Don't miss this one!



3. Anyone with even just a passing interest in true crime in general or organized crime in particular will find this a worthy investment. It's the detailed and well-sourced account of Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti, who was Al Capone's consigliere and underboss and who took control of the Chicago "Outfit" in 1931, when Capone was convicted and imprisoned for ten years for income-tax evasion.
   
   Just a couple of years before that, Nitti masterminded the St. Valentine's Day Massacre when members of the "Outfit" disguised as Chicago police and detectives mowed down seven members of George Moran's North Side Gang. When the killers emerged from the scene, two of them had their hands in the air and the other two followed with machine guns at their backs; they escaped in what looked like a police squad car. You might say it was a pretty well planned operation.
   
   Author Ronald Humble provides an alternative interpretation of the events underpinning the murder of Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak in Miami, Florida, which is usually viewed as a failed attempt on the life of President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. Humble lays out persuasive evidence that the mayor, not the future president, was the intended target, as payback for an unsuccessful attempt on Nitti's life--instigated by Cermak--just two months prior.
   
   Particularly interesting to this reviewer are the parallels drawn between Giuseppe Zangara, who was executed for the Cermak assassination, and Lee Oswald the accused assassin of President John Kennedy.
   
   Nitti eventually killed himself (or so it seems) in 1943, because he couldn't face returning to prison, along with other senior members of the Outfit, on racketeering and mail-fraud charges related to extortion in Hollywood. Whether suicide or homicide, Nitti met his maker as a direct or indirect result of over-reaching himself, despite his cunning and high intelligence, an interesting reflection of the human condition.
   
   Although "Frank Nitti" is a name well known in popular culture, chiefly as a result of inclusion of the character in "The Untouchables" television series and Hollywood movies, Humble provides the real scoop: little of what we've seen on the small or big screen accurately reflects the man, his motives or his deeds. If you think you already know Frank Nitti, probably you still need to read this book.
   
   Appendices provide a useful chronology of the main events in Nitti's life and a detailed organizational structure of the Outfit during the years it was controlled by the Enforcer. There's also a comprehensive index.
   
   Highly recommended.



4. It's too bad that I had to give this book one star because my choice would have been none. While author Ronald Humble appears to be a thorough researcher he clearly is not a writer. This book just rambles with no direction whatsoever. As an example the author spends an entire chapter on the JFK assassination even though Frank Nitti had nothing to do with it. Nitti had committed suicide or was murdered (Humble never makes the reason for Nitti's death clear although he does like to make guesses) a scant twenty years before the JFK Killing. Humble also likes to name names as he repeats names incessantly throughout the book. At one point Humble chooses to name every single person that he believes Nitti may have murdered (Or had murdered) rather than just telling the reader the number of possible victims. The reader is bludgeoned with an information overload that is not put into any sort of workable order. The book does have one good point: It is certainly a cure for insomnia.



5. "Frank Nitti" (The True Story of Chicago's Notorious "Enforcer") by Ronald D. Humble is a superb and clinically crafted literary trail in persuit of historical footsteps from the notorious and infamous "Frank Nitti." Nitti was the successor of Al Capone's Chicago apparatus, a position he subsequently held from about 1931 until his death in 1942.
   
   The author's research points to the fact that Nitti's illegal interests and cladestine ventures went far deeper into the dark abyss of the underworld than Capone ever dreamed of! No one was exempt from his vendeta...including the mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak. Nitti's influence even cast it's dark shadow into the 60's some 20 (+) years after his death in the name of one, Jack Ruby (et al).
   
   Despite the fact that the author is a Specialist on International Security and Intelligence, one begins to feel that he may even start to sympathize with this master criminal about whom he writes.
   
   Frank Nitti's complex personality is somewhere between Machiavelli, Joseph Stalin, and Heinirich Himmler...all rolled into one.
   
   Sometimes however, the reader feels that he/she may be reading exerts from some Government Agent's legal manual on Organized Crime yet...tactfully combined with extensive historical layering of the Cosa Nostra and "Gangsterism".
   
   A well formatted and informative biographical piece with more than enough resource material for anyone interested in contemporary American Social History. Well worth the price!

4 comments about The Billy the Kid Reader.

1. I have been reading some books about Billy, but certain faces of his life are not showed and neither assumed about Billy.
   
   We have in the 1800's a society which is almost Mexican in New Mexico. The southern country is known by being religious. It appears that the descriptions are focused solely in the criminal side of the Kid while his religious preference by inheritance or environbment is not portrayed.
   
   It appears that he has a very good writing style, but there is no mentioning of what school or source for such capabilities over the "standard criminal" were adquired from.
   
   What churches were in those towns where he lived at? Which were the schools around? Knowledge was taught by the "medicine man" only? (pay no attention to my sarcasm)
   
   Even if this kind of research can lead to asumptions made about him, there is an imcomplete scenario around his life by the lack of this kind of information.
   
   The adquired sources about him are very good in oher aspects, but they seem to be directed as Billy the gangster only. Some sources of the book show the general scenario about the law in those times, the transportation and the migration to the South, etc. But, in those times there were Catholics, Baptists, and Mormons that might have had influence in the Kid or the people around him. I don't think that those old towns were filled by drunkers, prostitutes, saloons, post-offices and adobe buildings used as jails. There were other peole who also was there and used to study somewhere and practice their beliefs.
   
   Why is this so important? In reality it won't be essential to know about his religion or education, but this is the missing part about him that was an important part of the society in those years.
   
   Most of the books about Billy the Kid are similar to write the history of US without mentioning the influence of religion in its development, like to say that the Pilgrims arrived to US but without mentioning why they left England.
   
   A more complete view of its surroundings is still missing in this book.



2. There have been numerous books and films devoted to Billy the kid - but he still remains an elusive figure. Here historian Fredrick Nolan provides a synthesis of information surrounding Billy the Kid, offering up some of the best articles - some no longer in print - to provide a well-rounded version of not only the realities and history behind the figure, but how legends evolved around him from fictionalized accounts. An excellent addition for any in-depth American history shelf.



3. Mr. Nolan, who is considered by many to be the foremost authority on Billy the Kid, has compiled a selection of essays and writings about his legend and life. He begins with a dime novel that was published before Billy's death in 1881 and each chapter demonstrates the evolution of Billy's legend to more modern, historical research.
   
   In response to L. Carvo's review, this book is not meant to be an inclusive look at the life of Billy the Kid. It's a collection of rare and often out-of-print writings that is more appropriate for the serious student of the life of Billy the Kid. For those folks, this book is an absolute must-have.
   
   For those who have never read a book about the Kid I would recommend Mr. Nolan's "The West of Billy the Kid", Robert Utley's "Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life" or Jon Tuskas "Billy the Kid: His Life and Legend".



4. Nice book for those that want to learn a bit more about the history of the Wild West!

No comments about Bloodsworth: The True Story of One Man's Triumph over Injustice (Shannon Ravenel Books).