No comments about The Tongue Snatchers (European Women Writers).

No comments about The Prediction and Control of Organized Crime: The Experience of Post-Soviet Ukraine.

No comments about Serial Killers (Crime).

No comments about Jack the Ripper and the London Press.

No comments about To Alcatraz, Death Row, and Back: Memories of an East LA Outlaw.

4 comments about Vesco: From Wall Street to Castro's Cuba </br>The Rise, Fall, and Exile of the King of White Collar Crime.

1. I would love to meet and greet the person the book is about. It is as if he has left no stone unturned. Mr. Vesco if you can read this please call me @ 1-313-577-6951. Thanks Carole McCormick.



2. VESCO:FROM WALL STREET TO CASTRO'S CUBA by Arthur Herzog is a riveting study of while-collar criminal, Robert Vesco, accused by the Securities Exchange Commission of looting Bernard Cornfeld's Investor's Overseas Service (IOS) of 425 million in 1986. Vesco fled the USA before he was brought to trial, presumably, taking the money with him. The ingredients of "game playing", secretiveness, manipulation, bravado, and a "slippery streak" mixed with a more than usual dose of greed and chutzpah is the foundation of the Vesco legend.
   Herzog looks at his ambitious childhood in Detroit, his early marriage at seventeen, and his knack of losing jobs. After awhile Vesco decides to start his own businesses, ultimately creating wealthy conglomerates. But Vesco did not work alone; he sought out and persuaded powerful, wealthy men to join him in his various get-rich schemes. After he left the country, he still had a line to the best attorneys to represent him and to powerful politicians to protect him, as he hop-scotched around the Caribbean--Costa Rica, the Bahamas, Nicaragua, Antigua, and eventually Castro's Cuba. It is here that Herzog catches up with the fugitive financier and gets the first interview ever with him. Ironically, Herzog's last question, "Bob, was it all worth it?" is left unanswered as Vesco scurries away.
   * * *



3. The book is about as good as any book could be, given the secrecy in which its main subject operated. It never gives the reader any clarity about why Vesco committed the crimes that made him famous (he could have made just about as much money legally, and would not have ended up in jail in Cuba as a result.) But in a case where little is known about what precisely happened, it is unfair to expect Herzog to explain why it happened. Anyway, this is the only book on Mr. Vesco that discusses his later career, and it sorely deserves an update. Required reading for any scholars of 1970s finance or Wall Street scandals.



4. Beyond the obvious research the author has done on the subject; he has painted a picture of one of those men in history who lived a colorful life at possibly the wong time. In today's world Robert Vesco would probably be a hero.

1 comments about Body Snatchers, Stiffs and Other Ghoulish Delights.

1. Just finished reading this book this morning. It's a quick read. History of bodysnatching in Britain and the U.S., plus some miscellaneous dramatic stories about grave-robberies and embalmed freaks. History of Burke and Hare and story of Hottentot Venus are the standouts for me. Drimmer's writing is workmanlike, but that's OK -- it's the fruit of his research that interests, anyway. All the same, the book seems cobbled-together. Doesn't bother me so long as I like what's in it, and basically I do.

3 comments about The Search for Michael Rockefeller.

1. This book, written in the early seventies, details Argosy Magazine journalist Milt Machlin's investigation into the disappearance of the young Rockefeller family scion who vanished on an expedition to tribal New Guinea after his catamaran capsized and he tried to swim to shore. Machlin's involvement with the story began years after the event, when a seedy character came to his magazine's office with a wild tale about Rockefeller being kept captive as a living tribal fetish by a band of natives. The first part of the book is an account of Machlin's trip to New Guinea to investigate this lead. The second part is Machlin's attempt to reconstruct Rockefeller's fate, which Machlin believes differs from the official conclusion that he drowned before reaching shore.

   I enjoyed Machlin's personal account of his journey much more than I believed his theories about Rockefeller's fate. Machlin is a gifted writer, and his account of his adventures in wild New Guinea is written with great verve and a gift for telling the most interesting details and anecdotes in the most interesting way. During his trip to the island on which Rockefeller had been reported to be alive, he joined a crocodile hunt, visited Guinean tribal villages, and learned much of a tribal culture that is both fascinatingly, and in many ways terrifyingly, alien. He mixes tales of his own adventures with anecdotes about the bush, like stories of giant crocodiles and octopuses, and tales of tribal feuds and cargo cultism. His clear, zesty writing and fascinating subject matter make his tale an enjoyable, engrossing read.

   Then Machlin gets into his theory about Rockefeller's fate. The first part of the book establishes his bona fides -- knowledge of New Guinea and journalism. But when he tries to penetrate the mystery of what happened to Rockefeller after he left sight of his overturned catamaran, Machlin's journalism deserts him. He bases his conclusion on rumors -- stories that were second-hand or worse even before they came to him. Machlin has me convinced that the official story that Rockefeller drowned is unsupported by the evidence -- but from what I can tell, there is so little evidence that no conclusion is supported. We simply don't know what happened. But when it comes to historical mysteries, it takes a strong will to write a whole book on it and then admit the answer is "we can't know the answer; there's not enough evidence." Machlin's speculations are plausible, but just as unsupported as the explanation he derides.

   So don't read The Search for Michael Rockefeller to get the last word on Rockefeller's disappearance. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't read it. If you read it for tall tales and travel stories about a wild and alien part of the world, you won't be disappointed.




2. There is not much more I can add beyond what reviewer Mr. Bigelow has written. This is a book that attempts to penetrate the mystery of Michael Rockefeller's disappearance in New Guinea more than forty years ago. Mr. Machlin shows us an alien world (at least when the book was written) right here on our own planet and it is a fascinating look. There were tribes of people who were still living in the Stone Age, many of whom had never seen a white person before, and you will be engrossed by the tales. As for what actually happened to Michael Rockefeller? That is a question that will, most likely, never be answered.



3. Milt Machlin was an experienced men's adventure writer, editor of the men's adventure magazine "Argosy" for many years, and in "The Search for Michael Rockefeller," we find a perfect fit between author's abilities and subject matter. Michael Rockefeller was himself an adventurous young man, son of then New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller -- yes, one of those Rockefellers-- and 23 years old when he disappeared, in 1961, in primitive New Guinea. The young Rockefeller had just graduated from Harvard University, and joined, as a sound technician, an expedition sponsored by Harvard's Peabody Museum: its mission was to film and record the customs of New Guinea's little-known tribes.
   
   Machlin was an adventure-loving bear of a man himself, member of The Explorers Club and Mystery Writers of America. He published "Ninth Life," about the very controversial California execution of Caryl Chessman in the 1950's, and collaborated with Robin Moore on the "French Connection" series. He dived to 2,500 feet on a supersub, flew in an international balloon race, sailed in a Viking ship, participated in several marine archaelogy undertakings. He also went twice to report on the Vietnam War, visited Cuba, Taiwan, Israel, Iceland, Australia, Japan, Haiti, Mexico, the Philippines and most of Europe: the man knew a lot about food and wine, as well. He had an easy, conversational style of writing that suited his subject matters.
   
   Ten years after Michael Rockefeller's disappearance, in 1971, Machlin went to what was then very much still Stone Age New Guinea to investigate the disappearance. Now mind you, no rumor has ever trickled out of New Guinea of a young, rich white man who had gone native. Nor, to my knowledge, has there ever been a finding, at some remote village, of a hank of hair that might enable forensics experts to recreate any particular scenario. So, barring the sudden coming-forth of an exceptionally long-lived New Guinea cannibal, with a good memory for his human meals, particularly the fair ones, we are never likely to be able to say: This is certainly what happened. So we can't be sure that Machlin came up with the answer. What we can be sure of is that Machlin had a hell of an expedition, saw some remarkable sights, lived with, and talked to people we're never likely to get a crack at. He found fierce warrior tribes, cargo cults, cannibalism, payback rites, remote villages. Raffish characters, Dutch officals determined to keep a lid on things, missionaries who knew Michael and can be assumed -- though not 100%-- to know the young Rockefeller's fate. It's not a journey any of is likely to be able to take, so it's worth reading about if you can find the book.

5 comments about Still Holding My Own.

1. Holding my own is a excellent book,it really touched me.It's deep. Once you start reading you won't want to put it down.



2. Once you pick it up, you can't put it down. It's addictive. This book is written in a way that makes you feel like your best friend is telling you a story. You feel like you just have to know how it ends.



3. Still Holding My Own is they type of reading material that can really help today's young people see what it is really like behind bars. I am so happy that Tim Hampton had the courage to Tell-It-Like-It-Is. I think his experiences will help others chose a different path in life.



4. Riveting and thought provoking!Tim's experiences bring to the forefront a topic vastly under adressed in our society, yet with 2 million americans incarcerated and the crime rate showing little sign of slowing down-we MUST contemplate the punishment versus rehabilitation issues..most of these young men and women will resume a place in our society and sadly they return more violent and angry than before.



5. As a former Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice Correctional Officer myself, I love how Tim Hampton tries to pass the message that others that have been inside these walls should be passing themselves. Great read!

5 comments about Hunting Humans: An Encyclopedia of Modern Serial Killers.

1. In the book a couple of swedish murderers, or alleged murderers, are mentioned. The facts regarding these individuals, and the crimes they are supposed to have committed, have been very exaggerated. In several cases the facts are not true at all. For instance; there has been no swedish "vampire killer", dr. Haerm - who in this book is accused of several murders - was acquitted by the court of appeals in Sweden and he is not legally a suspect in his ex. wife's death. It's not hard to understand that getting facts about crimes on the other side of earth is hard and getting the facts right is probably even harder. But if these facts are inaccurate, what about the rest of the book? Instead of this book I suggest any one of Robert Ressler's biographies, or if you're into gore and blood: The killer next door by Joel Norris. Patrik E. Police officer. Sweden



2. Michael Newton has compiled the most grisly Encyclopedia imaginable - a detailed collection of some of the most notorious criminals imaginable. From relatively well known cases like the Green River Killer or Ted Bundy, to little known arcana like Stanley Dean Baker, the case files are facinating and the information concise. A walk through the darkest side of the human psyche. Worth both the time and the effort for the interested.



3. This book has detailed accounts of the actions of most of the infamous serial killers of our time. If this kind of thing twinges an interest you must have this book in your library!



4. This is a must have book for any true crime lover or those who study crime and the criminal mind. Excellent reference book.



5. Hunting Humans has given me hours of reading pleasure. Being one who is interested in true crime I especially enjoyed reading about the serial killers from Canada. Growing up in Vancouver B.C., I can recall the paranoia and fear in the teen aged population (which I was a part of) when Clifford Robert Olson wreaked his terror across the lower mainland. There were some omissions, such as David William Shearing, who was both a mass murderer as well as a serial killer in the early 1980's. Over all, I found that it very comprehensively covered the topic of modern serial killers.