5 comments about The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe.

1. I share the concern of amazon reviewer Thomas Hughes that author Donald Wolfe accuses people close to Marilyn of being communists.
   
   This didn't detract much from Mr. Hughes' love of the book, but it sure gives me a problem.
   
   The 2005 movie "Good Night And Good Luck" spells out the danger of accusing people of communist tendencies. Donald Wolfe should watch it.
   
   I can try to defend just one of the deceased victims of Mr. Wolfe's witch hunt. Dr. Ralph Greenson was the best known psychoanalyst in California in the 1950s and 60s. He was a professor at the UCLA medical school in that era before David Geffen put his name all over it.
   
   I simply cannot believe that Dr. Greenson attended Communist Party meetings as late as 1962 when he counselled Marilyn as the last months of her life ticked away. He also supported JFK, so why support a leader who tries to overthrow communism in Cuba?
   
   UCLA probably was just as bureaucratic and underfunded in 1962 as it is today, but it's a real stretch to think that a professor at the medical school endorsed communism. Then I'm supposed to believe that he hired one Eunice Murray to spy on Marilyn on behalf of the party?!?
   
   Don't get me wrong, I accept that Jack and Bobby used women as toys including Marilyn. But the Communist Party could care less about that.



2. Nancy Miracle wrote the real story and Mr. Wolfe stole what he could the only real story is told and available through the marilyn monroe foundation marilyn monroe had a real life and that real life is available =through the marilyn monroe foundation only



3. Hi ! I may be wrong but I don't think Don got it right this time - his book on the Black Dahlia, on the contrary, is by far the most convincing that was ever written on the subject. What killed Marilyn is most probably a serial killer that I happen to have encountered myself. His name is nervous breakdown. But why for godsake did Peter Lawford introduced her as the "late" Marilyn Monroe at Kennedy's birthday party ONLY 3 months before she died and would for ever be referred to as the late Marilyn Monroe ? Was it a most cynical inside joke given the fact that - as we know it now - he and his brother-in-law Robert F. Kennedy are rumoured to have visited Monroe on the day she died ?



4. Every page in this book is rediculous. Try and find a credible source for many of the claims made in this Book...i dare you to.
   I have never, in all my years of researching Marilyn, read such horrible falsehoods and flights of fantasy than dished up by Donald Wolfe.
   It doesn't really matter because much of what Wolfe calls "evidence" is just complete nonsense. His sources include such con-people as Robert Slatzer and Jeanne Carmen and, most laughable, Marilyn's housekeeper's former son-in-law and handy man who suddenly claims "he saw it ALL"....what ALL entails is a convoluted mess of mystery sources and second hand accounts that don't amount to a hill of beans.



5. I've read several books about the death of Marilyn Monroe and I believe that she was murdered. The theories in all the books are similar, although this book offers a Communist angle that I don't buy. Also, the Cal-Nevada weekend with Frank Sinatra & Sam Giancana and the photos to "protect" the Kennedys doesn't ring true either because by 1962, they hated the Kennedy brothers. Did the Kennedys have anything to do with Marilyn's death? We'll never know because no-one involved will ever tell the truth. Think about Chappiquiddick and how those 'boiler room girls' have NEVER talked about that night. Not one of them has ever said a word, and that's strange in this tell-all age. Same with the death of Marilyn. So the Kennedys are that powerful? Scary.

5 comments about Panzram A Journal of Murder.

1. In response to Shawn Sutherland's ponderance as to whether one might find redeeming value to reading about such a fellow as Carl Panzram, perhaps one might question what created such a man? And by discovering this one might prevent another such creature. Of course I'm presupposing that you find Mr. Panzram's actions to be something that this world couldn't use. I find myself admiring Mr. Panzram and striving to be more like him. Can you blame him for being disgusted with his fellow race? I find myself hating you more with each passing day. You allowed a man who has caused much more havoc and has done many more "evil" deeds to be elected to the office of the President of the United States. Yet you find fault with Mr. Panzram? You are a strange person.
   If you want to know what your society is making of men, then read about Carl Panzram. Perhaps then you will get an inkling of what you are capable. Dare you be as humane as Mr. Panzram. For is it not human nature to war on one another?



2. I've always wondered what made people like this do such awful and disgusting things as described in this book. I now have a better understanding after reading it. Not all criminals are made by bad parenting skills and savage prison systems, but in this case it can't be mistaken what lead this man into what he would eventually become. Everything about Carl Panzram's story is a tragedy. His days as a child, adulthood, his confessed murders,the sickening natures of these murders and even his own death (which he gladly welcomed with open arms) will make anyone thankful they were not subject to these conditions.



3. Jim Long and Tom Gaddis did a great job on the book. But after reading Henry Lesser's "Recollections of Carl Panzram", I felt that Henry Lesser could have done just as good a job. Too bad self-publishing was not around in 1928. The big publishers were not interested in taking a risk and printing the graphic material. The heart of the story is truly the Panzram Papers themselves, which are a passionate autobiographical depiction of the life of a criminal. Unfortunately the book is not as passionate. The stuff on Sinclair I felt dragged the story flow. But the book was on a deadline and thus, there was material which was excluded from the book, some by choice and some, through no fault of the authors or publisher, may not have been known about at the time. This book really needs a proper re-release with the additional material included such as Jim Long's Afterward which has never been printed to this day. It also seems that there is some misinformation. Carl Panzram cannot be put into a box...literally. He cannot have a label placed on him. He can have many, some of which would be: grandiose, psychopath, intelligent, truthful, prison reformer, writer, philosopher, teacher, coward, martyr, career criminal, serial killer, innocent victim, escape artist, shapeshifter and inventor. There are hundreds of lessons to learn from Carl Panzram's life. And they are a lot more realistic and obtainable than that other book about a martyr which so many people seem to read. Read Panzram's words, they are the heart, soul, and truth of the his story.



4. Panzram's words are chilling and bare, but the failure comes in the book that Gaddis and Long have interspersed around them. They seek to use Panzram's case as an illustration of the failure of the barbaric penal system of the first decades of the 20th century and marvel at how Panzram was almost rehabilitated under a permissive prison regime in Oregon. But they fail by not paying attention to Panzram's own words.
   
   Indeed, Panzram's story is not some generalizable failure of the penal system -- how many other boys were in the same prison in Red Wing and didn't turn into sociopathic killers? According to Panzram's own words, he was the worst one even at his arrival in Red Wing.
   
   In his memoir, Panzram details with glee murders he committed in various parts of the world when there was no long arm of the law to capture him; at that point, he could have lived as a free man in most of the world, even the United States. Panzram lays out plans he had for weapons of mass destruction in the manner of Timothy McVeigh and for bioterrorism at a time when such those words had not needed to be coined. The failure of the penal system is not that Panzram remained a criminal, but that of people who didn't kill him when they had justification.
   
   If you read this book, focus on Panzram's words and not on the apologetic muckraking for prison reform that surround them.



5. Written in 1928, and first published in 1970, the autobiography of Carl Panzram by himself is quite a read. In this book, you will have the whole Panzram text (including many letters from him, later in the book), but you will also have a lot of text by the authors, who give you a context, explanations that Panzram doesn't provide, and overall, clarifications on the whole thing, which are most welcome. Just know that perhaps over a half of this book is not written by Panzram himself.
   
   Carla Panzram spent most of his life in institutions, reform schools or prisons, and he developed a philosophy of hate that would justify, to him, a life devoted to robbing, raping, killing, burning, and destroying everyone and everything. His ideal plan was to kill the whole human race, no less.
   
   The book is undoubtedly an important item from a historical perspective, and sociological and psychological ones, but make sure not to easily fall into recycling this text for this or that ideology. Panzram clearly excuses himself, albeit in a vague and incoherent way, all of he does, because he has been hurt himself. He says it explicitly when he explains that he wants to take revenge on everyone, for things done to him, and it doesn't matter if those he takes revenge on never did anything to him; it was enough that they were the same kind of person who mistreated him.
   
   From a literary perspective, Panzram wrote in a prose style that Hemingway would give world-wide fame. The very first Panzram words in this book are quite excellent.
   
   If you expect extremely gruesome details of murders and rapes, you won't have them. Panzram made no bones about those things, and so, in a way, you get the feeling he doesn't care much about it, not enough to dwell on it a lot, which is what another serial killer would do. And this is exactly the thing that makes Panzram an unlikely candidate to be a "serial killer", even though he did kill 21 people, which is more than many famous serial killers. Panzram doesn't act out of psychopathy and antisocial feelings in the same manner as a regular killer does. The line is fine, and perhaps it isn't there at all.
   
   Another thing you will find in this volume is an excellent inside account of American institutions in the early 20th century. That is priceless, and few actually know the sort of torture used in those establishments back then. Remember that electo-torture scene in "Lethal Weapon"? With the sponge and Mel Gibson? Well that thing was used on Panzram, and known as the "humming bird".
   
   The book has a tendency to say that society produced Panzram through the way he was mistreated, but don't buy that too easily. Indeed, the fact is that everyone in the establishments Panzram was in was treated the same, and Panzram was the only one to develop a philosophy of hate and act on it the way he did. It's no excuse. Panzram truly is Milton's Satan when he devotes his sorry life to causing as much damage and harm as he can, until self-destruction.
   
   "Panzram" suffers from some typographical errors. For instance, and for unknown reasons, "he" often becomes "be" in the text. You'll easily correct the mistake, if you notice it at all, but it's there, and it's more frequent than you'd think. While Panzram's spelling was edited by the authors, they sometimes leave out a lot of mistakes, for unknown reasons once again. Panzram will write "tho" and "thru" and "its" instead of "it's" in some texts, and in others he will have a perfect spelling.
   
   This book should not be thought as a liberal's wet dream when it comes to criminality. Panzram was very much his own man throughout his life, making his own decisions, and explaining them himself with extreme clarity. He could have chosen a different path, many times over. He stuck to his plan of hate, and got what he had coming to him. Indeed, he has been out of prison a lot, through escapes, and earlier in his life legally, and he never once tried to lead an honest life. Yes, life is unfair, but if you can't accept it, you'll never make it. Panzram is the typical case of the person who truly thinks the world owes them. No man can live a good life with that philosophy. No matter how bad the world treats you, it will never owe you jack, and by "the world", I don't mean "people", I mean life in general.

4 comments about Murder Gone Cold.

1. This is a very overdue book about the most mysterious disappearance of these two girls back in 1956. Tamara Shaffer has done her research in her book and it clearly shows it. The author takes us back to the years when Chicago's children freely walked their neighborhood and neighbors looked out for one another.
   Barbara and Patricia went out to the movies one evening like all the other children. Except, this time they didn't return home. Numerous sightings of the girls were reported to the police. Elvis, the girls icon during those times, even released a public statement asking the girls to go home to ease their mothers worries.
   Then one cold January day, their lifeless nude bodies were found in a ditch, along German Churuch Road. Since, jurisdiction was an issue and politics played a role, could this case have slipped through the cracks?
   Tamara Shaffer takes us through the events and brings to light on information that could possibly play a role on solving this case.



2. Three days after the 1956 Christmas celebration, fifteen year old Barbara Grimes and her twelve year old sister, Patricia, left their Chicago home to see an Elvis Presley movie. They never returned. Barely a month later, after a nationwide manhunt and appeals from Presley himself, their frozen corpses were found near Willow Springs. Both girls had been sexually assaulted. Parents who were already living under a cloud of fear brought on by the recent murders of the Schuessler brothers and their friend Bobby Peterson were thrown into new depths of anxiety and terror by the Grimes slaying.
   
   Author Tamara Shaffer was sixteen years old when Barbara and Patricia Grimes were killed, and her own memories of the dread that pervaded Chicago in the aftermath make "Murder Gone Cold" a memoir as well as a murder story. She offers a solid documentation of the unsolved case from the moment the girls leave their home on South Damen Avenue right up until the present time, when she discusses the fate of the key players in the tragedy and mentions that Kenneth Hansen, currently serving 300 years for the Schuessler-Peterson murders, was questioned about the Grimes case during the 1990s. She even injects a paranormal perspective by describing how people near the area where the bodies were discovered report hearing car doors slam and tires squeal during a hasty retreat... only no car can be seen. It's not often that a True Crime manuscript can mention hauntings and get away with it, but these supernatural undertones don't detract from this book's credibility. After all, the Grimes murders haunted Chicagoans for years.



3. Rarely can a writer combine a baffling who-done-it with such a vivid restoration of time and place, which qualifies Tamara Shaffer's Murder Gone Cold as nothing less than a masterpiece. In the absence of CNN or Fox or even an effective network of television news, the killing of Barbara and Patricia Grimes in 1956 attracted only fleeting attention outside Chicago, as had the previous Schuessler-Peterson murders or that of Judith Mae Anderson a few months later. All were young, none were solved, and the city escaped what today would have made it a minor "murder capital" during an era otherwise deemed peaceful. The author, then also in her teens and living in a quiet middleclass neighborhood only ten blocks from the Grimes Sisters, rode the same buses and street cars and frequented the same stores and theaters. After years of research she now takes us back to the scene of that crime and into an age hardly remembered by many and not known to most.



4. Anyone living in the Chicago area in the 1950s frightfully remembers the disappearance of these young girls, and the horror on the day their bodies were found. Tamara Shaffer has produced an excellent work covering all aspects of the story, including many details never revealed to the press. She takes you back to the neighborhoods and the people of that day as if these many years never passed. There is a chilling and eerie feeling as you read this book, and view the never before seen photos. Knowing that this crime was never solved leaves one pondering all the facts presented by Shaffer's thorough investigation.

5 comments about Safe Harbor: A Murder in Nantucket (St. Martin's True Crime Library).

1. As a history teacher and lover of true crime novels, I found Safe Harbor to be a difficult and frustrating book to read. While the facts of the story were quite interesting, I had trouble following the author's chronology and felt that there was way too much extraneous information.
   I found myself reading only the topic sentences in much of the book in order to get to details of the story.
   In addition, with twenty-five years in education, I found too many grammatical errors and incoherent sentences for such a popular novel.



2. Brian McDonald, in his true crime book SAFE HARBOR, writes about the murder of Beth Lochtefeld by her recent boyfriend, Thomas Toolan. The beginning chapters, in which McDonald describes the events leading up to the crime are fast paced and well done, but the book declines rapidly thereafter.
   
   Toolan, self-aggrandizing, narcissistic, a liar, and a raging alcoholic, has the potential to be an interesting study. But there is really very little information provided about him. There are a few sections, probably less than a quarter of the book, in which his behavior is presented anecdotally and which serve to show that he was a dangerously out of control guy. But there is no in-depth analysis or research to show why and how he became what he became.
   
   Similarly with Beth, while her life is dealt with extensively, the narrative is almost totally anecdotal. We learn a lot about what she was like, but nothing about why or how her personality developed. As reported in SAFE HARBOR, Beth was a highly intelligent, courageously adventurous, and driven person who had made a lot of money by her 40s. She is also presented as a kind, considerate, caring and beautiful (although in my opinion, based on the numerous pictures of Beth, she is average looking at best) woman. There is no depth to McDonald's writing about Beth so that what the reader is left with, as with Toolan, is superficial.
   There is no end to the lionization of Beth in this book, and easily three quarters of the book is devoted to stories provided by her friends -particularly anecdotes taken from a website devoted to her after her death - a technique which by dint of it's endlessness becomes tedious, increasingly meaningless, and ultimately cliched.
   For example, we learn that "Beth's apple pies and artichoke Parmesan dip 'could cure all the woes in the world'. Beth always remembered her employees' birthdays, and would bring a homemade pie or dessert for the celebrant. Each employee's anniversary at the firm was celebrated by a lunch at the restaurant of their choice. Beth took time to give one employee, Yee Yip, driving lessons for an upcoming driver's test. Every Christmas Beth took the whole staff out for lunch at a German restaurant called Rolf's. Beth thought eating under the decorations in the restaurant was like 'sitting in a Christmas tree'. On each employee's plate Beth placed a present and an envelope with a bonus. The meal was sumptuous: veal, potato pancakes, schnitzel and apple sauce." Well, my God. Is that all?
   I have no reason to doubt Beth's fine qualities, but try reading this kind of thing over and over and over for hundreds of pages. It becomes hyperbolic filler and more than a little annoying, and after a while I began to wonder, given the apparently unending rounds of drinking, eating, and convivial good fellowship at Beth's company, how any actual work got done.
   
   But though McDonald would never say so, based on his narrative Beth seems to have had some less than desirable traits as well. She may or may not have been an alcoholic, but throughout the book she is continually presented as drinking. She also appears to have been neurotically unable to just relax and enjoy her good, and hard earned, fortune. And she seems to have been in some ways annoyingly self-absorbed. For example, when she finally sold her company and had decided to move from Manhattan to her beloved Nantucket Island - with which she was intimately familiar having begun going there as a child - she first traveled to Guam as, in her words, "Five weeks in Guam was to be a physical and spiritual retreat in preparation for breaking my bonds with Manhattan." Guam! I am surprised, as sensitive and fragile as this statement shows her to have been, that she didn't feel the need to ramp up for Guam by spending, say, three weeks in Portugal.
   
   And, as a final failure of this book, it was written before Tom Toolan went on trial. Not only does this lend an incompleteness to any true crime book, but it is clearly indicative of the fact that Toolan, the killer, is not really that important to the book, his role being little more than a vehicle to provide a platform on which to shower Beth with accolades.
   
   McDonald's writing, as distinct from what he has written, is good. He is clearly a professional who knows his craft. But what he has written here is, rather than an in depth look at the players in what could have been a fascinating book, little more than a literary shrine to Beth Lochtefeld. Based on the other reviews of this book, my opinion is clearly in the minority, but I wouldn't recommend SAFE HARBOR to anyone.



3. This book was wonderful in outlining Beth's life; however it was extremely lacking details about the "psycho" relationship between Beth and Toolan. Not enough details or pictures. The book describes many important pictures of Beth's accomplishments--but no photo is presented in the book. Thought it was written prematurely too.



4. I tried to get into this book and the life of this beautiful woman but every step of the way I felt I was being fed pablum from a writer who did not dare to truly enter the fray of murder and killing and the real reasons/motives why someone drives or is driven to this kind of sublime madness -- To me I could have read a timeline of the murder and gleaned more than what this writer gave me -- He should quit writing and go back to being a psychologist or whatever he did before -- It was a total misrepresentation of the PASSIONS involved in a life out of control and -- to this day -- the way he portrayed "Beth" -- trying to show how nice and lace and flowers and sweetness her life exemplified FAILED as miserably as I try to state it. It just plain BORED me. How could someone's life, like Beth's, take on such tedious, boring presentation as this writer put forth -- Go get a DAY JOB and stop the nonsense of trying to portray the human heart -- both killers and victims -- with no INSIGHT or UNDERSTANDING of what makes a human being tick -- You, sir, have no insight into writing OR, for that matter, probably psychology. You remind me of someone who thinks GREAT ART is discovering a way to paint "by numbers -- the way retirees of olden days thought they were creating "art." Your agent should fire you.



5. There's a decent article in this book struggling to get out. Listen quietly and you can hear it trying to break free of the over wrought prose and the useless padding. I love the True Crime genre and I wanted to like this book, but I can't recommend it.
   
   The basic story is more solid than many a true crime tale. Strong, smart and genuinely nice Beth Lochtefeld wants to settle down after devoting years to building a successful business. She meets her mirror opposite in Thomas Toolan - a weak, sly (but not nearly as smart as he thinks he is) and too addicted to alcohol to treat anyone including himself decently. They meet at a time when both is particularly vulnerable to the other and the results are tragic.
   
   Brian McDonald deserves credit for devoting as much time to Beth as to Tom but, then again, his primary source for info on Beth appears to have been a memorial website. Tom is the more inexplicable person yet even Beth starts to become a cypher under McDonald's avalanche of not very telling details. Worse, the book lacks a clear narrative structure. It starts nearly at the the end, goes back to the beginning of Beth's life, then back to the very end. That would be a few jumps for any writer but not insurmountable. The problem is that the middle part of the book jumps around too much. Just when you think Beth has graduated from high school, she's back in middle school spending her summers in Nantucket, for example. A cousin who hasn't been mentioned before gives Beth a Rolex watch for her birthday leading me to wonder who this cousin is and why he gives such expensive gives. Two chapters later the cousin is mentioned again as someone Beth gave money to years before so he could start a business. Does McDonald just hate linear story telling or did he write each chapter in a vacuum.
   
   It would be easy, too easy, to pick apart the prose. Suffice it to say it's over written in parts. The kicker for me was the padding. Not since I filled out a mandatory 500 word essay on what the Colonists ate with details on how to bake pumpkin seeds have I witnessed such bravura Boss Tweed, Quakers and Frankie Muniz all make an appearance in the cause of making this book longer. It's one thing to question whether Beth had a drinking problem because she chose to write a story about a French widow who founded a champagne empire but it's something else entirely to include this sentence anywhere, anytime:
   "For the sake of context ... It was the year Frankie Muniz was born, Back to the Future was the highest grossing movie, Rock Hudson told the world he had AIDS and Ronald Reagan's supply side economics ...."
   
   I have not the words to convey my horror. On the other hand, Frankie Muniz, Ronald Reagan and Rock Hudson in the same sentence! Score!
   
   Kindle Note: This is the very worst formatting for an e-book I have ever seen. The letters literally break apart and words are out of place. There are pictures in the Kindle version.

1 comments about The Giant Book of True Crime.

1. This book was facinating. I couldn't put it down. It reviwed crime from the earliest times to the present. I never realized that crime was a style of time. Well worth the time.

5 comments about I've Been Watching You: The South Louisiana Serial Killer.

1. This was a very well written "intense" book. I could not put it down,except for the dozen or so times I got up to check again if my doors were locked.
   
   As I read this book I imagined the countless hours Susan must have spent researching the evidence and interviewing families and those involved in capturing the killer. She told this story in a way that never lets you forget this happened to real people, people just like you and me. I cried for these woman and their families. Derrick Todd Lee is a "monster" and he destroyed many lives. I agree, all women should read this book...the women in this story did nothing to deserve death but we can learn from their stories and possibly protect ourselves from the countless "monsters" that are still out there.



2. This book is well written and really allows you to get a sense of what the victims went through. I could not put this book down. Grew up down the street from where many of the murders occured, but I think it is great reading for anyone.



3. This book is very hard to read because it contains so much tragedy that has affected so many lives. Every female should read this to see how easy it could happen to them or someone in their family. Several deaths could have been prevented if the public had been given the facts sooner. Everyone that works in the legal system should read this to see how communication between each other could have prevented some of these tragedies. Did the victim's families get closure after the trial? How do you get closure when someone you love was stalked and tortured before they were murdered? You learn to take one day at a time trying to accept the death of someone you love. Closure is impossible because that person is loved and missed every second of every day and will always be a part of your lives. How was one man given the power to decide the fate of these women? He has put nightmares into so many lives, forever. Reading this book will help other famiies prevent these nightmares from entering their lives.



4. I truly enjoyed Ms. Mustafa's work. This heinous murderer caused a lot of unbearable anguish for so many people here in South Louisiana, and I suppose this case peaked an inordinate degree of interest from so many people because there are still so many unanswered questions regarding these murders, especially how he happened to choose these particular victims, how he gained access to their homes, and how he managed to actually remove 2 of them from their homes without ever being seen, not to mention the bloody mess he had to have been when leaving some of these crime scenes. He got away with all of these unconscionable acts for so long and might likely have never been caught had it not been for the miracle of DNA testing.



5. I haven't read a book this scary, in a long time. It's sad how many times the police had this guy in their grasp, but let him go! Even sadder for the families of these women, to know that he could have been stopped in the beginning. While I sympathize with one of the victim's family members, I have read many books where the author has written about the victim, on their last night and what they might have been thinking or doing. I feel this is done, to let the reader know that the victim was a real, with hopes and dreams like everyone else, and it was shattered by this lowlife killer. The author gave you a feel on what wonderful women they were and how the killer took them from this world. How very sad. Derrick Todd Lee should be put in a room with the families of these women.....

5 comments about Mob: Stories of Death and Betrayal from Organized Crime.

1. Only the most ardent organized crime reader probably won't find something new in this collection of short stories dealing with reader fascination with dangerous lifestyles. This sampler of mob-lore covers stories allegedly by the folks who lived and died it, and some history to add dessert to your meal.

   For those who like the relative safety of their reading chair, we get a step-by-step process of the so-called "hit men" of the mob. They are so-called because most members who have reached any decent level of leadership have all done at least one hit, so the true full-time professional is not that common. For this profession though, we do get an evolution of the man, and his general techniques.

   The stories here are excerpts from other works, so if your a mob junkie, you might have read a lot of it already. I previously had read the Sammy Gravano book that contributed this excerpt. You not only get a sample of the self-admitted bad man, but also a taste of what I didn't like in the full-length book, which was a constant jabbering of what a decent, honorable guy Sammy really is. This book, was, of course, before the guy got busted out West for running meth labs while in witness protection.

   My favorite of the "true life" stories was the one that inspired the movie "Donnie Brasco". Here we have the story of how a guy had to sacrifice a lot of family time over a period of years to do his undercover work, even once having to spend Christmas with mobsters when he promised his own family some quality Holiday time. The book I'm reviewing is good because now I want to read the whole "Brasco" saga.

   In the history part, we do get a brief glimpse of how this whole type of society came about. True, the people of Italy were extremely oppressed at the time of it's formation, but it also tells how the local culture first establishes male "honor", then expects him to prove it via competition, and if you won by using your own rules, that made you that much more of a worthy opponent. To his credit, the editor of this compilation does not glorify this behavior, and makes it clear to the audience that any honorable "codes" only last as long as is convenient for anyone involved.




2. Overall, I think that this book was exceptional. The stories contained are, for the most part, gripping and real. I couldn't put the book down when I read the story by "Joey", the anonymous hitman. The most exciting thing about this book is the reality of it. The mojority of stories contained are about real people and real things. I recommend this book to everyone



3. This book is great,it is what got me hooked on stories about the mob and mafia. I would recomend it to any one who is intrested in organized crime.



4. You're much better off going to the original books this compilation rips off. There are editing mistakes galore in this volume, and the editor adds nothing new (except some typos). I'd sell mine as a used book but I don't want to rip off someone else with this trash.



5. This book is not unlike a buffet at a small office party. A few morsels here and there... most everything is pretty tasty, nothing's too filling, and there's one "mystery dish" that looks okay...... until you bite into it.
   
   Clint Willis has compiled a baker's dozen of mob-stories, from the infamous, to the you-never-heard-of-em. Some are great, some are good, and some might have been better to have been left on the table.
   
   On the infamous side is an excerpt from Mario Puzo's classic, THE GODFATHER. I've never read the book, but like any other self-respecting adult American male, I've seen the movie enough times to have lost count. After reading the excerpt in MOB, (regarding the memorable scene where Michael Corleone retrieves the gun from the restaurant bathroom and shoots the crooked cop in the head), I've discovered that I've GOT to read Puzo's book!
   
   Another interesting story comes from David Fisher. It comes from a book by "JOEY," a long-time mob hit-man (though not a "made" man in the mob, because, as "Joey" tells it, as a member of the Jewish faith, he is ineligible to attain that level within the organization.) Still, he considers himself really good--and quite enjoys what he does for a living. And, it would appear that he's very much a psychopath. Whether one can believe everything that is written about JOEY is questionable, as there seemed to be a number of "facts" that contradicted other "facts," but I guess that's for each reader to decide.
   
   I did actually SKIP one story: Bruce McCall's "GANGLAND STYLE: THE TRANSCRIPT." Written in the format of a play, I became disinterested after about a page and a half of reading accented-goombah-speak spelled out phonetically.
   
   Jeffrey Goldberg's piece, THE DON IS DONE, is the final chapter in the book, and is the fascinating true story of the last days--along with some of the personal insights of mob boss, Paul Castellano... whacked, so the story goes, under the orders of the notorious John Gotti, Sr.
   
   All in all, MOB was a pretty enjoyable read. And because each of the stories stands completely by itself, you could theoretically finish a chapter, and pick the book up a year later without having to start over.
   
   - Jonathan Sabin

5 comments about Mississippi Mud: Southern Justice and the Dixie Mafia.

1. You just can't make this stuff up. Simply put, you've got to read it to believe it. Excellent book.



2. An unbelievable eye opener for me because I knew most of the people involved. It kept me on the edge of my chair and couldn't put it down. That is, once I was able to finally read the book.



3. Those who enjoyed the "Walking Tall" series of movies in the early 1970s will thoroughly enjoy this more recent, more exciting, and more accurate portrayal of one of the killers of the key figure in "Walking Tall," Sheriff Buford Pusser.
   
   Vincent Sherry was a retired Air Force Lt. Colonel who was making a pretty penny in the civilian world as a lawyer in the Sherry-Halat law firm. His wife, Margaret, was quickly moving up the political ladder to - possibly - the next mayor of Biloxi, Mississippi. But it all ended on the night of September 14, 1987, when a hit man ended the lives of both Sherrys in their house. "Mississippi Mud" is the story of how the couple's eldest daughter pursued justice for her parents that ultimately led to Vincent's law partner (and irony of ironies, Biloxi mayor) Pete Halat going to jail along with the hit man and a tough mobster on the Gulf Coast named Mike Gillich.
   
   The story begins with the story of a loosely associated gang of thugs known as 'the Dixie Mafia.' Unlike the close-knit family organizations that tend to comprise the Sicilian mob, the Dixie Mafia was simply a group of guys with common interests that killed people all over the South and Southwestern United States from the early 1960s into the mid-1980s. One of the most prominent members of the Dixie Mafia was the son of an Oklahoma judge named Kirksey McCord Nix, Jr.
   
   Nix was doing time in the Iron Hotel in Angola State Prison for the 1971 murder of a New Orleans grocer. According to Buford Pusser, Nix was one of the four trigger men that killed his wife Pauline and wounded him in a hail of gunfire on August 12, 1967. (The other three were dead by 1971, assuming Pusser's information was correct). It seems he figured he could purchase a government pardon, and using a fraudulent homosexual lover's ploy, Nix took the cash people sent him and had it kept in the law books of the Sherry-Halat firm.
   
   But suddenly, $65,000 came up missing.
   
   You can read the rest of what happened as well as the pursuit of justice by the Sherry's daughter, Lynne Sposito, who spent over a decade chasing down every lead until she managed to put the main perpetrators behind bars.
   
   The story was good and well thought out. There were a few dry spots, but I did enjoy the story. You will enjoy the fine factual crime writing of Mr. Edward Humes.



4. I read this book three or four years ago and I still vividly remember details in the book. Very good story about the Dixie Mafia and the back door activities they were involved with. This would make an excellent movie.



5. I think this was one of the best books I've ever read. I think that J.Johnson is wrong. This was a very good book. It did not put me to sleep. I applaud Lynne and the rest of her family. I have even met a member of the family. I will not say who though.
   --L. Kenedy

2 comments about The Litvinenko File: The Life and Death of a Russian Spy.

1. Extremely good portrayal of the devious, manipulative culture of the current day Russia. Very informative as well. For anyone who is not familiar with Mr. Putin's Russia this is an eye opener.



2. This was a fascinating and lucid account of the mystery behind who murdered Litvinenko. The author writes knowledgeably about contemporary Russia. It was a bit of a let down to find that the author was not in fact going to name the person ultimately responsible for the murder, though. Highly recommended.

5 comments about To Kill and Kill Again (Onyx True Crime ; Je 323).

1. Definitly a book for adults only, this is the tale of a furniture delivery man named John Wayne Nance who is confirmed as having killed four and possibly eight people in a twelve year period up until his death in 1986. He attacked a couple in their home who fought back and killed him. My heart went out to the victims and their families, in particular three orphaned children. John Nance must have been SICK to do the revolting crimes he did and to hell he can go!! The book is a moving account of what happened and also very graphic. Two of the victims remain unidentified to this day. May those who died rest in peace.



2. I worked at Conlins in 1982-83, and became good friends with Sheila Claxton and Wayne Nance. She was another sales person and Wayne was one of the delivery guys. We spent many hours at work and after together as friends. He was very mysterious to say the least. When he did weird things we just agreed it was just Wayne. After he tried to kill our friends and Manager of the Conlins Store, we knew he had done it and all the other killings, but it was not until I finished the book that it became real to me... and I was truly afraid....

   I had moved to Missoula just as the Ministers wife was killed, and then the children found along the highway, later women, and former clients dying under mysterious circumstances. Then having it all placed in front of you and finding out it is a friend who has done it was almost too much to believe.

   This was a wonderful, suspence filled, truthful book and I thank him for telling the story. Our lives will never be the same. I am sure you will share it with others after you have read it.




3. When I was 5 years old in Missoula, Wayne Nance murdered my best friend. I will never, even all these years later, shake what he did - this book helped me come to grips with a small part of what happened as I was too young then to understand. I'm glad for that, but on the other hand, I'm torn. The victims of his horrific crimes deserve far more attention than he got in the end. My friend deserved better. *ALL* his victims deserved better.



4. I lived in Missoula MT at the time this guy was on his murder spree. My sister went to school with him. I was in school at the time and not even aware of any of this going on. This book is very interesting and certainly would make any reader sharpen their radar for wierdos. Keep your head on a swival and maintain awareness. I could not put the book down, it is very good and very creepy.



5. John Coston has written a rapid-paced true crime thriller about Wayne Nance who killed mostly women and girls for 12 years.
   The actual number of victims is not known.
   
   His childhood was a disturbing one with Nance frequently getting into trouble and in one instance showing a cruel streak directed at some kittens. He also had an acute interest in the occult and sacrificed animals. Nance was definitely a loosely-wrapped head case when he started murdering as a teenager. What made him so dangerous was his ability to earn peoples' trust and come across as almost normal while hiding the fact that he was "a mercurial,seething psycho".
   
   Like a lot of serial killers you read about, Wayne Nance made mistakes and kept a few trophies. He avoided detection in small part by the tunnel vision of the sheriff in one of the cases. What's frustrating about the case was the fact that one of the investigators early on suspected him but couldn't get enough evidence. Things were a lot harder before DNA became a tool for law enforcement and Nance was very lucky.
   
   He was also an anomaly among serial killers, prowling a very small area and avoiding detection for more than a decade.
   
   "To Kill and Kill Again" is a riveting true crime book. Among the best at telling the story not only of the killer and his victims,but also the heroic survivor who ended the killing spree.