No comments about Viva Elfego!.

5 comments about Elmer Mccurdy: The Life And Afterlife Of An American Outlaw.

1. Svenvold's book adds little, if anything, to the body of facts surrounding McCurdy's brief criminal career, and his much-longer postmortem career as a sideshow attraction. Early on in the book, the writer admits this.
   Nevertheless, it is entertaining reading, as Svenvold retraces McCurdy's pre- and post-mortem travels in the manner of a New Journalist.
   His reportage about the world of the carny and sideshow makes the book worth reading, but if you are seeking anything NEW about McCurdy, this is not the place to find it. Some readers may find Svenvold's writing a bit too self-conscious, and indeed there are passages in which it appears that Mark Svenvold, not Elmer McCurdy, is the subject of the book.
   Buy it anyway.



2. It's not often that one sees a biography written in such a literate, even poetic manner. Mr. Svenvold has taken the tale of the hapless outlaw, Elmer McCurdy, in a new and interesting direction: rather than reporting his life and times (and ignominious post-mortem "career") in a cut-and-dried manner, Mr. Svenvold has woven an incisive, at times deadpan-hilarious commentary on the fading Wild West, the rise of sideshows and exploitation flicks, theme tourism and other illustrations of just how low the entertainment taste of the American public can go. Notwithstanding Mr. Svenvold's concerns that he was just another in the long line of the day-glow corpse's "exploiters," he has written the equivalent of a decent burial for poor dead Elmer. Highly recommended.



3. What a crazy mixed up pile of stuff! I like Westerns,Ripley's Believe it or Not!,truth is stranger than fiction stuff,unusual characters,history,oddities,greatly miss the old freak shows that travelled with the carnivals,real life outlaws,and you name it.History is full of this stuff and to me much more fun to delve into than fiction.While the author didn't seem to come up with too much on old Elmer;probably because his short and non-illustrious produced very little;he sure found enough to spin around what he did have to create a good interresting read.I believe the period after the Civil War until the start of the 2WW produced some of the most interresting characters and times in American history.That was all before the do gooders, politically correct,boring and otherwise anal-retentive got everything under control.But then again, they probably prefer reading about some corporate business scam to the gangster days of Capone and all. Since this was the first thing I've read by the author I'll be looking to find something else from him.From what he did with this story I am sure he'll be giving us some more good stuff in the future.



4. Poor Elmer! This is one of the most fascinating books I have read in a long time. If you are interested in the history of the amusement business; old west; mummies; trains; outlaws;
   this book is a must have! This book is easy to read and has quite a lot of photograhs.



5. I was given this book as a gift for my birthday by a friend of mine who said that it was one of the weirdest books that he has ever read. He was right. The story of Elmer McCurdy is definitely a weird and truly American one. This should make a great Tim Burton/Johnny Depp movie, although it would be difficult to pull off the task of having the main character be a corpse for 70%-75% of the movie. Reading about how poor Elmer failed in his crimes made me LOL as the 21st Century cliche goes and reading about his strange afterlife and how he was exploited by generations of hucksters was interesting to say the least. Even though Elmer (or his corpse) had a minor part, it was facinating to read about the Bunion Derby, the only cross-country foot race. All in all, a very good read.

No comments about Tempest over Teapot Dome: The Story of Albert B. Fall (Oklahoma Western Biographies).

No comments about Black Eyes and Blue Blood: The Amazing Life and Times of Gangster 'Scouse' Norman Johnson.

5 comments about Flim-Flam Man: The True Story of My Father's Counterfeit Life.

1. Jennifer Vogel's dad was not like other dads. Sure he loved Jennifer and her siblings, remembered birthdays, took them fishing and on vacations. But John Vogel was a criminal, a conman and a crook. In FLIM-FLAM MAN Jennifer Vogel shares the story of her complicated relationship with her father --- his life of crime and secrecy, his affection for her and his bloody death at the end of a police chase almost a decade ago.

   Estranged from her father for years when he died, Vogel's guilt and sadness fuel this memoir. And so does her love for him and her understanding of his outlaw ways. She tries to get closer to him by examining his childhood (his father was absent and his mother emotionally distant) and his other relationships. Still, this is not a family history in the traditional sense. Vogel gives the reader sketches, impressions of her family more so than details and facts. The result is emotional, fascinating and quite personal.

   Vogel's parents divorced when she was a child. Her mother, left to raise three children alone, was the disciplinarian. Her father's mystique grew. The children spent summers with him, driving in his fancy Cadillacs, spending time at his cabin, entertaining guests and having fun. But over the years Vogel pieced together truths about her father. Her mother told her early on that he was delinquent in his child support. To Vogel, his gifts and personality seemed to make up for this somehow. Yet how was she to balance out his other crimes such as arson? And how was she to make sense of the fact that her father had served prison time as a young man for a violent crime? Or what about his justification to rob a corporate retail chain for sociopolitical reasons by creating and passing counterfeit money? Or the armed bank robberies? How could his rap sheet sum up the creative and eccentric man she knew and loved?

   It is not just Vogel's father's faults that are laid bare. Jennifer Vogel exposes herself as well. Despite his shortcomings, or perhaps because of them, Vogel felt a propinquity with her father's life of crime; she understood the need to subvert the system and had a distrust of authority. She eventually channels those tendencies in a way her father was never able to, and as she grew up she steered clear of the choices and mistakes her father made.

   Moving between childhood scenes and 1995, the year her father was on the run from the FBI and Federal Marshals, Vogel tells the tale of her family with honesty and even humor. At first glance this appears to be a family unlike most, but she proves they share much in common with families across America. FLIM-FLAM MAN is the poignant story of a challenging father-daughter relationship. It is also about the struggle for the American dream: in John Vogel there was a not uncommon sense of alienation coupled with the not uncommon sense of entitlement. Here we read about a man who makes disastrous and dangerous choices his entire life, yet is also a loving and charming father. It is easy to understand why Vogel is so conflicted about him.

   This is not exactly a book about forgiveness or recovery or anything quite as simple as that. Jennifer Vogel's short book is emotionally complicated but a joy to read. Both the joy and the complication seems a fitting tribute to the man presented in its pages: a loving and lovable father, and a career criminal. FLIM-FLAM MAN is a moving, interesting and highly recommended debut.

   --- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman




2. What I thought would be a kind of cute, whimsical tale about a lovable rogue and his gifted but troubled daughter turned out to be the most compelling story I've ever read about the complex and often conflicted relationships between parents and children. The author is an extremely talented writer who is not the least bit afraid of exploring those internal areas that are sometimes better off ignored. I laud her for sharing so much of herself and her family, and only hope that writing this book was as cathartic for her as reading it was for me. It is rare that a book has such a profound effect on me, but this one blew me away.



3. Gorgeously written, highly compelling. Jennifer Vogel is a deeply complex woman who understood her deeply complex father in a mystical way. This book is riveting. I read it cover to cover in one sitting. One of the best memoirs I've ever read, right up there with ANGELA'S ASHES and CHANGE ME INTO ZEUS' DAUGHTER.



4. A brilliant book that captures the essence that both good and evil exist in a single person. A criminal and con-artist who is an enemy to victims is a loving father and husband away from that life. It has the same complexity of character that Rikki Lee Travolta used to dissect the actor's life as both nepotistic and self-aggrandizing but counterbalanced with fear and insecurity in his book "My Fractured Life." Jennifer Vogel's dissection of the real man behind the conman is just as moving and equally as poignant. A highly recommended book.



5. It shows the reality of the depression and how americans were never the richest nation. It reminds us of our roots as well as a warning message about our values while it is also often humorous.

2 comments about Hello Charlie: Letters from a Serial Killer.

1. As far as true crime goes, this book was quite a disappointment. It wasn't particularly gripping, it doesn't draw particularly strong portraits of the victims, and even the three self-appointed cold case detectives seem a bit dull.
   
   Among other problems in the text, there is entirely too much background information given for each person working the case. I started skipping many pages of this material because it simply wasn't interesting. The writing style of the book just wasn't gripping, and a great deal of material could have been cut out. The narrative gets quite sidetracked more than once.
   
   And some words on the "serial killer" label on the title page: it's there to sell books. The detectives were unable to locate or identify many of the victims pointed out by Browne (the killer). In fact, the impression I got from this is that Browne, like some other killers before him, was playing with detectives, upping the number of so-called kills in order to get attention and privileges. Browne is an unreliable speaker, and you begin to feel that the narrator is unreliable just for telling you all of this without ever taking a long, long hard look at Browne's credibility.
   
   While it seems likely that Browne killed multiple times, the book makes little effort to apply psychology to why Browne claims all of these kills now. Most true crime readers are probably used to a bit of psychology in their reading, and they should be warned that it is quite absent here. This is much more of the old-fashioned-detective-work, gumshoe, knock-on-doors (no CSI) approach to crime-solving. Such a book could have made for a very intersting departure from the norm, but, again, for the reasons listed above, it does not. A little psychology would help shore up the book's crumbling foundations.
   
   Another warning to true crime fans: you're probably used to seeing pictures of the detectives, snapshots of the victims while alive, perhaps crime scenes. This book has no photos. I'm not trying to be ghoulish; I'm just pointing out a departure from the norm.
   
   All in all, this was not a satisfactory experience. A week after reading the book, I can recall only a few details about the central victim and can say very little about the killer. What I do remember is frustration with the text and annoyance with the detectives' seemingly endless credulity.



2. Books on serial killers are hardly rare, and most of them are written in a novelistic way that causes them to sensationalize the crime. This book is not your average true crime story, and rather than titillate the reader, it provides insights not usually found in most books of the genre.
   
   The book begins by detailing the disappearance of Heather Dawn Church from her home in the suburbs of Colorado Springs. It details the efforts to attempt to find her and the person responsible for her abduction. From that point, it shifts to the lives of the three men who would ultimately come together to work as volunteers on cold cases.
   
   After a relatively brief view into the apprehension and conviction of her killer, as well as his appeals, the book shifts focus again and begins to look at the aftermath of the crime. Robert Browne, who pled guilty to her murder, sent an interesting letter to the DA after he had lost all courtroom battles. The letter suggested that there were more bodies to be found, and that Browne was the responsible party.
   
   The book is a wonderful look at the way a crime is solved; not with bells and whistles, but with long, hard work. It is also a look, in depth, into the game of cat and mouse that is played by the hunted and the hunters. It offers an interesting look into the mind and psyche of a serial killer.
   
   There are no pictures, and this is not a "sensational" true crime story. Rather it is a methodical look at how police work is done in the real world. An excellent read, if you are not looking for the titillation factor.

5 comments about All God's Children: Inside the Dark and Violent World of Street Families.

1. Portland, Oregon and street kids.....gone wrong. The sadness of what can occur when parents do not accept the reasonability of parenthood and think more of themselves..... and our youth end up under the bridge,gone astray. Following the "parents" of the street, all the while longing for a home life. Reality at its best. A great in site to today's street kids.



2. Having many years experience working with youth on the streets I have yet to come across ONE who has chosen a life of homelessness. While Denfeld writes of one horrifying situation she unfortunately connects this violence to all street youth. However, this is dangerously wrong, and paints a demonizing picture of youth who are surviving on the streets against all odds. There is already a stigma regarding homeless youth, and I fear Denfeld is perpetuating a damaging myth that these youth are from loving homes and choosing a life of homelessness...All she is doing is harming an already vulnerable population, and swaying the public from supporting their own children. Most of the youth I work with on the streets are there because their life at home was shockingly abusive, and the streets were safer. They are survivors in every sense of the word, they are nonviolent, often working, intelligent and engaging individuals who daily fight against a society who finds it easier to judge them than to realize the alarming rate of family trauma that is forcing children to leave their homes to search for safety on the streets. As a society we need to come together to allow these children to reach their amazing potential, not blame them for having been born to unsafe families. Yes, the story Denfeld wrote of is tragic, but it is so far from what happens on the street she was wrong to imply this violence as the norm. The streets are not fun, simply surviving day to day is no life, it is not a glamorous existence, it is often frightening, frustrating and painful. Anyone who asserts that youth chose a life on the streets is sadly misinformed, and I believe choosing to remain ignorant because they are simply not strong enough to realize how many thousands of children have been thrown in this country.



3. I really liked this book. It opened my eyes about the life on the streets of Portland and answered questions about things I always wanted to know. This book is well worth reading.



4. I think it's very important while reading this book to remember that the author is writing about ONE part of the population of homeless youth. Keep that in mind, and absorb the knowledge.



5. Rene Denfeld does an excellent job showing us how foreign the street kid culture is from the society that surrounds them and how easy it is for new kids to fall into it.
   
   In college, I volunteered at the Covenant House. Every Thursday from 7-10pm we would drive around the worst parts of Houston handing out sandwiches and juice packs to the homeless and letting them know that any homeless kids were welcome back at the Covenant House.
   
   What impressed me the most was how different the homeless adults were from the teenagers. The adults were what you would expect homeless to be like. Some depressed, some hungry, some listless, some drunk, some too embarrassed to tell their kids they were living on the streets, usually grateful for a sandwich or a clean pair of socks. The kids on the other hand were on an adventure. None of them ever came back to the Covenant House with us. They always had someone to stay with, or a car to ride in to Las Vegas, ... places to go, things to see. And they never seemed hungry. Full of hope. And then I would listen to them talk and be just horrified. I will always remember the conversation between two fifteen year old girls, with babies in their laps, talking about the job they had the night before at a strip club. The way they had been treated was inhumane. (I tried - unsuccessfully - to get all my friends to avoid strip clubs in Houston forever.) Yet these girls just took it in stride. At the time, I thought it was because they were kids and kids had more hope and maybe more strength and flexibility. After reading Rene Denfeld's book All God's Children: Inside the Dark and Violent World of Street Families, I now think it's because they live in an alternate reality, a completely different culture, than the rest of us. Rene Denfeld describes the completely alien culture of street kids in a way that not only made sense but completely matched what I saw. It was fascinating and terrifying.
   
   As a side note, Rene blames many of the agencies that help street kids for promoting the street kid culture. By providing them food and resources they enable the street life - large groups of kids with nothing to do except hang out and create their own rules. Very harsh and violent rules.

5 comments about Mob Cops.

1. this book is not written very well. the auther chose to jump back and forth with the time line going from the 60's to the 80's back to the 70's and so forth. this happened every couple of pages and becomes very distracting and does not flow. very irratating.



2. It is an interesting topic, but the book was written in such a hard way to follow that it is simply not worth reading. Hopefully someone will do the better job with this material in the future.



3. GREAT BOOK! I GOT LOST IN IT. BEST BOOK I READ IN A LONG TIME. I GUEST YOU GOT THE IDEA.



4. Mob Cops is the story of Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, two highly decorated and respected New York City police detectives. During their careers they found themselves eventually working with and for mafia bosses across the country as they moved from New York to Las Vegas.
   
   This book tells the story of two cops, but also goes into vivid detail regarding those who were secondary players in the drama that would eventually lead to their downfall. Via flashbacks from the 60's, 70's, and 80's, the author attempts to show the interrelated stories of several characters in the criminal world who moved in and out of lives of these police. Through these contacts, they found their way into a world of money and power. With this power came the ability to do things that merely being a police officer would have never allowed.
   
   The book is interesting, but in reading the book you should be prepared for the often, and sometimes swift changes in time and location. While it is a bit confusing at first, the huge leaps from period to period slow and become more linear, making it much easier to follow the action.
   
   While reading the book you begin to realize that, as others have said before, there is a fine line between being a good cop and a good gangster, with both sides putting to use the same abilities and tactics.
   
   If you are looking for an in-depth look into the criminal world, from the lowest soldier to the mafia boss, this is a book that gives a portrayal of how the machinations of every member of an organized family can have serious ramifications throughout their entire world.



5. I was (no pun intended) blown away by Mob Cops. Smith's writing, pace, and character development makes the book transcends the genre. The book provides an amazing, in depth portrait of humanity (granted, in many cases, of its lowest form), with stunning detail, arch humor, and behind the scenes knowledge of the inner workings of the mob, NYPD, and FBI.
   
   Once again, a great book. I coudn't put it down.

5 comments about The Case Against Lucky Luciano: New York's Most Sensational Vice Trial.

1. This excellent work on the Luciano prostitution trial opens the eyes and minds of readers to the bittersweet victory the fallen ladies had courageously obtained by bringing Lucky Luciano to pay for his sins. Read about the inner workings of 30's sex trade through it's pimps, bookers, enforcers and the main players; the ladies and madams.
   
   Ellen Poulsen has a writing flair that keeps readers glued to the pages. I found myself learning more about the seedy part of the underworld that I never bothered to explore. Besides her relentless research, Ellen has including many interesting photos of the vast cast of characters that grace this fine work. Many mughots!! Ellen has a gift for writing and it shows. She connects with her subjects and puts a human side to these lost souls. Outstanding foreword by the great Rick Mattix!
   
   It's rare that I enjoy a good book, and this is definitely one of them.
   
   
   Mario Gomes
   Founder of Myalcaponemuseum



2. Even if you're not especially interested in the life of Charles "Lucky" Luciano or the celebrated vice trial which resulted in his conviction and imprisonment in 1936, this book should be read by any serious crime historian if only for its authenticity. Ms. Poulsen is to be commended for the meticulous research she so obviously put into this work. She provides plenty of biographical information concerning the faceless thugs, madams, prostitutes, bookers, crooked politicians, bail bondsmen, and disbarred attorneys who figured so prominently in New York City's flesh trade during the Twenties and Thirties. As far as I know, she is the first author to dispel the oft-repeated report that Luciano was present when police arrived at a Coney Island restaurant following the assassination of Joe "the Boss" Masseria (he was not), and she sets the record straight on other gangland fables which are too numerous to mention here. "The Case Against Lucky Luciano" is, in my opinion, what a true crime book should be. Case closed.



3. This book is divided into three parts. The first covers prostitution in New York City during the 1930's under Lucky Luciano. Included here is the downward spiral and degradation of the women involved. Part two covers the women who testified in the trial involving Lucky Luciano and his cohorts. Part three is devoted to what became of those involved in what the author calls "New York's Most Sensational Vice Trial." I found part two to be somewhat beyond my interest trying to keep track of all those involved. However, that's my fault not the author's. Luciano was sentenced to 30-50 years in prison in 1936, but was paroled and deported to Italy in 1946 for his and others cooperation in providing Italian intelligence in World War II. He later appeared in Havana, Cuba, but was deported from there following pressure from the United States government. The book is a quick 200 pages, and confines itself to the degradation of the prostitution trade in New York and its accompanying trial involving Luciano. This is not a biograhy of Charles Luciano. If you are a gangster buff this book rates a place in your library. As an aside there is a new book out entitled Mafia Allies by Tim Newark which deals with "America's secret alliance with the mob in World War II." I haven't read it yet, so I am unable to provide an evaluation.



4. Finally something new and interesting for the Luciano shelf! "The Case Against Lucky Luciano" is certainly not another rehashed biography of the oft-discussed crime boss. Expertly written, carefully researched and well considered, it is a detailed analysis of the vice trial that finally put Luciano behind bars.
   
   This work reveals the methods used by racketeers, including Luciano and his close underworld allies, to organize and monopolize prostitution in the New York City region. In addition, it sheds new light on the actions of law enforcement and personnel from Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey's office, some of whom employed exploitive methods similar to those used by the racketeers when dealing with the female witnesses in the case. Finally, it also provides a frank look at the witnesses themselves - prostitutes, madams, drug addicts.
   
   Author Ellen Poulsen (who also wrote "Don't Call Us Molls: Women of the John Dillinger Gang") probes deeply into the lives and careers of such personalities as "Cokey Flo" Brown, Jennie "the Factory" Fischer and Peggy "Wild" Ventimiglia. While discussing the profound mistreatment of the female subjects, Poulsen keeps her distance and avoids becoming judgmental or preachy. Her objectivity actually serves the subject far better, allowing the numerous offenses against the women to accumulate and develop into condemnation within the mind of the reader.
   
   There is also plenty in this book about Luciano, himself, and about colleagues like "Socks" Lanza and "Tommy the Bull" Pennochio. Poulsen explores the working relationships between the gangsters, as well as Luciano's later wartime partnership with the United States government.
   
   The book itself is well designed. It has an eye-catching cover, an easy-on-the-eyes type and plenty of photographs. Researchers will also be happy to find endnotes and a bibliography. The book also features 12 pages of index, though this could have been more helpful with subentries for the often referred to subjects. (The Luciano entry, for example, references 113 out of the possible 246 pages in the book.)
   
   The Case Against Lucky Luciano is recommended for those curious about Depression Era organized crime, the plight of the women who - willingly or not - became involved with it, or the careers of Mafia bigshot Charlie Luciano and Special Prosecutor Thomas Dewey.



5. "The Case against Lucky Luciano" is a stunning portrayal of the vicious New York underworld of the late 20's and early 30's, and the blatantly corrupt police and judicial system which fostered it. Ellen Paulson has justly earned a position as a historian of this amazing era. She describes in vivid detail how perfectly normal and innocent women were snared into the Kafkaesque bonds of the "white slave trade," made dependent on drugs, and forced to have sex "15 to 20 times a night," sharing the $2 fee with their pimps, bookers, madams, and the higher criminal hierarchy, ultimately headed by Salvatore Lucania, Lucky Luciano. Paulson describes, as though she had witnessed the action herself, the cleanup of the Tammany machine, the firings of the corrupt officials, the arrests of the criminal protagonists, and the remarkable trial, featuring the prostitutes themselves as the key witnesses. We see the early career of Thomas Dewey, whose visibility in this case vaulted him to political prominence, and ultimately to the governorship of New York State. And whereas some of the previous coverage of these gangsters in the popular press and in the entertainment industry has tended to glamorize them, or overlook their subhuman brutality, Paulson portrays them exactly as the witnesses themselves testified. These aren't the wiseguys of popular fiction, they are the killers, extortionists, rapists, kidnappers and torturers of that particular non-fiction called history. Ms. Paulson's scholarship is also apparent in the 12 pages of endnotes, 7 pages of bibliography, and 42 historical photos and illustrations. "The Case Against Lucky Luciano" is not only informative and historically rigorous, it is also a compelling read.
   
   Ellen Paulson is the daughter of a New York cop, and her admiration for the law enforcement fraternity is apparent in her writing. In recent years she has taken a table at the Independent and Small Press Book Fair, held in December in New York, where you will find her happy to discuss and sign her book.

5 comments about No Lights, No Sirens: The Corruption and Redemption of an Inner City Cop.

1. This book relates the authors experiences in the N.Y.P.D. from his days as a rookie at the Police Academy thru his early career as a gung ho idealistic officer and then his frustrations dealing with the mopes and low lifes in the toughest parts of Brooklyn. Did he at times step over the line? Well, if so, I'm glad he did. Unfortunately, with crime friendly juries often selected in N.Y.C. sometimes such conduct may be for the greater good of society.



2. What a great recounting of a career spent trying to get true bad guys off the street. It's no wonder Cea butted heads with the desk jockeys on the force.
   
   A must-read for anyone wanting to see what now-Yuppie Brooklyn was like in its former incarnation.



3. As a sworn police officer I always have to wonder, at what point will America get enough of this garbage? Robert Cea, if his account is to be believed, is a criminal. The fact that he did what he did while wearing a police uniform is irrelevant as far as that's concerned. Men like him are a disgrace to all the officers who actually do their job the right way. I'm sick and tired of hearing the excuses. "My pay is low", "The Job doesn't care", "Crime was here before I came on, and it'll be here after I leave" etc. This man is, by his own admission, guilty of perjury, assault, conspiracy and a host of other crimes. He writes about routinely violating the rights of individual citizens, but that's A-Okay because they're bad people and because he includes the obligatory handfull of lines about his struggles with what kind of man he's turning into. You know what? That doesn't cut it. This book isn't about redemption. It's about Robert Cea making money by entertaining people with an account of his criminal behavior and sexual antics. While performing law enforcement duties I have been cursed, attacked with weapons and all the rest. I've never used it as an excuse to line my pockets or lie under oath. As the old saying goes "Adversity does not build character, it reveals it." Robert Cea went to Brooklyn and was faced with a daunting task. In the end his character was revealed and it was non-existant. Don't line the pockets of a corrupt cop. You can find it funny or amusing while you're reading this book in your living room but if you ever got pulled over by a police officer you wouldn't be laughing if it was a man like Robert Cea.



4. What makes No Lights, No Sirens the ultimate cop memoir is the brutal honesty and depth of storytelling by author and former NYC cop Robert Cea. Hold your breath and hold on to something comforting, because Cea is about to pummel you with the anxieties, fears, and and tragedies that made up his tenure as a NYC cop.



5. This book is fairly darn good. As an ex policeman myself I understand his dedication to the job. The book also shows the side of him that makes him a human. I think this book is a good read.