No comments about Who Named the Knife: A True Story of Murder and Memory.

No comments about Sexual Predators: Serial Killers in the Age of Neuroscience.

5 comments about Unabomber: On the Trail of America's Most-Wanted Serial Killer.

1. The book was intersting, but a bit to brief for my liking. The actual story of the Unabomber life took less than 150 pages. The book details each of his bombings and suggests the reasoning behind the target and M.O. Douglas also takes you through his thoughts in the investigation. Many readers feel Douglas is a bit arrogant in his writing. I do not agree with that opinion, nor do I feel this book is written that way.

   The rest of the book was not very interesting outside of the inclusion of the full manifesto of the Unabomber. The manifesto contains nothing shocking, but contains what you might expect an outsider hermit radical to say. I'm sure there are better books about the Unabomber than this, so I suggest you try a more detailed account.




2. Douglas may present a clear chronology of events relating to the investigation of Unabomber. However, that is the sole limit of the books's worth. The remainder of the book is a staging ground for Douglas' brand of psycholinguistics, the analysis of a person's patterns of expression and thought in order to provide a psychological profile of the person. Instead of accomplishing that, though, in any meaningful way, Douglas perpetrates a sort of freehand poetic literary criticism on the so-called Manifesto. He completely fails to gain any insight into Unabomber's own statement of policy in "Industrial Society and Its Future". On page fifty-three, Douglas boils down his view by claiming simply that the Unabomber's fixation on wood and nature "...probably served as his rationale for setting the bombs off, his substitute for whatever deeper psychological problems had actually caused him to commit the crimes. A lot of violent terrorist activity is the result of political beliefs, but at the same time, I've never seen a violent terrorist yet who I didn't feel had deep psychological problems and a serious character disorder." Oh, yeh. Lest we forget, Douglas goes on: Unabomber "diabolical" too.

   Douglas essentially claims that the Unabomber's activity is irrational and eludes sensible thought. That is Douglas' most egregious fundamental flaw. If he's serious in that claim, then he is less insightful than he himself seems to think he is. On the other hand, Douglas' apparent perspicasity in his craft leads me to think that he has another goal in mind: distributing disinformation to the segment of the citizenry who haven't yet bothered to read, consider, and ponder Unabomber's veritable position. That can be accomplished only by directly encountering "Industrial Society and Its Future", not the perverted and oblique interpretation of it which Douglas works so stridently to champion under a charade of sophisticated psychoanalysis.

   Basically, and to his credit, Unabomber provides an analysis of the sociology of technology. His central point is that being human and organization-dependent technology are inherently antagonistic and mutually exclusive entities. This basic tension provides the battleground for a choice: remaining human or allowing everyone to be psychologically, physiologically, and anatomically re-engineered in increments to fit the needs of the aloof and impersonal organizations that determine the course of industrial society; instead of allowing humans to put an upward limit on the intrusion into the psychological sphere that is demanded by the ever-increasing velocity and volume of conveniences that ultimately, and ever more quickly, become indispensable for the functioning of society and any given individual's participation therein. (E.g., ATM, FAX, refridgeration, pharmaceuticals, genetic recombination, etc.)

   A careful reading of Unabomber's own words is very much worthwhile. He's talking about us, you and me, not some creature on another world.

   And let us not forget what Douglas carelessly sweeps under the rug: Theodore Kaczysnki was arrested in the course of the execution of a speciously expedited search warrant that originated by his brother, David, ratting him out. The government's role in the story should be considered under the optic of a triple treachery: the government policing agencies, fraternal back-stabbing, and Douglas' attempt to obfuscate the truth about Unabomber's quite rational motivations as articulated in "Industrial Society and Its Future". Read Unabomber before you read anything about him.




3. I had never heard of John Douglas until one day my sister told me about this great book she was reading. She gave me a copy of 'Obession'. Now I am hooked ! What great reading all of his books are, from start to finish. I am now a fan. Looking forward to more books from this author.



4. I felt like I was reading the notes for a book about the Unabomber, not a real book with a beginning, middle, and end. Usually true crime books make a sequential pass through the crimes (in this case 16 bombings) and end with the arrest, and sometimes the trial of the perp. Not so "Unabomber" where the author seems more interested in proving that his profile of the bomber was correct, rather than describing the hunt for the criminal. The 16 bombings are described in Appendix 1, "An Overview and Chronological Summary," rather than in the text of the book.
   
   A manifesto on criminal profiling certainly wasn't what I expected from "Unabomber," but that's what I got.
   
   Potential purchasers should also note that the book itself is only 150 pages long. Appendices and an advertisement for "Mindhunters" by John Douglas take up the latter 150 pages.
   
   The book proper is padded out with stories that have little to do with the 'alleged' Unabomber, ('alleged' because "Unabomber" was published before Theodore Kaczynski was tried and convicted). These stories are interesting, especially the case of George Metesky, the 'Mad Bomber' of the '40s and '50s, who had a grudge against New York City's Consolidated Edison (Con Ed).
   
   (George Metesky is the only bomber I've felt the faintest amount of sympathy for, maybe because I spent so many years working at an electric utility!)
   
   The author also spends quite a bit of print defending the legitimacy of profiling as a forensic 'art.' His team's profile of Theodore Kaczynski (disgruntled genius with ties to academia) was accurate, although the Unabomber task force neglected it in favor of another profile (blue collar aviation worker). Neither profile was essential to the capture of Kaczynski. His own relatives recognized his style of writing in the Unabomber manifesto that was published by the "New York Times" and "Washington Post," and they turned him in to the FBI.
   
   If you'd like to read the unabomber's manifesto yourself, the full text is included in Appendix 3. It's 96 pages long and very dull.



5. Despite a delay with the postal service I received this book in a reasonable amount of time and it is in great condition.

No comments about Love and Death in Kathmandu: A Strange Tale of Royal Murder.

No comments about Trials of a Forensic Psychologist: A Casebook.

4 comments about Bad Girls Do It! an Encyclopedia of Female Murderers.

1. This collection of macabre women is certainly a welcome addition to the vast sea of books on [primarily male] serial killers. Still, it's rather encyclopedic in nature, and if you read it straight through (as I did) you're likely to be overwhelmed, nauseated, and left wanting more. Newton covers a lot of ground, but I wish he would've been more in-depth on some cases. All in all, though, it's a striking book and well worth the cost. Plus the cover is snazzy and will upset your mother.



2. As one of only a few females i know who are interested in the serial killer, i found this book hard to quit reading, i was enthralled in many cases, only to find myself wanting to read a book several hundred pages long on the murderess. Some cases left me feeling like he was fluffing up his book. However, some other entries left me cringing and in awe. I have wondered where all the female murderers were kept.... Michael Newton unlocked that door for me can't wait to read Hunting Humans



3. Learn about Elizabeth Bathory, Carpathian countess who bathed in blood to stay young! Or about Mary Bell, 11 year old murderess! Read the unbelievable exploits of Martha Beck, who went from washing corpses to making them! If you're at all interested in this kind of stuff (my cotton candy) then this is surely the book for you. Very thorough and entertaining.



4. The cover art on this book is deceiving: a brightly colored cartoon panel of a 1950s-looking heavily made-up woman smoking. There is nothing cartoonish, sleazy, or sordid about this book. This is a serious, thorough reference work devoted to female mulitple murderers [mass and serial]. It deserves to be called encyclopedic; it contains case descriptions of all the major female serial killers [and more than a few minor ones] and a wide spectrum of female mass killers, known and unknown.
   
   Each woman's case is described decently--these aren't capsule descriptions [though some of them are quite short]. The writing is matter-of-fact and there are no illustrations in the text. Recently, I came across a reference to Martha Woods, one of the first women prosecuted for Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy in the US. Her case is obscure but I found an entry for her in this book. It is that kind of reference work.

5 comments about Last Rampage: The Escape of Gary Tison.

1. I think Clarke is pretty close to the money. Randy Greenwalt took me fishing when I was a kid and did yard work for our family, his Dad was a bricklayer in my Dad's construction company. I still have a beautiful display cabinet that he built in his senior year woods class at Palmyra MO high school. Didn't know much about abnormal psych then, but in retrospect there was a lot about Randy (and his younger brother James 'Doc' Greenwalt) that I now realize was a short fuse waiting to go off. Dad often said that their father was too rough on them and it was just a matter of time before their pent-up anger blew in one direction or another. Randy was not a leader, but he was a dedicated follower, which meshed well with Tison's warped sense of purpose. Randy probably would have been a good Marine--his sister Darlene did have a successful Army career.
   
   Most interesting study.



2. I read this book in August/September 1991 while traveling through the area where it all happened. The trip was kind of a premarital honeymoon vacation and our first trip to the US (I live in The Netherlands). I bought the book so I could read while off duty from driving the van and I guess it turned out to be a 'lucky' choice. From the first page on I was sucked into the story. I just could not put it away. As the story developed we came nearer to the place where it actually happened. I will never forget the day we passed Flagstaff. The book gave me the creeps. Still does.
   This book screams to be put into a movie. Gary Tison makes Hannibal Lecter look like a school kid.
   One of the most chilling books I've ever read!



3. Tison, Greenawalt and his misguided idiot kids were without a doubt stains in this world. Killing without regard to life is one thing, but the way they murdered innocent people, including a 22 month old child, speaks for itself. To suggest that the Tison boys were "scared" of their dad is rediculous to me. They are just as guilty, just as deranged and just as degenerate as their father. The girl who was found in the desert some distance from the scene was my girlfriend, Theresa Tyson. No relation to the murderers thank god. Theresa was a wonderful young woman with her whole future ahead of her. It's easy for these men to kill people who couldnt defend themselves. I call them cowards. I smiled the day I heard that Gary Gene Tison died. I wished that I was there to watch Randy Greenawalt be put to death in prison. Hell, I would have done it. I thought that his death was far far better than the one he deserved. I don't remember the name of the Author who interviewed me in Las Vegas all those years ago, if it was this Author, I think that his portrayal of the Tison boys showed them to be far too innocent. Truth is, they could have said anything about what happened because they killed everyone else. I hope they burn.



4. Being from Phoenix I knew the story well. This is a good read, but prepare to meet evil as close to face to face as one can get without actually being there. I couldn't put this book down. I couldn't believe such evil and lack of conscious could reside in one person. Any man who can kill a toddler and involve his own sons in it is really beyond evil. Insane maybe? But, I don't think so. I think that Tison was so full of himself that he thought he'd always get away with the things he had done. And having that IDIOT Cardwell as the warden was Tison's ticket to the outside.... and the multiple murders of innocent people. Unbelievable, but true.



5. I worked in law enforcement in Arizona and was directly involved in this case. The book was very well researched and written.

3 comments about O.J. the Last Word: The Death of Justice.

1. If you loved Mr. Spence on television, you'll hate this book. Why? Because his contrarian insight on television, becomes much too hypocritical in print. He rails against the media's coverage of the trial (of which he was a part), accuses Chris Darden and Marcia Clarke of being more interested in their illicit affair than the trial, and of course informs us how he would have won the case. Save the coin. I've read all OJ books and the three best are Jeffrey Toobin's, Lawrence Schiller's and for something different, Domminick Dunne's.



2. The Death of Justice is about so much more than O.J. - or the lawyers or the judge or the media. It's an intellectual examination, in a reader-friendly style, that breaks this famous trial down into its component parts so as to examine what went right and what went wrong, what could have been done differently, and what should be done in the future. It's also about tolerance and learning to see things from the other guy's perspective. I found it to be much more important than the other drivel out there, but then again I don't consider an intelligent discussion of both sides of an issue to be boring, or liberal, or conservative. It just is, and we should do more of it.



3. Gerry Spence has several books on the market that detail his opinions regarding the state of modern America. Most of them, while the opinions are worth reading, tend to suffer from long, meandering repetition, that lose or sedate the reader. Employing this technique in the courtroom is probably one of the reasons Spence is such a successful trial lawyer. This book however is different. It gets right to the point, and it stays on it without wearing itself out. More importantly, while this is a book about the day-to-day events of the trial, and his thoughts regarding it, a good bit of it pertains to how this trial has been perceived by the masses and the media, and its effect on people's perception of what real trial law is about. Along the way Spence manages to input the same set of thoughts and ideas that make up the bulk of his other writings, only this time he gets to the point quickly and attaches them to a tangible event that most of us remember very well -- even those of us who tried desperately to avoid it -- the media circus surrounding the trial.
   
   Be warned, this book does not strive to tell the reader what her or she wants to hear. And Spence, an accomplished lawyer, is capable of upsetting people by presenting arguments that tend to compel them to believe things they do not wish to. Nor is this a book that hides its feelings behind a shield of political correctness. It is not rude and does not deliberately seek to offend anyone, but those who base their perceptions of this world on the false eloquence we frequently see on TV might be taken back. Which is yet another reason why this book should be highly recommended.

2 comments about Murder On The White Sands: The Disappearance of Albert and Henry Fountain (A.C. Greene).

1. Written by avid Old West historian Corey Recko, Murder on the White Sands: The Disappearance of Albert and Henry Fountain is the true story of murder and scandal that plagued the New Mexico territory in 1896, sparking outrage and delaying its advance toward statehood. When prominent attorney Col. Albert Jennings Fountain and his eight-year-old son Henry disappeared from the White Sands of New Mexico, the cattle thieves they were progressing were presumed the most likely suspects. Evidence pointed toward three sheriff's deputies who had close ties to powerful ex-judge, lawyer, and politician Albert B. Fall. Governor Thornton, desperate for results, appointed Pat Garrett - the man made famous for killing Billy the Kidd fifteen years earlier - as the new sheriff. The hunt to bring justice to Albert and Henry Fountain's alleged killers would span years, and culminate in a bloody shootout followed by a trial rife with intimidation and missing witnesses, and a "not guilty" verdict. Murder on the White Sands delves into the story of the Fountain case and its aftermath, reconstructing what happened to the Fountains and who their killers most likely were. An absorbing contribution to western and New Mexico state history shelves.



2. A good read. The book gives an informative accounting of the circumstances leading up to this still unsolved murder. Details of the investigation by Pat Garrett (of Billy the Kid fame) and others are fascinating. One will be hard put not to draw your own conclusions of who was guilty of this crime.

3 comments about In the Dark: The True Story of the Blackout Ripper.

1. Simon Read strikes again...
   
   John Douglas, author of Mindhunter and one of the agents who started the FBI's Behavioral Profiling Unit, once said that serial killers shouldn't be treated like celebrities. Rather, they should be given sneering nicknames and treated like the scum they are. Simon doesn't give "The Blackout Ripper" any derrogatory nicknames, but he doesn't give the guy any breaks, either. And that's what I love about this book.
   
   So many true crime novels give a dramatic spin to the murderer. They're given a status far beyond what they deserve, elevated to the ranks of purest evil rather than pointed up as the dregs they are. You get a "poor darling" sense as horrible childhoods are excavated for some reason why such a nice, quiet guy happens to be such a sadistic [...].
   
   Simon doesn't deliver that kind of schlock. What he gives you is unvarnished reality. He writes in such a way that you can feel the old London pavements under your feet, cringing fear as you become a citizen dodging not only Luftwaffe bombs but also the killer taking full advantage of blackout conditions to live his sick fantasies. You get to meet this [...] face-to-face, and you get to stare into the all-too-human face of inhumanity. The book creates a total atmosphere. You will end up feeling the grinding despair of people dealing with two very overwhelming situations, and you will get to see not only the worst predations of a man, but the amazing things ordinary people can do.
   
   There was a war on. They shouldn't have had to deal with a murderer on top of it. But they did. And Simon gives them the rare gift of telling it just like it was, making sure those extraordinary ordinary people will not be forgotten.



2. I just finished a rip-roaring read of "In the Dark" by Simon Read. This was a page-turner of the first order, a breathless, head-on trip down the London Blackout road to hell. With not a word to spare, Mr. Read offered a fascinating look into the other London of the 1940s, replete with booze, sex, murder, and the stuff of nightmares that crawls out from under rocks when it's dark. The amazing part of the story is the dogged determination of the detectives who nailed the RAF sociopath with a combination of intelligence and common sense gumshoing. Readers will not be disappointed with the author's almost fictional storytelling style because it allows us to peek into the psyches of the killer and his hapless victims as though they had given interviews after the fact. Mr. Read obviously did his homework in researching this case due to the detail and scope of the facts therein. This book is a "must read" for any true crime buff, guaranteed.



3. This book was a fabulous read. I bought it for a number of friends who thought the same thing. I read it from cover to cover in about 2 days, finding it very hard to put down. I also had to get up a few times to recheck the locks on my doors! This book was very well written and I highly recommend it.