No comments about Viva Elfego!.

3 comments about Black Bart Roberts: The Greatest Pirate of Them All.

1. Everyone's heard of pirates Captain Kidd and Blackbeard - but history buffs may be amazed to learn these famous pirates only took about thirty ships between them, whereas Black Bart Roberts alone took more than four hundred ships in a brief period of time. Terry Breverton's Black Bart Roberts is 'must' reading for any interested in pirates and American nautical history: first-hand accounts, court documents, and maps accompany a fascinating bit of piratical history on the high seas.



2. First of all, the last reviewer pretty much just repeated the book description that's printed above, and the one on the book's back cover. Second of all, the book doesn't even get to Black Bart until page 64! Until then, it's about Captain Howell Davis, and several other captains. Why, I have no idea! I've always loved pirate movies, and pirate stories, so I thought it would be fun to get a few books, and read up on the old scallywags. Now I know we aren't supposed to like pirates. Afterall, they stole, killed, and raped among other things...all bad. But even knowing all this, most of us are very intrigued by them. Perhaps because they're dangerous and unpredictable, and they play by their own rules. Because pirates are so charasmatic and exciting, I didn't think it was possible for a pirate book to be boring, but this one is! I'm sure the author is a nice man, and I'm sure he tried hard, but this book is hard to follow, and completely lacking in excitement and good old fashioned story telling. This reads like a narrative time line, and a very confusing one at that. The first two chapters leading up to Black Bart are incredibly hard to get through, so by the time you finally do get to him, you're so confused and exhausted, that you really don't care anymore. I've read other pirate books, and it is possible to give facts, be descriptive, and also entertain at the same time. This book bored and frustrated me. I was ready to feel like I was in Black Bart's boots from beginning to end, for all the excitment and stories, but that never happened. I suggest you do yourself a favor and look up 'Black Bart' and see what other books are out there. But please, skip this one. It was so bad, I didn't even get through the whole thing.I'm sending my copy back for a refund/credit.



3. Black Bart Roberts: The Greatest Pirate of Them All is a great historical pirate book!! Black Bart was the most sucessful pirate of all time... not the most notorious, yet the most profitable pirate of all time. He acquirred more boats and booty than any other pirate in history! Another must for pirate buffs like myself!

5 comments about World Encyclopedia of Organized Crime (Paragon True Crime Library).

1. I don't think there has to be much explanation here. I've been studying the American Mafia for a couple of years and I have never seen or found such a variety of information. I have movies and books alike and I have to say that this is probably my best investment in any book or movie I own.



2. Truth in advertising? This is solely about the U.S., with a very few token entries on people and place outside it. Nothing on the Triads, nothing on the Golden Triangle, nothing on Marseilles or Hong Kong, nothing on modern international gangs such as the Jamaicans or Nigerians, etc., etc. I returned my copy to Amazon in great disappointment. If you want biographies of some U.S. figures (only some: nothing on Harold Meltzer, for example) with ugly pictures, this might be of some use. But it's solely oriented to personalities, not to analysis



3. Trying to find a good reference book about organized crime? Want one at a good price? Jay Robert Nash has created the perfect book for you with World Encyclopedia of Organized Crime from De Capo Press.

   The over 600 pages of the Who's Who in organized crime is covered in an A to Z format. From Joe Adonis, Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Bugs Moran and so many others, you'll find the fascinating stories and cross-references.

   You may find other books more detailed, but I have found this book to be complete in the overall number of people covered. The book is an easy read and the index makes it easy to look up anybody or any topic.

   You'll be hard pressed to find a better value for your money. About the only thing missing is a cd-rom software application.




4. While its some feat to assemble this amount of information in one boopk, the author never actually goes out to check the accuracy of the data. This causes many factual mistakes to merge. Some are very basic, such as the statement that Jack McGurn was born in Chicago, rather than in Sicily. In a field like this, where errors are commonplace, you need a book that tries to get the truth about personalities and events if its not to be just another myth-spreader. This sadly isn't it.



5. Nobody can claim as much accomplishment and detriment in the genre of true crime reference books than Jay Robert Nash. Over the course of over forty years and seventy volumes, Nash has repeatedly ripped off consumers by intentionally planting disinformation in his (otherwise exhaustively researched) books in the course of inept attempts to, as he phrases it, "detect any unauthorized use or duplication." As a strong supporter of individual property rights and a copyright enthusiast, I find Mr. Nash's paranoia and greed to be appalling. And in this book, like so many others, his inane tactics yield a reference material littered with inaccuracies.
   
   On the other hand, it's not as though this would be a scholarly resource if Nash were principled. While it's well-organized and quite entertaining, this condensation of Nash's six-volume "Encyclopedia of World Crime" is written in a slightly melodramatic style. Despite its' faults, the scope of this book's content is impressive; it documents a wide variety of individuals, organizations and events in considerable detail.
   
   Unfortunately, this book is also hopelessly outdated. Published in 1993, no mention is made here of the Russian mob that's engaged in massive international criminal affairs to enormous profit since the Soviet Union expired.
   
   If you want to learn about organized crime, read scholarly resources concerning specific phenomena. This book is fun and even informative to a point, and it makes for compulsive reading, but Nash's idea of what constitutes legitimate reference material is just criminal.

4 comments about The Trunk Murderess: Winnie Ruth Judd : The Truth About an American Crime Legend Revealed at Last.

1. THE TRUNK MURDERESS: WINNIE RUTH JUDD,by Jana Bommersbach. Winnie Ruth Judd never stood a chance in Phoenix, Arizona for justice. I read this book and now everytime I drive by the State Mental Hospital on Van Buren Street in Phoenix, I think of all the years that Winnie Ruth Judd spent there. This author's brilliant and time consuming research, plus she actually visited and slept at Winnie Ruth Judd's apartment and got the "true" story of all that happened from Winnie Ruth Judd, herself. The story took place in 1931, long before Phoenix became a major city, and is one of the most bizarre stories I have ever read. This is a fascinating story, and I could not put the book down until I had read from the front page to the last page.



2. Back before the Manson Family or OJ, there was Winnie Ruth Judd...the famous murderess who is still a household name for anyone over the age of 90 (just ask my grandmother!). This is a wonderful chronicle of the fascinating true crime case...vivid and immensely readable!



3. the first book on the Judd case "Winnie Ruth Judd: The Trunk Murderess", is a better read than this one, probably because it's authors were screenwriters. But Ms Bomersbach's book has far more information, much of it new and some culled from personal interviews with Winnie Ruth Judd herself! The author is a top notch researcher to be sure, but not a great storyteller. This book works best as a supplement to its predecessor; I think of them as a set, and with Amazon's used book section, they will both be available for years to come for only a couple of dollars each. Note: Get the Sanctuary paperback reprint of this book--updated after Winnie's death, it has more pictures than the hardcover and an expanded text.



4. Being a native of Phoenix Arizona, I found this book very interesting and it tells what makes the most sense. The frightning story and distasteful jokes of Winnie Ruth Judd has been told and re-told for years. "The small beautiful trunk murderess who killed two people..chopped them up..loaded them both into trunks...and took them to LA on a train......alone!!" This never did make sense to me. Except for a few secrets Winnie kept until her death...this book explains what happened.

5 comments about Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War (Vintage).

1. For a period ranging from about 1950 until 1970, Werhner von Braun was the face of space exploration, an articulate spokesman who also brilliantly orchestrated the huge Saturn rocket program.
   
   Yet the Von Braun who occupies the pages of Michael Neufeld's book is an often passive figure. A space dreamer who grasped the opportunity to work for the nascent Nazi war machine as a way to advance his hopes for rocket research. The man who managed to bring the V-2 rocket from nothing to full production, yet acquiesced in the use of concentration camp workers to bring that production about. Even as a driving force in the U.S. space program, von Braun rarely issued commands, preferring to arrive at a consensus among his Huntsville colleagues.
   
   Neufeld does not shy from tying von Braun to the attrocities at the Dora Mittleworks yet leaves you convinced he was not actively involved in them. Instead, he turned a blind eye to the practices while he focused on his overarching goal -- to produce a rocket and fly to the stars.
   
   Though hardly soft of von Braun, Neufeld stops short of labelling von Braun a war criminal. "He only wanted to go into space," he writes, quoting the common refrains. And Neufeld wisely notes that the United States entered its own Faustian bargain by embracing the Peenemunde team to advance its own "amoral concepts of the national good". So for that matter, did the Soviets. As the old saying goes: Our Germans were better than their Germans.
   
   This is Neufeld's second book on the V-2 and the Peenemunde team, following his earlier "The Rocket and The Reich," which focused more on German motivations for staring and pursuing the V-2 program and the internal politics that surrounded that program. This shows in the writing. The parts dealing with Germany and the V-2 program are very strong but Neufeld slips at times on some aspects of the U.S. space program. He has von Braun bidding on the Hubble Space Telescope in 1963. At best, that was only a paper study, the central thesis of which evolved into Hubble 20 years later. Ironically, the Hubble contract was eventually won by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, the very center von Braun was competing with in 1963.
   
   There are still questions worth exploring on this period of space history.Were the Paperclip scientists purged in 1973 due to emerging reports about their Nazi involvement? Neufeld doesn't think so; Huntsville had developed an aging workforce as von Braun attempted to preserve his team. NASA eventually remedied this through massive retrenchments. Yet the timing still seems suspicious.
   
   And study is needed of ongoing American space work prior to the arrival of von Braun's rocket team and how these diverse concepts eventually coalesced. The U.S. began studying the concept of reconnaissance satellites in the lates 1940s and U.S. rocket designers in California often derided the Huntsville team's products as "bridge construction." The Californian' light, cutting edge design have primacy in today's space arena yet the Germans' sturdy designs got us to the Moon and rarely failed. Von Braun, it turns out, was not a fan of the space shuttle.



2. Sadly this is the same old BS against the German people, written I would guess, by a Jew or a self-hating German. Don't take my word for it, look for yourself. Here we have a book that purports to be a definitive work but is just full of unsubstantiated speculation from the author. Just look at page 145 for example: "Recent research has demonstrated that the mass shootings of Jews in the East were widely known among the German populace." Now, I'm no Holocaust denier, but to say this kind of thing is just irresponsible. What "research" is he talking about? He doesn't say. Does the author really believe that the average citizen had access to this kind of information? He admits that listening to foreign radio was "dangerous" but what he should have said that if you were caught you could be killed. And who have believed BBC radio anyway? Did any of our guys believe Tokyo Rose? How many average citizens went to check up on their local Japanese concentration camp during WW2? No one who wanted stay out of a camp themselves, that's who! Do I know what is going on right now in Cuba? Or in CIA camps in Poland? No I don't, and neither do you. The same was true with the German people, and I'm tired shabby "research" from people like this guy. I want my money back!



3. ...''Nazi, schmazi''. Said Wherner von Braun. ''WHERE THE R0CKETS G0 UP, WH0 KN0WS WHERE THEY C0ME D0WN, THAT'S N0T MY DEPARTMENT!!!''



4. Neufeld inadvertently provides evidence that the Apollo moon landings were a hoax. Chapter 15 describes an absurdly misorganized, disorganized and impossible schedule that reduces the actual time to build and test hardware to a mere five years. Piled atop the emerging anomalies of impossible moon footprints absent moisture binder, suicidal moon rover wheelbase for 1/6th gravity, persistent lack of information regarding the workings of nickel porous plate water sublimators, ridiculously small fuel tank for the 10,000 lb. LM ascent vehicle required to climb 60 miles to 4000mph, silence and absence of ESA SMART-1 lunar survey photos that don't reveal Apollo landing sites, etc., Neufeld's book would be better if it honestly explored Von Braun's masterful ability to lie both to Hitler and the American people while ironically serving them thus to fulfill their eager delusions.



5. "Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War" was a very interesting and informative book. I have only now discovered how controversial von Braun's life was from these Amazon reviews as well as from this book. While this may be sad commentary on my narrow view as an engineer, I always admired von Braun despite knowing that he worked for the wrong side during the war. Before I really get into the fray let me just say that this book appeared scholarly, well written and should be read by admirers and critics of von Braun.
   
   I felt this book contained almost too much detail, and often found myself "speed reading" over certain details of his family life but never those concerning his controversial life. I believe this fine book was the result of a fairly unbiased point of view and find myself agreeing with the book's closing remarks.
   
   I was also very saddened to read that great efforts were made by his influential friends to convince federal authorities to award his life's work with some grand gesture. It was further saddening to learn that several figures in government circles having the power to influence this decision refused to do so because of his early work in Germany. It is only clear to me now that von Braun was never completely forgiven for developing the V-2, and only permitted to use his talent for our side during the cold war. Perhaps he should have been greatful for that alone, but I believe he wished for much more.
   
   When he was finally awarded a great civilian medal for his technical and managerial accomplishments (by President Carter), the man who received this hard won gesture was a fragment of his former self. He was described by friends as a "skelton wrapped in skin" while enduring relentless pain under the equivalent of hospice care. Of course, camp workers were denied anything like hospital care, but I really feel he paid the ultimate price we all must, and with what I believe was a heavy heart. He must have understood full well that he was never forgiven for his early work and probably never would be. He ultimately suffered a painful and protracted death of cancer.
   
   As an individual inspired by von Braun's accomplishments I think he made as great an impact on the history of space and rocket research as one person could possibly accomplish. He had a grand vision of man's future in space, and shared that vision with all of us brilliantly. We were made a part of his dream and I believe the country remembers how special those days were as we closed in on the moon. The price he was willing to pay to accomplish his personal goals for that future supported war efforts in two countries and pushed the barriers of technology. That, in part, is the reason the author calls him the Faust of 20th century. He is acknowledged by everyone to have been a compelling public speaker, a talented engineer and an excellent manager, but I think he was also a very great American.

No comments about Columbine High School Massacre: The FBI Files.

1 comments about Want Some Aggro?: The True Story of West Ham's First Guv'nors.

1. As if we need another book about violence?
   Get a life and go out one night in your town centre - kids are killing kids!
   This book is all Watch With Mother meets Jackanory.
   If you've read one Cass Pennant book, you've no need to read anymore - not that you'd want to ... Charles Dickens he ain't.
   What with Charles Haughtry on the front cover. A right couple o' Charlies, they make.
   Same ol' same ol'.
   Millwall, West Ham, then maybe Portsmouth (in that order); we all know where the so called hard men of football violence come from.
   Not for real football fans - and quite frankly Bermondsey ruled the roost, not Bethnal Green.
   A lot of poetic license has been used to pep up most of Smiffy's stories - and a fair share of Tom Peppering too.
   What is it about East Londoners and their obsession with telling all - no wonder `Bertie' Smalls and most other London supergrasses come from that manor.
   Mile Eng Mob? Bunch o' crowd punchers more like.

4 comments about When You Read This They Will Have Killed Me: The Life and Redemption of Caryl Chessman, Whose Execution Shook America.

1. Only now, some forty-five years after the barbaric execution of Caryl Chessman, Los Angeles' so-called, 'Red Light Bandit,' are we introduced to the man behind the myth. Bisbort brillantly mirrors Chessman's real face. Over a dozen years, on death row, we hear the voice of a soul on fire begin to cool and mature as it seeks light and finds true personal redemption. Alan Bisbort's sensitive historical postmortem stands in service of the truth."
   
   Steve Hodel, author of Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder



2. Alan Bisbort has delved deep into heretofore unplumbed archives to present a solid, nuanced portrait of a compelling American anti-hero: a small-time career criminal who never killed anyone but wound up being executed anyway by the state of California for reasons that, in hindsight, seem driven mainly by public hysteria and political calculation. The injustice of his execution is one matter, but what really drives Bisbort's narrative is the fascinating tale of Caryl Chessman's jailhouse redemption. During a lengthy internment preceding his trip to the electric chair, Chessman transformed himself into a legal expert and a literary figure of renown. Bisbort delves into Chessman's interior psychology, and the reader feels as if he or she is in that dim San Quentin cell with Chessman as, for the first time in his misspent life, the lights come on and burn bright within his fertile brain. It's a remarkable tale that is ripe for rediscovery in our present age, given all the debate about the death penalty. And it would make a great movie, too. Sean Penn as Caryl Chessman, perhaps?



3. I was given Mr. Bisbort's "When You Read This They Will Have Killed Me: The Life and Redemption of Caryl Chessman, Whose Execution Shook America" as a gift, and what a gift it was. I have read many books related to the tragic nature and ultimate futility of capital punishment, but not recently. One reason, perhaps, is the dry, "cookie-cutter" publishing approach to the re-telling of these stories. One reviewer stated, "At times the spirited defense engages in hyperbole--for instance comparing Chessman with Alexander Solzhenitsyn--rather than just letting the facts of the case make the powerful argument." It's that exact sentiment that had me drifting away from the genre. Rather than re-tell a story by rote, Mr. Bisbort's lively take is sprinkled with a treasure trove of historical and pop culture references. Also, rather than having the typical all-in-one photo section, Mr. Bisbort's book is illustrated throughout with a wide range of photos, news clippings, book cover art and illustrations. All of these elements, combined with the sad tale of Mr. Chessman, make this book a true page-turner.



4. Fine read. Makes you think hard abouth the Death Penalty

No comments about Families of the Jailed.

2 comments about Crusader: The Hell-Raising Police Career of Detective David Durk.

1. David Durk did not fit in the NYPD of the sixties and seventies from the start. A tall, wiry, Jewish college graduate-- it never quite seemed that Durk was going to be a typical cop; and he wasn't. Durk was to be a true Crusader, along with his acolyte and friend, Patrolman Frank Serpico, Durk the Idealist would go on to expose the massive amounts of corruption that lay undisturbed, rife within the NYPD. Durk's obsessive love of the truth and his equally obsessive love of policing led these dramatic changes. The NYPD is less corrupt today than it was thirty years ago, and we have David Durk to thank for that. This book retells, in startling detail, the methods which Durk employed to achieve his goal; to rid the NYPD of corruption.



2. David Durk is a crusader in the best and worse sense of the word. He relentlessly fought for justice, despite the apathy and corruption of the New York City Police Department. For his noble efforts, he was rewarded with a partial pension, a long list of powerful enemies and an exile in upstate New York. It is a travesty that someone who devotes his life to helping people would receieve such horrible treatment himself. This book made me angry and sad but also hopeful that someone like David Durk exists to fight the system. I hope one day he wins out.