No comments about Lisa, Hedda & Joel: The Steinberg murder case.

5 comments about Between Good and Evil: A Master Profiler's Hunt for Society's Most Violent Predators.

1. I just can't say enough GOOD about this book!!!!! It was a great page turner and hard to put down once started. I thought it would be primarily about profiling, but the added twist of how that affected his life and faith is phenomenal....



2. I am sure I have read the 'life story' type books of most of the well known profilers. I have to admit Roger L Depue was not a name I had come accross in any like books written in the same era. In fact I discovered only one well know book where his name appeared, then only a brief mention.
   That aside if you have an interest in this type of book this one is worth the read.
   The book essentially follows the life of Roger Depue from his childhood through his career as a rural police officer to the FBI. As most peoples' lives have there interesting aspects certainly anyone with the live experience of the author could not miss out in this area. Therefore I would see this book as esentially a biography. Certainly, in the book, there are many interesting examples of how profiling works and written in a style that is very easy to understand. The book also delves off into how his career and life events produced many 'turnings in the road'.
   One of the more interesting parts of the book I found was the author's brief summation of a number of the 'big name' profilers of that era. I found it interesting some get mentioned by their christian names and others by surname only. I guess we can form our own opinions as to why.
   Overall, yes 'Another Profiler's Life Story', but if you have an interest in that area, and don't mind a good dose of his personal life, go ahead and have a read. Might not be the best of these books but I found it interesting enough to go cover to cover in three 'sittings'.



3. He gives the insights of a profiler fine and good. But he is sickeningly boastful the whole book, not just in his description of profiler work, but before he even gets to that point. Its nothing but obvious delusion. Of course you have to try to make the book interesting, but you're NOT Charles Bronson, you're NOT Mike Tyson. I had to stop reading and skip forward in the book because I got tired of reading about how he won a fist fight in high school and then he said Claire Michigan was the closest thing the state had to the wild west, how he got beat up by two guys but should have paid attention because he could have taken them. That aspect of the book is nauseating. You would think he knocked out Muhammed Ali. I would skip this book if I had it to do over.



4. I enjoy profiling books and recommend John Douglas' Mindhunters and Obsession . This book has very little for the reader to learn except minor tidbits like how to tell (via "overkill") that the unsub was known to the victim. The book has a long backstory on the authors childhood, dating, marines, etc. and he seems like a bully. The last 1/3 of the book is his religion taking over which is boring. None of the life story or seminary time relate to criminal investigations, which is probably why you are interested in this type of book. The John Douglas books cover fascinating, yet horrible crimes while giving insights into clues to the traits of the criminal - thus are far more interesting than this book by Depue.



5. I do think criminal profiling is a valid service, and this book has some interesting moments detailing the author's career in that field, what his childhood and young adulthood were like that might have led him to such a career. I also thought his late-life foray into priesthood was fascinating. Basically, he's a good writer, however, the book is spotty. There are parts that drag and don't mesh with the rest of the book. And though I have no experience whatsoever, personally, with satanic cults, I have met a few credible, tragically damaged people who claim, with complete sincerity, the things that the author says are "impossible," because the FBI has looked into them for years and has never substantiated a case of, for example, child sacrifice/homicide. I, too, was skeptical at one time, and never gave it a second thought, but I must say - again - that a few people who seek no media attention for their stories, have confided some hair-raising stories that are quite similar in nature, though the parties telling them had no knowledge of each other, and were from different parts of the country. In a way, it reminds me a little of alien abduction stories - I'm sure the author would negate these, too, but there are just so many of them that have uniqely similar aspects, and credible witnesses. Still out on this subject...

5 comments about His Name Is Still Mudd: The Case Against Doctor Samuel Alexander Mudd.

1. A True account of Mudd's involvement. Though he cried foul, "The guilty dog barks the loudest".



2. This book proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the "good doctor" was completely guilty of conspiring with John Wilkes Booth. Despite the way the Mudd family has manipulated the story and the media for decades, the truth is finally coming out!!!



3. Wonderful book. Easy to follow, but very detailed. Great pictures. I have also read Blood On The Moon by Mr. Steers, and this work is first class also. Dr. Mudd was lucky Andrew Johnson released him. If he had not helped fellow prisoners and guards recover from Yellow fever, he would have deserved to remain in prison for life, and Dr. Mudd should get credit for that. The Mudd family should be glad he didn't get what he deserved - the gallows next to Mary Surratt!



4. Sometimes in war the only difference between a patriot and a traitor is which side wins. Dr. Samuel Mudd was apparently a passionate Confederate sympathizer who had no use for the abolitionist Union president Abraham Lincoln. Dr. Mudd actively worked for the South in the Confederate underground during the war while living in the South-leaning Union border state of Maryland. In late 1864 when it was becoming clear that the South was going to lose the war, Dr. Mudd became involved - possibly reluctantly - in John Wilkes Booth's plan to abduct Lincoln and transport him south to Virginia. He introduced Booth to important members of the underground who could help carry out his escape after the abduction. However, when the abduction plot failed and Lee had surrendered to Grant, Booth's abduction plot turned to assassination. Even though it is unlikely that Dr. Mudd knew in advance about Lincoln's murder, he was too deeply involved to extricate himself from the plot when he learned that Booth, who was then staying at his house and whose broken leg he had splinted, was the President's murderer. He had little choice but to cover up his involvement in Booth's kidnapping plot and deny he recognized Booth when he harbored him and gave him medical attention. He could not admit to either without implicating himself. Like Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlen, Dr. Mudd found out that the road into a criminal conspiracy is a one-way street.
   
   Dr. Steers presents sufficient evidence to prove that Dr. Samuel Mudd was an important part of John Wilkes Booth's plot to kidnap the President of the United States and transport him south into Virginia. There can be little doubt that Dr. Mudd recognized Booth when he came to his house very early on that sad April morning. It is also possible that Booth had failed to tell him that he had just murdered Lincoln and was then on the run. Unfortunately, for Dr. Mudd, it no longer mattered because by that time he was in over his head and there was no way out. This book is a must read for every student of Lincoln's assassination.



5. Steer's book proves once and for all the guilt of Dr. Mudd.
   Mudd was lucky he just missed doing the rope dance.

2 comments about Blood Lust.

1. Jeremy Bryan Jones wants to be remembered as the Red Neck Ted Bundy, he was well on his way until he got caught after the brutal, rape, murder, and arson of Lisa Nichols, a forty something attractive divorced mother and grandmother. It was after he obtained a false identity as John David Chapman by befriending the man's mother. Chapman is in prison for lesser crimes. Jones was up on charges of sexual assault. His life and background was all in preparation to be a career criminal. After Hurricane Ivan occurred in 2004, Lisa Nichols' murder was discovered in a trailer park. Sadly, we don't hear much about people who live in mobile homes except on Jerry Springer. Anyway, they are decent and normal people like everybody else. Mobile homes provide a better alternative to renting anyway. Jones is psychopath or sociopath or both but he is got a lot of the characteristics. He used people without a conscience like garbage when he was done. He left a trail of murder along the way in several states. Once he was arrested, he confessed to crimes that some he committed including killing the Freeman family of three and a childhood friend of their daughters. He killed without conscience or guilt or remorse. His drug use is not an excuse for his crimes. There are several drug addicts who commit crime but don't rape and murder women and kill men, women and children. They rob to get drugs. I can't stand Jones using his drug usage as an excuse for his crimes. I think he did it without the drugs but uses excuses. Jones has a broken home but that's no excuse. His supporters like his girlfriend and mother are your typical deniers.



2. In this latest release from Sheila Johnson, readers are introduced to Jeremy Bryan Jones: a young, southern drifter who claims to have killed numerous people all across the southern states. Yet, as of today, he remains convicted of only one murder and charged with two others. Many of the crimes he confessed to just couldn't be linked to him for a variety of reasons.
   
   This is a well written account of Jones' crimes. Unfortunately, Johnson provided hardly any detail about his childhood, which, to true crime readers, can be a very important part of the book. Johnson plainly states that she didn't intend to make this a story of his life and therefore didn't go back to Jones' roots and ask the all important questions. For me, this was a major disappointment.
   
   And, as journalist turned book writers are prone to do, Johnson repeats many of the details over and over. I found myself skimming through the repeats as well as lesson on Meth found later in the book.
   
   Overall, it is a good read. I would recommend it to those who enjoy the true crime genre.

5 comments about Orders to Kill: The Truth Behind the Murder of Martin Luther King, Jr.

1. Pepper should be ashamed for putting this book out. It is full of the type of wild speculation that gets attention on a "Jerry Springer" type show. It is very sad that the King family has been taken in by James Earl Ray and his attorney.



2. The Dirk Diggler review on 05-01-98 talks about Gerald Posner's book "Case Closed" as if it were the "the whole truth and nothing but!" In reality, Posner speculates and adds wording to testimonial given by eyewitness accounts. The conspiracy theories offered in his book add up to a little more than the government telling him what to write and then adding additional dollars to his publicity campaign to help promote the book. "Dirk Diggler" is either Gerald Posner writing his own review and touting his book, or he works for the government and wants to keep the facts as far away from the public eye as possible.

   The fact that the government has not allowed an independent lab to test the rifle supposedly used by Ray, or that Ray was never granted a "fair trial" are viable questions that are raised. "Orders to Kill" offers an insight not found in other books in this category. If you want to believe that only "one gunman" killed JFK, then "Case Closed" is the perfect read. "Pepper offers a rare glimpse of reality, not often seen in these times of governmental deception!"




3. As someone who reads widely and often, I can honestly say this: Very few books I have ever read have had as profound an impact upon me as Dr. William Pepper's meticulously and exhaustively researched "Orders To Kill". Dr. Pepper spent upwards of 18 years researching the facts behind the King Assassination and is probably the world's leading authority on the subject. "Orders To Kill" contains the results of those 18 years of investigation.

   What he found is chilling and disturbing, and should make us wonder what happened to our "democracy": The government of the United States, among others, was deeply involved in the killing. And in a testament to Dr. Pepper's tenacity and skill as an investigative journalist, many of those responsible for King's political murder have actually admitted their complicity in the book (These facts do not 'give away' the plot, since this information is contained on the outside back of the book and because it takes a book of over 500 pages like this one to fully explain the enormity of the event it describes).

   In fact, one of the men implicated in the assassination, witnessed the shooting himself and names the individual who actually fired the bullet that killed Dr. King (Hint: it is not James Earl Ray). Of course, this individual named names only after being assured by Dr. Pepper that he would be immune from prosecution for his role in the killing.

   Dr. Pepper, through sheer persistence, an iron will, and a burning desire for the truth, has written a book that will grab the reader from page one, and not let go until the bitter (very) end.

   The tale it so skillfully tells is a tragic one and is of epic proportions. But it is a tale that must be told, for if truth is to prevail in this world, as I believe it must, then books like this one must be written. I cannot recommend a book more highly than I recommend this one. Read it and prepare to be disgusted, frightened, saddened, and in the end, amazed and hopefully glad that the truth has finally prevailed.




4. This is a very revealing book, exhaustively researched and written in a style that is reasonably easy to read. Read it if you are open to the possibility that the government doesn't always tell us the whole truth about things and you think that, in theory at least, it may do some evil things quite deliberately. Otherwise, don't bother.



5. This book reveals the extensive role the U.S. government, organized crime, civilians, played in the assasination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. William F. Pepper had, through years of investigation, wrote a book that tells us the truth of the assasination. Theres not much for me to say except that if a student, from Singapore, who had nothing to do with the one of the most prominent figure in the history of the United States, bothered to post a review about a book which narrates events leading up to his murder and afterwards, surely tells a lot about the book.

5 comments about St. Valentine's Day Massacre: The Untold Story of the Gangland Bloodbath That Brought Down Al Capone.

1. Since I can still vividly recall when the Roger Corman film "The St.
   Valentine's Day Massacre" had its broadcast premiere on network television many years ago, I was eager to read this "definitive" new account of the 1929 mass murder on North Clark Street.
   Unfortunately,
   I regret to state, this book proved to be a disappointment.
   
   Clearly, the authors, William J. Helmer and Arthur J. Bilek, both know the subject, but their book is less than satisfactory. Most of my specific questions were left unanswered and I did not glean much new information from reading the book.
   
   The book is poorly organized. It seems as if the two authors divided the writing workload and submitted chapters separately without conferring with one and other. As a result, there is a tendency towards disjointed repetitiveness. After reading for the third or fourth time that the 1924 assassination of Dean O'Banion ignited open gang warfare between the North Side gang and the Torrio-Capone mob, I think the point had been established sufficiently.
   
   Did anyone proofread the final manuscript? This book would have benefited from editorial revisions and simple fact checking. I had to stop counting the misstatements, incorrect dates and other clearly erroneous collateral facts before I got a headache. Illinois did not hold two General Elections during November of 1924, but, according to the chronology, Cook County officials and President
   Coolidge were elected on separate dates. Similarly, the Black Sox
   Trial did not take place in the Federal District Court.
   
   There is some solid writing here and there, but, taken as a whole, it seems as if the book was compiled in great haste to meet an arbitrary publication deadline. Transitions are handled clumsily and the text meanders too much. It is not always necessary that everything be placed in strict chronological order for a historical account to be effective, but it would have helped in this case. The profiles of the principal gangsters and Chicago politicians are merely stereotypical thumbnail sketches. The meager bibliography and footnotes do not merit attention.
   
   The best portions of the book describe the coroner's inquest and pioneering efforts in the field of ballistic testing. There is also a lengthy discussion of how the Federal Bureau of Investigation failed to cooperate with local law enforcement authorities and withheld information that may have provided a solution to the criminal investigation years later. The photographs, editorial cartoons and newspaper headlines, however, are well chosen and will be of interest to most readers.
   
   As a topic, this true crime book held great promise and potential, but the execution was lacking (no pun intended). The final result is akin to having a pair of honor students earn a "C-" on their combined term paper after pulling an all nighter rather than applying themselves diligently and earning the "A+" that the entire class knows that they are well capable of. Someday, I hope that a revised edition of the book will set the record straight.



2. Reviewed by Kathleen Dowdell for Reader Views (3/07)
   
   Authors William J. Helmer and Arthur J. Bilek present new information about Chicago's infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre that is sure to throw a twist in people's thinking and spark new research for many historians about life in Chicago during the 1920's prohibition era. They contend that the massacre was a mistake stemming from the fact that the killers showed up too early and slaughtered the wrong group of people, missing the intended victim, Bugs Moran. Instead, six of Moran's gangsters and their friend Dr. Reinhart Schwimmer were gunned down in a dimly lit garage in bloodbath fashion. In an effort to quickly report the news, much speculation and guesswork by both the police and the press was reported and accepted as gospel to this day.
   
   After sifting through pages of Chicago politics, facts about misguided law enforcement officials, and data about the origin of the Thompson machine gun, it remains crystal clear that the February 14, 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre had a huge impact on Chicago's reputation and branding as the gangster capital of the world. New evidence about Al Capone is examined and presented that shows how the misguided political reform movement helped him rise to power in the early 1920's without much effort on his part, yet leaving his name synonymous with Chicago.
   
   In the authors' attempt to examine the massacre itself, they uncover revised and contradictory information that sheds new light on this old story. Accompanying all these facts is a wonderful chronology compendium that summarizes Chicago's vice, crime and corruption. As stated in the bibliography, much of the information in this book was obtained through books, booklets, and newspapers as well as personal memoirs of Georgette Winkler, widow of one of the gunman, Gus Winkler. The authors do a good job guiding the readers' thinking, forcing the reader to look at this information in a new way and perhaps rethink the traditional reported accounts of the incident as bogus. This in itself causes critical thinking that may lead to further research on the subject.
   
   This book is truly an in-depth look at Chicago's prohibition era that discloses pages of information about this great city. I would recommend "The St. Valentine's Day Massacre" to any collector of books on Chicago as well as someone just interested in the massacre itself. Even if you don't agree with the point the authors are trying to make, the book itself has many historical facts and information about Chicago politicians and gangsters, the very people who had a critical role in shaping the climate of the city.



3. I'll be up front about two things before reviewing this book. The first is that one of the authors, Bill Helmer, is a close friend of long standing. The second is that I am a True Crime author myself, with a first-hand knowledge of the difficulties that accompany the research and writing of this kind of story: inaccurate newspaper coverage, carelessly compiled police reports, and of course the passage of time, which slowly and mercilessly kills off the survivors of the era who could have shed new light on a long-ago event. To cover a 1929 mass murder that the law enforcement agencies of the day chose to downplay for their own reasons is an enormous challenge that Bill Helmer and Art Bilek met with a commendable degree of success.
   
   "St. Valentine's Day Massacre: The Untold Story of the Gangland Bloodbath That Brought Down Al Capone" is the first book to take a serious crack at the mystery surrounding the killing of seven Bugs Moran followers in a freezing Chicago garage in February 1929. The genesis of the murder plot, the identities of the actual shooters, and their subsequent fates are described in a breezy style that makes the book appeal to the casual reader as well as the more hardcore historian who wants "just the facts, ma'am."
   
   One of the more knowledgeable parties who read the book was George 'Bugs' Moran's surviving son, who vividly remembers the day the Massacre took place and recalls the frantic aftermath like it was yesterday. He told me recently that Helmer and Bilek's account of the crime tallies neatly with what his father had to say about the subject over the years. He admitted to enjoying it immensely.
   
   A previous reviewer criticized the book for not offering a thorough list of sources. It's only been in the last few years that detailed footnoting and bibliography lists that exceed the content itself in page count have been proper form outside of academic texts and histories approached from a scholarly perspective. When my first book, "Guns and Roses", came out in 2003, I was told that notes weren't really necessary. I insert them as a matter of course now, but my point in all this is that Bill Helmer and Art Bilek made no serious errors of omission in this area.
   
   "St. Valentine's Day Massacre: The Untold Story of the Gangland Bloodbath That Brought Down Al Capone" is by far the most definitive account of the Massacre that has been published to date. And if that's not enough, it also has the seal of approval from the surviving Morans. That fact in itself should more than compensate for a couple of repeated sentences or anorectic footnoting style.



4. Most people know at least the outline of the St Valentine's Day Massacre: Hoods dressed as cops mowed down members of the Moran gang, who were lured to the SMC Cartage Company to take consignment of liquor from Detroit. Moran, the primary target, escaped from Capone's killers. In this account, Messrs Blek and Helmer make use of a previously neglected primary source; a memoir from the wife of one of the participants. They also investigate the FBI archives, and make a convincing case that Hoover deliberately withheld information that would've solved the murders. Along the way, the authors also show that the commonly accepted explanation for Moran's top leaders being in the same place at the same time, is seriously flawed. First, these guys did NOT do manual labor (unloading whiskey cases); they weren't dressed for it-or a daylong trip to Detroit. Second, due to increased US Customs activity on the Great Lakes, Canadian exporters insisted on "Cash and Carry"-so a "delivery" was unlikely at best. Finally, even after the massacre, the average Chicagoan, while knowing of Capone, considered him a Cicero gangster even in 1929. Most of his reputation was built after his downfall in the 1930s.
   The authors also tie in the Frankie Yale murder, and show how at the time revolutionary ballistics research linked Yale's murder to the massacre; but neither the press nor the police were overly interested in that fact (which would've directly implicated Capone). The account goes beyond just the massacre and its aftermath, to clearly show how it contributed to Capone's decline in Chicago crime. The book is fully footnoted, and includes an excellent chronology of organized crime in Chicago, from Big Jim Colossimo around 1910 to the suicide of Frank Nitti. Overall, if you have an interest in the massacre itself, or in the gangster era, this is a highly recommended resource.



5. This book was more of a chore than an enjoyment to read. It wandered and skipped forward and backward years at a time between paragraphs. The authors tended to elaborate on all sorts of different characters while virtually ignoring the two main ones. Al Capone was, evidently, not very well known outside of Underworld Chicago and Bugs Moran is barely mentioned at all, much less any sort of detailed account of their lives leading up to the Massacre. Frank Nitti and Mayor Bill Thompson receive much more mention than either Capone or Moran. Go figure! I would much rather read 100 pages of readable, concise and pertinant information than to try and work my way through 300 pages of rambling. Honestly, the Chronology and the Notes section were much more interesting than the book itself.

5 comments about Only a Few Bones: A True Account of the Rolling Fork Tragedy & Its Aftermath.

1. "Only a Few Bones" is a MUST read! From the very first pages, "Bones" presents the reader with an amazing array of richly descriptive word pictures. Some almost seem fictional. Yet taken as a whole, they detail a rural Southern family's "social, political, economic, cultural and geographic conditions." These very real, but personal and emotional, images--as seen a century later by a descendant, a young man who had never been south of the Mason-Dixon line--are conveyed with sensitivity and descriptive language not ordinarily seen in a genealogical story of one's ancestors.
   Colletta's use of language is exciting, bringing the everyday features of a rural family's life into an enticing and constantly revealing array of surprises. "What could possibly be next?" the reader keeps asking. But the historical and personal events of this family saga continue to unravel the family myth that the author as a teenager had heard from his grandmother as she cut out dress patterns on his mother's dining room table. Grandma's "facts" were only a part of the story; actually it was the unanswered questions that proved to be the impetus for a young genealogist's journey to an unknown area, the Mississippi Delta.
   Rooted in a grandmother's stories, some of which were fact and some were mythical, "Bones" became reality to replace what for years had been a mystery: who set the fire in which great-grandfather had died? As the young, impressionable, family history seeker made his way from one small, backwater rural town to the next, to their local cafes and small-town hotels, the ghosts of the Delta--with the eventual help of newspaper accounts, census records, obituaries--began to reveal more and more. Grandma's unanswered questions slowly came alive and begged for answers, as more information was unearthed surrounding the mystery.
   The results are a wonderful, exciting, and revealing account, really a very personal and emotional story, of what embracing and exploring a family myth can give to a dedicated researcher. Even a genealogical spouse will not want to put down this book! "Bones" is a MUST read!
   William Gann, Independence, MO



2. There are so many levels to John Colletta's "Only a Few Bones."
   It can be read solely as a "Whodunit," and will keep the reader guessing with each new theory put forth. It's a fascinating detective story -- and it's all true.
   It can be read on a historical level with its wealth of mid-19th century history in the South.
   It is an excellent example of documentation. It must be a given that few books have ever been so well researched and documented.
   "Only a Few Bones" can be read as the story told by a professor with a PhD in an entirely different field who could no longer ignore the calling of genealogy.
   It's a quality example of using social history to flesh out the "bones" of all our ancestors.
   But, most of all, "Only a Few Bones" is a fascinating read.



3. I really enjoyed reading Only a Few Bones by John Philip Colletta. It's good family history, it's good local history, but--most importantly--it's a ripping good yarn which combines entertainment and enlightenment.



4. It's a truism that, even among genealogists, few of us are truly interested in the details of other people's family histories. But now and then, a story comes along that is not only instructive in research methodology and interpretation of evidence, but is also an absorbing tale in its own right. And anyone who has heard Dr. Colletta lecture at a conference or speak at a banquet knows he's a born storyteller, a natural entertainer. Though he's based in Washington, the author is often identified with his hometown of Buffalo, New York, and with the subject of immigration research, but he also has Southern connections. When he first became interested in his family's history at the age of fourteen, he interviewed his grandmother and heard from her a sketchy and rather garbled account of the violent death of her own grandfather, Joseph Ring, in the fiery destruction of his store in Rolling Fork, Issaquena County, Mississippi, in 1873. (Though even most of those few facts were not known to her.) And when Joe's widow was returning to her family in the North, she was beset by another tragedy: The death of her infant son in a steamboat wreck. That was the beginning of a thirty-year quest to uncover the facts, a process Colletta describes here, step by step. Was Joe Ring killed by marauding ex-slaves? By local planters who opposed the arrival of recent immigrants? Was it bandits? Disgruntled customers? Or was it an Act of God? Reading newspaper accounts and the scant courthouse documents, tracking recollections of events in other branches of his family, walking the site of the store itself, he considered many hypotheses, eventually discarding all but one. (I won't tell you which one!) But while it sometimes reads almost like a novel, this volume is also an extended research report and every attributed personality trait or speculation on motive is accompanied by a footnote. And his conclusions are carefully bolstered by the available evidence. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.



5. I've been fortunate to hear Dr. Colletta speak at several genealogy conferences. He is a master at gleaning facts from newspapers, family tales, and other sources to illustrate his family stories, and this story of trying to find the truth behind a family tragedy taught me so much about putting together a readable family book. I never even thought to look at weather reports to see what was going on the day someone was born, married, or died. In his book, Dr. Colletta weaves everyday details such as the weather in with his narrative that give it a richness and immediacy. Any genealogist who want to create a family history with more than names, dates, or places, should read this book.

2 comments about Massacre in Milwaukee: The Macabre Case of Jeffrey Dahmer.

1. This book as far as I know was onw of the first written about the Jeffrey Dahmer case. The copy I got is a reissue that contains a few typos and such...(I wouldn't have their secretary review my work for typos)...but altogether, a very good read.
   Unlike alot of biographies that become a long, boring monologue about the subject, this one captivated me from the beginning, and kept me reading by not dragging on too long about mundane things. Now, just to let everyone know, I have most of the books and other publishings written about Jeffrey Dahmer, so the mere fact that I am scoring this so high says alot.
   The only down side to this book is the fact that it was written so early, before alot of the interviews were conducted with Jeffrey Dahmer, and before alot of information came to light. Most of the information is second and third party information, unlike other books that were written by people who were originally at the scene, but it still reads like it could have been written by someone who had first hand knowledge of the case.
   All in all, I would recommend this book for anyone who is interested in the case, both casual readers, and forensic enthusiasts alike.



2. Of the two books that I've read about Jeffrey Dahmer, the other being "An American Nightmare", "Massacre in Milwaukee" contains the most detail. Such as how Dahmer lived his life in the weeks and months leading up to his arrest, excerpts of visits he had with his parole officer, childhood classmates, Oxford Apartment residents and alot of minor details such as the exchange between a cab driver and Dahmer when asked about a certain 57 gallon barrel he had just bought, and words from one of Dahmer's neighbors when he heard the whine of a power saw and Dahmer yelling at someone who didn't respond back. The only problems I had with this book is that it ends shortly after his arrest and confession. There are many spelling errors and new paragraphs that begin in mid sentence. Even the first chapter, which takes it's title after Dahmer's apartment number 213, is titled "The Devil in 913". The 8 pages of black and white photos are alright but have the quality of pictures from a newspaper. Other than that I would have given "Massacre in Milwaukee" five stars.

5 comments about Deadly Masquerade: A True Story of Sexual Secrets, Illicit Passion, and Murder (St. Martin's True Crime Library).

1. A strange and sordid tale of a woman who meets and marries a man still involved in a transsexual relationship with a man who committed a murder years earlier. Not very well-written, the book lacked "common sense." I find it odd that she never apparently asked her husband if he was in love with this person, or other obvious questions. And the police angle of allowing her to run an "investigation" of her own is far-reaching. For a woman who was concerned about her children, she certaintly seemed to leave them "for the weekend" a lot of the time. It seems as throughout the whole book most of her time was spent "crying and shaking", or on the phone. An "okay" read for the lay person, but not for a true fan of true crime. You will be sadly disappointed.



2. The heighth of self serving, convoluted drivel. I would no way share this book with friends. Haven't decided whether to just trash it or put it in a goodwill box.



3. This book is so boring, I could not finish it. Most of the stuff does not even make sense and is hard to believe.



4. Donita Woodruff was a divorced mother of two children. She was looking for love and thought she found it in Dave Allen, an Academy Award nominee in visual effects for the film, Young Sherlock Holmes, in 1985. Anyway, she thought that she found the perfect man except his ex-girlfriend, Valerie Nicole Taylor was somehow in the picture. As she slowly uncovered the truth, Donita would learn that Taylor was born Freddie Turner Jr. in South Carolina and was wanted for murdering Billy Posey twenty years ago. She would later learn that her husband had known about the murder and helped Valerie become a woman by paying for her sex-change operation. The relatinship between Valerie and David was a lot more complicated. Valerie or Freddie is a criminal psychopath or sociopath and brilliant con-artist. She managed to blackmail and deceive men out of money and relationships. While I disagree with many of Donita's actions, I can only help wondering what I would do in her situation. SHe did her best in finding out the past and trying to bring justice to a deceased man and father that she never knew. You know the phrase that you get what you wish for and Donita wanted something more than a quiet life and she got.



5. There is absolutely nothing redeeming about this story. I couldn't even finish it. The only "true crime" here is that people have actually paid money for this book. Don't waste your time or your money.

5 comments about Double Cross: The Explosive, Inside Story of the Mobster Who Controlled America.

1. This book kept my interest through most of it and was a pretty easy read. While all the information in the book may not be true, it makes you wonder what parts are true.
   
   I recommend this book for anyone, not just those interested in the mob.



2. Whilst I agree that this book is sensational and written to cash in on the Giancanna name, I would advise all of the reviewers who dismiss the JFK/MOB link to read up on Jim Garisson's investigation into the assassination and, no less, the Warren Commission Report as well.
   
   Sure, Chuck Giancanna is a two-pit leech (by his own account), and Sam Giancanna probably had an ego the size of an elephant, but learn to weigh up the sources.
   
   The lone-gunman theory that this book arguably sets up makes a hell of a lot of sense. A lot more sense, thank you very much, than one Lee Harvey Oswald being able to shoot so well from such a bad angle. Oh, and do any of the reviewers who pan this book know anything about the magic bullet theory, put forward by a so-called expert as "evidence" that there were only three shots fired at Kennedy?
   
   Sam Giancanna may not have been as powerful as his brother makes out. He probably didn't sleep with MM the weekend before she died, but if you read the book by MM's former maid, Lena Pepertone (excuse the spelling), then you will know the conspiracy theory about MM's death should not be taken lightly either.
   
   Read Jim Garrison's well-researched books on JFK and read the blessed Warran Commission Report, between the lines if you can, and you will find all the corroborating evidence you need to accept much of what is said about SG in this book.



3. I first read this book about ten years ago. I found it to be quite interesting, particularly the part which deals with the rise of organized crime in Chicago in the 1920s-30s. I didn't like the way the book was written, however, and I heavily discounted much of the latter part of the book because I couldn't believe that America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) would work hand-in-hand with organized crime, and because I, like most Americans, still held the Kennedys in high esteem. If I had read the "Authors' Note" in the front of the book, I probably wouldn't have been quite so critical as to how the book was written; and if I had known how corrupt Joseph P. Kennedy and his sons were I likely wouldn't have discounted much of what I did earlier. In any event, after reading two or three more recently published and thoroughly documented biographies of the Kennedys, I decided to go back and re-read and re-evaluate this book.
   
   Based on this second reading, I have concluded that this book is one of three things: an accurate historical biography of Sam Giancana and his criminal empire as told from the perspective of his well informed younger brother, a historical novel, or a public service message and wake up call for all Americans. Perhaps it is a combination of all three. My inclination is to believe that most of the information contained in the book is true, but I still find the latter part of the book, that which deals with the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert, to be somewhat hard to believe.
   
   Organized crime has a long standing reputation for taking care of its friends and an equally well earned reputation for taking care of its enemies; so it's not hard to believe that Sam Giancana orchestrated these murders, as well as that of Marilyn Monroe. But, I still find it hard to believe that two future presidents and high ranking officials in the CIA knew about or were parties to these happenings. Or maybe I just don't want to believe it.
   
   In any case, since I can't figure it out, my suggestion is to read this book along with two others and then make up your own mind. Those books are: "Joseph P. Kennedy: The Mogul, the Mob, the Statesman, and the Making of an American Myth" by Ted Schwarz and "The Dark Side of Camelot" by Seymour M. Hersh.
   
   (By the way, ex-sailors will particularly enjoy this book since the crude language used by the mobsters will likely bring back a host of salty memories.)



4. To tell you the truth, I heard about this book for a few years before I found it in a Goodwill bookstore. Something you wouldn't normally find in a Christian store. Nevertheless, I was excited to see it for under $5, so I picked it up.
   
   I was kinda interested in the book because I heard there were some links between the Mob/Outfit and the CIA and Kennedy's assassination. I was really intrigued. So, I read it.
   
   The first bit is setting the stage for the main course of the book. Background and history of Sam and Chuck's upbringings, interactions, beatings, etc. Quite shocking to say the least. Now, the excessive violence of Sam is not something to be read by the squeamish. The language, and vulgarity is profuse in the book. In the context of the book, it is necessary though. To get the true nature of the man that was intimately involved in the climax of the mob's influence in America, and what we find out is around the world, too.
   
   Nevertheless, we see Sam Giancana from the viewpoint of Chuck Giancana, Sam's little brother. Sam becomes Chuck's surrogate father because Sam is so violent, and insists he will take care of Chuck. So unsettling to realize how dysfunctional some families can actually be.
   
   The multiple gory details of what Chuck saw is really unsettling. It is hard to imagine this happening between 50-60 years ago in America! Sex, drugs, music, adultery, spying, murder, intimidation, stealing, drug running, lottery rigging, loan sharking... the list goes on. Everything you've heard about that the Mob/Outfit does, he documents. Oh yeah, Marilyn Monroe is also in the book, related to the Mob/Outfit. Read it and find out!
   
   The link to the CIA and John and Jack Kennedy is amazing. Truly a masterpiece written. I do believe that with the information coming out now about Kennedy's death - deathbed confessions of the real killer - will only strengthen this book's credibility. Not that it needs it, but will maybe perk up some onlookers to actually read it.
   
   Enjoyed the book and strongly encourage those of you to pick it up.



5. My wife got this book for me because I was reading MURDER MACHINE and could not put it down. Well, this one does not dissappoint either. Sam Giancana was one hell of a Don. This guy was into everything, but his claim to fame was running the Chicago Outfit once it took control of Las Vegas. Al Capone is all you hear when it comes to the Chicago mob, but other than Tony Accardo there were none stronger than Giancana. Just ask JFK!!!