5 comments about If You Really Loved Me.

1. I read this book about 7 or 8 years ago and i recently made an account on Amazon and i can tell you this book was one of the best books i have ever read about. I remember this entire book like i read it yesterday! What Cinnamon Brown went through as a pre-teen...the manipulation, the pressure she had on her and then to have to go to jail for this man, David Brown was just absoultly sick. I couldn't believe with the pressure she was put under by Brown that she would have to do any time at all and was repulsed when i read on and found out what they gave her. She is free now but still. It must have been hell on a kid that was practicaly forced to do something like that to someone she had to secretely love, and we know as a child she secretely loved her step mother.
   
   Shocking, sad and unfortunatly...so true...



2. I can't believe that David Brown really did this to his daughter, his own flesh and blood!! He manipulated his 14 year old daughter into killing his wife so he could collect the insurance money!! There are no words to describe how demented this "man" really is. Then he tried to have his daughter killed from prison! Unbelievable! This "man" deserves to rot in hell for all eternity~



3. Every now and then I pick up one of Ann Rule's true crime accounts. I like figuring out puzzles, and mystery novels are especially tempting as they let me try to figure things out on my own end of things. But true crime books have an additional factor to them -- I enjoy seeing the monsters that inhabit the world around us get justice, and sometimes it helps to know that I am not alone in my own little pocket of misery.
   
   If You Really Loved Me dips into the psychology of a family, and the man who was the head of it. To all appearances, David Brown was an ordinary looking fellow, overweight, acne-scarred, but very successful. He had developed a means of rescuing lost data from computer disks right at the start of the big computer boom of the eighties, and had made quite a bundle of money. His home was in an prosperous part of Orange County, California, and his marriage to Linda Bailey was a happy one on the surface. They had a newborn daughter named Krystal, and he had invited not just his daughter from a previous marriage, Cinnamon, but also Linda's sister, Patti, to live with him. The home was tidy and well-furnished, and the two teenage girls were average, high-spirited girls, especially Cinnamon.
   
   But on a March night in 1985, Linda died from two gunblasts in her chest. David Brown had gone out for a drive, and had come home to Patti crying and holding the baby, and Cinnamon was nowhere to be found. EMTs and the police came, and Linda's life could not be saved. And a search revealed Cinnamon huddled in a doghouse in the backyard, covered in vomit, and clutching a note scrawled on a piece of cardboard.
   
   Dear God, please forgive me, I didn't mean to hurt her.
   
   To everyone involved, the solution appeared very clear -- Cinnamon was tried for the murder and sentenced to twenty-five years to life, and only fourteen years old, was sent to prison. Life returned to normal for the Browns, and Patti stayed with David Brown, raising Krystal, and eventually giving birth to a child of her own, Heather.
   
   But to the police and prosecutors involved in the case, there was something a little too smooth about the murder. And there was something about Brown that bothered everyone -- but the only way to reopen the case would be if Cinnamon spoke, and for nearly four long years she remained silent. Then one of the original investigators, Jay Newell, recieved a phone call, and the truth began to be slowly uncovered...
   
   It's a chilling tale of mental and emotional abuse, murder for hire, manipulation and the man who was at the center of it all. Using interviews, photographs, and transcripts of the case, Rule gives a glimpse into a family that was deceptive, and with David Brown as the man who ran it all. He was charming, and would marry no less than six times, usually to very young women, and each marriage would fail in some respect. What was most disturbing was just how close David Brown came to getting away with everything -- investigators discovered that he would run insurance scams, make grandiose claims, and always seemed to find someone else to blame for everything that was questionable in his life.
   
   For me, the hardest thing to read what Brown did to his own daughter, and the abuse he put Patti through. Out of all of his women, it was these two teenagers that went through the most trauma. Brown viewed women as things, put on the earth to gratify him sexually, and it didn't matter if they were preteens or not -- it was these sections of the book that made me physically ill, and helped me to recognize that predators lack the moral integrity that stop most of us from acts of terrible horror.
   
   While Rule does get a bit repetitive in her account, the story is compelling enough to continue reading through to the end. She delves into the psychology of a sociopath, the hell that survivors of abuse go through, and the lives of the lawmen who worked to bring justice, finally to Linda Bailey and Cinnamon Brown.
   
   This is not a book for children of any age to read, and that would go to most adults that I know. The violence in this is particularly disturbing, made all the more so in that it actually happened. For me, the hardest part was to read about the words and actions that Brown used to control the women in his life -- my own mother and grandfather would use very close to the same phrases to twist my own thinking into believing that what they were doing was my fault, not theirs, and there were times when I had to set the book down and walk away for a while to get my own equilibrium back. Despite this, it helped me to understand more of what I had gone through personally, and so, that made the book worth reading.
   
   Rule is able to stay detached from her subject in this, and lets the reader decide guilt or innocence on their own. One thing that I appreciated was that she included several afterwords to update the readers on what happened to the Bailey-Brown families and the others in the story after the trials were over. There is also an insert of black and white photos of the people and places in the story as well.
   
   If you have a strong enough stomach to deal with the crimes that Rule brings to life here, go on ahead and read. But I would not let this book be read by a child, or anyone who is emotionally sensitive to this sort of thing. Handle with care, and it still gets five stars from me for the writing and the skill that Rule uses to bring this story of evil to life.
   
   Recommended.



4. This is a tremendous book by Ann Rule-- a complete true story. I am from Garden Grove, and my father's parents were the first owners of that home on Ocean Breeze where Linda Brown was shot. My family had owned it from the mid-50s and had moved out in the early 70s-- but many of the same neighbors remained through 1985. Some of which are mentioned in the book.
   
   This is a must-read. There was a "made for television" move about these events, called "Love, Lies & Murder," but it is NOT based upon Ann's book.
   
   If there's ever "just one" of Ann's book I would recommend, it would be this one, "If You Really Loved Me."



5. This is an older true crime story from the mistress of the genre, Ann Rule. I read it at the time it came out, and found it fascinating and tragic. Recently, my mother was cleaning out her collection of books and setting overflow aside for donation, and I rescued this from the donation pile because I wanted to read it again.
   
   One night in 1985, police were called to the California home of a self-made millionaire named David Brown, who shared the house with his wife Linda, their baby Krystal, Linda's younger sister Patti, and David's daughter from a previous marriage, Cinnamon. In the master bedroom, police found Linda Brown shot to death, and 14-year old Cinnamon curled up shivering and vomiting up mountains of pills in a doghouse out back. The story that emerged was that an allegedly contentious relationship between Cinnamon, David's daughter, and Linda, David's wife, had finally escalated into a tragic confrontation. Cinnamon immediately confessed to shooting Linda Brown, and after a quick trial was sent to a juvenile prison facility.
   
   Another murder in another dysfunctional family - nothing unusual, right? For some reason, however, the whole incident bothered the chief investigator, Jay Newell, and he couldn't get it out of his mind. Something wasn't right about it. Cinnamon was a sweet, confused girl who had no record of any serious rebellion, and the investigator couldn't shake the feeling that she was holding something back. David Brown also left a bad taste in Newell's mouth, and the presence of Linda's younger sister in the home seemed strange. What was really going on in this odd household? Long after the case was dead and buried, Newell kept watching and listening and asking questions.
   
   Almost four years later, Cinnamon broke her long silence and the true story of what happened in the Brown house that night was finally revealed, piece by appalling piece. It's a shocking insight into just how much power a parent has over a child, and how smoothly a cunning adult can manipulate so many others to do his or her bidding. It's Ann Rule at her best, pulling every detail together to present a full picture of a terrible crime and more importantly, all its underlying elements - not an easy task given the complexity of familial emotion and the ultimately deadly addition of a sociopathic mind.
   
   I have the old hardcover, but it's still in print as a mass market paperback, available on Amazon or any other bookseller site. I recommend it if you're interested in true crime and all the psychological factors that play into a crime like this.

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

1. The research is okay, I guess, but the author peppers his book with random anti-feminist diatribes-- he seems to think they are germane to the topic, but he fails to make that connection for his reader. Really, I'm quite well aware that ultimately each person is responsible for his or her own actions, but you're going to have a very difficult time proving to me that abuse (particularly in the Homolka case) does not have an effect on a person's psyche.
   
   Moreover, after spending the book telling us that the women killers can't blame their pasts for their actions, Mr. Vronsky implies that Charles Manson is not wholly to blame for HIS actions, because he spent many years in jail and his brain was fried by LSD. Hmm, double standard, anyone?
   
   Mr. Vronsky also spends time speculating over what the victims were thinking as they died, which is obviously impossible for him to know. He also spends a whole lot of attention on the sexual aspects of those cases where sex was involved, and it seemed to me that he was impressed with the charisma of those men who seduced women into killing, while disgusted with the women who killed on their own. The vibe of creepiness I got while reading was NOT coming from the descriptions of the killers, let's put it that way.
   
   The book is written in a casual-yet-superior fashion. Mr. Vronsky somehow manages to convey all the arrogance of Ph.D. level scholarship with none of the professionalism one would expect from someone who is a Ph.D. candidate, as the back cover proudly trumpets his status to be.
   
   Frankly, based on the cover description, I was expecting a much more professionally-written, less biased work, and I am quite disappointed.



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



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



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



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

5 comments about The I-5 Killer: Revised Edition (Signet True Crime).

1. "The I-5 Killer" lacks the elements that make Ann Rule books so fascinating. Granted that Randy Woodfield is a complex criminal, and his story is interesting, but when Ann Rule wrote this book she had not yet started delving into the perpetrators' pasts and psychological makeup. Like her other early works, "Lust Killer" and "The Want-Ad Killer", Randy Woodfield's story is a better-than-average true crime offering when compared to books by lesser authors, but not nearly up to the level of Ann Rule's writing today.



2. The title of my review is kind of taken from the back of the book which I think is understandable. Again, Ms Rule has written with knowledge & with an edge that keeps one hooked from page to page. This book was the most terrifying I've read so far just because the killer, Randall Woodfield, spent a great amount of time in the area where I grew up (SW Portland) and at the same time when I was 16 years old (the age of girls he was attracted to). The bar where he worked is less than a mile from where I lived at the time. I probably saw him at some point but did not know it. I think that's pretty scary!
   
   Randall Woodfield was a sick, disgusting pervert that received exactly what he deserved...LIFE in prison. Ms. Rule's research states that he is not eligible for parole until he is the age of 81 years old. God help us all if he is still alive! This book just goes to show that you cannot judge a book by its cover. Even though someone may look like an Adonis, it does not mean that they are the same way on the inside. Randall Woodfield still is every young woman's nightmare. Ann Rule writes with such detail and really brought this story to life for me.



3. Randall Woodfield seemed to have it all. Growing up he had a stable home life, did well in school, and was an exceptional athlete, excelling in every sport he tried. He was such a good athlete, in fact, that the Green Bay Packers drafted him. But Woodfield didn't make the team and he never finished college, instead drifting from job to job, from city to city. He also went from woman to woman, pursuing all of them intensely. Still, he seemed like a nice enough guy and people who knew him were shocked to find out that he was the I-5 killer, committing a series of robberies, terrorizing and assaulting young women, killing some of them.
   
   "The I-5 Killer" is one of Ann Rule's early true crime books and it shows. It's not a bad book, but it's not as good as her later efforts. Rule focuses more on Woodfield than his victims, consequently, although the crimes against the victims were horrific, I felt detached since I never came to know what any of them were really like. There are eight pages of photos, but only one picture of a victim, which also adds to the feeling of detachment. Woodfield's trial had a bit more detail to it and was quite interesting.
   
   This isn't a bad book, but someone trying Ann Rule for the first time should try reading one of her newer books.



4. "The I-5 Killer" is the story of Randall Woodfield, a multi-sport high school star who was drafted into the NFL after a successful college football career as a Wide Receiver.
   
   He had the same problem as Lance Rentzel of the Dallas Cowboys, a severe problem with exposing himself to young women. Unlike Rentzel, Randall Woodfield's behavior escalated to more serious activities like armed robbery and sexual assault. It's difficult to understand how that led ultimately to murder. The final number of murder victims may never be known.
   Woodfield has suggested that steroid use was a factor in his becoming aggressive.
   
   Ann Rule details the jurisdictional battles of law enforcement entities that were involved in the investigation. That battle may have been responsible for Woodfield's destruction of incriminating evidence in the interim.
   She also explains the evidence that originally tied him to the multiple crimes around the I-5 freeway in multiple states.
   
   The thinking behind California deciding not to prosecute the double-murder charges was explained.
   
   Randall Woodfield is a narcissist, totally wrapped up in himself and his "image". What's so puzzling is how someone with a popular social life and apparently normal family background could become a serial killer.
   Ann Rule tells the story of the I-5 killer in gripping style!



5. Writing as Andy Stack, this is an Ann Rule novel. I read Stranger Beside Me from Ann as my first book from her. I didn't care for it much. This true crime story covers the life and crimes of Randall Woodfield. Ann really does a good job with this tale. Nothing is held back as she goes over Randall's very interesting life. The writing is crisp and clear making the 296 pages fly by. What makes this story of a killer so interesting is how much he had going for him. Randall was a normal kid raised in a normal home. He was good looking, popular and excelled in sports. It seems incredible that someone like that could do the horrible things he did. Very gripping story.

2 comments about Forensics and Fiction: Clever, Intriguing, and Downright Odd Questions from Crime Writers.

1. Nothing ruins a good crime novel faster than factual errors or logical mistakes. That's why so many writers turn to Dr. D.P. Lyle for help. A practicing physician, Lyle is a writer himself, and he helps his colleagues figure out inventive (and accurate) ways of doing mayhem to the human body. "Forensics and Fiction" collects some of the most interesting questions Lyle has answered. Want to know how long a human head immersed in the North Sea would remain recognizable? This is the place to look. Not only is the book valuable for all the useful, obscure information it contains, it's also fascinating to see what kinds of questions writers ask. (Some of them, as you might expect, are rather strange.) "Forensics and Fiction" is an excellent resource for writers and an entertaining, informative read for fans.



2. Very interesting book. I enjoyed it, but it was more technical than I expected. Lots of great, gruesome questions.

5 comments about The Cases That Haunt Us.

1. This is one of those books that can completely change your view of events on a daily basis. It's the best of Douglas' books, and it creates order out of what had once been utter chaos. His Jack the Ripper chapter was particularly valuable. There has been so much garbage written about that case that Douglas's logical analysis was very welcome. After reading this book, I can't look at any crime the same way again, and I have also come to a different understanding of human psychology. I have recommended this book to everyone I know, and even the skeptical ones, once they started it, couldn't put it down! It made the rounds of my office, and then of my friends, and then of my friends' friends! Warning: it can be grim and horrific. The Lindbergh baby case and the JonBenet Ramsey cases in particular were painful. The authors are skilled at conveying the horrors of these crimes, yet at the same time really delving into the psyches of the criminals in an unflinching way.



2. This book is interesting, worth buying, and informative. I liked the varied accounts of interesting well known cases. It provided insight into the Jon Benet Ramsey case, among others. I would recommend this book to anyone. John Douglas is a good author.



3. John Douglas is a great investigator and actually does most of the writing in this book. His writing style is surprisingly well polished and entertaining. If you studied Psychology (as I did) this book is a must read if you have any interest in the criminal or forensic side. His analysis of the Jon Benet Ramsey case is very controversial but it is the high light of this book. It forced me to do a complete 180 and I believe that his conclusions are right on the mark. I know someone that worked at the FBI while he was there and his reputation is genuine though not superhuman. In real life, the Behavioral Sciences Unit can't contribute on many occassions because there isn't enough initial data. If there isn't much to go on from the beginning or if its a random act they aren't able to construct a viable profile. That said, Douglas has almost single handedly created a new field that has provided immense value and his is a brilliant person. This is a book for people that don't mind immersing themselves in something for several days until its done.



4. Detailed book, lots of speculation, pretty interesting, but has many old cases, such as the Lizzie Borden murder, the Lindberg kidnapping, etc.
   Not as insightful as his other books, nor as interesting.



5. Most of the cases detailed in this book are old cases that are either unsolved or with convictions that have some degree of doubt attached to them.
   The insights from John Douglas as a profiler are very interesting.
   
   The "Jack the Ripper" case is one of the most notorious of all time.
   Mr.Douglas explains why he would eliminate some the known,hypothetical suspects and settles on a probable suspect.
   
   He argues for the guilt of Lizzie Borden and I think that he's correct on that case.
   
   His assessment of the Lindbergh kidnapping is intriguing. "More than one individual took part in the crime that night"-page 180. Hauptmann was no doubt heavily involved but the case for the "dual intruder theory" makes sense.
   
   The "Black Dahlia" case was another savage murder and he lists two very strong possible suspects.
   
   I can understand how he arrived at his conclusion in the JonBenet Ramsey case. That case was hamstrung from the start with crime scene contamination and the well-known animosity between the police and DA's office. The presence of foreign DNA enforces the theory of an intruder.
   John Douglas will get slammed for his supporting of the Ramseys. Considering the victim and the unsolved status of that case,it's going to be an infamous topic for years to come.
   
   As a fan of true crime genre books I liked this book.

5 comments about The Franklin Cover-Up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska.

1. Who really knows the extent that people in power can go to cover the truth? I'd like to think that former Senator DeCamp is a trustworthy man. Obviously there are quite a few people who think so. If what he reports is true (which honestly wouldn't surprise me based on his pretty convincing arguments) then this book is the most disturbing one I've ever read.
   
   I don't want to give anything away here, because I want to encourage as many people as possible to read this and choose for yourself. All I will say is that DeCamp alleges that a group of people in high places in Omaha (political figures, a sheriff, a bank manager) all were involved in some REALLY disgusting things involving drugs and underage kids, as the title implies.
   
   I urge you to check this book out. If this isn't true it is one of the most bizarre schemes ever thought up, if it i true, God help the human race.



2. If you don't mind being sickened out of your mind, not sleeping for days, and feeling depressed for a few days then go ahead and read this book. I can't believe the amount of allegations that this author writes about in the book. I promise that you will either think this man and these children have sick twisted imaginations or that we have some serious sick people in high places running our government. Either way, it makes me think "What's Wrong With People?!"
   
   Given the information in the book and doing a little research on the internet, I am leaning toward believing the State Senator. However, I do hesitate to completely endorse the book because I like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Regardless, it was an astonishing and incredible read that will grasp your attention throughout. Fair warning you will most likely be grossed out by the allegations made by these children and their stories behind them. One cannot help but sympathize with their everyday troubled plight and ordeals. Highly recommended if you have the stomach for it.



3. This is a good book in that it proved that we often do not see what we think we see nor hear what we think we hear. DeCamp does a good job in showing how what the media and government, have told us about the Oaklahoma City bombing, the Vietnam war, the patriot movement, the drug trade, pedophelia, and satanism has been half truths at best and out and out lies at worst. The only short comings with the book is his admitted restrictions from revieling the grand jury evidence in the Franklin case. You get a sense of what he cannot tell you, but where and how to go about doing your own research for the information.



4. To all of the detractors and those who think this is merely crazy conspiracy BS.
   
   The horrible crimes documented in this book are not fictitious bunk made up by the author. Everything he wrote is verifiable, much of it was direct testimony from the CHILDREN that were abused by these, often wealthy and prominent, f'ing-inbred- lowlifes, and everything can be backed up with credible EVIDENCE. Mr. Decamp so much as said that if anyone believes that he is lying, or being untruthful about ANYTHING he's written in his book, then that person should just 'go ahead and sue him'. He wrote that, he in fact, "welcomes" any suits that anyone would like to bring against him challenging his honesty in what he's written in this book. So, if you're questioning Mr. Decamps honesty here, you should do something about it, instead of immediately dismissing it with your poor complaints, arguments, or lack of independent thought.
   
   Ultimately, Mr. Decamp concludes that the reason why this huge cover-up has gone on for so long, is because there are very prominent people who like where they are in the social hierarchy, and if this scandal were to reach the mainstream then the whole "system" itself would collapse entirely, thus threatening the security of their position. The sick perpetrators and coordinators identified in this book are willing to let innocent children be abused and murdered in order to maintain their privileged, insignificant little lives. How very sad. But you do, as the saying goes, reap what you sow.
   Go watch Conspiracy of Silence.



5. THIS IS A MUST READ FOR EVERY PERSON IN THE WORLD.
   
   JOHN DE KAMP IS A BRAVE, INTELLIGENT MAN.

5 comments about Party Monster: A Fabulous But True Tale of Murder in Clubland.

1. I had no clue about the whole New York underground club scene. This book definitely brings that to life. Oddly, despite the fact that it is both a memoir and true crime book, you will find yourself laughing frequently. Rest assured that this is one of (if not the) only true crime books that you will read that will have you laughing, unfortunately, it was difficult to garner sympathy for the victim, or any of the other characters for that matter. But read this book it is great.



2. James St. James was part of the fantastic and drug-ridden New York club scene in the 80's, even before the birth of the "Club Kids" phenomenon. Not just gays and drag queens, but truly remarkable parties with bizarre themes. It was a time when everyone knew everyone from the scene, and the drug dealers were known by all. One evening in 1996, riding a drug-induced fugue, James finds himself at Michael Alig's apartment. Over scones and heroin, Michael confesses to James that he's killed the drug dealer named Angel. This is where the story starts.
   
   James then fills in the holes, the entire atmosphere of the clubs and the etiquette involved. A "who's who" and "what's what" leading up to the announcement of murder. His tale is told in fabulously over-the-top drama, complete with capitols for punctuation. It's amazing that any one of the "club kids" survived all the drugs, degradations, partying, and out-and-out revelry of their wild clubbing life.
   
   'Party Monster' is a fast read: fun, funny, tragic, spinning out of control, filled with bizarre fashion tips ... an expose of an outrageous lifestyle. Never before has a tale of murder been told with such squealing, zealous, zany prose. James St. James brings the scene to life, introducing us to the Michael Alig he knew long before the bizarre murder of the unlikable drug dealer Angel. Get ready for a wild ride when you pick up this book. This is James St. James first novel, I plan on picking up more of his work. This book is definitely work a peek. I plan on renting the movie also. Enjoy!



3. James St. James takes you into the world of the nightlife in the 80's and 90's with a wide spectrum of emotions ranging from euphoria, to jealousy, and fear in this collection of events of the club/entertainment field.
   
   James St. James goes into his rivalry and friendship with Michael Alig with brutal honesty and zeal from literally their teens until their 30's in PARTY MONSTER. James documents their partying and drug use in a fashion that you still care about them as well as their well being, while still hoping that these two will find their way out of the messes that their lives took towards the end of the book.
   
   It has good times, as well as sad times for the two main "characters" in this novel and this book makes you realize that even if people seem to be having a grand old time in the public eye, there may be unhappiness lurking daily in the backgrounds of their existence.
   
   This book does not have a happy ending, but does hold a small amount of redemption for James St. James with him trying to start his life over again in another part of the country.
   
   If you enjoyed the movie, you will enjoy the novel as well, and vice versa.



4. After watching 'Party Monster', I fell in love with James St. James, and although I was slightly disappointed by his tweeny novel, 'Freak Show', 'Party Monster' ,the novel, delivers!
   
   It is a definite page-turner and I don't think it took me more than two or three days to finish it. Book is packed with way more of James' humor and critique than we got from the movie. If you love the man, you'll love the book! Enjoy!



5. This book seemed like a mashup of true crime and memoir. The author, James St James was a 'club kid' in New York during the late 80's and early 90's. For me the most interesting thing about the book was getting a look at that whole scene. These guys made a living dressing up in the weirdest way possible and going to clubs. They were big into a drug called special k. It was a really nutty time and place.
   
   That said, the author writes very clearly and well. He seems to be writing as if you're more or less in the know so the book has a familiar tone. It's compact, has plenty of bizarre anecdotes and it moves along at a nice clip. Very good, very off-beat book.

5 comments about Portrait Of A Killer: Jack The Ripper -- Case Closed (Berkley True Crime).

1. Case closed. That is what the title of the book says. But is the case truly closed or is this the opinion of one woman? I believe that it is the latter of the two. Patricia Cornwell believes that Walter Richard Sickert was the infamous Jack the Ripper.
   
   Cornwell's book, "Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper Case Closed", is a detailed description of her labors in researching the infamous murderer and trying to link him to Sickert. I will commend the author, for it seems that she worked long and hard researching this topic. Unfortunately it is hard to believe that any of the evidence she has accumulated will hold any true report with Jack the Ripper researchers. Most of her evidence is pure speculation. For example: Walter Sickert was a skilled artist. Cornwell states that she was "unsettled" by some of the parallels when comparing his paintings to photographs of the crime scene. Apparently what was painted was very similar to the crime scene. This, strange as it is, does not really prove anything.
   
   Some chapters do a very poor job of capturing the reader's attention and seem very repetitive. However, she does a very good job of detailing the scenarios where Jack the Ripper is involved. Unfortunately, I personally believe this book is very difficult to get into and is incredibly repetitive. If you are looking to seek more knowledge about the Ripper and what some peoples theories are on who he was, this may not be a bad book to start with.
   
   - Written by Eric Kreuz



2. This is the first Cornwell book I've read, and very likely the last. I started this book expecting something more mature than the movie From Hell, and found that there are actually several parallels and it's still purely circumstantial. While her accusations are compelling, they are not fact. Facts in this book are scarce. I give this three stars instead of one because the cover says "Portrait". She certainly does create a portrait. If this were a fictional novel and she didn't include herself in the book and make herself seem like Nancy Drew, this would've been a good, interesting read. But her constant interjections of "I found" or "I researched" or "I discovered" just make you want to slam the book shut and chuck it in the trash.
   Thus, if you're wondering whether or not you should read this book, there is only a certain type of audience that will enjoy it. You'll enjoy this book if you know absolutely nothing about Jack the Ripper and the facts that dissuade people from thinking it's Sickert which Cornwell blatantly ignores. Or, you'll enjoy this book if you're willing to pretend that it's a work of fiction, because as a work of fiction, she does a really fabulous character description. The Walter Sickert she portrays is a morbidly fascinating person - if you're willing to pretend that it's a fictional character. If those two types of audience aren't applicable to you, don't bother with this one. There are better books on Jack the Ripper with far less bias and just as much research.



3. After spending millions of dollars of her own money, Cornwell claims to have solve the case (and bring some justice?). I'm not sure about the justice part. I have read Cornwell before and I'm not the biggest fan. This book is an interesting mess: it has both good points and bad points.
   
   First, I'll cover the good points. The book does a great job of depicting the lives of the "unfortunates," the prostitutes of the East End of London. She describes the milieu, the hopelessness, the rampant disease, and the unsanitary conditions. She also explains how Jack the Ripper gets away with it. The police force did not have the resources to track him down. She also describes how current techniques could have caught him. She gives a multitude of arguments for Sickert being the murderer. She also addresses, at least partially, most of the objections to Sickert being the Ripper.
   
   The bad points are legion. One is that the book really drags in certain sections. She also lists other possible murders that could have been done by Jack the Ripper. This drags. She also seems to be pressing. She seems to pick Sickert at a Scotland Yard detective's recommendation and then seems to twist the circumstantial evidence to fit. Since this case is very old, there is no way we can disprove her suppositions. She also makes several insinuations and then writes, we cannot know for sure because of the lack of evidence. Why bring it up? She pretty much thinks every anonymous crank letter is from Jack the Ripper. I agree it seems like Sickert did write some of them, but it really doesn't prove anything. He appears to have been a very strange fellow. She also makes a big point that his paintings seem to depict some of the murdered women. However, interpreting paintings is a very subjective skill and I don't give it much weight.
   
   I've read a few of the reviews and they misunderstand how Cornwell used the DNA evidence. She does not use it to prove Sickert is the Ripper, she uses it to disprove some of the other suspects. The DNA evidence does not disprove Sickert.
   
   I think Sickert could be a suspect. I agree with her that the evidence for him being in France for some of the murders doesn't seem convincing. Sickert seems to be very strange, very morbid and scary man. However, Cornwell does not prove her case.



4. I FOUND PATRICIA CORNWELL'S BOOK " portrait of a killer" very enlighting. Ms Cornwell knows her forensics, and she brings us up to date by giving the "MO" of the era. She has done a lot of research on this book. I throughly enjoyed the history and back round given.



5. Cornwell has some serious hubris to come to, and stick to, this conclusion. Let us hope that she is never run up on charges backed by as little evidence as she presents in this wild goose chase. I understand the case is about as cold as they get a hundred years after the fact but the very circumstantial leaps of faith she builds her case with is very laughable and not even the basis of an indictment let alone a conviction. Now Walter Sickert [yeah, a name made to order] may have been a tyrant and misogynist but these are not crimes. In fact a lot of artists are these things, fueled by their own self import and ego but that doesn't make them murders.
   
   The most likely explanation tends to be the correct one, which is that Jack was a nobody [not a nationally known artist with several biographies to his name]. And it is most likely that he died in 1888, was committed, or imprisoned for other crimes. Sickert was none of those things, if he was even in London at all during the canonical five murders. Cornwell goes on the assumption that since she finds no evidence that he was out of London, therefore he must have been there [though he was a frequent traveler]. It would be a stronger case if she could get strong traction in handwriting expertise in the Ripper letters and Sickert's. She says that some experts conclude them identical but is awfully skimpy on the experts' names. She should mention the evidence against her own case. Take it head on.
   
   The situation kinda reminds me of people that deal in reincarnation. They always claim they were someone famous in another life and never the common nobody. It's selling sensationalism, and that's this book. The two selling points about this book are the presented facts of the Ripper murders and letters [and not the baseless conjecture of Sickert's involvement]. The second selling point are that the chapters seem to end precisely when you have had enough of them. That kind of pace is refreshing actually. My advice, get it from the library [as I did], and skip the biographical chapters about Walter and his wife and family.

5 comments about Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three.

1. This is not only a rigorous examination of the trial of the WM3, it is a moving and thoughtful account of the circus surrounding it. It made me weep for the poor boys (both victims and accused) caught up in it all. Highly, highly recommended.



2. If you are interested in true crume, justice, or specifically the case of the West Memphis Three, this is a must read book. Leveritt lays out the case meticulously and endeavors to present an unbiased look at an extreme miscarriage of justice. I would love to give the book five stars but the book does have one major flaw: it is the most annoyingly written book I've ever encountered. Instead of writing a seamless book with a few end notes, Leveritt writes half of the book in the end notes, causing the reader to constantly flip back to the notes in order to read some key piece of information. There is no logical reason for this end note oddity and it makes the book seem much longer and a bit tedious.
   
   The above objection aside, this book is truly one to read if you are even slightly interested in the case of the West Memphis Three.



3. Since I watched Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, I have been learning what I could about the case of Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelly ("The West Memphis Three"), and Mara Leveritt's book compiles a vast amount of information on the case-- a case that just gets stranger at every turn.
   
   The major drawback I could see was that Leveritt seems to assume the three are innocent. I lean toward thinking that they are, but there are still some odd facts that need to be resolved for me to completely believe that they are. She hints at the fact that there is evidence pointing to the teens' guilt, but also points out that, frustratingly, the police investigators who hint at this refuse to speak openly about it. Whether or not they are guilty, the amount of secrecy, bungling, and prejudice surrounding this case is infuriating, and all but unbelievable in a country where citizens, if they are to be sentenced, must be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Leveritt also weakens her argument by focusing on John Mark Byers, stepfather of one of the victims, as one of the only other suspects. Byers has certainly lived an outlaw's life, and made many bizarre and self-incriminating statements (for instance, that he himself had been tortured as a child in a way that was very similar to the way the three 8-year-old boys were murdered). However, recent DNA evidence seems to link Terry Hobbs (stepfather of another of the victims) to the scene of the crime, but he is hardly mentioned in Leveritt's book. In all fairness, she couldn't have foreseen this development, but I hoped that she would investigate each of the victims' families in more depth.
   
   I highly recommend this book, mostly because I would like people to know about the case of the West Memphis Three, but also because the case is well-told and highly interesting.



4. A must read for anyone that is familiar with this tragic story. Very well written. FREE THE WEST MEMPHIS 3 and find the real killers of these little boys.



5. If Damien looked like Franken-Byers instead of the lead singer of Good Charlotte, not one of these "activists" would have lifted their heads from their soy lattes to take a second look at this case. Not that they looked at the facts anyway.

5 comments about Loving Natalee: A Mother's Testament of Hope and Faith.

1. My heart broke as I read this book. The horror that Beth Holloway must have felt at the news of her daughter's disappearance is overwhelming. While I'd like to stick my head in the sand and believe that this could never happen to my family, this book made me realize that it could happen to anyone.
   
   However, instead of letting her brokenness over her daughter destroy her life, Holloway used her tragedy as a call for action has been spearheading a campaign to strengthen travel safety.
   This book is a tribute to mother's love and the faith that helped her through her pain.
   
   I was glad I read it. If you've followed the story of of the Holloways at all, you will be glad to read it too.



2. Loving Natalee was a true testament of what any parent would never want. The book makes me wonder what i would do in the situation natalee was in. Her mom tells the story from begining to end and tells everyone the details about natalee and her life. she really shows how she is a normal person and it could happen to anyone.



3. Who doesn't remember the mysterious disappearance of the Alabama HS senior while on vacation with her high school friends in Aruba, now almost 3 years to the date. When I saw this book, I simply had to pick it up and read it for myself. One may think that you know the whole story, but until you read this book, you really don't.
   
   In "Loving Natalee: A Mother's Testament of Hope and Faith" (255 pages), Beth Holloway, the mother of Natalee, brings us in brutal details what she experienced as a mother when her daughter went missing (and is now presumed dead). Holloway kicks off the Preface of the book with "I am the parent who got the dreaded call. The parent no one wants to be." Right then and there, I got a sinking feeling in my stomach, and indeed this is no easy book to read, as Holloway describes the nightmare she and her family and loved ones went through upon arriving on Aruba, and try and find Natalee. The utter incompetence, if not outright unwillingness to assist and underlying corruptness, of the Aruba police authorities is beyond comprehension, even as it is clear that 3 young men are directly involved in Natalee's disappearance. Just sickening.
   
   What keeps Beth Holloway going is her strong faith. I am deeply saddened by what she has had to go through, and (being a parent of a HS senior myself) can only hope and pray that I will never have to go through this. As to the culprits who did this to Natalee, they will receive their due, be in in this life, or in the next when they sit in judgment of our Lord. My prayers are with Beth Holloway and her family.



4. This is a true story of a young girl written by her mother. The book was sad, but I could have waited and gotten it at the library. Not the type of must have book.



5. Beth Holloway is a "Fearless Faith" Fighter and protector of her child. She is an example to all parents. She may not know where Natalee's body is but she knows in her hearts she's with God. I was so truly touched by this woman's determination and drive she has motivated me to reach out and help others. I am the mother of a rape victim and believe helping others after suffering is what heals your soul. Thank you Beth. God has great plans for you ad Natalee!!
   A fellow "Fearless Faith" Fighter and protector of her child