2 comments about Cold Kill.

1. It is tragic that this book by Jack Olsen never received the acclaim that others of his have. Perhaps it is due to the lack of a trial but the stories are riveting. Yes, I said stories (not story) because COLD KILL is as much about the aftermath as it was the crime itself.
   
   David West had an affinity for guns, women and fun. Cindy Ray was attracted to money, David and the world of glamour. She was the victim of incest, in effect, giving birth to her father's son and grandson. David and Cindy wanted money and the fastest way was through inheritance. The only problem was that her parents were still alive. One night they were murdered execution style.
   
   Long story short: Cindy rises in the modeling world and drops David. Cindy started grabbing for all the money as things settled down with the police unsure how to procede. Along comes Kim, a shapely PI who went after David (using her feminine wiles) for a confession. The last third of the book is compelling reading although I'm not sure how many of the thoughts of the participants are surmised or reported. Kim begins to feel something for the guy (oh Lord) despite thinking he murdered two people in cold blood...COLD KILL.
   
   At last, one night he confesses everything and surprise, Cindy was also involved. David maintains that it was a moral act, an execution, not murder. At the end, David avoided execution by confessing and implicating his former lover. He and Cindy were sentenced to life imprisonment proving, once again, that crime does not pay.



2. I believe the late Jack Olsen to be among the greatest true crime writers ever and that this book confirms that belief. COLD KILL is the story of David West and Cindy Ray and their dysfunctional and ultimately deadly relationship.
   David, a lonely, insecure, needy, and basically inadequate young man, predictably is unsuccessful in relationships. His insecurity manifests itself in a passion for guns and an unconvincing macho façade. He is only comfortable with women to whom he considers himself intellectually superior and in whom he sees flaws that he can teach them, Pygmalion style, to correct. David also drinks heavily and smokes a lot of weed.
   
   Enter Cindy Ray, a lazy overweight slob who is severely mentally ill. She will not or cannot - likely a combination of both - work. She lives like a pig refusing to do even the most minimal cleaning. She has never learned to drive. She will not even bathe, preferring - unsuccessfully - to attempt to mask her odor with perfume. She too drinks heavily and smokes a lot of weed. So of course David falls in love with her and begins to mentor Cindy with results that the self-deluding David finds encouraging. Meanwhile Cindy does not really even seem to like David, but she does have one major talent. She is a crafty and relentless manipulator, although her insanity is so obvious that it would only be successful with a naïve fool like David.
   
   Cindy is an unbelievably and hatefully selfish person who for reasons that are unclear - probably an inheritance as well as just malicious evil - decides she wants her parents dead and plants a seed which germinates in David's mind. Her main means of persuasion is to convince David that her father forced her into an intimate relationship beginning at age 9 and that one of her children - or sometimes both when she forgets her story - are her father's. Her manipulative piece-de-resistance is moaning "Daddy, Daddy" while they are making love. She finally gets David to convince himself that justice for Cindy demands that the Campbells (Cindy's parents) die. The story continues from there.
   
   Jack Olsen states that the dialog in COLD KILL, a book relying heavily on dialog, is not fabricated and is the result of many hours of interviews. I believe him. Other than the "voice" he gives to the Campbells' Hispanic maid, which to me felt awkward and was ultimately unsuccessful, the dialog contains no false notes. It is basically perfect. There is absolutely no filler, no repetition, no copying of transcripts.
   
   Olsen's narrative barrels though the book like a runaway freight train, creating an excitement and a tension that does not let up. I predict fans of the genre will love COLD KILL and that those who are not already familiar with Olsen will, after reading this book, agree with my assessment of his talent.
   
   (As a side note, I would like to address a statement made in the only other review, by "Avid Reader", of COLD KILL. "Avid" states that Cindy Ray was a victim of incest.
   There is really nothing in this book stating or even hinting that this was anything but a lie told by Cindy to convince David to do her bidding.)

3 comments about Mobsters and Gangsters: Organized Crime in America, from Al Capone to Tony Soprano.

1. What we have here is a typical Time-Life pop-history book. Poorly researched, strewn with errors and superficial commentary but tons of great photos. The picture of the James gang is bogus, however. It's fun to look at but little more.



2. I bought this book for a research project for school, and ended up having to redo my research. This book provides nice prohibition era photos and other such pictures, but the information is purely faulty. First off, when they were talking about Capone, they were totally off. Capone had a stand-in son who he took out in public, he never killed "thousands of people", and the St. Valentine's day massacre was headed by Jack McGurn, (not Jake), and involved 4 men (not 5). The rest of the magazine was the same. Also, i sensed a very biased few, they worshipped Eliot Ness and called Capone basically a brute. Maybe Life should have researched this a little before printing, eh?



3. Even though I haven't read this book in it's entirety yet, I'm fascinated by it. I've always had a sick fascination with the mobster world. It's a thoroughly comprehensive book.

No comments about El Cartel/ The Cartel: Los Arellano Felix, la mafia mas poderosa en la historia de America Latina/ the Arellano Felix, the Most Powerful Mafia in the History ... Americ (Ensayo- Cronica/ Essay- Chronicle).

1 comments about Right to Counsel: A Lawyer's Struggle to Defend a Serial Killer.

1. I loved this book. In his easy-to-read style, Mr. Potts brings to focus one of the most perplexing questions people have with today's attorneys: How can a lawyer's conscious allow him or her to defend a known and confessed murderer? Potts discovers evidence that could put a deranged psychopath back on the streets certainly to repeat his heinous crime, and Potts asks himself what he should do with this evidence?
   
   In this book, Potts takes you through his full range of inner conflict. He discusses his upbringing in a wholesome family and his crowing achievement of reaching Eagle Scout as a tribute to his strong morals and dedication to always do what's right. He discusses his struggle with his own conscious, himself having a younger sister who was the victim of rape.
   
   He discusses his struggle with his pregnant wife who could not fathom how he could possibly consider defending a man he knew had kidnapped, raped, sodomized and murdered several little girls, as they prepared to bring into the world a child. And he discusses how he found the strength to face his own ethics and overlay it against the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of rights afforded to any person who is brought before a court of law.
   
   Mr. Potts provides insight into a lawyer's conscience like no other book I have read. This book is an eye-opening piece of work.

5 comments about World Encyclopedia Of Organized Crime.

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.

No comments about Violence against Women: The Bloody Footprints (A Gender & Society Reader).

No comments about Consequences, the Criminal Case of David Parker Ray.

5 comments about Thinking Like a Terrorist: Insights of a Former FBI Undercover Agent.

1. This is a book that needs to be read by anyone interested in the terrorist world in which the United States finds itself. The author is an ex-FBI agent who was assigned to join terrorists organizations in the US to report on their activities.
   
   His analysis of the current situation is that our Government and particularily its intelligence agencies have not understood the way that terrorists think, what it is that they are really after, how they are really organized and much more.
   
   I unfortunately don't know enough about the situation to know if everything he says is true. However, there are a few things that come through strongly.
   
   1. Our government has clearly misunderstood what's been happening.
   
   2. The terrorists are not stupid, and clearly believe in what they are doing.
   
   3. We may be playing deliberately into their desired goals.
   
   4. Going against the rules of our own constitution in terms of wiretaps, holding people without trial, ignoring the due process of law, torture, illegal prisons in foreign countries, in short the whole Patriot's Act will do us more harm than good. As Franklin is rumored to have said: 'Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.'



2. THINKING LIKE A TERRORIST: INSIGHTS OF A FORMER FBI UNDERCOVER AGENT covers the latest war on global terror - thought the eyes of one fighting it. Mike German was a former FBI counterterrorism agent who here contends that despite all American efforts, there's a basic failure to understand the terrorists' wants and how they intend to get it. Our policies are driven by misunderstanding: THINKING LIKE A TERRORIST seeks to define and analyze the thinking of terrorism and is essential for any collection strong in terrorist studies, whether it be high school, college or public lending library.



3. Thinking Like a Terrorist: Insights of a Former FBI Undercover Agent
   I am about three quarters through with the book and I can't say that this book is one that you can't put down, but I don't think it was written as a novel. I have enjoyed the book as an educational document. I would highly recommend it to anyone who would like to understand a little more of what is going on behind the scenes of today's terrorists; what motivates them to carry out their attacks and what philosophies they adhere to. Great Job



4. Considering 9/11 and current events regarding Al-Qaeda, this book should be on everyone's nightstand.
   
   Mr. German has written a very enlightening and informative book on not just how to get into the mind of a terrorist but also to understand their motivations. Though he discusses primarily the KKK and the IRA, he does mention Al-Qaeda occassionally. In essence, all terrorist groups are motivated by the pursuit of legitimacy, regardless of if this means losing every physical battle with auhtorities. As he says in the book, when they lose, they win. For terrorists it is not about military victory; it is about legitimacy.
   
   This book has helped make it very clear to me that the USA is losing its battle against Al-Qaeda in the same way it lost against the Viet Cong, in the same way the French lost against the Algerians and in the same way the British lost against the IRA; by not understanding how terrorists think and what motivates them and by treating their actions (regarding Al-Qaeda) as military acts and not the criminal acts they truly are.
   
   I truly hope many in our government at all levels read this book.



5. A far left view of the war on terror.
   
   The author believes we should arrest bin laden and haul him before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
   
   The author refers to the Founding Fathers as terrorists.
   
   Do you really need to hear anything else?
   
   Zero stars...

5 comments about The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century.

1. "The Brothers Bulger" tells the story of James "Whitey" Bulger and his brother Billy. From an early age Whitey was headed in the wrong direction in life and he soon became one of the most feared men in Boston and is currently in the top ten on the FBI's most wanted list. For a long time Billy seemed to be on the straight and narrow, at least to the public, as he became involved in politics, eventually becoming president of the Massachusetts State Senate. But "The Brothers Bulger" shows the Billy earned his nickname of "The Corrupt Midget".
   
   I'm not a big fan of Howie Carr's newspaper column in The Boston Herald and almost didn't read "The Brothers Bulger" because of that. I'm glad I did. Newspaper column to the contrary, Carr can actually write and does a good job telling the Bulger's story. I've lived in the Boston area my entire life and while aware of the Bulgers I wasn't aware of the extent of Whitey's crimes or the extent of the corruption. I was also surprised at the number of local politicians and other well known Bostonians who knew what was going on with the Bulgers and looked the other way including Michael Dukakis, Kevin White, Joe Moakley, Bill Weld, and Cardinal Law.
   
   Of the two brothers, Whitey's story, not surprisingly, is the most compelling. He is truly a brutal man, not caring who he killed, be it man or woman. One of his killings was so brutal I cringed while reading it. His dealings with the FBI are mind boggling and not very reassuring. While Billy's story is less compelling, it was still interesting to read how he maneuvered his way through Boston politics and managed to snag himself a nice sized pension from U-Mass Boston. What was especially interesting about all this is the numerous mistakes he made politically and still came out on top for a long time.
   
   As of right now, Whitey Bulger is still at large and wanted by the FBI. If he is ever found (and after reading this book I have to wonder how hard the FBI is looking for him), I hope Howie Carr is able to write a book about Whitey's years on the lam, which I'm sure would be quite interesting.
   
   "The Brothers Bulger" is a compelling read.



2. Howie well knows,but chooses to ignore,the truism that a grand jury can always be persuaded to indict a ham sandwich. But try as they might All the Kings Men be they federal, state or local could not get a rubberstamped indictment of Billy Bulger and this fact gives Howie an ulcer. And all the kings men also includes congressional committees who basked in their public investigation of Sen Bulger and came up with scratch. Poor Howie: all full of righteous thunder and a sack full of yellow journalism.
   Jim Whalen



3. The Publisher's Weekly review and the audio file review are very good descriptions of this narrative. Two brothers in Boston, one a politician and the other a mobster, shaping politics and crime in Boston for decades. Whitey Bulger, who is still an international fugitive, makes an excellent precursor, if not template, for Jack Nicholson's role in the film "The Departed". The author is an award winning newspaper columnist who clearly knows Boston intimately, along with who is connected to whom on both sides of the law, however, it can be a little confusing for the reader to keep up without a table of organization or flow chart. Frequently, Carr states facts or describes events that it is assumed he acquired from court transcripts, police reports and street sources but the reader is often left to take it simply on faith because the hard evidence or source isn't referenced or cited. Still, it's an interesting saga of the backrooms and chicanery in Boston over the past five decades.



4. I love this book it has details of my fathers death and my uncle joe as well finally a real book on the true crime and the sick bastards that took so many life's fathers humans and friends form south Boston and Medford Mass.



5. Great take on one of the great true crime stories in America. A must read if you are interested in the story of Whitey Bulger, and how can you not be?

No comments about Readings in White-Collar Crime.