1 comments about Photographic Whitewash: Suppressed Kennedy Assassination Pictures.

1. This is the most misrepresented book I have ever seen. There is no way "photographic" applies here. It is a case of blatent false advertising.

2 comments about R.F.K. Must Die! Chasing the Mystery of the Robert Kennedy Assassination.

1. "RFK Must Die?"Chasing the Mystery of the Robert Kennedy Assassination
   By Robert Blair Kaiser
   The Preface discloses how Kaiser became involved in the "Sirhan Defense Team" shortly after June 5, 1968, when Robert Kennedy was assassinated. Kaiser was there on a daily basis, his presence so evident at Mayor Yorty's first press conference, on page 60: " `The Rosicrucians aren't a Communist organization,' I said." Surprised, I said, "Kaiser was there. He just wrote "I said" to the mayor. And then I was with him in a patient, careful telling of the book's subtitle: Chasing the Mystery of the Robert Kennedy Assassination. He took me back with him to 1968 and 1969, day by day, page by page, on each of his interviews -- one-on-one -- with Sirhan, consultations with the psychiatrists, investigations and all the other help he himself gave to the three lawyers defending not the crime, but the rights to a fair trial. Kaiser, while in the story, does not intrude in the telling of the "Mystery," always staying in the background, giving the principals center stage, be they for the prosecution or the defense.
   This book has been with me since it arrived from Amazon: on a vacation trip, at the barber shop, waiting in a clinic for tests. I was there in that kitchen at the Ambassador squirming as others wrestled with the diminutive Sirhan, reaching for his hand with the gun, hoping, screaming that someone could bang his hand on the table hard enough to make him drop it before his bullets found Kennedy and five other persons. Before I began reading Chapter 1, though, I read and reread the Appendix containing photocopies of Sirhan's handwritten spiral notebook journal with its repeated phrase over and over "RFK must die!"
   The writing is alive, set in the "Now" of "Then." Impressive are Kaiser's knowledge and understanding of what lawyers do, whether prosecuting or defending, his grasp of psychiatry and the law, and his ability as an historian, nurtured in journalism since the early 1960s. He has a unique talent in bringing his readers right into the everyday details of a mystery being told as it happened. This is a fascinating, amazing work of wonder, written in such a way that the reader can't speed through it the way we do with a P.D. James novel, scurrying to get to the end where she tells us who did it, because Kaiser is describing each day or week after June 5, in a slow, careful, wide-awake way that shows he was there. Besides, readers know how the case against Sirhan ended.
   And yet and yet I sneaked into Wikipedia to make sure, and found out that his next parole hearing is not until 2012. So, I kept on reading, wondering what was going to happen next, aware that I was back there on a day certain and had to wait for time to unfold. I was being taken along on Kaiser's own work with the defense team of lawyers and doctors and sheriff's assistants, as Sirhan smoked away, while the whole world was asking, "Why? Oh! God! Why?"
   Thank you, Robert Blair Kaiser, for writing this book.



2. Well I have a little first hand knowledge regarding A man named Edward Van Antwerp in this book. The author implies he is somehow involved in a conspiracy. I'm sure the author knew better. Edward Van Antwerp was my brother-in-law and nothing could be further from the truth. He was nothing more than a pathetic, drunken loser that was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had been thrown from his family home and by some terrible....really terrible luck, he ended up rooming in a flop house with Sirhan. He was more concerned to learn Sirhan was Homosexual than an assasin.

5 comments about THE LAST TSAR: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF NICHOLAS II.

1. This was a great book written during the time that the Romanov bones had been uncovered. It gives an interesting portrayl of Nicholas and Alexandra. Most interesting of all is the love story between Nicholas and his former mistress, Mathilde Kschessinka, who years later would meet a woman claiming to be the daughter of the Tsar (Anna Anderson) and she would recognize her as his daughter because of the 'Emperor's look'.
   
   It is somewhat dated however. Since this book has been published, Russian and American scientists have argued passionately amonst themselves as to whether the remains of Grand Duchess Marie or Anastasia are missing. Then the bones were tested for DNA and proved a match and then they were compared with the tissue of Anna Anderson 'proving' she was not a Romanov. However, these tests are not as valid today as they were then. For more on that, visit my website: http://www.geocities.com/anastasiagrandduchess/
   In 1998, the bones were interred in the Cathedral of Saint Paul, although the Russian Orthodox Church rejected the authenticity of the remains.



2. With Radzinsky the art comes before the history and that's why this is my favourite addition to the "Romanov canon". This is not to overlook how thrilling in terms of new material "The Last Tsar" was when it was first translated and published (the "Yurovsky Note" comes to mind), and all those lovely until then unknown archive sources. These opened up new avenues of thought and allowed Radzinsky to theorise in a way I found compelling. Except, how much of it could be trusted?
   
   This is the problem with this subject in total. It's an epoch in recent history in the process of being re-constructed, after 70 years of communism in effect shut Russian imperial history down. A detailed picture of imperial Russia at the end of empire is in the process of being written. But in Radzinsky's account I caught the flavour of the times and that's more important to me than measuring his facts, weighing his sources. Most serious readers on this subject know enough in 2006 to discount the more imaginative flights in this book, and for everyone else it's a glorious, rackety, heart-rending read.



3. The history is all there in detail. Very interesting, particuarly if you are into tzar history like I am. However, the book is really hard to read. It usually takes me no longer than a week to read a book, but this one actually took me almost 2 months.



4. I absolutely loved this book. Once I started reading, I couldn't put the book down. This was the first biography about Tsar Nicholas II that I had ever read. It gives excellent background information about the country, its history and the politics, so even if you're not at all familiar with Russian history/politics, you can still follow. Excellent purchase!!



5. A man is sitting at a book-covered table in the Central State Archive of the October (1917) Revolution in Moscow. The surviving diaries of the last imperial family of Russia are there, unclassified at last. Reading them, his thoughts carrying him back and forth in time, the man is moved when he finds pressed flowers in the journals of the tsar's daughters: "Souvenirs of a destroyed life".
   
   Edvard Radzinsky is that haunted man, sitting at a table strewn with memories of a broken dynasty. "The Last Tsar" is the product of his research and his sadness. A playwright, Raszinsky is well-qualified to explore the human depths of the lives of Tsar Nicholas II, his family, and the others who were part of their doomed world.
   
   The book gained a great deal of publicity when it was first released here for its sensational assertion that two of the family may have escaped execution on that terrible night in 1918. And this work of popular history merits the attention. This book is likely to become the definitive work on the last years of Tsar Nicholas II and his family.
   
   Rarely is a work of history so beautifully written, so thoroughly researched, and so permeated with emotion and insight. A great debt is owed to the translator for her lyrical and poetic voice while retaining a sense of historical authority.
   
   Radzinsky's attitudes and feelings are juxtaposed with those of the two main characters of the story-- Tsar Nicholas and his queen, Alexandra. The inclusion of the author's feelings is unorthodox in a historical work however, in this case, it's a success and it offers a perspective that is both personal and realistic.
   
   The tone of the book is conversational rather than scholarly. It is not difficult to imagine Radzinsky weeping as he sits at the table covered with diaries, though he does not say he did. Certainly, the depth and honesty of his feelings are so evident that we find it difficult to hold back tears ourselves as the tragedy of the Romanov family unfolds.
   
   Radzinsky has a deep respect for the dead Tsar and his wife, but he clearly loves those children. They are the classic innocence, doomed by the destruction of their grand and insulated world.
   
   In the early 90s, exhumation of what is assumed to be the family's grave revealed only nine skeletons. Although the accepted number of victims has always been put at eleven. Even more recently, two bodies were found nearby to the execution site and burial site that some experts believe to be the missing bodies.
   
   The book and the forensic examination raise again the persistant belief that not only the Princess Anastasia, but also the Tsar Evitch Alexi, heir to the Russian throne may have survived the execution. However, these most recent exhumations near the main burial pit appear to show that neither Alexi nor Anastasia survived.
   
   One of the participants in the execution later wrote that Alexi and his four sisters remained alive after the shooting had stopped.
   
   "This had amazed the Commandant", he wrote, "since we had aimed straight for the heart. It was also surprising that the bullets from the revolvers bounced off for some reason and ricocheted, jumping around the room like hail."
   
   That night, the children were wearing clothing into which the family diamonds had been sewn. Seeing that the bullets had not done its jobs, the killers decided to finish off the children with bayonets. A strong, although essentially circumstantial case, is presented that Alexi and Anastasia may, in fact, have survived.
   
   This conclusion appears to have been recently overturned by the finding of the two bodies near the main burial site.
   
   "The Last Tsar" was written as the Soviet Union, the author's homeland itself, was collapsing. The two Russian Revolutions, those of 1917 and 1989, are often intertwined in the book. In the lonely archives and libraries of a dying country, Radzinsky fell into a no-man's land of historical whirlwinds where huge and incomprehensible became understandable. He offers insights into the character of Russian history where, ". . . great and terrible events. . . are usually due to someone's stupidity or laziness," and to the apparently cyclical nature of history.
   
   "Oh, our bitter, bitter revolution," he writes.
   
   This is a book about processes. The tragedy of a family, the drama of a world turned upside down and the mechanics of research and writing are among the subjects.
   
   Radzinsky's superb use of diaries and letters, his simple straightforward arguments and his penetrating thought-provoking style combined to make a very entertaining and convincing book.

5 comments about The Deaths of the Cold War Kings: The Assassinations of Diem & JFK.

1. What utter stuff. Another whacked out theory is now another whacked out book. There is NO proof that the US had ANYTHING to do with the murders of the Diem brothers. They were offered asylum SEVERAL times during the coup and they TURNED IT DOWN! Thus putting themselves in harms way. They were no better than the communist Viet Cong. They were tyrants and oppressers.How else do you explain why so many of their own people wanted him overthrown? Our Government certainly condoned the coup, but had no hand in the deaths. The authors of this book were on a radio talk show, and made several out right falsehoods, which is common for the assasination conspiracy industry. They tried to say there was no proof that Oswald was at the Book Depository that day...at all!! When there is testimony that Oswald HIMSELF admitted he was there!!! AND that his wife's neighbor Wes Frazier, DROVE him to work at the Depository THAT DAY! So when these "authors" make such a dumb statement, it is hard to accept ANY of the rest of their "theory".



2. This is not a dry and antiseptic treatise, but rather a highly engaging and informative work that grabs you early with a provocative foreshadowing of its premise and keeps you hooked right to the astonishing end. The authors build their case with logic and sometimes shocking detail taken directly from the national archives, making you wonder what other "smoking guns" may still lie waiting for perservering sleuths such as those who worked behind the scenes in researching this fascinating book. A "must read" not only for Kennedy conspiracy buffs, but for anyone interested in a candid and unflinching historical view of the Mafia, the French underground, heroin trafficking, the underbelly of American politics, and the events leading up to the Vietnam War.



3. The neverending stream of books that purports to tell the tale of the assassination of JFK continues, and I could not get past the first chapter. The quick overview of Kennedy'd life could not be more full of errors, etc...Kennedy "Liberal"? Kennedy criticizing the McCarthy fiasco? Hardly. There were many other erors, including the ongoing myth behind PT 109...Maybe someday somebody will get the biography of Kennedy correct, and perhaps then we will see that his death was nothing more than a senseless act. Kennedy was not the great leader that so many want him to be...He was inspiring and insightful, but still growing when he died. Don't waste your money on this book!



4. Investigative reporter Bradley O'Leary and horror author Edward Lee teamed up to contribute their own convoluted theory as to who orchestrated and carried out the assassination of President John F. Kennedy with this book, "The Deaths of the Cold War Kings." According to the two authors, recently declassified government documents and recent interviews cast doubt on previous theories implicating the old standbys: the Soviet Union, the military-industrial complex, disgruntled anti-Castroites angered over the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the Cuban government, and rogue American government agents. This book argues that the assassins pulling the triggers on November 22, 1963 had ties to the South Vietnamese regime of the recently deceased Ngo Dinh Diem, his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu, heroin smugglers, and the Marseilles Mafia. The authors track a heroin syndicate operating under the protection of the Diem regime in South Vietnam to Marseilles, France. In short, the argument here is that heroin killed our 35th president.

   Central to this theory on the assassination was the role Kennedy played in overthrowing the Diem administration. The authors feel that the South Vietnamese government's repressive policies against the Buddhist population, indirectly assisted with massive U.S. aid packages, threatened to undermine Kennedy's credibility with the American public. With a presidential race coming up in 1964, Kennedy did not want questions about self-immolating monks to throw a cloud on his reelection prospects. Numerous documents in the book attempt to prove Kennedy's complicity in the regime change, a change that O'Leary and Lee argue led to permanent instability in South Vietnam that created problems later in the Vietnam War. Furthermore, the authors charge that the South Vietnamese knew about the planned coup and took their own measures to prevent it. These plans revolved around setting up a plot against Kennedy by using muscle from the French heroin traffickers because these drug smugglers knew that a change in government could be very costly to their lucrative business.

   The key name associated with this theory is a shadowy figure named Jean Rene Souetre, a former French military officer who was a member in the OAS. This acronym stands for `Organisation de l'Armee Secrete,' a group of French military officers who resisted Charles DeGaulle's measures to remove French influence in Algeria. The OAS resorted to covert assassinations, forgery, and outright rebellion in an attempt to overthrow DeGaulle's government, thereby hoping to insure support for the war against Algerian insurgents. An alliance between the French intelligence agency (SDECE) and the French mafia crushed the OAS, sending its members into exile or jail. A document exists, recently declassified, that seems to prove Souetre was in Texas at the time of the assassination. Moreover, the government deported Souetre within days of the killing without interrogating him even though the feds seemed to be aware of his background because of a French request to our government concerning his whereabouts. An American dentist mentioned in the Souetre memo granted an interview to a researcher years later, claiming that he knew Souetre and that the FBI questioned him about this knowledge but never turned the information over to the Warren Commission.

   Assassination solved, right? Nope. The two authors claim that the real Souetre may not have committed the crime. Instead, they point the finger at Michel Mertz, a heroin trafficker who possibly traveled under the name of Jean Rene Souetre. The two Frenchman met in prison during the OAS debacle when Mertz was one of the undercover mafia hoods that worked for SDECE. Further evidence of a Souetre/Mertz connection appears in the memo, where one of Souetre's aliases was, *gasp*, Michel Mertz. In an interview conducted in the late 1990s, Souetre claimed he knew Mertz and believed it highly possible that this mafia thug traveled under his name. What a surprise.

   I had many problems with this book, the biggest one being the introductory chapter full of laudatory praise for the Kennedy administration. Falling for the bait many others have swallowed about the Kennedy years, the authors present a glowing picture of our esteemed 35th president. Reality is often more painful. Kennedy's civil rights legislation was not an outpouring of warmth for the plight of American blacks, but a political measure Kennedy took because of intense pressure. On their own, the Kennedy brothers would never have proposed serious legislation concerning civil rights. Moreover, Kennedy's failure to follow through on the Bay of Pigs led to the Cuban Missile Crisis and the removal of our missiles from Turkey at a critical moment in our war against world wide communism. The family background, Joseph Kennedy's vote buying scheme in Illinois, and numerous amorous encounters in the White House should also serve as reasons why Kennedy was not a great president. The media, even then, was too busy standing around with stars in their eyes to notice any of these shenanigans. If I cannot trust the authors' claims about the Kennedy presidency, how can I trust their subsequent investigations?

   An avid reader of Kennedy conspiracy theories will probably want to read this book. Whether or not the arguments presented here hold water I'll leave to those better informed about the various assassination theories. I do think the authors make some huge leaps of faith with some of their claims, but with the assassination quickly fading into the dim recesses of history this is probably unavoidable. What interests me most about the Kennedy killing is how many sordid characters hovered on the periphery of Dallas at that exact time and date. At the very least, "The Death of the Cold War Kings" adds a few more unsavory souls to the long list.




5. After recently finishing The Assassinations : Probe Magazine On JFK, MLK, RFK, & Malcolm X (DiEugenio & Pease), I was pleased to run across this book in which O'Leary & Lee give us their take on the JFK assassination. In addition to being interesting and easy to read, the authors don't waste time trashing all the other writers or theories (the exception being Gerald Posner for obvious reasons). Do they prove anything and/or have all the answers? No but they put forth a good argument for something that was briefly touched upon in the History Channel's documentary entitled The Men Who Killed Kennedy. This would make a great addition to your library if you're even remotely interested in the Kennedy assassination. A fresh perspective on a well-worn topic.

No comments about The Assassination of John F. Kennedy: A Complete Book of Facts.

No comments about April '65: Confederate Covert Action in the American Civil War.

5 comments about Not in Your Lifetime.

1. As far as all facets of the JFK Assassination with objectivity, you won't find a finer book than this. Summers is open-minded, yet, cautious, so he isn't a conspiracy theorist or a debunker, In other words he is one great reporter. Clearly, from Dealey Plaza-to-Parkland Hospital-Bethesda Naval Hospital-Mexico City-New Orleans and the secret war against Fidel..there is plenty of tangible evidence in each area for conspiracy. The new material on Mexico City and a death bed confession from one of the well-connected players in the covert apparatus against Castro is featured.



2. This book is a completely revised and updated version of Anthony Summer's classic "Conspiracy", which was published in 1980 following a congressional committee's findings that there was a conspiracy to kill President John F. Kennedy. When it was released "Conspiracy" won rave reviews from such prestigious publications as Newsweek, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, and former Kennedy aides such as Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and Pierre Salinger praised Summers for his thorough research and sensible approach to the problem. It also won the coveted "Golden Dagger" award as the best "true crime" book of 1980. Although there have been many "pro-conspiracy" books written on the Kennedy assassination, this book is BY FAR the best-written, most reliable, and most persuasive. Summers, a respected investigative reporter for the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), did an exhaustive, years-long investigation into the Kennedy assassination. In this book he presents the various groups in America which had a good reason to try and kill Kennedy in 1963 - the mafia, the anti-Castro forces, rogue government agents, and of course Lee Harvey Oswald himself - and then presents the evidence he found for a conspiracy. Wisely, Summers doesn't advocate any single theory - he simply presents the evidence and leaves it to the reader to decide. The result is easily the best single-volume "pro-conspiracy" tome on the JFK assassination, and if you could only read one "pro-conspiracy" book this should definitely be it. However, there are always two sides to every story - and I would also strongly recommend reading Gerald Posner's "Case Closed" to get the single best "anti-conspiracy" book. After reading "Not In Your Lifetime" and "Case Closed" you will have seen the best and most persuasive arguments for and against a conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy. Highly Recommended!



3. This work is certainly one of the best investigations into the murder of President Kennedy.
   It is a new version of his former book 'Conspiracy'.

   Although the author admits that he could not find the ultimate truth, he believes that Lee Harvey Oswald was framed by an alliance of anti-Castro militants, the Mafia and members of the CIA. He could not find out if or not Oswald was a low level CIA agent himself. The author believes however that Oswald was used by U.S. intelligence without his knowledge.

   The author also proves convincingly that the version of the killing proclaimed by the Warren Commission is untenable.

   This book is a real thriller about a diabolic masterstroke. The real protagonists behind the curtain could load all the suspicions on one person, whom they then ordered to be killed. The whole plot was buried by the Warren Commission.

   A masterly investigation.




4. This book by Anthony Summers is the best overview available regarding the JFK assassination and the case for conspiracy. Summers comes across as a very objective writer, as well an investigator who made a major effort to track down those who could shed light on the key events. Although believing that a conspiracy existed, and that Oswald was a patsy, he also clearly spells out the evidence, which is quite convincing, that Oswald was also involved in it somehow--given, for example, some lies that Oswald told his questioners after he was arrested on November 22. Summers presents more solid information than just about any other book on the topic. Many witnesses that the Warren Commission ignored are covered in this book. The result is a compelling case that there was a conspiracy in the JFK assassination. This book contains the information that any objective person should be willing to think about before coming to a conclusion about the case. If you bypass this book, you will likely miss some key information required to make a reasoned judgement about what happened in Dallas that day.



5. Good, but ULTIMATE SACRIFICE the best book ever
   
   While I thought this book was worthwhile in many respects, ULTIMATE SACRIFICE is simply the best book ever on the JFK assassination.Still, worth your time.
   
   Vince Palamara-JFK/ Secret Service expert (History Channel, author of two books, in over 30 other author's books, etc.)
   Pittsburgh, PA
   
   BEST JFK ASSASSINATION BOOK: ULTIMATE SACRIFICE
   BEST JFK SECRET SERVICE BOOK: SURVIVOR'S GUILT BY YOURS TRULY :)

1 comments about Final Judgement:The Missing Link in the JFK Assassination Conspiracy.

1. Rather than a focus on bullet angles and sound analysis, this book goes after the question of WHY JFK was hit and WHO stood to benefit.
   
   This book is very comprehensive in its list of characters. All are described very well. It is their connecting links that will astound the reader.
   
   Highly recommended.

5 comments about Eros, Magic and the Murder of Professor Culianu.

1. Culiano taught religious studies at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago--the hand-picked successor to the great Mircea Eliade. Culiano specialized in magic, dualistic heresies and mystical experiences. He practiced what he studied as well, entertaining students and aggravating colleagues. But he also wrote political articles and fiction for a Romanian journal. These got him in trouble with the Romanian secret police; his murder has never been solved.

   Blending religious studies, occult phenomena, political analysis, and true crime journalism, this book is also an entertaining and intriguing look at Culiano, academics in America, Romanian intellectual traditions. I hope many people read and enjoy it.




2. The shot that killed professor Ioan Culianu while he was sitting in a stall in the men's room came from a small Beretta: a .25 caliber gun, fired at leat 18 inches away from his head, for there were no gunpowder traces around the entry wound. It was the work of an expert, a person who stood on the toilet seat of the adjoining stall, and fired downward and into the back of his head; probably the shot of a left hander. Why only one shot? Why such a small caliber gun? Professionals are more heavy handed, more redundant, more brutal. This was exquisitely done, with minimal fuss and no traceable clues.

   It was May, 1991, a little after one in the afternoon, at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Prof Culianu, a handsome man in his 40's had three books in press, was about to get married, was loved and respected by students and faculty, and was at the peak of his profession as a historian of religion. His work was recognized internationally, and he could look forward to the honors and comforts of a successful academic career.

   Ted Anton presents the true tale of Prof. Culianu with deftness and care. It is a story that to this day continues to reverberate in academia and law enforcement because it has never been solved. Far more exciting than fiction, the story of this professor takes turns and dips that keep the reader on edge and breathless.Culianu was an expert not only on the traditional aspects of religions, but had an interest in the occult arts that formed part of the ancient rituals and practices. He was an expert in divination through geomancy, and was about to teach a course in this practice. He gravitated towards the occult. He knew about near death experiences and about the transmigration of souls; and at the same time he maintained his status as a legitimate scholar and teacher in one of America's prestigious universities.

   Fictional stories about crimes and police work are very enjoyable, but reading a book like this renders the others insignificant by comparison. Of course truth is stranger than fiction, but it is also more exciting, more interesting, and finally...more scary.




3. If you enjoyed Umberto Eco's _Foucault's Pendulum_, you will undoubtedly enjoy this true life tale of magic, European politics, and murder. The book gives an accounting of the life of Ioan Culianu, a professor of comparative religion at the University of Chicago, from his birth in Romania to his untimely murder. Professor Culianu provided astounding insights into the world of magic and attempted to explain its occurrences through complexity. He published many books on magic, comparative religion, shamanism, and gnosticism. Like Mircea Eliade, a fellow Romanian and his mentor before him, Culianu contributed a great deal to our understanding of religion and magic. He also wrote several novels along with his fiancee Hillary Wiesner. This book provides a look into not only the worlds of Eliade and Culianu, but also a disturbing examination of far-right politics in Romania. Culianu's murder remains unsolved despite its obvious link to his outspoken views on the Romanian revolution which occurred just prior to his murder. However, many disturbing coincidences abound regarding this event.



4. 
   I first heard of the murder of Professor Culianu when I was an undergrad at the University of Chicago. I was immediately drawn to find more about the man who allegedly believed in the magic he studied. After reading "Eros and Magic" and "Out of this World", I thought that this biography might shed some additional light on the man, his scholarship, and his occult dabblings.
   
   I must admit I was somewhat disappointed. The book is very dry and factually oriented. The facts themselves appear to be well-researched, but are simply presented without much else. Mr. Anton tells us where Prof. Culianu was born, where he studied, what books he wrote, but seldom goes deeper than that.
   Ironically, given the themes in Culianu's work and life, Mr. Anton fails to realize the importance of evoking the imagination in telling the story, to bring the facts to life in a meaningful, interesting way.
   
   There are only the slightest hints of the exciting ideas that motivated Prof. Culianu's scholarship and personal life.
   It is said that Prof. Culianu took a personal interest interest in the ideas he was studying, actually practicing divination and teaching a course on it. But rather than exploring in any depth either Prof. Culianu's professional ideas or personal interests, these facts are simply used as "hooks" to carry the reader along.
   
   If you are interested in the ideas of Prof. Culianu and/or his interest in occult scholarship, this book will probably disappoint you. If you are looking for a lot of biographical facts about Prof. Culianu, then this book may be for you.



5. This is an insightful look at the life and work of a brilliant Romanian scholar and exile, and at the frightening overseas activities of the Romanian secret police in the post-communist years. Written in a clear, elegant style, with plenty of references to Culianu's writings and glimpses at his complicated personal interactions, this book is a great read. As the author concludes, Culianu "left a legacy of the dangers of a life of the mind." Without this biography, his undeserved fate may well be forgotten.

2 comments about California Justice: Shootouts, Lynching and Assassinations in the Golden State.

1. "I'm goin' to cut down my old lady, you know I caught her messin' 'round with another man."
   
   California Justice. Yeah, it's a little screwy. Here Mr. Kulczyk gives us over 30 vignettes of what's passed for justice in the Golden State: lynching galore, Bugsy Siegel riddled with bullets in a Hollywood mansion, the saga of Sirhan Sirhan (the assassin so nice they named him twice), and Dan White's infamous Twinkie defense (look out, though, because the Twinkie defense is not mentioned by that name). California Justice is fine reading whether you're on the toilet or in your living room.
   
   Disclaimer: O. J. "Class-Act-All-the-Way" Simpson does not show up here, nor does "Hey Joe' by Jimi Hendrix.



2. California Justice is an well researched and eminently readable compendium of some of the most interesting cases of crime and punishment (often by mobs) in California from the 19th to the 21st century. Included are the more famous examples of Sirhan Sirhan killing Robert F. Kennedy, the mob rubbing out fellow gangster Bugsy Siegel, and the assassination of San Francisco's Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk by Dan White; but also more obscure though equally fascinating stories of the Golden Dragon Massacre, the (not so) Brite Brothers, and the last lynching in California in 1947.
   
   The author does a great job of bringing these true sagas to life by adding just the right amount of detail and by keeping the stories moving along at a brisk pace. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in history, offbeat characters, or crime.