5 comments about Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34.

1. For history buffs, this is a find! I could not put this book down! WoW, loaded, just packed with information on the PUBLIC ENEMIES! With all the fuss now, with Johnny Depp starring in Public Enemies, based on this book, I am sure this will be THE book everyone will have to read. The movie is coming out in 2009. Filmed in the Midwest; Wisconsin, Indiana, etc, and even at Little Bohemia, in Northern Wisconsin, where the Feds goofed up bigtime and J.Edgar Hoover covered, or at least tried to cover up their blunder, when innocent citizens were gunned down, instead of the "gangstas". You will love this, you won't want the book to end, it covers all of them, Johhny Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, Ma Barker and her gang, Machine Gun Kelly. It's all here, and of course, Bonnie and Clyde. You will be right at the scenes, even when they met their bloody early demise, and most of them went out shooting their tommy guns. The author did a magnificent job of researching his subjects. You won't be disappointed spending a weekend reading this one!



2. A very interesting book. Let's you know exactly what happens back in the old days. Good reading.



3. This is a great book. Author infers in his introduction that this was a labor of love and it shows in his writing. At over 500 pages, it shows the relationship of the five major criminal gangs of the 1933-34 time period. Those were the Barker Gang, Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, Machine Gun Kelly, Baby Face Nelson, and Dillenger. With the exception of Bonnie and Clyde (who were strictly small time), all knew each other and helped in raids. None of these people were glamourous since they all murdered people. Dillenger killed three policemen. Bonnie, Clyde, and Baby Face Nelson were psychopaths. Why people had admiration for them is beyond me, but the times were hard and many felt banks were as crooked as those who robbed them.
   
   This book also details the rise of the FBI and how Hoover interferred with the progress of investigations. Purvis was mildly incompetent. Why some of these gangsters roomed the streets was due to FBI leads not being followed up. In the end, the FBI became more professional due to this crime wave. Hoover went on to become the Crime Dictator for forty years.
   
   This is a great book and is very readable. For those interested in the Great Depression and the fall of the bank robbers, this is a treasure trove of information. Highly recommended.



4. This book has a lot of details and is very good. Don't expect this book to tell you lots and lots about the gangsters of the era... it's more of a detailed account of the FBI and how they got organized. Again, lots of details, making it slow reading, but very good material!



5. Yes Mr. Burrough made a few mistakes with addresses and name spellings but overall I was impressed with how he made all the information flow together so well. This was a huge task to take on and I was surprised how good of a job was done. I did have to dock a star due to the amount Mr. Burrough relied on Alvin Karpis's word for word retelling of events that happened so long ago- it gives the book a bit of a fiction feel to it at times. Overall this was a very good read.

3 comments about Cause of Death: Forensic Files of a Medical Examiner.

1. Stephen D. Cohle, MD is the chief medial examiner for Kent County, Michigan. During his years as the medical examiner, he has performed thousands of autopsies. Some have been part of high-profile murder cases, but the majority are not fodder for the next episode of CSI but are instead of just men and women, and sometimes children, who met their end through normal, though still heart-breaking means.
   
   Cause of Death is told from the perspective of the medical examiner, but is unique from some of the other books by well known forensic pathologists. This volume does not highlight sensational cases, like the Jon Benet Ramsey case, but are instead full of what are just regular folks who happened to find their way to the morgue in various ways. It also gives the reader more of a sense of what a real medical examiner's office is like. There are no exhibits of murder weapons from famous cases, but there is a display of alcohol, delivered with some of the bodies who so often meet their demise as a result of the contents of these bottles.
   
   Along for the trip, and co-authoring the book, is Tobin T. Buhk, who once told Cohle that he should write a book about his experiences. Buhk joined him in the morgue over the course of several months, and was able to witness and sometimes participate, in the autopsies of several people. This gives the authors the chance to bring the reader into the stories as more than just a casual observer. We are able to experience the operations of the morgue through the eyes of the expert, Dr. Cohle, and the novice, Buhk.
   
   The Kent County morgue is not what you see on CSI or Law and Order. It is a place that is a collection of contradictions. The bodies that are brought into the room are treated with the reverance and professionalism we would all hope they would. But contrasted with this is a constant-changing soundtrack which varies from Los Lobos to Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Music is always playing during the autopsies, sometimes providing a counterpoint to the tragedy before them.
   
   Along with the surgical gowns, latex gloves, and face guards, humor is another prophylactic used in the morgue. It is brought in to protect, not against disease, but the melancholy that comes from spending day after day determining the various manners in which humans find to end one another's or their own lives. And Tobin discovers, after just a few trips to the morgue, that sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying.
   
   Each chapter contains one or two cases that came through the Kent County Medical Examiner's Office. Each contains a description of the case and the methods used by Dr. Cohle to determine, if possible, the cause of death. Unlike television, it is not an immediate process, done in moments. It sometimes takes hours to perform a complete autopsy, and even then it may be days before toxicology reports confirm the cause of death. This is truth of working in a morgue.
   
   The book gives an honest account of what it really is like to work in a morgue. All of the sounds, smells, and there are a lot of smells, that make up the work of the medical examiner. If you ever thought it was glamorous to work in a morgue, take a glance through this book and you will qickly realize, it requires a high degree of training, long hours, and a willingness to look at the worst of humanity day after day. Kind, gentle people are not the majority of the traffic at the morgue, and even when they are, many times they arrived due to the actions of someone not so kind or gentle.



2. Never having watched CSI, I was curious about why the daily goings-on of a medical examiner would merit a book. I did not have to read far to realize that this was fascinating stuff! Cause of Death demystifies what happens behind doors that no one ever wants to go through, but all enevitably will.
   Dr. Cohle and Mr. Buhk allow the reader to see and smell the county morgue from an "over-the-shoulder" view. The authors present a perspective that preserves the sanctity of life, but damns some of life's behaviors and actions. The book does not sensationalize the macabre and sometimes horrible circumstances and details of death; it does reveal the bizarre, the terrible, and sometimes humorously ironic details that man (and woman)does to himself or others.
   The writing style of the book allows the reader to learn more about individual victim cases. The reader can go along for the victim's last car ride all the way to the victim's last gurney ride; The reader can get a taste of the victim's last choice of poisen or the authors' last choice of music; the reader can experience how interminably long ten seconds is when a baby is being shaken by an angry father; and the reader can sense that the cause of death is not a television show to be wrapped up during a sixty minute time slot.
   Great read!



3. CAUSE OF DEATH: FORENSIC FILES OF A MEDICAL EXAMINER isn't just for college-level students of forensic medicine: it's a pick for any interested in forensic investigations, which will include many a legal reference collection as well as public library patrons. Chapters from a veteran medical examiner and forensic pathologist document the case histories and real-life challenges of autopsies, pairing detailed autopsy notes with insights on victims, murder methods and more. Perfect not only for health libraries but for law libraries and general-interest collections.

1 comments about How to Make a Serial Killer: The Twisted Development of Innocent Children into the World's Most Sadistic Murderers.

1. The authors spend each chapter focusing on a serial killer, making an effort to determine what factors made them psychopaths. They were fairly good about including a variety of serial killers--not all of the examples were the standard lust killers. They even included a woman, which not all authors bother to do. However, I would have liked more depth from this book, particularly when it came to the killers' motives. I also felt that the authors did relatively little to answer their own question of what causes people to become serial killers. They included charts that compared each example to the FBI's list of factors that predict someone may kill (having a criminal history, alcoholism, domineering father, etc.). But they did little to incorporate that data into the actual text, and they offered no explanation for why some of the killers had few (or none!) of the FBI warning signs. This book is a good overview for beginners, but I was expecting more.

3 comments about OSS: The Secret History of America's First Central Intelligence Agency.

1. FDR seemed to have a natural interest in spies. Before World War II started he had contacted William 'Wild Bill' Donovan and asked him to set up a foreign intelligence agency along the lines of what the British were doing. He formed just what FDR wanted and it was called the Office of Strategic Services, a non-descript name that could have meant anything. ==The OSS was a crazy agency that grew like crazy, eventually reaching some 10,000 people. All in all, the OSS provided some useful intelligence. They performed some useful operations during the war. They trained some very good people. This book will give you all the details. ==This whole concept was done over the intense opposition of J. Edgar Hoover who fought with every skill he had to prevent what he considered competition with the FBI. ==After FDR died, Truman and Donovan didn't get along all tht well. Truman shut down the OSS, but shortly thereafter realized that the Navy, the Army and the FBI along with all the others didn't play well together so he set up the CIA a few months later. ==Of course 9/11 taught us that none of them play well together now.



2. This work was the first genuinely scholarly work on the OSS. The author, an academician, wrote it way back when most OSS works were memoirs or compilations of tales of derring do or sensationalistic political acreeds concerning intelligence matters; although the still interesting memoirs and tales were fact based, those early books were based solely on memory and not on sound documentation. In addition many sensational critiques of intelligence agencies and the CIA msntioned some OSS activities. The date of 2005 given is that of the reprint, not the original 1972.
   The former files of the OSS remained in use by the OSS's two successor agencies: the State Department's Intelligence Bureau (INR) and the War Department's Special Services Unit (SSU), which carried on the OSS's HUMINT clandestine operations. SSU in turn was folded in 1947 into the newly estabished CIA, which continued to use the classified OSS files and added to them. The former OSS files then continued in use for many years; in the eighties, the CIA finally weeded out sll the long since unecessary files concerning operational, organizational and procedural matters and sent them to the Nationsl Archives. Thia action resulted in a huge quantity of memoirs being written by veterans of OSS (c.f. Elizabeth MacIntosh's study of women in the OSS, "Sisterhood of Spies"), in technicals studies (c.f. John Brunner's "OSS Weapons" and in organizational histories (c.f. Yu's "OSS in China"). All of these and many similar recent studies I have reviewed on this site.
   This pioneering work by Harris is necessarily sketchy due to lack of sources, being based on a few scattered memoirs and incomplete and undocumented popular publications and interviews, snd riddled with omissions and errors, has been overtaken by events.
   The book is best looked at as a curiosity demonstrating the lack of public knowledge in its day, when CIA insiders remaining in the intelligence business were actively discouraged from publishing. Harris, having never been in the OSS, was not constrained by secrecy oaths from publishing what he could glean from no longer serving veterans and other sources.
   Why this was reprinted is beyond me. There are enough copies to be found in the used book trade to satisfy the completist collector of OSS related works while to those who are doing current research, it is simply an obsolete curiousity.
   Not all works published in the last fifty years are no longer of continuing validity; many first hand accounts and compilations of derring do tales are still valuble, for example "You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger". (c.f reviews on this site.)



3. Recent archival research has partly superseded "OSS," but it remains a valuable survey of America's main undercover service in World War II. As a pioneering history, some facts inevitably have been supplemented and/or corrected, but the overall outline presented here is quite valid. The OSS collected intelligence and executed some useful operations, along with a few blunders (e.g. Allen Dulles's peace feelers to Nazi Germany, which outraged the USSR and briefly imperiled the alliance). But their efforts were largely peripheral to the major ground, air and sea campaigns. The book's main value now may be to suggest topics and raise questions for future research. It also contains a more subtle message in documenting the idealism and (often) progressive sympathies of citizen-soldiers dedicated to fighting Japanese and German tyrannies. Smith's 1972 publication reflected the backlash against the CIA and US militarism during the Vietnam War era. His vision of a clandestine outfit which actually promoted positive change, and respected expertise, offers hope in our current time of troubles. A CIA that routinely violates the Geneva Conventions with torture and kidnapping, and chickenhawk officials who pervert information-gathering in their rush to disaster overseas, are unworthy heirs of OSS veterans and the leaders of their time.

5 comments about Chasing the Devil: My Twenty-Year Quest to Capture the Green River Killer.

1. Gary Ridgway is a pretty unremarkable man, but he inspired a remarkable story. This is one of the few serial killer cases where the investigative team is more interesting than the actual killer. At no point has Gary Ridgway crossed over from being a heartless murderer to pop culture antihero like, say, Charles Manson has. Being prostitutes, Ridgway's victims were almost too vulnerable, practically laid out on a buffet for him to prey upon. David Reichert struggles with this fact and many others throughout this story. You'll get a good sense of the intense pressure he and his team felt during their experience. The community was outraged at the task force's seeming lack of progress; the media fueled the fire by pointing out mistakes and missed opportunities. Later, budget cuts and over-involvement by the FBI were enough to drive many task force members to seek other assignments. Reichert's views on all of these are made clear, and the politics of a major city's police force are on display for all to see. Incredibly, at one point, the case had become so fruitless that only one man (not Reichert) was assigned to it for the duration. The task force's tireless work and evidence-collecting paid off in the end, and the prolific killing spree was finally ended. Others reviewing this book have called Reichert an egomaniac but I don't think he comes off like that at all. He gives a lot of credit where it's due, admits his errors, and is respectful to the victims at all times. His obsession is the reason the case got as far as it ever did. If David Reichert wanted to look like a big shot, I'd say he sacrificed a lot to get there.



2. Sheriff David G. Reichert might have written his autobiography here. After all, he was one in charge in regards to the Green River case. Reichert got involved from the first victim until the killer, Gary Leon Ridgway, finally confessed to killing over 50 victims and finding locations for the remains of some of them. For his confession, he was given life in prison without the possibility of parole. I'm sure some people felt that he deserved the death penalty and probably so. He murdered almost all women mostly prostitutes and drug addicts and runaways. Hardly the population that needed publicity. In Ted Bundy's day, he went after well-respected daughters, college students. Bundy referred to the Green River Killer's victims as bottom feeders because most families and friends wouldn't report them missing so soon. Reichert writes about the frustration and aggravation in almost every turn in trying to chase the devil who was the Green River Killer. I think we forget that law enforcement can be human and make mistakes. There were those that covered. The girls on the strip were in danger and they even knew it too. The Green River Killer took 20 years to find and he was a regular employee at Kenworth company as a truck driver. He was interviewed at times but nothing added up until the technology and DNA evidence. He finally confessed to his hideous crimes which included necrophilia something that Ted Bundy also did but was ashamed of. Ridgway comes clean and confesses to over 50 murders. It probably relieved the families that there would never be a trial which can be more painful in bringing up the past. Some victims were never found but I admired Reichert's way of memorializing them on the end pages of this book as well as writing about the many people, men and women who brought justice to the Green River victims.



3. as far as biases go, this book takes the cake. mr. reichert explains how he was the absolute pivot point around which the entire investigation rotated. i wasn't there, nor do i know what actually happened - but to think that one person solved the entire case is mind-boggling. i know forensic science is all encompassing and a community of scientists, police, etc. working together to come to the conclusion. mr. reichert makes it seem as though he did not utilize anyone else's help. interesting perspective.



4. This book was awful! The only reason why I read it all the way through is because I paid money for it. It has very little to do with the Green River Killer and everything to do with the investigator. I bought this book wanting to know about the investigation not about what Reichert had for breakfast! AWFUL.



5. After seeing the movie that was based on this book, I had to read the book. I really enjoyed reading the story from the detective's point of view. We always expect the police and investigators to find the "killer" as quickly as they do in movies and books. This book shows the bureaucracy behind the investigation and why cold cases can drag on for years. Very eye opening book. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys true crime books.

2 comments about The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder: And Other True Stories from the Nebraska-Pine Ridge Border Towns (Plains Histories) (Plains Histories) (Plains Histories).

1. Stew Magnuson, through investigative reporting unearths new facts and shines light on a dark and shameful period of history. He works hard to identify and treat fairly the multiple perspectives on the death of Mr. Yellow Thunder, the trial, and later the famous Native American occupation of the Wounded Knee battle ground. He describes the events which began in 1972 and interviews the participants' some 35 years later. By writing in narrative, non-fiction style, much like a novel or short story, he has made a captivating read out of complex material. I was surprised when I couldn't put the book down once I started, finishing 320 pages in a weekend. RH



2. Reading this book I was completely sucked into a world that...A. I never knew existed, and B. If I knew about I probably would never have given a second thought.
   
   Magnuson did an amazing job tying together the events of the 19th and 20th centuries...and a really great job keeping me from confusing the dozens and dozens of major players in the book.
   
   He tells a series of hot-button stories in a way that manages to be fair to the facts, people and groups involved while at the same time keeping the reader's interest. More than a few times I kept reading just to see how one story would end up, or what would happen to one of the individuals involved.

5 comments about Did Lizzie Borden Axe for It?.

1. I recently finished reading David Rehak's book; "DID LIZZIE BORDEN AXE FOR IT?"
   As the "fly-sheet" indicates, this book on Lizzie Borden is a collection of facts and poses no theory or specific agenda regarding the murders.
   It would have been better if, Rehak had put a little more of himself and ideas into the book.
   
   Rehak delivers a "semi-truck" full of accumulated factual information and then...dumps the entire load onto the reader with little or, no mercy. Trying to dig oneself out from underneath this mountain of information to understand what is pertinent and what is not, seems a rather hopless task.
   
   The author also seems to simply by-pass some informational leads because "he" feels the story has nothing supporting it's validity. For instance; he mentions (on page65-66) an old nurse who, in 1984 claimed she had cared for Lizzie Borden in 1926 (the year before Lizzie's death). The nurse claimed Lizzie had confided in her that one of her "boyfriends" (if she ever had any),David Anthony had in fact, committed the crimes. This man, according to the author, was later identified (by whom?), but died in 1924. Mr. Rehak dismisses this entire story seemingly because suspect, David Anthony would have only been 22 years old at the time of the crime while Lizzie would have been 32.
   
   Despite all of this; David Rehak has published not a literary masterpiece, but a much better reference book for all of us "arm-chair" detectives to call upon when the trail gets even colder.
   
   Did Lizzie Axe for it? I think, she asked someone else "to Axe for her."



2. I had the privilege of editing the first version of this book for author David Rehak. This is an excellent, updated version with a new cover that I find appropriate for the book's content.
   
   Did Lizzie Borden Axe For It? is Rehak's first nonfiction book, for which he did extensive research. Rehak discovered many new facts about Lizzie Borden, and to lighten the serious nature of the book, he also wrote some humorous skits. At first thought, one would tend to think humor wouldn't work in a book like this, but he pulls it off ... somehow. I found the break from gore to humor to be a welcome relief. (Well, it works in the best horror movies, doesn't it?)
   
   Even if you're not into "Bordenia," which I'm not, you will be intrigued by this book. It's different, to say the least. I learned new things about Lizzie Borden that haven't been brought to light before, and the previously unpublished photos add more mystery to the content.
   
   Someone once wrote of Rehak: "He dares to go where most authors fear to tread." And I agree: In his fictitious works, he writes about many taboo subjects. This nonfiction book about Lizzie Borden seems natural for his unique skills.
   
   Reviewed by: Betty Dravis, 2008
   Author of: Millennium Babe: The Prophecy



3. 
   There are many unsolved murders in history, but few hold the public interest like the 1892 slayings of Andrew and Abby Borden in Fall River, Massachusetts. Lizzie, 32 years old at the time, was tried for the murders and found innocent but as David Rehak points out, her acquittal was never fully endorsed by public opinion. He proposes that the story lives on in part because the public sees Lizzie as either (a) having acted out their own fantasy of retribution, or else (b) as a symbol of gross suspicion and injustice. There was family disharmony, a large inheritance under dispute, a suspect of unblemished reputation, and a mountain of fact and speculation that defied integration into a sound case.
   
   Did Lizzie Borden Axe for It? is a compendium of Bordenia that is sure to enlighten all with an interest in this mystifying case. David Rehak, known for his works of fiction, developed an interest in the case and researched meticulously before presenting this book. The current edition has been amplified and re-issued, and there are a few editing flaws in this new version that could have been addressed to bump my rank up to five stars. In spite of this, I found it an absorbing and extremely thorough canvass of the facts and speculations about the case. There are many photographs included, some of them previously unpublished.
   
   Starting with a thorough chronology of the fateful day in August 1892, Rehak goes on to examine the sometimes-confusing facts from the public record. Next he covers the speculation and rumor that emerged in his research. The suggestion of a never-revealed diary, theories about Lizzie's relationships and sexuality, and stories from her later life are detailed fastidiously. The sites and "shrines" associated with Lizzie's life and the murders are covered--the house where the Bordens lived and died is now a bed-and-breakfast hotel.
   
   The final section of the book is the most unusual. Rehak discusses a number of articles in print that relate to the case. He details the non-disclosure of case-related documents held by Lizzie's trial attorney which are protected by legal privilege. There is a challenge to this status from a number of parties, with the argument being made that historical interest trumps privilege in this case, with all participants being long dead. Will we ever see the contents of the five file drawers secured in a law firm in Springfield, Massachusetts?
   
   As a final serving of Bordenia, the book finishes with some fictional writings featuring Lizzie and the case. Here the speculations are given free rein! It's an entertaining finish to a sad story. Our desire to know what actually happened to Andrew and Abby Borden may never be satisfied, but Did Lizzie Borden Axe for It? takes the discussion forward in a most entertaining fashion.
   
   Linda Bulger, 2008



4. Well written, great research and good photos. Anybody who appreciates
   good documentation and entertainment will love this book.



5. The third and revised printing of David Rehak's 270 page softcover book, Did Lizzie Borden Axe for It?, contains a never before seen note written in Lizzie's hand shortly after the sinking of the Titanic. That alone makes it a collectible as far as I'm concerned.
   
   This is a different kind of Lizzie book. Traditionally, the Lizzie books have a sequential, narrative progression, spilling forth the saga of the murders of Andrew and Abby Borden against the backdrop of Fall River, Massachusetts and peppered with some new (and often outrageous) theories of "who dunnit." Not this book. No long, flowing narratives here. No in-depth research filling chapter after chapter. Instead Dave takes us on a thoroughly enjoyable Mr. Toad's wild ride weaving in and out, up and down, over and around and back again, giving us punches of "in your face" data to quickly absorb, question, and quickly move on.
   
   In the Introduction he says he deals with the facts "as we know them". Well, not entirely. For example, an early error is in the constricted Timeline that has John Morse visiting his niece and nephew, "the Emerys" on Weybosset street. Nonetheless, with almost bullet-point speed he whisks us through "Lizzie didn't do it", then rebounds with "Lizzie did it" having laid out the basics and offers conclusions - not opinionated but taken from reportings of the day.
   
   Then we are off and flying again into the skies of "whys". Why was Lizzie thought to be a lesbian - featuring Nance O'Neil; why does Lizzie linger; why was Lizzie a romantic being, and so on. Along the read-ride we bump into Lizzie's alledged boyfriend (David Anthony), the alleged illegitimate son of Andrew (William S. Borden), her disloyal friend (Alice Russell), her loyal supporter (Mary Livermore). If television's TMZ and "Access Hollywood" were turned into a book on Lizzie, this would be it. Fast flashes that move from one salacious tidbit to another, the reader learns something new, re-processes something already known, and finds points to question and challenge - depending upon the level of expertise of the reader.
   
   While Mr. Rehak asserts he makes no claim as to her guilt or innocence, it is clear he has a real affection for the inscrutable Miss Borden and sways from an unbiased hand more than once. For this we can forgive him. Most authors attempting to maintain neutrality often write with a slight transparency allowing the reader to draw the correct conclusion.
   
   There are two things that have never been published in any book on the Borden case before and they appear in this book only. One is revealed to the public in printed form for the first time. First, this portrait of Andrew J. Borden as a young man - perhaps taken at the time he married Sarah Morse Borden. Neither this image or similar image has appeared in a book up to this time. Second, and more importantly, something "new" in Lizzie's own hand: a note she wrote not long after the sinking of the Titantic wanting the initial "B" placed on toiletry items for her matching case. It gives us insight into Lizzie's own vanity, her keen eye for quality, and maybe even tells us how much that "B" as in B O R D E N meant to her.
   
   I would recommend to any Bordenia collector to purchase Dave's book for these images alone. However, as the reader traverses through the uneven flow of these pages, he/she will come upon many new images not published previously except in his own editions. In addition, one can't help but chuckle at some of the fantasy in the form of poems, psychic contacts with meeting Lizzie, and particularly "Lizzie's New Hat", all the more solidifying the fact this is like no other Lizzie book and stands as an "Anomaly of Audacity" to put a twisted contemporary pun on it.
   
   David Rehak has done us all a favor, regardless of the factual accuracy and lack of scholarly research and citations. He has given us a marvelous compendium representative of the orbit that spins around our Miss Lizzie, and he's done it with originality, good humor, and a fast track ride wholly entertaining and worthy of our attention.
   
   I wrote about this new edition coming out in a previous blog entry of mine whereby I explained the facts of why a second edition was "rushed to print." This third edition has corrected the abysmal editing errors that were an unfortunate result. You can read why this happened at my blog. If you have the first edition - hold on to that baby - it's value just soared! And having a collection of all 3 is what the true Borden collector aspires. So if you are a collector, you'll want this book and Dave's two previous issues.
   
   It was my pleasure to provide Dave with several of the images in the book, some not published before. In the 8 years I have known him, I've found him to be a kind man - a sensitive man, and one I'm proud to call a friend. I recommend you purchase this unique collectible and treat yourself to that wild ride! :)
   
   Faye Musselman
   Payson, Arizona
   www.phayemuss.wordpress.com

5 comments about Thinning the Herd: Tales of the Weirdly Departed.

1. I picked up this book and laughed from page one all the way through the end. If you think the Darwin Awards are funny, you'll love this!



2. I couldn't believe that the first thing I quoted from this book was proven wrong.
   
   The book claims "General John Sedgwick, Union commander, was killed in battle during the U.S. Civil War. His last words were, 'They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist---'"
   
   At the Sedgwick Genealogy web site, it states: As the bullets whistled by, some of the men dodged. The general said laughingly, "What! what! men, dodging this way for single bullets! What will you do when they open fire along the whole line? I am ashamed of you. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." A few seconds after, a man who had been separated from his regiment passed directly in front of the general, and at the same moment a sharp-shooter's bullet passed with a long shrill whistle very close, and the soldier, who was then just in front of the general, dodged to the ground. The general touched him gently with his foot, and said, "Why, my man, I am ashamed of you, dodging that way," and repeated the remark "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." The man rose and saluted, and said good-naturedly, "General, I dodged a shell once, and if I hadn't, it would have taken my head off. I believe in dodging." The general laughed and replied, ``All right, my man; go to your place." For a third time the same shrill whistle, closing with a dull, heavy stroke, interrupted our talk when as I was about to resume, the general's face turned slowly to ice, the blood spurting from his left cheek under the eye in a steady stream. He fell in my direction ; I was so close to him that my effort to support him failed, and I fell with him."
   
   As this is apparently not the only incorrect "fact" in this book, it is obvious that Cynthia Ceilan did very little research in producing this piece of ... uh ... misinformation.
   



3. This is an excellent and well researched book that covers a topic that is somewhat morbid but Ceilan brings a lively wit to the table. If you are going to go out in a weird and strange manner you would want her to hail your spirit off this mortal coil. A great, lively, and excellent read!



4. I loved this book! It was actually morbidly funny. I loved it so much that I passed it on to my mother-in-law who loved it too...



5. I got this book from the library, and I hope to buy it soon. I loved it! I read it from cover to cover, often reading out loud to my husband and mother-in-law. Each story is wittily written, and it makes me a little more comfortable about a dark and foreboding subject. And if you ever want to convince someone that suicide is not the answer tell them to read this book. I've already got a number of people lined up to check it out once I take it back.

4 comments about Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia.

1. If you wish to know something in a sober way about what Michael 'the Pope' Greco and Joe "Bananas" Bonnano were up to, how the mafia and the Christian Democrats in Italy greased each others wheels for decades, who almost destroyed the mafia (the fascists) and of course which type of Alfa Romero was the mafiosi car bomb of choice in the 1960s - almost always an Alfa Romero Giulietta - then this is the book for you. One distraction: while much of the book is clearly based on the oral testimony of Tommaso Buscetta, a pentiti or mafia defector near the end of his days, the author repeatedly reminds us that his testimony is not entirely reliable, an annoying and patronising ) sleight of hand.



2. The praise given by critics and reviewers when this book was first published in 2004 are easily understood and justified when reading it in paperback format. While many earlier books have largely relied on a review of recent Sicilian history and events post WWII (Norman Lewis, Claire Sterling) or focussing on a very specific area (such as Alex Stille's "Excellent Cadavers" on the story of investigating magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino), this is the first real recent effort I know of in English to write a full history of the Sicilian Mafia under its correct name of Cosa Nostra.
   
   This is faciltated by the recent outpouring of Italian writings based on the vast amount of new information and evidence now available and which Dickie fully acknowledges in his book. In addition Dickie has also researched a number of historical sources and reports which have been largely ignored by previous English language writers.
   
   What really places this book above the rest is:
   
   Dickie has proven much better at covering the 19th century foundation of Cosa Nostra (and its earlier roots in Sicilian society) and then tracking this organisation's development of being a very tightly controlled killing machine exterminating any competition through the 20th century to date - the fact that nearly half of the book is devoted to the period before the end of WWII reflects this approach.
   
   He has avoided the trap of spending too much time on the US Mafia with its more public image and history, instead only referring to it as it actually impacts and helps our understanding of the Sicilian society's history.
   
   Finally he has done a much fuller job than many prior books in tracking the Cosa Nostra linkage through Sicilian politics with Italian political history since Italian unification in late 19th century and especially since WWII, with the rise of Christian Democrats party who dominated Italian politics, especially under Andreotti. He makes a very strong case that without such political links and Rome's constant vacillation, Cosa Nostra would never have become as endemic and protected from the forces of law and order.
   
   One ends the book feeling that the whole tragedy while not at an end is certainly moving into a model seen in many other countries, where criminal or terrorist elements have realised their best chances of survival are lower profile protection and corruption activities plus control of drugs, kidnapping and prostitution rather than seeking to always be in the public eye. This development as the book explains was almost wholly down to an almost public civil war started and executed by Leggio and Rinna with numerous public killings between 1970 and 1982. The murdering of a number of high profile police and anti-Mafia lawyers and politicians, ultimately created the environment where Falcone and Borsellino were able to achieve the maxi-trials in 1986 which used pentiti (defectors) such as Tomasso Buscetta. This led to many (but not all) leading Cosa Nostra old style heads being jailed for long terms under better enforced new Italian laws and those persons failing to date to obtain their freedom by political corruption in Rome, even after the murders by Cosa Nostra of Falcone and Borsellino.
   
   The book is likely to be the classic text of the area for some time given all these strengths and with the organisation becoming more circumspect.



3. CN is well-written and starts out being very interesting: the early chapters discuss the origins and traditions of the Mafia. As the book progresses, however, it starts to drag. I think I skimmed the last 40 pages or so because I had gotten bored.
   
   I can't really blame the author; it must be very hard (or impossible) to get enough information on a secret society to write a coherent history. CN is mostly a patchwork of accounts of individual criminals and specific crimes. It's decent work but not really what one thinks of when one is bying a "history" of something.



4. The author has written a compelling, well researched and substantial account of the history of the Sicilian Mafia. The bibliography is very impressive as Mr. Dickie has read widely and deeply to produce this book with careful attention to details of persons and events.
   
   He argues that the Sicilian Mafia did not originate centuries ago as an Honored Society but contends that its genesis was a criminal organization during the troubled period of 1860 to 1876. Sicily during this period became part of the nation of Italy after decades of rule from Naples as part of the Bourbon Kingdom. During these chaotic years the organization that we know today as the Mafia took shape, organized and began to proper. However its genesis was a complex affair and the author is able to unravel the puzzle and produce a very readable and fascinating account from its beginnings to the present day.
   
   One of the most fascinating figures to emerge from the book was the very competent and efficient Ermanno Sangiorgi who was Chief of Police of Palermo at the turn of the 20th century. He conducted criminal investigations made raids and arrests and was able to lay the ground for prosecution of Mafia figures. He produced a very comprehensive report on the Sicilian Mafia with details of criminal family structures, individual profiles, Mafia initiation rituals, codes of behavior as well as it business methods and operations. Despite his best efforts the Mafia survived his attempt to shut it down, however with more support from the government and certain officials he would certainly have seriously weakened it but probably not shut it down. Sadly all the good work Sangiorgi did was filed away and forgotten about and a valuable chance to seriously weaken the Mafia was lost.
   
   The author is able to peel away the layers of myth and mist that surround the history of the Sicilian Mafia and reveal an organization that is very adaptable and sophisticated. There is much information about it workings in the affairs of government and private industry as well as its international relationships

5 comments about Why They Kill: The Discoveries of a Maverick Criminologist.

1. I am a psychologist working in a maximum-security prison. This book introduced me to Athens' work. I am incorporating his ideas both into our treatment methods for offenders and our screening tools for parole and Community custody evaluations. Athens' work, described so well here, answers many questions, offers tools for distinguishing the truly dangerous criminal from the petty, and suggests avenues for research and treatment that will keep us all busy for the next 50 years. Well worth the trouble to read.



2. I've met more than a few criminologists at the University where I learned and taught psychology (and where, interestingly, Athens spent a good chunk of his early career), and I was always struck by how little psychology I found in the writings and the lectures of most criminologists. I don't mean complex theories of motivation or conversion or what have you; I mean simple notions of learning that we teach freshman students.

   Criminologists seem to be able to generate complex hypothesis at the drop of a hat, but precious few of them are willing to step back and say, as Athens did, that brutal criminals act that way because they've been taught to be brutal. And astoundingly enough, when Athens did bring some simple psychology into criminology, he was thought a dangerous radical.

   Reading of Rhodes' ideas I was put in mind of the books of the John Douglas, who built up FBI's Criminal Profiling division- another man who caused a revolution in crimonology by applying simple, well-known principles of learning.

   Rhodes' biography of Lonnie Athens is interesting for a number of reasons; first the story of the man himself, second, the revolution he brought to the study of criminal behavior- a revolution that still hasn't quite taken hold everywhere- and last as a picture of a how change comes (or doesn't come) in well-established areas of academic study. Strongly recommended.




3. It is not clear why the state of completed violentization is consolidated to the degree of no return?! The author(s) claim that a cataclysmic experiences or long-term significant events lead to fragmentization. That should apply also to violent criminals otherwise the theory of transition through fragmentation is NOT a theory... I was very disappointed in the end of the book, almost like a European movie... it ends without a finish... and it would not matter much if it wasn't for the grave implications of acting on the idea that violent criminals are irreversibly violentized and that another "cataclysmic experience" "or significant series of events" would not open an opportunity for a transformation leading away from violence.
   
   In other words... what is missing is the other half of the theory, the de-violentization theory. Are there ANY violent criminals who have managed to return to non-violence? Why are statistics being treated so harshly throughout the book yet they come handy in dealing with this important question?
   
   Even if there were only a few, then what was the process of their de-violentization? Could it have been another "cataclysmic experience" or some other sequence of significant events? Was it some process of transformation, which would challenge the violent phantom community and violent "generalized other" and replaced them with their non-violent equivalents?
   
   My question is... "Why is de-violentization impossible?" What is the evidence that such process DOES NOT exist? For if it didn't, all that we learn from this theory through the examples of veterans and so on, are irrelevant to building programs of rehabilitation and healing. If during their service veterans completed violentization, according to the conclusion of this book, they should all join the violent criminals in the brig! But for this to happen we must first prove that there is NOT ONE case available of a person who has completed violentization and who has managed to return to non-violence.
   
   If the "tranformation through fragmentation" theory works one way, it should also work the opposite... otherwise the theory is not worthy of consideration for explaining the violentization process, and therefore this is not a theory to be taken seriously in providing clues on neither our correction nor our veteran rehabilitation programs.
   
   The book in general is wonderfully written and there is nothing wrong with generating questions on a hot subject such as violence.



4. The author's overall message is an astounding exploration of the criminal mind and how they become violent, and end up killing. The reviews and synopsis of the book are great... However, the first half of the book, about 170 pages, drag the reader along Lonnie Athens' (a criminologist) life. It tells of his schooling and how he made his studies. These 170 pages could have been boiled down to about 25. However, the second half of the book, where it takes an in depth look as some of Athens' findings about violentization are outstanding. I was dissapointed at first, but was engulfed by his message in the second half of the book. The book however explores what a college studnet would learn in any criminology or sociology 101 class. That in fact, violentization is what causes people to act the way they do. The author and Athens's just come at the fact in a slightly different manner and deter from the common conceptions of poverty, race, social class, etc and boil it down to simply being exposed to a violent upbringing. Worthwhile to read, but its not a medical breakthrough.



5. Rhodes demonstrates the ability to break down and make alive Criminologist Lonnie Athens' theory of violentization. His use of well known violent indviduals and how they fall into this refinement of social learnig theory make a clear and strong argument to think about the theorist stages that lead to violent behavior. If you seek to know more about possible methods to promote a less volent world prehaps facing this tale will be productive.