3 comments about Naked by the Window: The Fatal Marriage of Carl Andre and Ana Mendieta.

1. Ana Mendieta was a Cuban-born girl who moved to Iowa in the early 1960's as part of "Operation Peter Pan", a relocation program for Cuban children. First she was placed with her sister in an orphanage in Dubuque, before finally reuniting with her family in Cedar Rapids.
   
   The Cuban girl Mendieta grew into a beautiful woman who began expressing herself in performance art and sculpture with themes relating to the practice of Santeria, blood, earth, birth and death within the contexts of primitive Hispanic symbolism. In short, she was brilliant. However, she had a predisposition to form relationships with her artistic mentors. One of these was Carl Andre, an established minimalist sculptor that Mendieta married, using him as a bridge to join the New York art establishment. Mendieta eventually became disenchanted with the bearded Andre, a rather odd and stilted personality, perpetually clad in Grant Wood-style overalls. She made plans for a divorce, but tragically died in a fall from the thirty-fourth floor New York apartment of Andre.
   
   A trial ensued, in which most of the New York art establishment remained in solidarity with Andre, even though the alibi that he offered--that Mendieta committed suicide in a fit of jealousy--lacked plausibility. There simply was not enough evidence for the judge (Andre opted to forego a jury trial) to convict, and so justice was denied for yet another woman who lacked the power given her male counterpart.
   
   This is a fascinating story that could have been told in a better form--this book has a fractured format which hacks up Mendieta's life and death instead of presenting it logically. But, as the best book available on the subject, it deserves your attention.



2. this is an amazing book about our art world. Two big personalities clashing, outspoken women going down, an important voice lost.



3. This is a fascinating account of the life, and untimely death, of the gifted Cuban artist Ana Mendieta. The writer, Robert Katz says, I have "sought to narrate these events as they were revealed to me, certainly not chronologically or in any other 'logical' way." In spite of the odd sequence in the recounting of events it is a riveting read. Ana Mendieta was lovely, free-spirited, magnetic, and a rising star in the art world. Her tragic fall from a NYC highrise is a great, and enduring loss to the world. Carl Andre is depicted as a complicated, proud, eccentric individual. He had fatal flaws in his character, and at the time of Ana's death his star was descending. Nevertheless, he was an iconic figure who was defended, and protected, by his powerful and wealthy friends in the art world. A burning question remains, did Andre get away with murder?

5 comments about Abuse of Innocence: The Mcmartin Preschool Trial.

1. With all the publicity surrounding the McMartin preschool trial, now over a decade removed, one would suppose that the definitive book on the subject-and this is certainly the definitive book, and a good one at that-would be a best seller, but it didn't happen. Why? Because the public wanted a villain, somebody to hate, and what they got were some innocent people wrongly accused. With that kind of result the public lost interest. The Jon Benet Ramsey case sold a lot better because the public had clear targets for its hate, John and Patsy Ramsey. Here, Ray Buckey was to be the designated fall guy with his creepy glasses and his nerdish style, but he wouldn't fall because he was clearly innocent of the sensational charges against him. So the public was stuck with no clear villain on whom to vent. The real villains, as graphically revealed in this book, were the press, the prosecutors and the social workers, especially Kee MacFarlane, who indoctrinated the children into describing perverted events that never took place.

   This was written from the trenches on a daily basis when the overwhelming tide of public opinion was that of a lynch mob desperate to hang Buckey and his family from the nearest tree. The Eberles built a strong case in blaming the media for poisoning the public's understanding of the case, partially through incompetent reporters, and partially through a media lust to sensationalize. Part of what's interesting about this book is how it presages the O.J. trial, especially in the incompetence seen in the district attorney's office. Ira Reiner was D.A. at the time with Garcetti as a critical underling. It is scandalous that they would find the need to use a paid felonious informant to bolster their case against Buckey. He was a five-time loser, no less, who previously had falsely testified for the prosecution in exchange for favorable treatment. Also stupid was the prosecution's use of an incompetent and prejudicial child abuse "expert," Dr. Gordon, who said that he possessed "the largest collection of photographs of children's anuses in the state of California." [p. 106] The authors estimate that 97.5 percent of the people in L.A. thought Buckey was guilty. The sad truth is what he was really guilty of was being a young man who liked to work with preschool children. Now THAT ain't natural was what a large number of people thought. I hope we're getting over that prejudice because what our children need are role models and guides from both sexes.

   The book is peppered with courtroom asides from an unidentified lawyer. Here's one of the most pertinent from page 105, a exchange between a friend of the Buckeys and the lawyer:

   "They're putting on witnesses who they know are lying. They concealed exonerating evidence. Don't we have enough criminal conduct by the prosecutors to put them behind bars?"

   "It doesn't work that way," the lawyer laughed. "The law is just for the little people. When we break the rules we go to jail. When they break the rules they go to lunch. And maybe get a promotion if they do it right."

   "But what about the law?" the woman gasped. "What about the Constitution?"

   "I'm afraid that's just one of those nice, comforting fantasies like the tooth fairy. There are only two classes of people. Those who hold power and those who do not. And in any dispute the guys who hold power will decide which way it's going to go. And if there's any problem the rules go out the window. I hope you understand that this is not about child abuse, just as McCarthyism was not about Communists." Amen.




2. At the time this book was written is seemed very biased but now, years after the trial and after the Satanic Ritual Abuse scandals, it is closer to the truth than most imagined.
   
   The authors of The Abuse of Innocence is written by two authors who have a predisposition against child sexual abuse allegations. However, they clearly state this opinion and I simply skipped those sections. Normally, I would not rate a book highly when the authors show such bias, but history has showed that when it came to the McMartin case, they were in fact correct.
   
   This book illustrates the faults of the Los Angeles District Attorney's office, problems with the testimony of the witnesses, and most important, the inaccuracies of confessions obtained on procedures similar to the Miami Method.



3. Did any of the reviewers attend the McMartin Preschool? Are any of you related to someone that attended the school? All of the reviewers and the author must be related to Peggy or Buckey.
   I guess none of the reviewers saw the aftermath of what that sick and demented school did to the children that attended.
   If the school was still standing, would you send your child there?
   I am disgusted!



4. This information is TRUE!
   I rate it one star because that is as low as you can go.
   
   Paul and Shirley Eberle: A Strange Pair of Experts
   by Maria Laurina
   
   Paul and Shirley Eberle wrote The Politics of Child Abuse, a book that accuses mothers, mental health professionals, and prosecutors of feeding children stories about sexual abuse. Since the book was published by Lyle Stuart in l986, the Eberles have been cited as experts in sexual abuse trials. They were featured speakers at a conference of the Victims of Child Abuse Laws, a group formed to protect accused parents.
   What is startling about the Eberles' reputation as ground-breaking experts in the field is that their dubious credentials have not been widely challenged. Paul and Shirley Eberle edit a soft-core magazine in California called the L.A. Star that contains a mixture of nude photos, celebrity gossip, telephone sex ads, and promos for The Politics of Child Abuse.
   In the 1970's, however, the Eberles were also publishing hard-core pornography. Their publication, Finger, depicted scenes of bondage, S & M, and sexual activities involving urination and defecation. A young girl portrayed with a wide smile on her face sits on top of a man whose penis is inside of her; a woman has oral sex with a young boy in a drawing entitled "Memories of My Boyhood."
   The Eberles were featured nude on one cover holding two life-size blow up dolls names "Love Girl" and "Play Guy." No dates appear on the issues and the Eberles rarely attach their names, referring to themselves as "The L.A. Star Family."
   The Eberles were the distributors of Finger and several other underground magazines, says Donald Smith, a sergeant with the obscenity section of the Los Angeles Police Department's vice division who followed the couple for years. LAPD was never able to prosecute for child pornography: "There were a lot of photos of people who looked like they were under age but we could never prove it." The pictures of young children in Finger are illustrations, and child pornography laws were less rigid a decade ago than they are today.
   "Sexpot at Five," "My First Rape, She Was Only Thirteen," and "What Happens When Niggers Adopt White Children" are some of the articles that appeared in Finger. One letter states: "I think it's really great that your mags have the courage to print articles & pixs [sic] on child sex...Too bad I didn't hear from more women who are into child sex...Since I'm single I'm not getting it on with my children, but I know of a few families that are. If I were married & my wife & kids approved--I'd be having sex with my daughters."
   Another entry reads: "I'm a pedophile & I think its [sic] great a man is having sex with his daughter!...Since I didn't get Finger #3, I didn't get to see the stories & pics of family sex. Would like to see pics of nude girls making it with their daddy, but realize its too risky to print."
   Lyle Stuart plans to print the Eberles' forthcoming book on the McMartins preschool trial. Carole Stuart, the publisher, describes the Eberles as "experts in the field," and family friends "for years."
   
   (...)



5. The Eberles have shone a much-needed spotlight of analysis on one of the worst miscarriages of justice in U.S. history: the McMartin Preschool case. After a brief introductory section to tell of how the fiasco all began, they give a detailed, blow-by-blow accounting of the trial, often with lengthy, word-for-word quotes of the lawyers' questions and the witnesses' responses. This is a good journalistic technique if not overdone; I often used it in reporting on criminal trials during my 39 and one-half years as a daily newspaper reporter.
   The couple also illuminates the "child molester" witchhunt which has preoccupied this country for a number of years now. The battle cry, "We must protect the children!" which any sane adult obviously wants to do, has been used to justify some hideously extra-legal investigations, arrests, and prison sentences for palpably innocent people. The Eberles tell us about this in some detail.
   The flaws in their book come in the areas of attribution and of sources. Over and over the authors tell of "a lawyer in the cafeteria" or "a heavyset woman" approaching them to comment on the trial, with no names or other hints as to identity. While this is sometimes necessary in reporting, excessive use of it as is done here makes the reader suspicious about the authors' fairness. At any rate, it made THIS reader suspicious. Several instances are recounted in which someone approaches outside the courtroom and says words to the effect, "You don't REALLY think they're innocent, do you?" Then one or the other of the Eberles proceeds to make the person look like an ignorant fool with a brilliant interrogation as to what they really know about the trial (nothing, in each case.) Once again, it's a little too pat, especially with no names to pin the quotes to. Did the Eberles make up any of the anecdotes? I'm certainly not accusing them of that, since there is no way to know for sure. But they leave themselves open to such suspicions by the way they wrote their book.
   In addition, there are no notes at the end of the book -- zero. Now the Eberles might say that this is because the "original sources" for this book were their own experiences. But again, a book that describes a major public event, and related events that they learned about somehow from all over the country (a witchhunt for "child molesters" in practically every county in the country, thousands of people imprisoned unjustly, the law and Constitution dragged through the mud, according to various overheated passages in the book) should have cited some news media sources, at the very least.
   I agree with the Eberles' premise: That the McMartin Preschool case was a huge and hugely expensive farrago that wrecked the lives of a number of innocent people, and that never should have happened, and that it led to other, similar witchhunts across the country. But they have damaged their own credibility by the above careless practices in writing their book.

5 comments about Deadly American Beauty (St. Martin's True Crime Library).

1. I was engrossed in this story from the minute I started reading it. I found it so amazing, looking at the pictures of this beautiful young girl, that Kristin Rossum could be with no conscience and so cold-blooded. As much as true crime repels us, it still is something you want to read because you just can't believe people do these things. Kristin's husband is portrayed as such a sweet, loving guy and how she murdered him was ruthless; it was overkill. I totally believe she was guilty, although she professes to this day she is innocent. I think she is a compulsive liar who actually started, at some point, believing her own lies. Her drug of choice was methamphetamine and I'm sure it heightened her imagination and determination to get rid of her husband so she could be with her lover. I say, get a divorce if you want out that bad. If you love true crime stories, you will love this book.



2. This was a great read that you could not put down. It went in to details that suspense never left the story. Nothing was dragged out it was written perfectly.It tells the Story of Kristen Rossum all through her life and after she murdered her Beautiful husband Greg DeVillers.So sad and just a very selfish woman Kristen was. Why did she go wrong? her parents gave her so much in life.She was driven to succeed at a young age with so much help and family support.So things that went on in her childhood when she started using drugs and could never stop then leading to murder leaves so many questions open that she will never answer.
   
   Just such a sad situation that should have never happened. To take away Greg's life And Greg's family will always live in pain from this.In the book I never saw her show remorse for this nor did I hear that her parents shoes remorse for Greg's family.



3. This is by no means a great book, but the story is so riveting it more than makes up for the mediocre writing skills of John Glatt. Kristin Rossum seemed to have it all: beauty, brains, a good job, a loving husband. That she chose to throw it all away by because of a drug addiction and an ill-fated affair (where is Michael Robertson these days, by the way? I hope he's in jail too) is mind-boggling to me and, I'm sure, to her family. Even though it's clear to me that Rossum indeed killed Greg and there's nothing in the world that could ever justify that, I was surprised to found myself feeling sorry for the beautiful young woman who ruined so many lives, including her own.



4. I will admit, I am not one to read true crime books, so I maybe off the mark in this review, but overall I was not too happy with this book. I never felt like I really knew the people (they almost seemed stiff or cardboardy, for a lack of a better word) and the author seemed to repeat a lot of information, in an effort to make it a longer book, I guess. I think he could have cut out much of the repeats and cut the length down quite a bit.
   
   I also question the phrase "almost perfect murder" because honestly, Kristin was so hyped up on meth when she killed her husband, she wasn't thinking straight at all. To buy the rose at Vons with a debit card instead of cash, and then also use her Vons store discount card to boot, was nothing short of completely retarded. Her stories varied by the moment, and she freely admitted to lying. This was supposed to be the great master mind behind the "almost perfect murder"? Maybe she was smart when she wasn't high, but that didn't seem to happen very often.
   
   If you're a huge fan of true crime books, and can't find anything else to read, you can pick this one up at the library, but otherwise I'd say skip it and spend your time reading something interesting. This author seems very interested in hype and sensationalism, and not much else.



5. This was really the best book I've read for awhile. Great detail. It like yiou're there seeing things happen. Not too much focus on one thing to the point of that it got boring.

5 comments about Arsenic Under the Elms.

1. I bought this book on a Saturday and once I started I couldn't put it down. Ms. McConnell writes about two obscure murders in Victorian Connecticut in a style that compels the reader to keep turning the pages. Learning about the mores and workings of the criminal justice system during this period was fascinating! I highly recommend it!



2. The author's enthusiasm for these compelling stories is apparent in her research and writing. She brings to life two still-shocking crimes with a refreshing lack of sensationalism. However, the writing itself rarely rises above the level of a bright college sophomore's term paper. In spots, the editing is poor, for example, the author will reference facts that hadn't been presented yet by that point in the book. Too much attempt is made to judge by modern mores and motives, sometimes implicitly and sometimes explicitly (repeated comparisons to the OJ Simpson trial, for example)...further research into social history of the time would have improved the book. It's often not entirely clear what facts are documented (or how) and what is speculation, even with reference to the copious footnotes. Worth a read, but look for it at the library.



3. this was a great book! I loved the comparison of how the world & justice worked in the time setting of the 2 stories versus how we have it now. I am fasinated by the victorian era & true crime. This book blended both into a very ingrossing experience. I can't wait to read her 2nd book "Sympathy for the Devil:the Emmanuel Baptist Murders." and hope there will be more after that!



4. "Arsenic Under the Elms" is thoroughly an intriguing, mind challenging read. I felt Virginia A. McConnell did a wonderful job presenting the known facts, as well as including her speculations, but leaving the final verdict up to the reader. The explanations of the era and how they dealt with these sorts of crimes, as well as how they dealt with it legally and medically were very educational and thought provoking. I'm sure many criminalists, physiologists, lawyers, judges, and crime scene analysts, would have a field day solving these crimes. If only they had the technology of today, back then. Even if your genre is not "true crime," this book is a great read. I recommend.



5. "Arsenic Under the Elms" focuses on the murders of two women from Victorian New Haven & their subsequent trials. These stories are as much about the actual crimes as they are about the norms for court trials in this period. There is also a good bit of information on advancement in scientific evidence during the late 1800s. I found the entire book very engrossing, & it would likely appeal to anyone interested in the social mores of 19th century America as well as lovers of true crime books.

No comments about The Krays and Me: Blood, Honour and Respect. Doing Porridge With the Krays..

5 comments about Murdered by His Wife.

1. Hard to believe this happened and so close to home! Exceptionally detailed account!



2. Murdered by His Wife by Deborah Navas is at once a gripping "Gothic" page-turner and a solid piece of scholarly research. Navas writes in an elegant, clear and concise manner. A fine balance is sustained between objective, documented reporting and carefully considered interpretation which is never allowed to override the facts. The book is packed with information including fascinating transcripts of eighteenth century testimony. While the narrative stands on its own as a riveting drama that will appeal to the general public, the book should be of special interest to historians,legal historians, feminists sociologists and psychologists. In my opinion this is a landmark book.



3. Having just moved to the area, I (a professional historian specializing in modern Europe) have been reading as much local history as possible to get a feel for the history of central Massachusetts. "Murdered By His Wife" is outstanding. Ms. Navas writes with clear, crisp prose, and sticks very close to the original documents, many of which are reproduced in her book. She tells a superb tale of mystery, murder, and intrigue -- and a gripping tragedy about the execution of three revolutionary soldiers and Bethsheba Ruggles Spooner, who was five months pregnant on the day she was hung on Washington Square in Worcester on July 2, 1778.

   The best part of this book is that it becomes a challenge and adventure for your whole family to rediscover the route of the story. You can visit murder victim Joshua Spooner's grave in Brookfield Cemetery off Route 9. About 3/4 miles down the road, you can walk, bike, or drive to the site of his and Bethsheba's home, where a plaque still commemorates the notorious murder. Kids of all ages will love the abandoned well still on the property -- the place where Bethsheba Spooner's lover(s) dumped the body (now covered by a stone which leaves enough visible to excite the imagination). You can also find the remnants of the house's old stone foundation, and four large flat stone steps leading from the road to the site of the old house.

   The Spooner House is located on Elm Hill, now an historical landmark zone, and large parts of the road are a wildlife sanctuary perfect for spring, summer, or autumn walks. This is one of few places where you can reproduce the feeling of a colonial road and how it stood 200 years ago. The old stone walls along the Old Post Road are still intact, and you get a feeling of being carried back in time.

   I highly recommend this book as a basic tour guide for the central Massachusetts leg of your next tour to New England. The site of all the adventure is just 15 minutes off of Exit 9 on Route 90, or the Sturbridge Exit off Highway 84.




4. I found this interesting in that Bathsheba is a relative, however I found it a bit repetitive in the telling.



5. When Joshua Spooner, a 'gentleman farmer' of Brookfield, Massachusetts, was beaten to death and his body stuffed down a well in March 1778, newspapers called his murder "the most extraordinary crime ever perpetrated in New England." Four people stood trial for the killing- two British soldiers, a 17 year old Continental soldier, and the victim's wife, Bathsheba. They were found guilty and hanged before 5000 spectators the following July. Mrs. Spooner had attempted to secure a temporary reprieve by 'pleading her belly', but reports from two 'matron juries' sent to confirm her pregnancy were conflicting, and the Massachusetts Council rejected her petition. During the post-execution autopsy, she was found to be five months pregnant.
   
   Thirty-two year old Bathsheba Spooner was a figure of revulsion in the community after her participation in her husband's murder became known. Deborah Navas acknowledges Mrs. Spooner's guilt and condemns the crime as selfish and abhorrent. She had concieved a child with the young Continental soldier who was fated to become her co-defendant, and fearing the punishment meted out to adulteresses in eighteenth century America, persuaded her teenaged lover and two British deserters from General Burgoyne's defeated army to kill the spouse she despised. On the surface it appears that she instigated Joshua Spooner's death to prevent him from accusing her of adultery and subjecting her to public consequences, but Navas presents the intriguing possibility that Bathsheba wanted to be caught and executed by the state. She confessed to the crime without hesitation, and when led to the gallows, she seemed unnaturally calm and happy. The inference is that Bathsheba, whose behaviour could be erratic, may have committed the eighteenth century version of 'police suicide' by bungling a capital crime so thoroughly that the death she sought was guaranteed.
   
   Bathsheba Spooner's only real unselfish act was to request a stay of execution so that she could deliver her baby. But she was stonewalled by a politically hostile judiciary that despised her as the daughter of Brigadier General Timothy Ruggles, state's most prominent and hated Loyalist. The deputy secretary of the Council that considered her petition also happened to be the stepbrother of the murdered Joshua Spooner. Because justice was not blind, the whole affair claimed two victims instead of one.

5 comments about Eye of the Beast: The True Story of Serial Killer James Wood (St. Martin's True Crime Library).

1. I read approximately 6-7 books a week, and this is the first book that has prompted me to write a review...EVER. This book is poorly written because it never gives the reader reasons why this man became who he is...no history is provided for the reader to understand how a man could do the crimes he committed. I too, read this book in one sitting, mostly because I wanted to get the horror of it over with quickly. Whomever edited the book must have been in another world that day, because the author's thoughts are convoluted most of the time and I found myself wondering what he was trying to say. The amount of errors in proof-reading this book is distracting and the book should be corrected and reprinted. No history, no details, no train of thought involved in writing this book - just the author telling a story that has been written over and over again by better writers than this one.



2. a very good read,couldnt put it down.i really admired detective shaw-he gave me a good perspective on this sick (...).



3. This is a well written book that I believe does a good job of exploring the life of James Woods. I recommend this as a good read for any true crime buff who is interested in serial murders.



4. I grew up just outside of Pocatello, Idaho and was the same age as Jaralee Underwood when she was kidnapped and murdered. James Wood haunted my dreams for many years and I was completely sickened by the things he did and the fact that he was even able to do the things he did...the man should never have walked out of the the Louisiana prison in the first place. What a sick awful man.



5. This book chronicles some of the crimes of James Wood. He was a sociopath made more dangerous because he was so compulsive.
   
   Woods had talent as an artist and most of the time he was viewed as overly friendly. Too much so for some people that he met.
   
   The real hero in the book was Scott Shaw,who connected with Woods well enough to ultimately get a confession and closure on the case of Jeralee Underwood,the 11 year old girl that was his last victim. Along the way, Shaw got confessions about another local rape that could have easily had the same end result as the Underwood case. Woods also confessed to a rape and attempted murder of another teen girl in the St.Louis area.
   He eventually solved more than 40 sex crimes and 180 armed robberies that were committed by Woods. Scott Shaw got a close look at the very twisted mind of an unusual type of killer.
   
   Shaw's perception was instrumental when he linked the rape with the later murder and insisted the perpetrator was local,contradicting the profile by the F.B.I.
   
   Some of James Wood's cousins broke the case with information that they provided to the police.
   
   This book is researched thoroughly and it is hard to put this down once you start reading it.

5 comments about Murder in Spokane: Catching a Serial Killer.

1. I gave this book three stars but that wasn't my original rating. While I was in the process of reading it I felt it was a four star book (maybe 4 & a half) but in the time between finishing it & writing this review, as I've had time to think about what I had read, it has fallen to a definite three-star rating.
   
   Most serial killer books like this contain the same elements: descriptions of the crimes themselves, details of the investigation including how the case was solved, & a detailed summary of the legal maneuverings as the killer is brought to justice. The author usually has at least the cooperation of the police department(s) involved in the hunt for the killer & may even have a specific source confirming his data & feeding him the inside information that makes such books so interesting. In Murder in Spokane though, Mr. Fuhrman doesn't have such a source--something he complains about bitterly throughout the book. So the details of the case presented here are of necessity pretty sketchy. The book consists mostly of Fuhrman & Mike Fitzgerald, his co-host on a radio show in Spokane, reading newspaper accounts of the case. They then discuss what they've read over dinner or on the phone & then get together once a week on the radio to complain about what a bad job the Spokane police are doing hunting for the killer. Fuhrman & Fitzgerald do conduct some independent investigations of their own but, since they aren't able to get any of their findings confirmed by the police, their private search for the killer is pretty much an empty effort.
   
   Despite the lack of hard facts & inside information, the book can be a compelling read due to Fuhrman's writing ability & I read the book in two sittings. I'd have read it in one if I hadn't started it so late in the evening! But as I worked my way through the book, I began to doubt Fuhrman's motives in writing it. He is constantly harping on the failings of the Spokane police, especially their failure to communicate with the media, & particularly their failure to communicate with Mark Fuhrman. You eventually get the feeling that the primary reason for his criticism is the fact that the investigators wouldn't talk to him. I am led to wonder if he had gotten the cooperation he sought whether the book might have painted a much more favorable picture of the local police. It's almost as though he was using his radio show & the book he was working on as a way to bully his way into the case.
   
   Of course, his criticisms of the police may be valid. The problem is that we have no way of making a fair judgement since Fuhrman can only speculate on why the police are doing certain things. Why won't they release a description of the suspect's car? Fuhrman says it's incompetence but maybe they wanted to look for the car without the killer knowing they could recognize it. Why didn't they put lots more detectives on the case? Maybe they didn't care enough about the victims but it's also possible that the city just didn't have the money to fund a major investigation of this type. At the start of the book, you're inclined to give Fuhrman the benefit of the doubt on these criticisms, but after a while his carping about the investigation & complaints about why nobody will help him with his book made me wonder whether he was playing fair with the reader. It would have been nice to have been able to hear the other side & have someone respond to his criticisms.
   
   Why wouldn't the Spokane police cooperate with Fuhrman? Well, you can infer several reasons from the book, the most obvious being his harsh criticisms of the department on his radio show. Another reason has to do with a friend of his who investigated a decades-old cop killing in Spokane, eventually pinning the murder on another corrupt Spokane policeman. Apparently, there was a lot of bad blood towards Fuhrman & his friend over this & it's not surprising that they wouldn't want anything to do with him. This isn't really fair but it was certainly a part of the problem & Fuhrman never makes the obvious connection between the two issues--an example of his not being fair (he mentions the incident as an example of Spokane P.D. corruption & not as a source of police hostility towards him). Yet a third reason has to do with the thrust of the book Fuhrman wanted to write. From the sound of it, the book would have been about a big-city homicide detective helping out the understaffed & befuddled Spokane P.D.--if they got a sense of this attitude it's not surprising that they would clam up & not have anything to do with him.
   
   As noted above, the book is quite readable & flows along nicely while you're reading it. But it lacks a proper ending, especially for the *real* subject of the book: Fuhrman's charges against the Spokane police. To make his allegations stick, he really needed a "gotcha" at the end, something compelling that would prove his case to an unbiased observer. He never gets this though &, while his criticisms may be accurate, they are just as likely to originate in some very sour grapes.
   
   Is the book entertaining? Yes, it is, but once you're done reading it you'll wind up regretting the money you spent on it.



2. I like the writing style, but, regardless of whose fault it was,
   Fuhrman has very little to say, with respect to the crimes, in
   this book. He brought some really important stuff to light in
   Greenwich. Here, he only reports a few important incidents which
   anybody can find in 10 minutes using Google. He is an EXTREME
   outsider in this investigation. Half of the book is about
   Fuhrman arm-chair guessing at what the task force and police
   were finding out. The other half is spent bitching about the
   incompetence of the same task force and police.
   
   With respect to the half of the book about the crime... why
   spend your time reading opinions and guesses by somebody with
   very close to zero inside information about the crimes? An
   insider book on this crime would be great-- but it's not here.
   
   With respect to the half of the book about the incompetence of
   the authorities... This could have been covered completely in
   one chapter. As an example, only a lawyer could enjoy the
   affadavit chapter. An entire freaking chapter devoted to
   minute dissection of an affadavit. Even if all the conclusions
   are correct (I'm not convinced), I have wasted 20 pages of my
   time to find out that the affadavit authors wrote the document
   in such a way as to minimize exposure of their own weaknesses.
   Who would expect it to be written any other way? Would you
   try to influence a judge by telling him how badly you screwed up?



3. You don't have to read very far into this book to realize that there's very little actual information about the Spokane serial killer or the way the killer was finally identified and caught. Most of the book is about how Fuhrman thinks that police should do their investigating, the politics of the Spokane Police Department and Sheriff's Department, past crimes, bio info on the victims, and Fuhrman's comments during his radio show. The police never took Fuhrman into their confidence during their lengthy investigation and he doesn't know a single detail other than what was publicly released. Fuhrman portrays himself as an experienced 'homicide detective' but it sounds like most of his police career was in robbery.
   
   Fuhrman seems to rely heavily on his imagination and intuition as a police technique. He writes lengthy passages about might be in the mind of the criminal based on what is at the crime scene and believes that this 'imagination profiling' should then be used to identify the bad guy. He obviously focuses most of his energy on the effort to identify a suspect rather than on gathering evidence which might help to actually convict someone. This type of technique was probably useful in collaring car thieves, burglars, strong-arm crooks, etc. and then letting them plea bargain but is not as likely to be helpful in convicting someone for murder. Fuhrman apparently visited many of the body dump sites (creepy if you think about it) with his fellow talk-show host as a part of his informal 'investigation' and went on the air frequently to criticize the police but never actually found any clues that pointed to a suspect.
   
   All of these shortcomings on subject matter would be forgivable if the book was readable and interesting but it is filled with trivial tedious details that are just boring. I give it two stars and that's very generous.



4. I like Fuhrman's writing style; very "coppish" and informative. The only problems I had with the book were that it seemed "quickie" and incomplete. Some passages were repetitious and there were *no pictures* in the book except fuzzy, blurry ones on the covers - unlabeled - of some of the victims. The victims deserved more than that. Still, it was interesting enough that I finished it in two days!



5. Sometimes I wished Mark Fuhrman would just go away, ever since his notoriety during the O.J. Simpson trial, he has been seen and heard on Fox giving criticisms regarding criminal investigations. Kind of ironic since he bungled one of the century's most notorious cases with numerous mistakes. Now, he has relocated and retired from diverse Los Angeles, California to less diverse Idaho where he lives with his family. He writes about the Murders in Spokane just as his book, Murders in Brentwood because it involves multiple victims. After reading Barer's book on the same case, I vaguely remembered Fuhrman's book which was more about him than about the victims and the case itself. Fuhrman is still trying to gain acceptance among his peers or try to forget the Simpson debacle but wherever he goes, that case will follow him to the grave.

1 comments about Lift up Your Head, Tom Dooley: The True Story of the Appalachian Murder That Inspired One of America's Most Popular Ballads.

1. The subtitle of this book tells it all -- THE TRUE STORY OF THE APPALACHIAN MURDER THAT INSPIRED ONE OF AMERICA'S MOST POPULAR BALLADS. The author has done meticulous research into the murder of Laura Foster which was popularized by the Kingston Trio. He uses court records, newspaper accounts, and other documents to authenticate his findings about her murder and the trial, conviction, and execution of Tom Dooley. I have read many accounts of the crime, but none were so well documented, and this time I feel that I have an understanding of what really happened. The reader gets to know not only the facts of the case, but also the central figures, their families and neighbors, and the law and court officials. The background information also provides a picture of life in the foothill of North Carolina during the second half of the nineteenth century.

   Even though the account sometimes reads like a history book and gets bogged down with details, it is a fascinating book and should be enjoyed by anyone who has an interest in history and who has ever hummed along with "The Ballad of Tom Dooley."

1 comments about Demon Doctors: Physicians as Serial Killers.

1. Demon Doctors: Physicians As Serial Killers by Kenneth V. Iserson (Professor of Emergency Medicine and Director of the Arizona Bioethics Program, University of Arizona College of Medicine) is an informed and informative survey and study of physicians who became serial killers. Dr. Iverson addresses such critical questions as how doctors actually killed their patients, whether they share any common characteristics, and if there have been many physician-killers in history. The first volume in a planned series, Demon Doctors profiles eight of the most heinous physician mass murderers who violated the solemn oath to "do no harm" and exploited the patient-doctor relationship for their own nefarious ends. Demon Doctors is recommended for Medical History, Medical Ethics, and True Crime supplemental reading lists and academic reference collections.