5 comments about The Hacker Crackdown: Law And Disorder On The Electronic Frontier.

1. Sterling's book is a must-read for anyone genuinely interested in the roots of Cyberculture. It documents everything from old-school phone phreaks to the 1990 crash of AT&T. It goes into great detail as to how "cybercops" were established, their training, and the mass-reluctancy a decade ago to utilize their services. While this may sound like a history textbook, it is not. It is a fair and unbiased look at the past from the eyes of one of the greatest cyberpunk authors ever, which is probably why the book is so often quoted in academic research papers and in other works on the subject. The book does not lack charecter nor does it lack accuracy. Those who are looking to find an entertaining yet accurate, if not dated, historical account of hacking need not look any further.



2. I learned more about the telephone in 12 hours than 12 years of school life. The dates and times depicted in this book happened during a time when I'd been 'off-line' with the computer world. I began with AOL (unfortunately) and due to my own reasons gave up computers for a while. It's like going back home and finding out what's happened to everyone after you'd left years back. Historically, this is the place to begin reading about phones and phone systems. To understand at least the fundimentals of the technology we wrap ourselves into.
   Most definitely a must-read book. If you liked this, try At-Large, the Strange case of the world's Biggest Internet Invasion by David H. Freedman and Charles C. Mann.



3. this is an excellent book until the ''underground'' part. But it forgot to talk about the cybergang ''Master Of Deception'' the opponent of Legion Of Doom.



4. A very lively, interesting, and well-written (by Bruce Sterling no less) summer read for those interested in the history of phone phreaking and computer exploration and mischief. Highly recommended.



5. Bruce Sterling of Cyberpunk fame takes a journalistic approach to researching law and disorder on the electronic frontier by examining two specific events in depth : the 1990 Operation Sundevil, a concerted nationwide effort by district attorneys, the Secret Service, the FBI, local authorities and various Telco security to bust and publicize a hacker crackdown; and the resulting trials and creation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and rise of the civil libertarians.
   
   The book is divided into four parts: crashing the system, the digital underground, law and order, and the Civil Libertarians. Mr. Sterling does a credible job explaining the telco systems and motivations and actions of the people on both sides of the issue - phone phreaks/hackers and law enforcement/district attorneys without succumbing to a lot of jargon or taking sides.
   
   The book is replete with interesting accounts of Alexander Graham Bell and history of telephony, the origins of the Secret Service and its' early battles with "Boodlers", and the dissemination of the E911 document that came to cause grief to many people.
   
   Reading this in 2006 and beyond will cause a few chuckles at his penchant for describing and drooling over advance systems (I have a real urge to drive down to the storage unit for my Commodore 64 and IBM clone), yet the events of the early hacker sub-culture remain relevant to anyone interested in computers, freedom and privacy.

5 comments about Roemer: Man Against the Mob.

1. This book covers everything. Tells all about Sam "MO" Giancana to everything about Tony "Batters" Accardo. The details are fascinating and chilling. Really interesting and unbelievable. Makes you feel like you are Roemer himself. Great book!!!!!



2. I thought this book was magnificent. Roemer is is genuine in depicting the power that the mob had over anything and everything...He talks in detail about Accardo, giancana and the master fixers..aka the curruption squad of Murry Humphreys, Gus Alex..It's full of murders and double crosses..all in all it makes you feel like your right there...A must read



3. Retired FBI Agent William Roemer (1926-1996) details the workings of the Crime Syndicate in Chicago from the late 1940's into the 1980's - mirroring Roemer's career with the FBI. Roemer spent decades fencing with Chicago mobsters and mob bosses, including such figures as Tony Spilotro, Murray "The Camel" Humphreys, Sam Giancana, Tony Accardo, etc. Readers see how the mob operated, drawing its income from a combination of theft, fraud, gambling, sex, street taxes, and other venues, while enforcing discipline via intimidation and murder. We also see that the mob's moderately-successful ban against drugs resulted not from social conscience but from desires for preservation - Accardo and other bosses realized that drugs brought added public disdain and extra government heat, while turning some mobsters into junkies.
   
   This is a very readable and informative book, but it suffers a bit from a couple questionable claims plus self-boasting by the author. Still, these pages give readers a view of Chicago's mob/mafia syndicate, one that dates back to before the arrival of Al Capone.



4. IPSN.ORG
   
   William F. Roemer, Jr. (1926-1996)
   
   By: John J. Flood
   
   Everyone in law enforcement lost a true partner this past year. Many might not realize nor have known the man but one of their own - a street guy - has passed from law enforcement's midst.
   
   Bill Roemer, who retired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation after toiling 30 years ventured forth and became a book author and free-lancing attorney who specialized in assisting clients victimized by libel suits filed by organized crime associates, lost the toughest battle of them all and his life to that horrible disease - cancer of the lung. It took him down.
   
   It was not the syndicate hoodlum or the contract killers he relentlessly pursued and investigated as an agent who loved the day to day activities of being assigned to the F.B.I.'s Top Hoodlum Program that did him in, but rather, he met his maker from a terrible scourge that our government should spend a few more dollars funding a cure for.
   
   Bill Roemer was a great guy and a gentleman within law enforcement to say the least. Soft spoken, pleasant of nature and flashing a disarming smile, Roemer also spoke with conviction and authority. He blended an academic background with the experience only years on the street can bring. He lived by a simple credo that placed honesty, integrity, and duty to friends and family above his own needs. He could work the street with the best of those that had gone before him and he wouldn't back off tough matters when pushed in the belly. His quiet dignity and firm resolution set an example for younger agents to emulate. Duty. Honor. Integrity and a respect for those who paid their dues on the job.
   
   With the passage of time he became somewhat of a legend within law enforcement circles, though some will steadfastly argue that the legend had a self-perpetuating bent. So what.
   
   True, Bill had a knack for self-promotion, but so did Wyatt Earp, Wild Bill Hickok and of more recent vintage, Eliot Ness - an unknown G-Man who was wallowing in obscurity until author Oscar Fraley got a hold of him and built up the myth of the Untouchables around a few kernels of truth. In turn, the Ness myth gave rise to a cottage industry of films and books that still fascinate the public. The legendary Chicago Police Officer Frank Pape was touted as such by columnist Nate Gross of the old Evening American and many other cop reporters.
   
   History often collides with fantasy and imagination. Ness was a freshly minted college grad assigned to the Secret Service when he came to Chicago in 1929 to do battle with Al Capone. Actually it was his street- honed agents recruited from various police departments who battered down the doors of the breweries and gathered the hard evidence that finally put Capone away with Ness absorbing much of the credit. But very often that is how our legends are crafted.
   
   Bill Roemer was the son of a former Jesuit seminarian, but as a young man, he opted for a legal career, beginning at the University of Notre Dame where he played rough sport and became an excellent amateur boxer. He earned the nickname "Zip" because of the speed and accuracy of his punches. His motto, one that he carried through life, reflected his relentless, optimistic outlook. "Keep punchin!" he always liked to say and everyone who knew the guts of Bill Roemer also was aware that he subscribed to that ideal till his last. He was not the type to whine about unexpected reversals of fortune or back away from a challenge. He thrived on it. He was a law enforcement guy, and he respected his peers.
   
   Bill was personally selected by the late J. Edgar Hoover to participate in the Bureau's Top Hoodlum Program, from its inception in 1957 when Hoover had to finally acknowledge the existence of a national network of organized crime - the Mafia as commonly known. Roemer's task was to gather data and conduct intelligence surveillance on several of the top outfit bosses in Chicago - notably Murray "the Camel" Humphreys among others, and Sam Giancana, the foul-mouthed gangster who was designated by Tony Accardo to head Chicago operations in the 1950s and sixties. One of the major reasons Giancana was hounded out of the country was due to the undaunting work of Bill Roemer and his colleagues who received a tremendous amount of their education from honest Chicago Police Officers.
   
   Roemer once said that it was his boyhood fantasy to become the nemesis of the Chicago mob, and after 21- years of doing this kind of work in the Windy City, there were more than a few hoodlums in town who would say he achieved the goal. Roemer and the agents with him planted microphones and conducted around-the- clock surveillance of the hoods as they gathered to discuss their criminal ventures in the back of a Michigan Avenue tailor shop. No simple task bugging these guys and the dangers were high.
   
   It was a black flag operation all the way, and Agent Roemer understood going in that if caught, his superiors from Hoover on down would deny any knowledge of the efforts to bug the wise guys leaving Roemer vulnerable to breaking and entering charges and the knowledge that his career could be over. Never mind if the hoods caught him in the act and turned him into trunk music. But the pineapple-sized microphone over- hearing mob activities was never detected by the wise-guys and over a period of months Little Al, as the device was dubbed, revealed a remarkable tale of political corruption, contract murder, and syndicate mayhem in metropolitan Chicago and throughout the country. A plethora of job action was opened to the government prosecutors.
   
   Despite being an F.B.I. agent, Roemer was extremely generous with his praise for the courageous street cops and detectives who worked in the Chicago Police Department - they had acquired a sophisticated knowledge of the mob long before the F.B.I. jumped on the band-wagon and he readily admitted that without them, the agents would not have found an elephant in a phone booth.
   
   Bill turned down several promotions to remain in Chicago environs working mob activities. He was always the street guy and liked being where the action was. He savored every moment of it - the constant intrigue, the danger, the challenges of working in one of the most mobbed up cities of the United States. Chicago was his kind of town. He had many friends - and enemies - as many in law enforcement who stir the murky waters always have.
   
   Roemer cultivated a string of high-placed informants including the late and infamous Richard B. Cain, the rogue cop who went to jail in the 1960s for his complicity in all sorts of mobbed up activity. Bill maintained that even while Cain was in the employ of Sam Giancana as his point man chauffeur and confidante he was funneling information back to the G-Man in a double-agent role. In the parlance of street agent of the time, Cain was a friend. A friend could be very useful in building an intelligence profile on a mobster, reveal the trail of corruption and payoffs, and in some instances help circumvent an impending murder. Bill had many such friends as most who are knowledgeable in law enforcement cultivate along a very gray line.
   
   He was never very far away from the action, even after he moved to Tucson in order to be closer to his son. In Semi-retirement, Roemer began a new career as a private attorney, consultant to the Chicago Crime Commission, and book author while keeping close tabs on one of his Arizona neighbors - former top New York City crime boss Joseph Bonanno and all else that was happening with La Cosa Nostra.
   
   The accolades and recognition became more public after Bill testified as a witness before the U. S. Senate rackets committee held in Chicago in 1983. Suddenly Bill Roemer burst through the clouds as the newest media celebrity, and with it he cemented his reputation as the Man Against the Mob.
   
   In 1989, Bill's first and best book, appropriately titled: Roemer: Man Against the Mob, was published and it chronicled his exploits as an F.B.I. agent in Chicago. It was an eye opener and must reading for any law enforcement type who wants to know what is going on to this very day. Two fiction-based-on-fact novels followed: War of the Godfathers and Mob Power Plays and a pair of non-fiction books including biographies of Tony Spilotro (The Enforcer) and Tony Accardo (The Genuine Godfather).
   
   In the last decade of his life, Roemer was a frequent guest on TV and radio programs enlightening the public on organized crime influence. He appeared on such major news documentary programs as American Justice, on the A & E cable network and many more radio talk shows of local origin in addition to writing articles for numerous publications including the Illinois Police & Sheriff's News. He enlightened the public with his knowledge.
   
   His opinions were sought out by the major media, and as the nation's reigning mob watcher Bill lent his insights and talents to a variety of projects including the made-for-TV movie Sugartime, which aired in 1995. Teaming up with the daughter of his old mob nemesis, bill and Antoinette Giancana formed an unlikely alliance, but they were designated as the major consultants to the producers of Sugartime. Roemer appeared in the movie in a cameo walk-on-role.
   
   His life's work now complete, Bill Roemer, a man for all seasons, has gone to his maker. He has been laid to rest along side of his parents at the Cedar Grove Cemetery in South Bend, Indiana, not far from his alma mater and the site of his youthful accomplishments in the athletic realm.
   
   He will be missed but never forgotten. Quite simply a great law enforcement guy and I am proud to say my friend. To his family, I would like them to know that I am a far better man because of my acquaintance with Bill Roemer.
   
   
   
   Roemer: Man Against the Mob



5. lots of good information. the content of this book is amazing. roemer may be the greatest F.B.I. agent of all time, as he claims, but he is a terrible author. exclamation points abound in some of his other books. this book is less cheesy, but roemer really should have narrated to a professional writer, god bless him

5 comments about Family Secret.

1. When I heard Family Secret was a story that claimed to solve the Siegel murder mystery my first impression was one of skepticism. After reading this story however I am now convinced that the Author's have solved the Siegel killing with one of the few theories that makes sense. Wealth, power and political influence were just as strong in 1947 as they are today and this is an accounting of Siegel's demise fit for Hollywood. A very good story, well written and an unexpected treat.



2. I liked several things about Family Secret. The Author does an excellent job of providing a fascinating and very believable story of how and why Benjamin Siegel's murder was never solved. I always felt Siegel's murder was never solved due to something amazing and this story llives up to that expectation. A very good read. I hope to see this one on the big screen one day. It's a great book, let's hope the film version does it justice!



3. WOW
   
   This was the best book I have read in a long time. I simply could not put it down. It had me from page 2 .I am waiting for another book from Warren Hull.



4. What a great book! If it wasn't for life's interruptions, I wouldn't have put it down. It caught me from the beginning. I don't know much about Bugsy Siegel or the mystery of his murder, but the Author did a wonderful job weaving the tale. Given this information, I wonder if the investigation shouldn't be reopened. I hope this comes out as a movie. I think it would make a great one.



5. What a tragic tale. I was moved by this story for two reasons; first was the incredible journey the author took to tell this tale, and second was the amazing complexities that came together to make this event come to be. If you don't understand the politics of "politics" you may not appreciate how incredible a story this actually is; it is also a very viable explanation for why the Siegel murder was never officially solved. This looked like a very difficult story to write; my hat is off to the author.
   
   I received the book at 2:00pm and finished it before I went to bed that evening. Kudo's!!!

5 comments about Unabomber: A Desire to Kill.

1. Released in November 1997, Robert Graysmith's UNABOMBER: A DESIRE TO KILL fills a current publication void. During the O.J. Simpson trials, trial watchers and media produced tomes of printed commentary. The woes of Ted Kaczynski, however, have vied for media attention with sundry other high-profile criminal trials, including those of accused Oklahomah City bombing accomplice Terry Nichols, announcer Marv Albert, and British au pair Louise Woodward. And even as opening arguments in Kaczynski's trial commence, the spotlight is being stolen by the biological weapons crisis in Iraq.

   Overshadowed by this three-ring circus, the Unabomber trial may actually reap benefits in the form of a jury untainted by media spin. Unfortunately, this won't be the case with readers who turn to Graysmith's book for the facts. Although it purports to be a documentary--and is set up amid the trappings of objective reporting--both appearances are false. It is a book-length editorial, infused with Graysmith's unchecked imagination, his overhelpful interpretations, and--unfortunately--with his relentless determination to cast David Kaczynski, who surrendered his brother to the Feds and virtually certain death, in the role of beatified saint.

   It's not that the book doesn't make compelling reading. It does, and that's its danger. For it is largely fiction, in which Graysmith's extensive investigations serve mostly to launch his creative interpretions of events, characters, and the relationships between them. This hand of invention first appears in Chapter 1, "The Vanishing Professor," depicting Kaczynski's days at Berkeley, where intermixed with factual background such as Kaczynski's 1967 faculty appointment, we find:

   "The Professor entered Cody's bookstore, gigantic and well-lit at 2460 Telegraph. He fingered some books on calculus, and climbed to the fiction department on the second floor. He saw Conrad's The Secret Agent, one of his favorites which he'd read many times . . . . The real-life Professor continued down Telegraph and passed Channing Way. The gray mantle of fog, speeding on its way, met a blue-tinged and fading golden light. There were many on the street but the Professor had mastered the ability always to be alone, even in crowds. And what crowds they were to the unhappy man. Grim, wide-eyed skeletons. Walking skulls, their featured [were] etched away by the street lights leaving only staring eyes"(p. 7-8).

   Wonderful writing--highly atmospheric--it's worthy of Dickens. But, Dickens did not pretend his writing to be other than fiction. This incident--which never happened--is used by Graysmith as visual scene-setting; he does not scruple to attribute to his "real-life Professor" actions, emotions, and perceptions invented out of the whole cloth. However, nothing but scrutiny tells the reader that Graysmith is willing to embroider in the service of aesthetic presentation. And if one thinks that insult to the truth is slight here--who cares if Kaczynski saw strangers' faces as skulls?--one ought to think twice. Invention is a slippery slope for Graysmith, and his descent accelerates throughout his pages.

   For example, the author's one-sided opinions regarding the tenor of Ted Kaczynski's childhood upbringing are set forth as truth. "By the seventies," writes Graysmith, "the Professor had convinced himself that his parents were insensitive, if not cruel, to him during his formative years." However, David Kaczynski's suspicions of Ted's mental state are quoted as solemn fact: "One senses [in Ted] a psyche that fells itself terribly isolated and threatened in the world, tormented by its own complexities, unable to hold things in their proper perspective or to find comfort security or rest for itself "(p. 450).

   Such claims are reinforced by sentimental diction: the elder Kaczynski is "the gentle father," while Ted consistently has "a sly smile" and "tortured thoughts." Kaczynski's assertions about parental abuse are made into delusions produced by, and in a circular way proof of, his diseased mind. Further, because Graysmith depicts David Kaczynski as motivated by none but noble motives in turning his brother in, he must bend every interpretatation to fit this sanctified portrayal. All too frequently this verges on melodrama. In a chapter actually entitled "A Brother's Anguish" appears this passage:

   "Now the investigators had enough that they felt they would have to speak to David's mother, Wanda. Was this the worst moment of all for him? He had never mentioned his suspicions to her . . . . Haltingly, he told her of the last few months and of his excruciating decision, the harrowing nights, the haunting dreams "(p. 381).

   By contrast, there are significant omissions of material one would have thought Graysmith compelled to include--but to do so would have embarrassed his double portrait of the crazed Ted and sainted David. A salient example is Graysmith's choice NOT to include the text of the Unabomber Manifesto, thereby denying readers the chance to study it firsthand. As those who have read it know, its level-headedness hardly suggests a madman; this is largely why federal prosecutors wish to use the Manifesto as evidence. However, Graysmith evaluates its freely in its absence, declaring it permeated with rage. He also uses excerpts from it as headings to each chapter, exposing another awkward omission for those familiar with the Manifesto's contents:

   ". . .a technological society HAS TO weaken family ties and local communities if it is to function efficiently. In modern society an individual's loyalty must be first to the system . . . . (paragraph 51). . . take the gypsies. The gypsies commonly get away with theft and fraud because their loyalties are such that they can always get other gypsies to give testimony that "proves" their innocence. Obviously the system would be in serious trouble if too many people belonged to such groups"(footnote to paragraph 52).

   Given Graysmith's format of chapter headings, this was the obvious choice to lead the one recounting David's communications with the FBI. It is more than obvious that David's actions constitute a textbook example of the phenomenon described by his brother: the individual whose family loyalties have been weakened and subsumed by loyalty to the system. It is equally obvious, regretfully, that Graysmith had no intention of permitting his readers to make this connection, and this attitude of concealment is the book's chief handicap. Consequently, his choice to entitle the chapter on Ted "Cain" and the one on David "Abel" is not surprising, but he ought to recall that it was Cain who was the agent of Abel's death, and not the other way round.

   Still, the book has many virtues, with vivid writing heading the list, in particular when the author evokes graphic images or communicates the technical construction of the many bombs. Graysmith is also a gifted illustrator, whose pen-and-ink drawings of the landscape around Lincoln, Montana and of Kaczynski's Thoreauvian cabin augment the historical perspective derived from his regional studies. Essentially, the book is a wildly uneven agglomerate of sterling scholarship and serious deficits of objectivity. What the author brings alive is impressive, but it is frequently not what took place.

   Another important book is being published at the same time, Dominick Dunne's Another City, Not My Own (Crown, October 1997). Like Graysmith, Dunne has created a dramatic, highly imaginative treatment of a high profile criminal matter--the O.J. Simpson murder trials--but as a novel, Dunne's book wears its fictional status openly. One can't help thinking this would have been the wiser choice for Graysmith--it would have given his speculative talents free rein without distorting real lives. In any case, the reader must take the bad with the good--no other book exists that so coherently brings together the many strands in the Unabomber matter, regardless of the author's bias. UNABOMBER: A DESIRE TO KILL is an admitted "must read," even though the reader must beware.




2. This was a great descriptive book about the UNABOMBER'S whole life- from his successes in college, being a genius and going on to become a proffesor at Harvard as well as other highly educated universities to the components that made up his killing machines.



3. I live in Lincoln, Montana and I found a number to statements in this book not true. They may be small statements, not very significant, but in a non-fiction book every statement should be lchecked for truth before being printed. We do not have a bus that goes from Lincoln to Helena. If just one statement is not true, then it makes you wonder what else in the book is not true.



4. Everyone seemed to know about the Unabomber. There wasn't a bigger surprise than when they found the maker of some 15 bombs was a Harvard graduate living in the woods in Montana. This book helps explain why Theodore Kaczynski had reasons for his mail bombs, why he picked his targets, and it will answer that important question, "How could a poverty-stricken man, riding a bike, living in a shack with no electricity or running water, spread fear from coast to coast, and elude the police for almost eightenn years?"



5. The story of the Unabomber is quite fascinating, but I feel it could have been told better. This book could have used some more aggressive editing; some of the writing is downright sloppy and it could have been told just as thoroughly using a lot fewer pages.
   Here's an example of what bugs me (page 126):
   Much of their squad's training is done by the FBI and the military. And so one comfort is that if a bomb squad gets "into a situation that was over your head, it's easy to call for help. You can call military -87th EOD.
   Where's the editor?
   The book is worth reading but, as I said, could have been better if some more time had been spent cleaning it up.

No comments about Gangsters and Goodfellas: The Mob, Witness Protection, and Life on the Run.

5 comments about Innocence Lost.

1. this was the most chilling story i've ever read, but that's probobly because i have grown up in midlothian. i wasn't born yet, but it hit me just as hard because i'm not used to murder happening in this small town that i live in. you wouldn't know it by the surface, but midlothian is the drug capital of ellis county. it just scares me that there is so much i know, but that is just a small fraction of what i don't know. unlike some people may believe, midlothian has more drug problems than just pot, underaged drinking, and middle schoolers smoking cigaretes. midlothian is not just a hick town anymore, we are growing in our size and will soon be very large and more well known. you had to be either stupid or mentaly blind to think that the police were out of line in picking a drug dealer to befriend and betray to help stop the drug traficing at midlothian highschool. it was the only way to do it.



2. This is a story about a very young police officer recruited to work undercover in a high school where the drug problem was growing. He befriended some druggies and began making his cases. After only a few short months, a 20-something suspected he was a cop and yelled at the high schooler who had been bringing him around. The high schooler was the adopted son of a police officer. He made a plan, lured the undercover cop to a remote area, and shot him in the head with his father's police gun. The story is from the perspective of the kids, the police officers, and the attorneys, and provides an outstanding look at ALL aspects of this case and how one group caused problems for another as the case was investigated and prosecuted. I could not put this book down. It was very well written, and Carlton Stowers has become one of my favorite authors. I cannot get enough of his work. If you like true crime, Stowers's work ranks right up there with Jerry Bledsoe, who I only wish would put out another true crime book. There is no Stowers book that will disappoint you. He is one of the best.



3. Carlton Stowers is surely the finest true crime writer from Texas, and this book in particular was shocking to me because I went to high school with Thomas Knighten, the father of the boy who murdered the young undercover officer. I was hoping for answers--why did this happen? From what I understand, young Greg did not grow up in a dysfunctional home at all, and received only loving care and a stable home life from his devoted parents. He was an adopted child, and it's possible that the sociopathic personality is biogenetic. We'll never know. A high school friend who keeps in touch with the family tells us that Mr. and Mrs. Knighten have gone on with their lives and have a powerful faith in God that has sustained them. Mr. Stowers' book underlines the fact that there are no guarantees in life in his sensitive account of a senseless tragedy and the chronicle of young Greg's wasted life.
   
   By Reese Ella Howard, Wharton County, Texas



4. I bought this book because I am an avid true crime reader and Carlton Stowers is one of the best true crime writers out there. I didn't know how close he was geographically to the crime. He lives in a neighboring town where the crime occurred. A young undercover detective, George "Tiger" Raffield, goes undercover to infiltrate a drug bust but ends up shot dead in the rural neighborhood near the author's hometown. George was 21 years old, ambitious, attractive, with everything going for him, and engaged to his high school sweetheart. Unfortunately, their engagement ended with his murder. The boys behind the crimes were just high schoolers but one of them had a deadly past that nearly ended with a terrible beating of a boy in Williams, Arizona. The family did not get their son the help he needed not only in school but with his psychological problems. He began playing around with Satanism, killing stray cats, performing satanic rituals, etc. The family was in complete denial even though one teacher was smart enough to do some digging. The family refused their son to get help because of pride or whatever reasons. Maybe they didn't want to think themselves as failures as parents or that their son was different from other children. I have to say that this book is one of the author's better books because he can relate to it since it hits so close to home. There is a lot more going on than just a shooting of an undercover officer. There are the three young men whose lives were ruined by such a deadly mistake and their innocence was indeed lost as the title suggests.



5. Carlton Stowers powerfully delivers the story of three small town Texas boys who murdered an uncover police officer in an effort to avoid drug charges that were bound to see the arrest of them and several of their friends.
   
   Most interestingly about this book is the background provided on the boys involved. While one was raised in an apparent "do as you wish" household where he practiced Satanism, the other boy, Greg Knighten, (the actual shooter) was raised in a devout Christian household; but, being that Greg was adopted shortly after birth, this is a story that lends argument to heredity vs. enviroment.
   
   A second aspect of this book that was very interesting was the fact that all thsoe involved had been acquantances for some time, as is such in a small town. Unlike many of the true crime books read, where the cops don't personally know the victims or their families, and seldom the perpetrator, such was not the case in Innocence Lost. It is mentioned a couple of times how this crime had created a "reunion-type atmosphere.
   
   This is an excellent read. Competely indepth in background and events of the present. Highly recommended!

5 comments about Hunting Humans: The Rise of the Modern Multiple Murderer.

1. Leyton has written a classic study on the rise and motives of serial killers and mass murderers. The new edition of this book originally published in the early 80's includes a discussion of the DC sniper attacks and case studies of various killers including Ted Bundy, the Boston Strangler Albert DeSalvo, David Berkowitz aka the Son of Sam, and Mark Essex. Leyton lays out a very convincing argument about the motives behind the killings of multiple murderers. He casts asides psychopathology as the primary reason for their crimes and instead contends that an inability to cope with social position and class consciousness drives these killers.

   Leyton views multiple murderers from a sociological rather than a psychiatric standpoint. The evidence underlying his arguments is solid. His main conclusion is that multiple murderers seek to destroy members of a social class secure in its position in the social hierarchy that have excluded him (sometimes her) from their ranks. Bundy, DeSalvo, and the rest belonged to the lower or lower middle classes and despite being superficially accepted by the social hierarchy above them, they were acutely aware of their humble origins and hypersensitive to rejection. In fact, all of the murderers that Leyton discusses in detail spoke greatly at length about wanting to punish the people they felt had rejected them. Though it is hard to imagine that multiple murderers are not psychotic, it appears that not only are they sane for the most part, they have a conscious or subconscious agenda to destroy the people they feel will never accept them.

   The case that best exemplifies Leyton's thesis, in my opinion, is the case of Mark Essex. Essex was killed on the roof of a hotel in early January of 1975 after a killing spree that left over 10 people dead. Essex was not a raving madman, but a black man who suffered the devastating consequences of racism during his years in the Navy. He was insulated from the consequences of his skin color as a youth but soon realized that he was not considered an equal even by his country's own military. His experiences left him deeply disillusioned, and several years after his discharge, he took revenge on the people that held him down. In his mind, this included all white people. No one who knew Essex portrayed him as a psychotic. Rather, he was described as an intelligent and diligent worker who felt rejected by the social class above him and that he was not willing to accept his permanent social position beneath white people just because of his skin color.

   Each of Leyton's case studies are meticulously researched, and his sociological arguments are solid. The last chapter of his book "A Historical Overview" ties all of his ideas together neatly. He mentions several cases of multiple murderers dating back several hundred years, and all of them represent struggles between a member of a class whose members are facing uncertainty or alienation against a class that is secure in its social standing. This chapter really represents what is best about this book. Leyton's convincing arguments don't just explain what drives people to kill so many of their fellow human beings in modern times but they also provide a framework to discuss multiple murderers from the past.

   For the people that are comforted by the idea that multiple murderers are psychotic maniacs who have an unrestrained lust for killing people, this book will change your mind.




2. Elliott Leyton (author) has written a superb detailed book focusing on 6 modern serial killers/modern mass murderers. Edmund Kemper, Ted Bundy (the charming young Republican), Albert Desalvo (the social climber known as The Boston Strangler), David Berkowitz (Son of Sam), Mark Essex (the racist) & Charles Starkweather. Leyton also touches upon other 'famous' killers to try and argue his case that all these killers are not alien people with deranged minds, but *'alienated men with a disinterest in continuing the dull lives in which they feel trapped.'(*author's quote). The book tries to go inside these killers minds (and backgrounds) to try and understand why they, as individuals, committed these crimes. Were all their childhood backgrounds so tragic as to contribute towards their eventual decline? If so, why do individuals with equally tragic (or more so) backgrounds choose not to kill? The book also seperates truth from fantasy. What we see in films such as The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal etc may all be very compelling action and drama, and highly enjoyable to watch, but we must not make the mistake of believing that these films are based on reality. Leyton has done a thorough job of disecting these cases one by one, and the painstaking research that he has conducted is evident on every page. Buying this book will be well worth your time and money, for it may just be the one book that may well stimulate your thoughts enough to question everything you thought you knew about serial killers.



3. I first read Hunting Humans 15 or so years ago and I have recently bought the new edition. It is a fascinating insight into the minds and motivations of serial killers, although I think Leyton struggles somewhat to fit them all into his particular thesis. Ted Bundy was extremely bright and personable and started his killing spree after his girlfriend had accepted an offer of marriage which he promptly withdrew two days later. Almost without exception, his victims all resembled this woman. He was also a necrophiliac, returning to have sex with his victims even when they were in an advanced state of decomposition. Perhaps my favourite part of the book, and one I often quote when faced with 'expert opinion' , regards the 'gentle giant' Edmund Kemper. He had spent several years incarcerated as a teenager for brutally murdering his grandparents (yes, they let him out!), and he was in the psychiatrist's office getting his release papers. The good doctor wished him well and felt certain that the young Kemper would go on to have a productive and useful life. At that very moment Kemper's car was parked outside. In the boot were the two severed heads of his latest victims. Chilling, but absolutely gripping reading.



4. Leyton is an anthropologist, and this study of serial killers focuses on sociocultural factors rather than individual pathology as a cause of multiple murder. Specifically, Leyton examines how class conflict has contributed to serial killings in different epochs. In the Middle Ages, royalty killed serfs; in the Industrial Age of the 19th century, the nouveau middle class killed prostitutes and other individuals from the lower rungs, and in the modern era serial killers target those who are just one rung up from them in the social ladder.
   
   Leyton argues that modern multiple murderers are class-conscious and socially conservative men who are obsessed with status, class, and power. Emboldened by our cultural glorification of violence and serial killers, and trapped in alienating lives that do not match their class strivings, they kill the objects of their desire. And they keep killing until they feel that they have accomplished the mission that they set out on. It's a very interesting analysis, although I think Leyton selected case studies that fit his thesis and ignored others that did not. (He profiles Ted Bundy, Edmund Kemper, David Berkowitz, and four other cases, including the D.C. snipers in his new edition, but he ignores - for example - Jeffrey Dahmer, whose predilection for young Cambodian boys goes against his thesis.) Also, the fact that documented serial killers in the Middle Ages were royalty may be due to documentation issues; maybe serfs who killed serfs never made the history books (a possibility Leyton doesn't mention).
   
   But these are minor limitations. The book is well researched and well written, and it is certainly refreshing to see a treatment of this topic that does not ignore the macro perspective of class, race, and culture. In my own forensic psychology practice, I have found it helpful to keep Leyton's perspective in mind, while still not ignoring the developmental wrong-turns and individual pathologies that also contribute to multiple murder. Overall, this book is well worth reading for anyone interested in the etiology of serial murder.



5. I could barely get through the first two chapters of this book as I found the author's views intruding too much. As to what to do about such humans I am never a supporter of the death penalty as it is uncivilized so life without parole is just fine.

5 comments about The Surgeon's Wife (St. Martin's True Crime Library).

1. In a style that reads like a gritty novel, Crowley has managed to write an outstanding book. He manages to convey a gripping tale, somewhat American Gothic in content, that feels its way through parts of three different decades. And although the publishers choose to indeed reveal the ultimate conclusion on the backcover (thus robbing it of the all-elusive 5 star rating), it was, nevertheless, a great pleasure to read.



2. The younger one was the one that I knew, a high achiever, apparently to the present. While I'm sure Ms. Katz (Bierenbaum) was a difficult person, the circumstantial evidence was in fact overwhelming. It is too bad it took 15 years to get to trial while the violent lying psychopath continued to live free. Relieved that justice eventually was served. A. Katz continues to devote her working life to the law and to helping those in need.



3. Be careful who you "think" is the perfect man! That's what I thought of when I finished this book. The surgeon, the pilot-nice looking he seemed to be Mr. Right to her parents. But things went definitly wrong. It took 15 years to catch and convict this Dr. It's a good book, but the author seems to go over the same details quite often during these points it does get boring. Nothing to gross but not a kids book.



4. An interesting analysis on the circumstantial evidence leading to the conviction of Robert Bierenbaum of the murder of his wife Gail (Yes this is technically a spoiler, but its right on the back cover)
   
   Crowley paints both characters in impartial light. In fact the "victim" may be portayed as worse than the monster killer (though I don't think I'd like to be neighbors with either of them).
   
   Crowley discusses the background of both Robert and Gail, the circumstances surrounding the murder, and the subsequent life of Robert up to and including the trial. One wonders if Bierenbaum had been more sympathetic, or had a different judge in his trial, if he still would have been convicted.
   
   The coincidence are almost fictional except that this is a true story.
   
   As another reviewer mentioned, the style and tack taken by Crowley is what makes this book interesting.



5. I agree with the rating that reader Anna Carroll gave earlier. The victim, Gail Katz, was NOT likeable at all. I cannot believe that this woman was warned by a professional of the danger she was in if she stayed married to Bob Bierenbaum...and she ignored the advice to get outta Dodge while she still could.
   
   The woman was too hung up on herself and what she wanted. Her family's pushing her into getting married certainly didn't help. She didn't need a husband. She needed intensive therapy.
   
   The convicted murderer, Bob Bierenbaum, sounded like a social cripple from the get-go. He seemed to think that women are to be used and thrown away like Kleenex once they've served their purpose. Classic sociopath. His second wife, Janet, sounded a little weird, too.
   
   It was okay, but not one of Mr. Crowley's best.

5 comments about No Questions Asked: The Secret Life of Women in the Mob.

1. I like books on the mafia. This was pretty good. Its a collection of many stories from mob wives or daughters. Most with bad endings. This was easy to read but the women in the stories are mostly all nuts like the one who married her first husbands killer. I really dont think men would like it though.



2. THE BOOK WAS GENERALLY GOOD, HOWEVER SOME OF THE FACTS ARE OFF. sHE SHOULD HAVE INTERVIEWED THE WOMEN BEFORE WRITING ABOUT THEM.



3. The most accurate aspect of the book, insofar as it pertains to me, is the title, since Clare certainly did not ask any questions of me. From my perspective, it is little more than a smear-campaign and attempt to cash in on a popular topic.



4. If you read this book -- you can thank the author for making you dumber.
   If you spent money on this book -- you can thank the author for wasting your hard-earned cash.
   If you enjoyed this book in any respect -- then you can thank the author for her talent in writing fiction.
   
   Not only was this book chock full of crap, it didn't at all confer with the people involved to get the facts straight. This is all hearsay and press coverage that anyone could dig up googling the subject matter.
   Now, if you believe what the press tells you -- then you're a real sucker.



5. I purchased this book for myself because I am fascinated by organized crime. This was a fairly interesting account of the woman's role in "modern" US mafia. I wish the information was more in-depth, but it was an enjoyable read none the less.

5 comments about I Choose to Live.

1. On 28 May 1996 twelve-year-old Sabine Dardenne was kidnapped by the man who turned out to be one of Belgium's most heinous paedophiles. She was his prisoner for eighty long days.
   'I need to write this book for three reasons: so that people stop giving me strange looks and treating me like a curiosity; so that no one asks me any more questions ever again; and so that the judicial system never again frees a paedophile for "good behaviour".'
   'The Dutroux Affair' shook the whole of Europe. In the middle of the immense machinery of investigation and justice there was Sabine Dardenne hrself, Dutroux's last victim. She was held captive for eighty days, and astonishly she survived. Far from sensationalizing the horror, her story, dignified and restrained, is ultimately uplifting. Says Sabine Dardenne: 'I choose to live'. -- from book's back cover



2. "I Choose To Live" describes the ordeal that Sabine Dardenne went through living as the captive of a pedophile for 80 days.
   
   Sabine is such an honest, brave, and inspirational person that to read in her own words about the ordeal and how she dealt with it was very inspirational and very fascinating. I couldn't put the book down and really found myself marvelling at her courage and her refusal to look at herself as a victim.
   
   I never imagined that there were people like her. People who could go through the most horrible abuse and come out strong and well-grounded. Hats off to her.
   
   By the way, there weren't any detailed descriptions of the rapes so that made it easier to read (although there were some disturbing parts to the book, of course).



3. While reading this, and afterward, I just wanted to say to Sabine - Forgive Yourself! You are not the author of anyone elses fate. In now way were the author of anyone elses fate - Laetitia was not Kidnapped because of what you said. Dutroux was a horrendous excuse for a human being and did what he wanted with no reference to anyone elses needs. Your 12 year old terror and loneliness was just another excuse to weave a tale of guilt around you!
   
   This is the bare and honest story of Sabine Dardenne, one of two survivors of Belgian paedophile, Marc Dutroux. She spent 80 days in his captivity, and while the details are (thankfully) not given in detail, the sheer horror of being a 12 year old child and subjected to the physical and emotional torment she suffered is enough to horrify.
   
   Sabine was snatched off the street by Dutroux, the Slug as she later calls him, and his wife. That a woman with children could be complicit in this appalls me but she was responsible for at least two earlier deaths of young children kidnapped by Dutroux when she failed to feed them. But Sabine was not aware of this.
   
   Taken by Dutroux she was forced to live in a small cell and basement, eat horrendous food, and assaulted by him. She was not allowed to wash often nor was her cell or environment kept clean so she gradually became more and more unkempt. Once when Dutroux went away there was a power cut, trapped in her stinking cell, 6 feet by 3 feet wide and not tall enough for a short 12 year old to stand up in. She panicked, her only light and ventilation failed - a 12 year old girl alone. Luckily it came on again shortly afterwards.
   
   In her loneliness and desparation she wrote long letters to her mother. Dutroux had told her that He was holding her safe from a gang of terrible men, torturers who would take pleasure in killing her in terrible ways, and that she should never call out and onlyrespond to his voice. She believed these stories, she also believed him when he said her parents weren't cooperating with them over paying a ransom, they couldn't afford it and other disgusting lies which made her desparate.
   
   In her loneliness she asked Dutroux for a friend, an idle suggestion, but one be must have been already considering and enjoying. Soon afterwards he turned up with another child, Laetitia kidnapped from another Belgian town. She was to be directly the author of his downfall. IN his stupidity he was seen, along with his van and other details. He was tracked down and 6 days later the girls were rescued.
   
   The brain washing of Sabine was so complete she could not comprehend that Laetitia had seen missing posters of her in her town. Nor really understand that her family, in fact teh whole of Belgium was desperate to find her.
   
   Painfully Sabine catalogues the post kidnap years. The troubled home life which followed, the typical teenage behaviour, the struggle for acceptance which would probably have happened with her family whether or not she had been kidnapped. She also talks about the inability to control what was being talked about in the press, the lies which were perpetrated and her anger at Dutroux and his lies which were constant and inventive.
   
   The final part is the court case, which was all about discovery - and her continuing her life.
   
   Sabine, you are a survivor. Thank you for righting this book, you are an extraodinary person.



4. Everyone should read this book written by one of the victims of the Belgian child molester and muderer Marc Dutroux.Sabine Dardenne tells her story without seeking cheap sensationalism and obviously strives to come to terms with her horrible plight and concentrate on the here and now and the positive aspects the future may hold in store.



5. Let me be upfront and tell you that I am from Belgium (although a long time resident of the US), where these events took place. It is quite difficult to comprehend how much these events shook Belgium on its political and constitutional pillars.
   
   "I Choose to Live" is the retelling by Sabine Dardenne on how she was abducted and abused (in May, 1996) when she was 12, by Marc Dutroux, a convicted sexual predator (released early on the basis of "good behavior"), and how she survived her 80 days of captivity and abuse. It makes for a devastating read. Sabine comes across as a survivor, and an extremely courageous person. The book was originally released in Belgium in 2004, 8 years after the events.
   
   The events (which include not only Sabine, but a number of other young girls who were abducted and/or murdered) proved to be a devastating insight on Belgium's judicial system, resulting in the "White March" in the capital of Brussels, in which hunderds of thousands of people demonstrated for a better judicial system, and leading to a resignation of several high-level politicians and a subsequent reform of Belgium's judicial and police system. Sabine Dardenne is to be commended for sharing her story, even though it must have been extremely difficult and painful for her to write her story. This is not an easy read, in fact it will make you squirm, but please read this book. It needs to be read.