5 comments about The Silent Don: The Criminal Underworld of Santo Trafficante Jr..

1. For those who don't know, Santo Trafficante, Jr., was the Mob boss of the Tampa, Florida area from at least the late 50s to his death in the 1980s, and he may have had some sort of connection with JFK's assassination. Scott Deitche does a marvelous job of giving us his background and details about his life, as well as other incidents in the Tampa crime family during his reign.
   
   Deitche's second book is very impressive. He has shown tremendous growth and uses a wealth of primary sources, including oral interviews of living relatives of deceased mobsters. For the researcher, the endnotes are greatly appreciated. As far as writing style, it's almost academic compared to the informal style of his first book. So if you want to know what went on in the field of Florida organized crime in the second half of the twentieth century, this is the book for you. If you are just interested in true crime, this is also for you. And for those interested in Tampa or Florida history, I think you will enjoy it too.



2. certainly worth reading if you like digging a bit deeper into the Mafia literature. Trafficante usually figures as a minor character in other books, so I was glad to learn more about him. I wouldn't call this a great read, though. There are a number of references to "Mob Lawyer," Selwynn Raab's biography of Ragano, Trafficante's lawyer. Haven't read that yet, but have read Raab's "Five Families," which I can highly recommend as being very well-written & informative. Most bothersome to me about "Silent Don" was the index - the page references were off on every single entry - and I checked dozens. There was some regularity to the discrepancy, but it was a real pain to work around.



3. "The Silent Don" is the story of Santo Trafficante, longtime Mafia boss of South Florida. SD provides an endless parade of mafiadom, crime personalities and corrupt officials. Author Deitche has certainly done his homework. Like a good reporter, the author buttresses his text with piles of references and footnotes, almost to the point of overkill. SD touches many the many bases of Trafficante's line of work, but two chapters stand out: 1) Chapter 6 deals with the "good old days" in Havana before Fidel Castro overthrew the place, closed the casinos and kicked the mob out. What a fun, free wheeling, anything goes place Havana must have been-and how profitable for the bosses like ST. One wishes this fascinating sector had been longer. 2) Chapter 15 takes us to, if not down, the slippery slope of the JFK assassination and the Mob's involvement with that treacherous act. Did Trafficante REALLY confess his role in the JFK murder to his lawyer? Deitche suggests so. Or, as the author also hints, was Carlos Marcello, Mafia boss of New Orleans, behind the JFK hit? Marcello controlled Dallas in those days. Perhaps it was that eponymous bunch of "rogue" CIA agents harboring grudges from the Bay of Pigs fiasco? Again, one wishes for more concrete evidence, however fascinating the speculation. The final call on SD makes a 5 star rating impossible. Deitche would have served his readers better had he narrowed the scope of the text rather than covering so many of ST's criminal activities. Also, the typesetting is wearying: Paragraphs need to be better spaced. Physical layout is a problem here and the footnoting is awkward. Do we need 536 of them in a 229 page book? A good stern editor with a sharp blue pencil could have tidied up the text, but those guys were laid off years ago! That kvetching aside, SD remains an entertaining 4 star story. This is only a first edition; perhaps future printings can address the housekeeping issues. That might nudge "Silent Don" up into the 5 star category.



4. Being from Tampa I've been looking all over for info on the 400 pound elephant in this town. People still whisper his name around here as if he's going to come back from the grave and seek revenge on them. My parents used to tell me stories about him and his family's activities in our "hood"(it sure as hell wasn't happening in his neighborhood). Hell, he's buried less than a mile from where I live, along with majority of his "family members". So let's just say his presence still seems to loom over Tampa. But the old guard of Tampa just tries to forget the past, especially "his" past. Finally, this author comes with some juicy details from the exploits of Santo Trafficante Jr. Everything from his father's start, Santo Sr., to Cuba, to Appalachian, to La Stella, Bay of Pigs, Hoffa, all the way to JFK. Not to mention Donnie Brasco. This book was a huge bounce back from CIGAR CITY MAFIA, and will not dissappoint. GREAT JOB SCOTT!! Now give us something on Charlie Wall or Primo Lazzara. Hell, I'll buy it.



5. The author's second book on the history of the Tampa (Florida) Mob does not disappoint. As great a read as his first book, Cigar City Mafia. Keep writing them Scott and Ill continue buying them!

5 comments about Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld, Expanded Edition.

1. Since this book was originally published in 1986 it has been the standard reference work on organized crime in Japan. This new, greatly expanded edition only adds to its status. Organized crime in any country tends to share certain similarities. Their activities concentrate on gambling, prostitution, drugs, extortion, and smuggling. Also, they are usually very right-wing and nationalistic. The Yakuza are no exception, but there are some differences, "...it is as if the Ku Klux Klan and the Mafia formed an enduring, politically potent alliance." The symbiotic relationship between Japan's political system, Big Business, and the Yakuza is a disturbing indication of the depth and prevalence of corruption and bribery in the world's second-largest economy. The authors (both American journalists) trace the roots of the Yakuza to its medieval beginnings, but most of the book concentrates on the period since the American Occupation, when the present form of Yakuza organization solidified (and also exposes the involvement of the CIA with the Yakuza's post-war growth). It documents the rise of the Yakuza into a multi-billion dollar enterprise with worldwide investments in real estate, art, big business and more. The original book ended before the bursting of the "Bubble Economy", and this new version picks up the story and shows how the Yakuza have adapted since then to the new economic climate. The authors also cover extensively the internationalization of the Yakuza, particularly their various attempts to move into America. A must-read for anyone interested in contemporary Japan and Japanese politics.



2. 
   "Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld" is a book that is almost criminally enthralling.
   
   In the United States the world of organized crime tends to be viewed as entirely exclusive to Anglo-European or Eastern European groups. Whether it be the Cosa Nostra or the Armenian mob little is generally known about the criminal organizations of the East. Particularly Japan's Yakuza.
   
   How many of you knew that the pervasiveness of methanphetamines throughout the world is thanks to the Yakuza? Also, how many of you knew that the Yakuza is so widely integrated into Japanese society that they have often held press conferences announcing the end of gang conflicts or that they even have their own offices? How many of you knew that the Yakuza was allowed to survive and thrive after WWII thanks to the American occupation of Japan? Did you also know that the CIA employed some Yakuza as spies against the left wing in Japan after the war? ...and that these same people that they employed and let gain power...were the same people they put in prison for Class A war crimes?
   
   These are just a few of the interesting and altogether jaw-dropping facts you'll learn by reading this book, a very thoroughly researched study on the fairly little known but globally expansive criminal organizations of Japan. If there aren't at least a dozen parts in this book that don't shock and amaze you I would be very surprised. I could go on and on about all of the interesting facts on the Yakuza covered in this book (from its vaguely noble beginnings to its rather uncertain future) but I think if you are interested in knowing about them you should read this book firsthand. You will NOT be disappointed.
   
   A fantastic book.



3. Not as gory or glamorous as I expected, this book does paint a very vivid and true to life picture of the yakuza. Recommended if you have an interest in the underworld.



4. Great book. To those who say its communist, I ask several questions:
   
   -Its from good ol' UC Berkeley. What did you expect?
   -Have you ever been to the bay area? What did you expect?
   
   This book is just a part of the great San Francisco Bay Area culture. People should learn to appreciate that this is simply how we think here in the Bay.
   
   Otherwise a fascinating look at the Yakuza.



5. Although I have not read this book yet, I am looking forward to it and the shipping came on time.

5 comments about The Investigator's Little Black Book 3.

1. This is a book of phone numbers.
   
   But it's a book of really useful phone numbers and other information if you are trying to investigate someone or something.
   
   Did you know that if you have some money that got torn up or burned you can get it redeemed by the US Treasury?
   
   Need to know who to contact for court records in any state? Want to know how to decipher a automobile's VIN number? Need the telephone number for the FBI Crime Lab?
   
   All this and more is in this great little book. Well worth adding to your library.



2. This book provides time saving reference. The book is set up so anyone can be more efficient with searching. In the back of the book you have the option of checking out the author's site. It has free search tools. In my last job I ran a professional repo. office. This guide was a good tool in finding those little bits of information that you can miss sometimes by using the professional searches. Just a tip, think out of the box when "skipping" someone. You need to be patient but also know when to put it down and pick it up later.



3. Almost an overwhelming amount of information, It would have been a good idea to have put the info into sections of different types of info or at least have an index. Ther than that it is a very informative book, you just have to really hunt for the info you are really after.



4. I bought this as a gift for a loved one and they loved it. They work as a private investigator in New York and said they will get a lot of use out of the book.



5. This is a well written book and is a must read for anyone seeking information.

5 comments about Cellar of Horror.

1. Mr. Englade did a good job staying with the story, by just telling the story. You get an idea of what he (the author) thinks but that's it. I don't read true crime to learn about the thoughts and feelings of the author, I read them for the facts of the case. Gary Heidnik and the things that he did to those girls were horrible. After learning about what he wrote to a fiancee' while in jail, I do wonder how much of his problems were fake and what was real.



2. Ken Englade's CELLAR OF HORROR details the bundle of insanity that was Gary Heidnik. Heidnik, who had been diagnosed for years as schizophrenic, held six women captive in his basement over a four month period spanning 1987/1988. His goal was ostensibly to have each of these women bear his children - he wanted ten - creating a family who would continue living in his basement. Heidnik sexually assaulted and tortured these women in a variety of repulsive ways, and two of them eventually died at his hands.
   An interesting and unusual facet of Heidnik's psyche is that he was a white man with an IQ measured at 130 who preferred the company of mentally and physically disabled black women, though of the captives only one was disabled.
   
   CELLAR OF HORROR was first published in 1989. As Heidnik was convicted in July 1988, I was afraid the book was going to be a rush-to-print slop job.
   It most definitely is not. Englade is a professional. He doesn't tell the reader what to think; he does not at all inject his own personality into the account; and he doesn't pad his book with mindless repetition and filler. What he does is write fairly, reportorially, and intelligently.
   
   A strong point of this book is that Englade has included a reasonable amount of background material on Heidnik, from his childhood on.
   I would have actually preferred even more background, but there is still a lot more than is usually found in true crime books printed this close to the trial. I also think this would have been a better book if there had been an attempt to provide background information about the victims. And the picture section, while it contains 5 good pictures of Heidnik, has none of any of the women Heidnik abducted and held captive. I realize that this may have been a sensitive issue, but the victims are all named in the book and the four that lived testified at the trial, so it seems to me that their pictures, and/or more information personalizing them, could have been printed. This would have improved the book. In short I would have liked the book longer and with more depth.
   
   Still, I still found CELLAR OF HORROR to be a fast paced and very well written account of a truly appalling crime comitted by yet another truly appalling lunatic. And I recommend it highly.



3. Statistics would indicate that mentally ill persons are no more dangerous than other persons. However, there is a catch. Some mentally ill persons are extremely dangerous... and you have no way of knowing who they are.
   
   Hospitalized in various psychiatric facilities on no fewer than 21 occasions, Gary Heidnik was a paranoid schizophrenic with a genious IQ. His primary goal in life was to imprison 10 women, impregnate them all, and raise a family in his basement. After successfully kidnapping 5 women over a period of 4 months, Heidnik maintained control of his captives with chains, daily beatings, repeated rapes, starvation, and other tortures. What he did not consider was that someday one of them would escape. When that happened, all hell broke loose in Philidelphia.
   
   The author composes an interesting history of a man with a highly intelligent mind haunted by the specter of mental illness. Well written and gramatically sound, Englade also does a fine job of humanizing the victims... however pitiful and disenfranchised they may have been as prostitutes, the handicapped, and the mentally retarded.
   
   Without going into too much detail about the individual verdicts reached by the jury, it is apparent that neither the prosecuting attorney nor the jurors understood the dynamics of mental illness or the distinction between intelligence and severe mental instability. As a practicing mental health professional, I think I might have come to some different conclusions about what constitutes guilt and innocence. BONUS: For those readers enjoy heated courtroom drama, the moodiness and contradictory rulings of Judge Lynne Abraham, as well as a chaotic conglomerate of "expert witnesses" and their testimonies will not disappoint!



4. Ken Englade's CELLAR OF HORROR was the riveting story of Gary Heidnik who held five women captive in his basement; all the while raping, torturing and starving them yet with the intent to impregnate them so that he could, in a manner of speaking, be immoralized.
   
   While the story itself it one that can keep you entranced, the arguments for Heidnik's sanity are also just as enticing. Was Heidnik crazy or was he simply manipulating his doctors? Sadly enough, since Heidnik's sentence of death was carried out by lethal injection in 1999, no one may never really know.
   
   This book is a very quick read, simply because readers can't put it down. Englade provides plenty of details on facts and plenty of arguments on the accused's sanities; enough to keep one thinking about it long after it's finished. I highly recommend this book to true crime genre fans!



5. I love true crime and this was an interesting story but to me the real message was that this guy should never have been out in the normal population in the first place. It ended up being more a commentary on the problems associated with housing and treating the severely disturbed and mentally ill people in our society. The author reported the story of Gary but it jumped around a lot and did much repeating of information and details. Not the best true crime novel, but it did tell the story of this lunatic.

2 comments about Open City: True Story of the KC Crime Family 1900-1950.

1. I am anxious to read this book! I grew up in the north-end "Little Italy" section of Kansas City (3rd and Gillis). I later became a Police
   Offier,where I worked with the Metro Squad, including Mob incidents, as I was familiar with the "family" and knew many of them personally. I remember working with Bill Ouseley and George Lukenhoff at the Kansas City FBI office back in the 60's. John W. Yates, Jr.



2. Written by a former FBI agent, he provides a great deal on the history and structure of the Kansas City Mafia from its inception to the beginning of the Civella era. He includes information from the Kefauver Hearings and background files, from the recently published MAFIA book (from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and with an intro by Sam Giancana, the former crime boss's nephew), Nicola Gentile and the Kansas City Star. Unfortunately he gives no sourcing except for a small list of books that covers two pages. I wish he had footnotes or endnotes. The writing style is also rather dry and matter-of-fact, but it is accurate. As someone who has researched organized crime for over twenty years, I can definitely recommend this book.

5 comments about Erased: Missing Women, Murdered Wives.

1. Erased is an intense and insightful book that explores the disturbing trend of men who decide to "erase" the women in their lives whom they consider no longer of any use.
   
   Marilee Strong is an excellent writer, who dissects historical and current cases involving men who decided that disappearing inconvenient wives or girlfriends is an easier decision than divorce or separation. Most notably these women are eliminated due to an unwelcome pregancy that the man believes will negatively disrupt his life (lifestyle).
   
   Ms. Strong uses Scott Peterson as a template of an eraser killer~and also discusses the Mark Hacking case in detail. She enables the reader to understand the motivations behind these killings and the mindset of the killer. Most of these men are narcissitic sociopaths, therefore it is easy for them to kill without guilt, because they don't know the true concept of love, compassion, or empathy. The reason they don't just split or get a divorce, is that they don't want to look bad (the narcissistic part of their personality cannot bear to have others look down upon them, and since it would look bad to leave a pregant wife, it is easier to "erase" the wife, and maybe in the process gain attention and sympathy from family/friends/community). In the killer's mind, once the wife is erased, he can move on and do what HE wants to do, not be saddled with a wife and kid.
   
   I recommend this book, as it delves much deeper into the psyche of the "eraser" killer than any of the true crime books I have read. Again, Ms. Strong is an eloquent writer who presents many facsinating cases, some I have never heard about~and the mind and motive of these horrendous husbands.



2. I am really surprised by the review below that criticizes the prose in this book. I thought it of high quality and unobtrusive. Adjectives have not been eliminated from the language, and they were not inappropriately overused in this book. Curious.
   
   Does the true crime genre really need a fifteenth book about the Scott and Laci Peterson case? One could reasonably conclude that the question answers itself. Then I read Erased.
   
   Unlike the fourteen titles that preceded it -- including books by the jurors, the journalists, Laci's mother, Scott's sister and lover -- the latest title to delve into the most widely publicized U.S. case since OJ's acquittal stands alone. Erased: Missing Women, Murdered Wives [Amazon; B&N] by Marilee Strong (with Mark Powelson) is very well informed by history and psychology. The lead author has delved to the nth degree into the criminal history of the United States, and the result is a unique study of a certain type of uxorcide. I couldn't skim or skip a page of this book, which marries, if you will, two of my favorite subgenres: spousal murder stories and criminal psychology.
   
   In developing a profile of what she terms "eraser" killers, the author recounts many cases that have remarkable parallels to the Peterson case, highlighting dozens already familiar to some of us: Chester Gillette, Carlyle Harris, Reverend Richeson, Robert Blake, Mark Hacking, Bartin Corbin, Michael Peterson, Father Hans Schmidt, and numerous other more obscure murders. In developing her profile, she comes to some strong conclusions while offering a depth of research to support them. For example, she points to the fact that Scott Peterson reported his wife missing on Christmas Eve. I had assumed that he was a psychopath who gave himself a Christmas present. Author Strong points out a more mundane possibility: that a disappearance on a holiday would not result in a vigorous investigation by experienced detectives. Just as Theodore Dreiser "profiled" Chester Gillette and his brothers in crime in fictional terms, this author does so in the language of clinical psychology.
   
   I approached this book skeptically, frowning at the flap copy, groaning at the press release ("missing women cases ... have come to dominate the national print and broadcast media since the highly publicized disappearance of Laci Peterson," it says, when it should say such cases have always dominated the media). I've also grown more skeptical of the work of profilers and agree with the general prohibition against admitting their testimony in court, while at the same time I think they are useful to the general public. And crime encyclopedias usually disappoint this reader with numerous errors. Not this time. Erased is cogent and compelling.



3. This book really hit home for me and I stayed awake all night to the point of exhaustion to finish it. I came very close, twice, to being a missing or murdered wife. My ex-husband finally served some jail time after kidnapping and attempting to murder me but when we were married the police acted as though my being beaten by him was a "domestic disturbance" and they refused to file a report.
   
   I finally understand why my ex-husband acted the way he did and how he was able to screw everyone who ever cared for him without remorse.
   
   This book should be required reading for every cop around the world and for every prosecuter who wants a better understanding of the "charming sociopath".



4. Strong believes she has found a new category of killers. That is not to suggest that eraser killers, like serial killers, another category lately described, didn't exist previously. Just that she can now find a pattern and has labeled it.
   
   Eraser killers are men who want women gone from their lives. Erased, vanished, no longer a bother. Frequently, these wives or girlfriends are pregnant. "Recent studies from several states...have found homicide to be the number one cause of death among pregnant women and that women continue to be at increased risk for being murdered for usp to a year after giving birth...A 2005 study...found homicide to be the second leading cause of ...dead...behind in pregnant and postpartum women, being motor vehicle accidents" (p 28).
   
   Essentially, as in the famous case of Scott Peterson, these men created forced abortions.
   
   The cases are fascinating. And certainly the utter callousness of the men astonishes. Edward Kakas was "obsessed over his appearance, waring $1,000 suits" (p 154) and pleased with his pretty wife until she insisted, without his agreement, on getting pregnant and having the baby. He started to refer to her as "'the fat wop'". (p 155). He could have divorced her. But that would have meant money for her and the child. So, instead, he killed her.
   
   Interesting but scary.



5. This book's strength in my opinion is that the author has an original idea (giving a name to a particular type of crime) and that it is well researched. The weakness is the somewhat choppy writing style. It follows the Laci Peterson story and weaves in other cases. I would have liked a little less weaving and more of a chronological approach.

5 comments about When Evil Came to Good Hart.

1. Northern Michigan author Mardi Link's latest book, WHEN EVIL CAME TO GOOD HART is right on the mark when it comes to explaining the 40 year old murders of a Michigan family. The Robison's of suburban Detroit were brutally killed in their northern Michigan summer cottage in June of 1968.
   No one was ever arrested for the crime.
   
   Many theories and many suspects were examined by the Michigan State Police investigators throughout their 16 month long search for the killer.
   At first the crime scene suggested murder-suicide, when that was ruled out by forensics the idea of a deranged local killer emerged. This theory was followed by a drug crazed beach roaming intruder, the local cottage caretaker, a downstate serial killer, and finally someone personally known to the family who needed to keep a dark secret just that, secret!
   
   Ms. Link's able story telling helps unravel what appears on the surface to have been a complex and mysterious murder case. Her story examines the evidence and details that eventually leads all law enforcement officials
   connected to the case to narrow the killer down to one person.
   
   So, the question is, why was that person never arrested??? That very well may be explained in Mardi Link's sequel!



2. Mardi Link does an impeccable job of presenting all the fruits of her own investigation of this unsolved case.
   
   I don't normally read books of this genre, but I must say, I couldn't put the book down. I was 10 years old in 1968 and I felt my own Michigan cottage experiences come flooding back to me, minus the murder scenes of course. My only complaint with this book is it leaves you hanging... which I guess typifies this genre of books. So many of the theories Mardi puts forth sound plausible and I found myself thinking "oh yes, he did without a doubt." And then the next theory is put forward and I'm of a new opinion.
   
   For me the most fascinating aspect of this book was the real life character of Dick Robison, the father and primary victim. Mardi Jo's research paints a vivid image of an advertising man whose dreams and aspirations surpassed reality and entered into a scary and volatile state of mind and more than likely became the source of his own demise.



3. After more than 40 years we finally have a comprehensive non-fiction account of all the known facts regarding this most shocking crime. In Good Hart, MI, 1968, a whole family was gunned down and left undiscovered for a month in their secluded upscale north woods cottage. The murderer or murderers were never brought to trial. This is a crime close to the hearts and minds of many of the people of Michigan, even those not born when it happened. Finally Mardi Link has brought the facts together and out into the open for all to ponder. What was the father, Richard Robison doing that could have prompted this horrid overkill? Was his partner a con artist who ran out of slick talk? Read this book to learn of a most captivating unsolved mystery.



4. Very well written, clears up many unanswered questions about the crime. A "must read" for anyone interested in this unsolved murder mystery.When Evil Came to Good Hart



5. When Evil Came to Good Hart
   
   When you live in Northern Michigan it is as if you live in a world onto yourself. Crime rarely happens here, and when that rare event does occur, the culprit is caught...usually within a week's timeframe. That was not the case for the Robinson family.
   
   This unsolved murder still haunts the small village of Good Hart. I began reading this story on a dark stormy night while I was home alone. Not a good idea. This story, especially the beginning, is vivid and transported this Northern Michigan reader to that scary cabin in Good Hart.
   
   Interesting, moving, chilling, and technical is how I would describe When Evil Came to Good Hart. A must read for any Northern Michigan resident. A should read for anyone interested in a no nonsense crime story.

5 comments about Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters.

1. Radical feminists who insist that only men commit serial murder will be angered by this book, which lists the names of 140 predatory female serial killers and offers case studies of varying detail for some 40 of them. Vronsky is highly critical of radical feminism, which argues that when women kill they do so only to defend themselves against male aggression. He very persuasively argues that many female serial killers kill for the very same reasons that male serial killers do--but that they leave different signatures at the crime scene.
   
   If you liked Vronsky's book extensively reseached book on male serial killers, then you'll love this one. Vronsky writes in his usual biting sarcastic style but his treatment is very intelligent and informative and he never "writes down" to his readers while covering some pretty dense historical and psychological material in a jargon-free style. His comparisons of female with male serial killers give you not only new insight into the female perpetrator but make you re-think what male serial killers are all about.
   
   Vronsky breaks down a lot of myths about female serial killers pointing out that over half of them have killed at least one female themselves and 39 percent at least one child and that strangers--not husbands, lovers or family members--are marginally the most preferred category of victim for female serial killers today. Vronsky points out that female serial killers are much better at it than male ones, eluding apprehension for twice as long a time on average than males and that the frequency of female serial killers appears to be doubling every two decades. According to the statistics he provides, 1 in nearly every 6 serial killers in the USA is a female. That's quite the shocker and the case studies in this book easily sustain that.
   
   Excellent book with no parallel on the psychology, history, and gender-politics of female serial killing with a fascinating chapter on female accomplices of male sexual serial killers.



2. Fantastic insight into the interplay of politics, publicity, and the PERCEPTION of female serial killers. An excellent slap at extremist feminist political portrayal of women serial murderers as "victims" with a balanced critique of this distortion. All in all, a completely unique portrayal of what could merely be sensationalist bunk. Very scholarly. Recommended for the reader who wants facts, not rumor.



3. The issue of feminism is only a very small part of this book: a few pages in a couple of chapters from nearly 500 pages of everything else about female serial killers! A fascinating, compelling and heavily researched study of the history, psychology, culture and sociology of female serial killers, along with some detailed case histories to back it up. The book is an excellent companion to his book on males--Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters. What I enjoy most about his books are the case studies which provide much more detailed descriptions than other general books on serial murder. There are about twenty extensive accounts of various types of female serial killers many of which go way beyond the short encyclopedic treatments so often published. I also like the way the author structures his books into several parts: history, psychology, and then case studies. You do not need to read the book from beginning to end, but can often open it at any chapter, reading it in almost any order, like a magazine. His books are more like a collection of complete articles and case studies, linked together by the common theme of serial homicide. Read together they paint a big picture of female predators. Like a smart True Detective magazine - a 'vanity fair' of true crime, women and serial homicide. Very enjoyable and readable style with a subtle edge of black humor behind it. Maybe the best new stuff written on Charlie Manson and his girls. And his take on Aileen Wuornos made me cry: it was heart-breaking true to her--a shot right between her angels and the devil. Bright new talented true crime author and a scholar too. Frightening no punches-pulled accounts of sequential female predatory aggression in all its many lipstick shades.



4. First, I have to say that I am reading this part with great interest. As a true crime reader, I find this book to be quite in-depth but I have some disagreements with the author regarding some notable omissions like Caryl Ann Fugate who was along with Ray Starkweather in the 1950s on a murderous spree. She was only 14 years old at the time. Also, Sante Kimes who was also known to be vicious to her servants/slaves and left a murderous which included her own son, Kenny, as her accomplice leaving bodies across the country and abroad in the Bahamas. I think he devotes a lot of time to Aileen Wuornos who I believed was mentally ill and that was not analyzed properly. I believe she was either bipolar or paranoid schizophrenic regardless she was mentally ill until her death. Female serial killers in this book include all kinds including the kind granny Dorothea Puente, the nurse Genene Jones who is eligible for parole in 2009, mother Marybeth Tinning who suffocated her children for attention was eligible in 2006, and others. Karla HOmolka has been released from prison and I thought her crimes were horrendous. While the author does provide a great deal amount of time analyzing those, I felt that the Manson girls who have been rejected for parole repeatedly are villified beyond redemption and will never be released in the first place despite the fact that they have all changed behind prison. I don't think of the Manson girls as serial killers much less as followers as Manson much like the girls who went on sprees with their husbands, lovers, partners, etc. I'm still reading the book slowly to absorb the knowledge. I study true crime but I have no aspiration to do any harm to anybody else. This book is good but not excellent, I would have liked the author to have analyzed Santee Kimes.



5. This is a good book, covering individuals from the distant past (Messalina, Elizabeth Bathory) to 19th century poisoners, Nazi death camp workers (Irma Grese), moving into recent history (the Manson girls) to modern cases as well (Karla Homolka, Aileen Wuornos). And these women I mentioned are just a few of the many, many case histories and individuals Vronksy explores.
   
   It definitely shows that the author did his research and covers this subject more thoroughly than other books I have read on this subject. I'd definitely recommend it highly to true-crime fans. It reads well and is informative and effective, from stomach-churning transcripts of the Homolka/Bernardo videotapes to theories on why Bathory perhaps did not bathe in the blood of her many victims.
   
   My only criticisms are that the author does focus a lot on Wuornos, as he seems to believe her to be somewhat of an anomaly amongst female murderers in terms of her motives and "style" (for lack of a better word).
   
   Also, he goes after an activist named Phyllis Chesler for her feminist defense of Wuornos in a very aggressive way. He definitely makes some valid points against Chesler's arguments, but there is a vitriol in his words that made me feel he was somehow very personally offended by this woman: calling her a "creature", sarcastically mentioning that "we can all sleep better" knowing that Chesler has moved on to other causes. His almost venomous attack on her stood out to me in a big way while reading.
   
   I definitely recommend this book. Very informative and entertaining.

5 comments about Zodiac Unmasked: The Identity of America's Most Elusive Serial Killer Revealed.

1. Author too long winded. I love true crime, but this book just couldn't hold my attention.



2. I enjoyed both Graysmith/Zodiac books, but ZODIAC UNMASKED was 100 PAGES TOO LONG. Plus much of the info was repeated 2-4 times. I was almost expecting a test at the end!



3. After seeing David Fincher's film ZODIAC I got a craving to find out more about the crimes Zodiac committed, so I ordered a copy of Zodiac Unmasked, seeing as how the screenwriters adapted this book into the script. All I can say now is, the screenwriters must be geniuses for I have never read so disorganized and badly written a true crime book and I've plowed through some doozies in my lifetime. If you've seen the movie, you've seen Jake Gyllenhaal playing Robert Graysmith, this inoffensive, innocuous mousy cartoonist who hangs out all day at the Chronicle newsroom and little by little he becomes obsessed with the case to the detriment of his home life.
   
   It's not that cartoonists can't write good books, but I wonder how good a cartoonist Graysmith was because as a writer, he's the bottom of the barrel. Not one sentence he writes make sense. Okay, some make sense but then the problem is that whatever interest you had at the beginning of the sentence evaporates by the time he gets to the end. Part of the problem is the hugeness of his topic. Not only are there literally hundreds of suspects, very few of whom ever come alive as "characters," but there are hundreds of cops, ditto, and witnesses, ditto, all of them a huge blur, and there also seem to be hundreds of Northern California towns all of which Zodiac knew well and left terror there.
   
   We can never get an estimate of how many crimes Zodiac committed nor how many letters he wrote. Graysmith doesn't want to say "no" to any possibility, so all of them are left flapping in the wind like the monkey's gumballs.
   
   And yet another part of the problem is that, halfway through the events he relates, he makes the central one the publication of his first book about Zodiac, in which he identified his main suspect under a pseudonym (the man was still alive at that time), so we get hundreds of new sightings based on readers who read #1, called up Graysmith, told him they knew who he was talking about, and he was right, that man is strange. Maybe the first book was better for it wouldn't have all this patting himself on the back in it. This one is nigh unreadable. However since it was the basis for one of the best thrillers I've ever seen, I'm bumping it up a notch or two.



4. I'm shocked by the reviewers who read this and didn't think Arthur Leigh Allen was the Zodiac. It reaches a point where an unbelievable number of coincidences, and identifications from witnesses and victims are too compelling to consider otherwise.
   
   Yes, Leigh's fingertips didn't match. Yes, his handwriting didn't match. Yes, they never found a "smoking gun." Leigh was an intelligent person who took considerable precautions to ensure he wouldn't get caught. Plus, there is no proof the fingerprints in question were from the Zodiac. They could have come from a number of different people (they did not get elimination prints from everyone at the scene).
   
   As for peoople who didn't like the way the book was written, keep it mind this is not a mystery novel. Events were written in chronological order and often required additional information so the reader would understand.
   
   I agree that some material is repeated and could have done without some of it myself. If you're interested at all in this case, the overwhelming amount of research and information is worth such a minor flaw.



5. HUGE DISSAPOINTMENT. I READ THE FIRST BOOK AND WOULD HAVE GIVEN IT 5 STARS. IS THIS AMERICA? ARE WE NOT INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY? WE SHOULD LEARN SOMETHING FROM RICHARD JEWELL. YEAH, I GUESS THERE IS A REMOTE POSSIBILITY HE COULD HAVE BEEN ZODIAC, BUT WHAT IF HE WASN'T. ALTHOUGH HE WAS ODD, NO ONE DESERVES TO BE PERSECUTED BY THE MEDIA IN THEIR FINAL YEARS OF LIFE (UNLESS FOR SURE HE WAS ZODIAC). COME ON-HIS DNA DID NOT MATCH, THE FINGER PRINT DID NOT MATCH. IT SEEMS THAT MR GRAYSMITH HAD TUNNEL VISION AND IS TRYING HIS HARDEST TO CONVICE US THAT HE WAS ZODIAC, WHEN THE PHYSICAL EVIDENCE SAYS DIFFERENT. SKIP THIS BOOK, JUST BUY "ZODIAC", GRAYSMITH'S 1ST BOOK.

5 comments about Drug Lords: The Rise and Fall of the Cali Cartel.

1. it was good to read about the other major cartel in colombia, The cartel allowed Pablo Escobar to cause Havoc and quietly but efficiently went about spreading they're tentacles around the world. A fascinating insight to the inner workings of one of the most successful drug distribution networks ever! Maybe it was me but i knocked stars off the review because of the constant flicking back and forth to the index page to remind myself of each main character of the book. But this should not stop anyone who may be interested in this fascinating subject of one of Forbes top earners!



2. Anyone wanting to read a thrilling yet informative book about organized crime should start with Drug Lords. This is certainly the best book I've read about the international drug trade and how it works. The detail the author provides is amazing and everything is documented, but he still manages to present it in an interesting and riveting way. The story of the hunt for Pablo Escobar is a simple tale compared to what it took to take the godfathers from Cali.
   
   I also found it fascinating to read how the Cali Cartel outwitted their bitter rival, Pablo Escobar, in a brutal war that has no parallel in organized crime history. Then the Cali Cartel almost got away with taking over Colombia! As this well-written book shows, the War on Drugs may be futile, but the drug agents working the streets to protect the public against illegal drugs are real heroes. Highly recommended



3. This book drowns in too many details and facts, and because of that the main characters remain a bit 'without character' so to speak. If you liked Mark Bowden's 'The Hunt for Pablo', do not think that this book is from the same order. It is not. It's far, far below.



4. It was refreshing to read a book on the Cali Cartel. Most books written regarding the drug cartels in Colombia focus on Medellin and/or Pablo Escobar. The only problem I found with this book was the fact that there are numerous spelling and grammatical errors. I am not sure if this was an issue the editor should have corrected, the printer, or the author himself but I found myself reading sentences that would end abruptly and several cities and persons that were misspelled. This is very unprofessional. In any case, even though the writing style is a bit "dry", I found myself enjoying the book simply because of its focus on the "other" cartel of Colombia.



5. One of the best books covering the Colombian drug wars.
   
   Highly detailed and readable.