No comments about Do You Sincerely Want to Be Rich?: The Full Story of Bernard Cornfeld and I.O.S. (Library of Larceny).

No comments about Thirty Years A Detective.

4 comments about Vlad the Impaler: In Search of the Real Dracula.

1. I was very disappointed in this book. While the history sections are reasonably solid, the author falls into the usual traps whenever he tries to make links between the historical Vlad and the Dracula of Bram Stoker's novel. Numerous times he states speculation as if it were fact. Worse, he makes statements that any reader of the novel "Dracula" would know are ludicrous: for example, that at the end of the story, Count Dracula has a stake driven through his heart; or that Dracula is unable to function during the day. To be fair to the author, I plan to write him directly and elaborate on all the flaws I found in the book. Maybe in a second edition (if there is one) they can be corrected. In the meantime, if you are looking for a reliable book on Vlad without all the nonsense about his being the inspiration for Stoker's novel, stick with "Vlad III Dracula" by Kurt Treptow.

   Dr. Elizabeth Miller
   www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller [Dracula's homepage]




2. Expertly presented by crime writer and historian M. J. Trow, Vlad The Impaler: In Search Of The Real Dracula is an impressively researched, meticulously detailed, and superbly written study of the life of the ruthless historical figure whose memory and legend became the inspiration for the enduring legend of a blood-drinking, undead fiend. Yet there was a great deal more to this controversial prince (as vicious as he was), than what his legends say - he was, in historical fact, "more sinned against than sinning". Vlad had to contend with avenging the murders of his family, defending his nation-state from brutal enemies who took every pain to destroy his reputation, and who eventually became a defeated martyr, captured by the Hungarian King Corvinus. Vlad The Impaler is very highly recommended reading and a welcome addition to community library biography collections.



3. I am no expert on Dracula but my historical sensibilities have been offended by several serious errors in the text. Here are just two examples: on pages 9-10 Mr. Trow writes:

   "...Oliver Cromwell, whose head ... may or may not have been separated from his body..."

   It is a well-known fact that Cromwell's head definitely had been separated from his body, and found its lonely grave only in 1960.

   On page 123 we find the following fragment about Jan Zizka:

   "...he had fought for the Teutonic Order against the Poles...
   Losing an eye at Tannenberg in 1410 fighting for Wenceslas..."

   These two incomplete sentences contain four mistakes. First, Zizka fought FOR the Poles AGAINST the Teutonic Order. Second, he did so at the battle of Tannenberg in 1410, therefore he couldn't fight there for Wenceslas. Third, the unnamed battle from the first sentence and the battle of Tannenberg/Grunwald are one and the same event. Fourth, Zizka lost an eye in his adolescence.

   In short, this book could really benefit from knowledgeable editing.




4. Although the book has several chapters about vampirism and Bram Stoker's Dracula, the remaining chapters about Vlad Tepes are very detailed and a good read. Vlad surely was one of the most cruel tyrants ever and his atrocities are described with much detail. Contemporaries wrote about the "untold abuses, sad murders and mutilations by the cruel tyrant Dracula" and the author discusses the sources and their reliability by their level of interest in blackening Vlad. According to Trow, many of Vlad Dracula's acts can be interpreted as efforts to enforce his own moral code upon his country and to strengthen and modernise the central government at the expense of the nobility, because they had repeatedly undermined the power of the Wallachia's rulers (and buried alive his elder brother).
   An interesting section describes the `usual' way of impalement and the most likely way used by Vlad in the case of mass impalements or when a mother was impaled together with her baby.

2 comments about Perfect Villains, Imperfect Heroes: Robert F. Kennedy's War Against Organized Crime (Capital Classics).

1. Overall, too much emphasis on Goldfarb, and not enough on Kennedy. The description of his work in Newport is somewhat dull. However, his thoughts at the end about the JFK assassination connection with organized crime are interesting.



2. Ron Goldfarb's "Perfect Villains, Imperfect Heroes" is an insightful analysis of the RFK led Attorney General office investigation of the mob. Part memoir and part history, you feel like you are part of the action when you read this interesting book.

5 comments about Prison Of My Own: A True Story Of Redemption & Forgiveness.

1. I couldnt put this book down till I got to the end. It is a life changing story of hope and forgiveness. By never giving up, you can heal and you can bring a family back together again after what seemed would be impossible, at one time.



2. This is a courageously written memoir that bares a woman's soul, an entrancing read that is difficult to put down. Diane Nichols writes this book for any of us who have faced the unforseen, who have longed to speak the unspeakable, who have ached to say what we want to keep hidden in the very depths of our being. By putting into words her deepest thoughts and feelings, she lends courage to the reader, to carry on when life seems unbearable, to live, as she herself says, "a life of redemption and forgiveness." This tale is a deeply personal story with universal themes that can redeem us all from the prisons of our own judgements and doubts. Thank you, Diane!



3. Diane Nichols' scathingly honest portrayal of betrayal and forgiveness is a cautionary tale. When good people do bad things, how do we react? How do we get past the pain and get on with our lives? Though Diane's story is very personal, the life lessons in the book are for everyone.



4. Much like the other readers, I could not put this book down. From beginning to end it had my utmost undivided attention. Diane's story was so moving and intense. I couldn't get it out of my mind for weeks. An amazing story of an amazing woman and her power to overcome what some may consider impossible. This book is a great inspiration for those who doubt the power of forgiveness or feel that they can never forgive. This book will truly inspire you.



5. It is a true story. Diane writes with a style that captures your imagination. After my husband read it, he kept referring to is as "the movie". I understand. One can picture the characters, even understand them. Because Diane described the players in an honest and compassionate way, it's easy to imagine forgiving any of their weaknesses. One benefit of describing people that way is that one can identify with each of the characters. We all have our "addictions", our sins, our struggles. Even if we have overcome them sooner, so as not to get caught, we can know just what it feels like to be in this story. In understanding all of the actors in this play, I have learned that others have emotional pain, too, not just me. Diane is the author that should write biographies, and not waste too much time on fiction.

5 comments about Rock Hard: Autobiography of Former Alcatraz Inmate Leon "Whitey" Thompson.

1. I am still shocked that it took me 11 years to finally open the pages to this book, but when I did I never put it down, Why you might ask? Whitey is cold, hard and calculating throughout the book, never giving into anything and showing the reader into the mind of a hardened criminal. I for one have a better knowledge of what life was truly like in Alcatraz, if just for a period of five years. If you want to read a book cover to cover in one day, pick this book up, and i know you will want to buy Merry go Round, which is the conclusion of Whiteys life in and out of prison until now. By the way, Whitey has really turned his life around, and I am proud to have met him.



2. All I can say is that it is amazing!!! I first read this book like 6 or 7 years ago when I was 15 or 16. It was the first real book(not assigned for school)I read all the way through without losing interest. I love Alcatraz and this book gives a very revealing account of what life was like. Thanks Leon, if it wasn't for you I may have never found the joy of reading!!!



3. This book is a page turner and it offers an unique insight in the life of a convict on Alcatraz. I found it fascinating and hard to put down. The book is also exceptionally well written, I really enjoyed reading it.



4. Leon "Whitey" Thompson shares his experiences serving time in what is undoubtedly one of America's most (in)famous prisons, Alcatraz aka The Rock. To better put his time and personality changes there in a clear perspective, Thompson also tells of his tortured childhood at the hands of an abusive alcoholic father and the criminal exploits it led him to and which subsequently got him into prison. Using the third person narrative, Thompson paints himself as a dangerously volatile man prone to violent outbursts of temper. It is these outbursts that landed him on The Rock, but it is there that he overcame those troubles and attempted to turn his life around. Sadly it was not to be, Whitey returned to prison one more time...

   Rock Hard is an engrossing read that is a tad melodramatic. At times it reads more like a dimestore pulp novel than a true to life account, but the old cliche 'life is stranger than fiction' should be kept in mind. Thompson details how life in prison can be a maddening repetition of the same boring routine, one that can drain the sanity from you. Yet it can also contain moments of humanity and humor. After reading the book I can feel nothing but respect for Thompson and what he has managed to accomplish in his reformed life. Highly recommended to True Crime buffs and those interested in studies of prison life.




5. I bought the last train to alcatraz when my Wife and I were on our honeymoon. The author was on the island signing copies so I bought one.
   I have been a big prison movie fan for years, shawshank did it....
   
   I wish I had read the book before we went there so I could have had a chat with the author for longer than I did.
   
   I see he re issued it with a new name, but had the decency to put on the cover "formerly known as The last train to alcatraz" which saves people forking out twice for the same book.
   
   I just wish Norman Parker had done that when he reissued the parkhurst tales books. I bought tales 2 as well as more tales and very nearly fell for it again with life in the goldfish bowl/living with killers/in the company of killers which is the same book.........
   
   My wife has just got me a copy of the alcatraz merry go round for xmas and having just had a look on google I see Whitey has passed away, so there is no chance I will be able to get this one signed.
   
   It is a shame, he wrote a good book.

5 comments about The Strange History of Bonnie and Clyde.

1. This is one of those books I rated much more highly when I first read it years ago. It's a "strange history" indeed. It's not always a "straight" history, anyway, dwelling more on psychological speculations about the personalities of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker and on the growth of their legend (with comparisons to older historical and/or folkloric figures such as Jesse James, Robin Hood and even King Arthur) than on a straight recounting of the facts. Movie buffs will be fascinated with the many motion picture adaptations of the Bonnie and Clyde story and that is an interesting segment which Treherne rightly confined, for the most part, to the appendices. He did leave out the 1949 film They Live By Night (Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell as Clyde & Bonnie clones) and its 1970's remake Thieves Like Us (Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall) but until Treherne's book I was completely unaware of either the 1939 film Persons in Hiding (one of four bearing this title and based in equal parts on both Bonnie and Clyde and Kathryn and George "Machine Gun" Kelly) or of the 1983 Italian comedy version. But, judging from the title, this book was supposed to be a biography of Clyde and Bonnie and a history of their criminal career. So it is, but little is to found in the historical narrative that is new. Most of it derives from previously published sources such as Jan Fortune's Fugitives and Lee Simmons' Assignment Huntsville, the former an error-ridden work based in equal parts on the recollections of Bonnie's mother and Clyde's sister and (uncredited) on a series of 1934 True Detective articles by Joplin Chief of Detectives Ed Portley, the latter valuable mainly for Simmons' recollections of the Eastham prison break and his recruitment of Frank Hamer and for the statements of gang member Joe Palmer. The confession of W.D. Jones is cited in the bibliography but Treherne seems to have read very little of it. The confession would have made a wonderful appendix, by the way, possibly with comparisons to Jones' 1968 Playboy article, of which Treherne seems completely unaware. Not that Treherne didn't do original research. The chapters on the Stringtown, OK shooting and the Platte City, MO gun battle are based largely on interviews and seem to be accurate accounts. It's a pity he didn't cover the other sites this way. Treherne apparently got no closer to Dexter, IA, the gang's Waterloo, than Des Moines, and missed a lot there. He missed out also on Okabena, MN, the site of a bank robbery Treherne, like previous and later authors, attributed, probably erroneously, to the Barrow gang, and the death site in Louisiana. Details of the final ambush seem to come mainly from the transcripts of Henry Methvin's Oklahoma murder trials and the flawed Ambush account--the ghosted memoirs of Ted Hinton. There is no evidence Treherne ever went near the death site in Bienville Parish. Still, the whole book is an enjoyable read and Treherne wisely used less commonly seen photos than the dozen or so Bonnie and Clyde pix seen in most books on the infamous duo. It is an admirable and worthwhile book. One only wishes it was the straight historical record the title implies. One cannot pschoanylize the dead and the best authorities for the love life of Bonnie and Clyde--whatever the details and whatever dubious historical significance that may entail--died with them. And the growth of the Bonnie and Clyde legend is more suited to a study of folklore than a straight biography.



2. WELLL THE BOOK I READ ABOUT WAS SO COOL AND INTRESTING.EVENTHOUGH I ONLY READ A FEW PAGES .I GOT A FEW CAPTATIONS OF THE BOOK ...BASICALLY THE BOOK WAS ABOUT,HOW IN THE LATES 1930'S TWO TO LIVE THEIR ROMANCE BY MAKING CRIMES...THE CHARACTERS OF THIS BOOK WERE BONNIE PARKER AND CLYDE BARROW..WHO WHERE A YOUNG SOCIOPATHIC SOUTHERN COUPLS GUNNED DOWN BY AUTHORITIES AFTER TWO YEARS OF CMMITING CRIME, WHO LEFTED 12 PEOPLE DEAD.THE BOOK WAS ALSO INTRESTING BECAUSE I WAS ABLE IMAGING AND PICTURE MANY OF THE READING THAT I WAS MAKING ....I WOULD RECOMMENED TO READERS WHO LIKE TO READ ABOUT CRIME, TO READ THIS BOOK BECAUSE IT S VERY MYSTIRIOUS AND FUN. THE AUTHOR TELLS THE WHOLE UNEDIFYING STORY FROM WRETCHED CHILDHOOD TO WRECTCH DEATH, BLOODY FAME AND WITH CLARITY, LEVEL HEADEDNESS AND WITH ECONOMY.



3. It is great to read how Bonnie and Clyde were able to escape from the law over and over again untill they were gunned down in 1934. They were nothing more than two amateurs who were incredibly lucky.
   
   In the 1967 film there is a scene where they try to rob a bank, discovering that it closed three weeks earlier. Up to now I didn't realize that this actually happened, which shows how well prepared they were commiting these bank robberies. Although the film is pretty accurate, this book gives us more information about the famous couple. It shows how they became legends in American crime history, and became even more famous after their death.
   
   True crime lovers should read this book, because although they were amateurs, they are probably still the most famous couple in the world.



4. This is my first book on these two and it will not be my last. There is a good bibliography provided to follow up sources of information and other books. As well as being a history book the author delves frequently into his reflections about what made Bonnie and Clyde tick. The author seems determine to provide psychological profiles at regular intervals throughout the book to explain Bonnie and Clyde's actions and decisions and almost tries to get inside their minds. At times l thought why does he bother at others l thought he made some interesting comments. Mr Treherne does a good job of explaining how the folklore of these two developed over the years and endures to this day. Even here in Australia a lot of people know about Bonnie and Clyde, though mainly through the Faye Dunaway movie.
   
   He covers their childhood and family life very well and provides plenty of details of the harsh, poor economic times they lived through and the circumstances of their late teens that led to their fateful meeting which developed into an enduring bond and progression into a life of crime that spiraled into senseless violence and devastation of so many lives. Sometimes there is too much psychological speculation and not enough history as the book seems to skim the surface in some areas and could have dug deeper into the history of Bonnie and Clyde, but the photos and newspaper headlines of the time are great. This book is worth a look!



5. Not as great as I was hoping it would be. Have read better written books on the couple and I have read most of them available.

No comments about Boxman: A Professional Thief's Journey.

5 comments about When Money Grew on Trees: The True Tale of a Marijuana Moonshiner and the Outlaw Sheriff of Madison County, Arkansas.

1. Although it can't be said if everything in the book is true, knowing Madison County and Sheriff Baker I venture to say that most of the book is true. Once started it is very hard to put it down. Since the book is no longer available it was pure luck that I was able to obtain one. Now, I'd love to see a second book come out to tell us why there is a law suit for this publication, why it was yanked from the shelves and WHO was so offended by it to cause this to happen.....someone in a high place I can only imagine.....What an interesting real life 'soap opera' in our little community of Booger County.



2. As for the story, I think it's a bit far-fetched...But, being from 'Booger' County, I am tempted to believe most of it...

   My main problem with this book is the writing. I truly think that I can find a word spelled incorrectly on at least 85% of the pages. Was there an editor?




3. Good reading for a redneck who lived in Madison County.



4. I loved the way the story was told. I was a former Madison County resident that turned to worse drugs that David Mac wrote about and walked away from them before things got so bad but truly believe they are as bad or worse than he depicted. I witnessed them first hand!! I also witnessed the way back roads Madison County lives and LOVED it. I would return in a heart beat if the situation came back to me. I wish he would write a book about those people who did walk the straight and arrow path after going through what we have went through and now that he is in that situation, maybe look into book #2!! I didn't know it was pulled from the shelves but thank God I got my copy before it did. What's up with that?????!!!!



5. I first wanted this book because I read some select excerpts on his website www.whenmoneygrewontrees.com and I liked what I read. I first bought the book because I was captivated by the whole scandle with Ralph Baker and all the drug money. When I first started reading the book, I was truely amazed because this all happened in my back yard. He wrote about people I knew and even my girlfriend's grandma and aunts & uncles. When I liked only 72 pages to read in the book, I invited David Mac to a benefit pie auction for one of the Cousins that he wrote about in the book. Well, Mac showed up and bought many pies and sold books. He donated all the profit from the books to the Cousins and also held a book signing. So, please buy this book...you won't be sorry. Its the best book I've ever read.

No comments about Outlaw Tales of Wyoming: True Stories of the Cowboy State's Most Infamous Crooks, Culprits, and Cutthroats.