5 comments about Murder In The Family.

1. When I started reading this book I could not stop. I really felt for this family. I think Mr. Barer did a very nice job in researching the correct information and writing this book. I still have alot of questions even after finishing the whole book. I'm left wondering what really did occur when the murders took place. Did Nancy the mother have to watch her two children get murdered? Has Kirby Anthony taken responsibility for this gruesome murder, or is he still denying it? The photos of the actual crime scenes were too small to view and in b&w, but the diagrams shown instead were large enough to view and make out the details of the crime. After reading this I still could not stop thinking about the whole story. I did indeed have nightmares. I give this book 5 stars.



2. BURL BARER GIVES AN EXCELLENT, DEEPLY-INFORMED TRUE CRIME READ WITH THIS BOOK! I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN! SAD, SHOCKING, AND ULTIMATELY UNREASONABLE MURDER BY A DERANGED PERSON.



3. If only the Newmans had changed the locks on the door and kept their windows locked.....This is a sad and disturbing story of a mother and her two little girls who were brutally murdered by a family member! I found all the trial talk a bit boring. I really doubt an interview with the killer himself would add anything, since Kirby Anthoney is nothing but a lunatic liar, and who could believe him? I think it would have been better if the author focused on how Anthoney became the monster that he is. There was a hint that Anthoney had an abusive father but further insight would have been better. Not that it would have excused Kirby of this heinous act, but it would have been interesting to find out alittle more about him. What started out as a book to give you nightmares, wound up putting me to sleep.



4. Burl Barer has, in the past few years, distinguished himself as America's premier investigative true crime journalist. MURDER IN THE FAMILY was his first "serious" true crime book, following his vastly amusing MAN OVERBOARD: THE COUNTERFEIT RESURRECTION OF PHIL CHAMPAGNE. While Barer has followed MURDER IN THE FAMILY with several more well written and heart breaking stories, there is something about MURDER IN THE FAMILY that lifts it above and beyond other true crime books -- perhaps it's Barer's brilliant narrative, the insightful background material discovered in his personal investigation into the crime, or the nature of the crime and the manner in which rapist/murderer Kirby Anthoney was brought to justice. Whatever the reason, MURDER IN THE FAMILY remains perhaps one of the most emotionally involving true crime books ever written. If you have not read it before, I suggest you read it now -- and maybe get the other books in Barer's true crime series. While each is distinct, the quality of MURDER IN THE FAMILY is not compromised in his other efforts.
   Anyone who reads true crime should have MURDER IN THE FAMILY in their library.



5. The Newman Murders was a terrible tragedy worse for the father and husband who was not there but out of state. His troubled nephew would be arrested, tried, and convicted for the brutal murders of his aunt and two young nieces. I remember this book quite well because of the setting in Anchorage, Alaska where the family lived. The nephew deserves his punishment but it was such an unspeakable crime and to think that it was a family relative makes it worse. My heart goes out to the Newman family including the husband but I don't remember much about him except that he was out of state and not a suspect which I never thought he was because of it. Who would have thought that the triple homicide that happened quickly but not quietly. The thought of a dangerous psychopath is one thing but to have him to live and sleep in your own home when you don't know his past or how dangerous he is is just as bad as knowing the boogeyman. In this terrible, sad case where three innocent productive lives were snuffed from us forever, the danger lurked inside the family. Burl Barer writes a good true crime book about the murders that happened so far away that does not get reported or talked about on television nearly enough. Danger can lurk in the family and not the outside world.

5 comments about The Shadow Over Santa Susana: Black Magic, Mind Control and The "Manson Family¿ Mythos.

1. besides helter skelter, this is the best book i read on the manson case. learn a lot. i like the conspiracy theories. makes you wonder. the writer did his homework. well writen cody



2. Having read all of the available books on the subject of Manson and the Tate/Labianca murders, I find that this is the most definitive work. From the author's name, "Gorightly", to the final chapter this book is fresh in it's presentation. The old information is thought provoking and, to this reader there was a lot of new and interesting data. The author is candid about his sources and while decidedly biased he is entertaining in his approach. Having lived in California during the 70's reading Mr Gorightly's descriptions took me back to those warm Eucalyptus scent filled summer nights.



3. As conspiracy books go, it's no better or worse. Parts were interesting; parts were mind numbingly dull. What proved to be a major distraction for me was the extremely high number of copy errors. It's hard to take content seriously when the word "altar" was spelled "alter" throughout the whole tome. Made me wonder how seriously I could take it with such a sloppy presentation. Or maybe the mistakes were some sort of advanced conspiracy code lingo.



4. This book is unique in the many ways.It's the only Manson book that comes closest to the real story of Helter Skelter.It's the only one that delves into the area of witchcraft's influence on Manson and his misuse of it.And it's the only Mansonsque book that relates the idea that Manson was set up by the astute Zodiac.And the only book that shows the 60's new-rich and famous hob-nobbing with the talented yet poor and nameless.And the book unfolds the aftermath of their psychedelic masquerade .Out of five Druid stars,I with-held just one. I had two major qualms with the book,the misspellings and the snide attitude.In later press-runs,the errors should have been corrected by now.And the narc tone of the book,surfaces and ebbs every now and then.Just gimme some truth,and Gorightly overall does! Vincent B.'s "Helter Skelter" book is a fairly dry,superficial,prima facia report of the before and after events of that 1969 summer swelter .Whereas Gorightly makes the Manson story as topical today as yestreen.So, if you want a better version of what transpired,during those dog days til the witching hours on Cielo Drive,then buy Gorightly's book!



5. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have an extensive collection on the Manson saga and I have to say this comes as close to the "real" story as we will probably ever get. If you are interested in the Manson story this book and Paul Watkins book are your best bets. Both are insightful and compelling. Although we will never know the true story Mr.Gorightly weaves a thought provoking tale of weirdness, excess, and conspiracy. I loved it.

5 comments about Dark Dreams: Sexual Violence, Homicide and the Criminal Mind.

1. Dark Dreams is a book that is absolutely for mature readers its content is not child friendly. Roy Hazelwood spent sixteen years as a member of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit. During this time he worked on many shocking cases but that's not all, he also did research on deviant behaviors this book shows some of what he discovered. Throughout the book Hazelwood gives many examples of horrifying real life crimes that he examined. The twenty-one year old woman with no history of arrest or psychiatric problems who while working at a funeral home developed a romantic interest with a corpse. Crime knows no age, thee boys of the ages seven, nine, and ten took a female playmate and forced her to perform oral on them and they took found objects and penetrated her vaginally and anally. The book went into some detail about the crimes and the explanation of some of the reasons for the crimes and what types of behaviors that lead a person to commit them. When I finish the book I still had some unanswered questions. Don't get me wrong the book was great and I would recommend it to anyone who is mature enough to handle its contents but I wish Hazelwood had gone into greater detail.



2. For some reason I thought this was a book about the science behind criminal profiling. I was mostly wrong. It's a book about some mildly interesting crimes, much like you would see on A&E's crime shows.
   
   There is a page or two about the science of criminal profiling, but that's all.
   
   I'm not into true-crime stories, so it wasn't that interesting to me.
   
   Again, if you're looking for the methods of profiling, this is not the book.



3. This book was very informative. I was fascinated by all the things that Hazelwood has encountered in his career. This book is very graphic.



4. This book is not for those with a weak constitution. The cases reviewed and discussed are disturbing, but the insight is great. This book allowed me to understand a bit more about the process used to understand the mind of the criminal.
   
   I highly recommend this work to anyone in law enforcement, private investigations, or for those who want to understand the art of investigations... Just make sure you have not eaten lunch just before you start reading.



5. Roy Hazelwood is the premier profiler. If ever you considered a career in this field, this book is a MUST read. Afterwards you'll be able to decide if this is the life for you. Very informative and a tad frightening. I personally have read this book three times and also everything else this man has written. Not for the faint of heart.

5 comments about Base Instincts: What Makes Killers Kill?.

1. This is a well written, well researched book that should be required reading for all professionals involved with adults and children who exhibit anti-social behaviour. It will be invaluable to educators, psychologists, attorneys, police officers,psychiatrists and more. Why wouldn't anyone who can do so not want to be aware of new findings that could lead to identifying, intercepting and possibly changing the course of a future serial killing or classroom tragedy? Take the time to read the book. It's worth it.



2. The point of this fairly slim volume is to convince the reader that many (perhaps the vast majority) of our most dangerous criminals have neurologic impairments, and that brain dysfunction, along with child abuse and paranoid thinking, is at the heart of much violent behavior. This is not an entirely new message, but it is one Pincus approaches with a great deal of authority -- he's a professor of Neurology at Georgetown, was formerly at Yale and has studied dozens of death row prisoners along with his colleague Dorothy Ortnow Lewis.

   Dr. Pincus clearly decided not to risk alienating readers with scientific terminology or complex explanations of brain physiology. The book follows the familiar "casebook" true crime format used by various ex-FBI profilers, coroners, and cops. Most chapters focus on a particular criminal Pincus had dealings with (many of them in his role as an expert witness) and what that criminal's life story shows about the origins of homicidal violence.

   The coversational writing style (and oddly cheery alliterative chapter titles) stand in contrast to the horrific nature of much of the material. The crime scene details will be familiar to any reasonably hardened reader in the literature. What really stood out for me was the descriptions of childhood abuse endured by many of the perpetrators Pincus has studied. As a former inner-city teacher, I taught kids from pretty screwed up homes, and had some friends from abusive families while growing up. But the stories Pincus recounts (corroborated by siblings and others) remind us that there is almost no downward limit to the depths of human depravity.

   What's rather odd about all the better works in the study of violence and homicide is the sense that this field is under-funded, under-appreciated and obscure. Pincus and other pioneers in the field have answered some important questions, but their work raises hundreds more. If, say one percent of the money our government has spent trying to prove that marijuana is dangerous were instead spent on studying the roots of violence, perhaps we'd have more answers.




3. "Base Instincts: What Makes Killers Kill?" by Jonathan H. Pincus, MD, ISBN 0-393-32323-4 pbk, Norton & Co. 2001: a 225 page disquisition plus 13 pages of notes by a NYU Professor of neurology & psychiatry and graduate of Columbina CPS who investigated some 150 murderers over a 25-year period and tenders his unified theory that "killers kill for the same reasons," regardless of their classifications (single, mass, serial, & perhaps genocidal).

   Pincus observed that killing arises in the milieu and troika of disturbances which generally discloses (1) childhood abuses (sexual, verbal, physical), (2) frontal lobe damage (birth trauma, chromosomal, genic, infectious, toxic as alcohol & drugs), and (3) a medley of mental (neuro-psychiatric) impairments e.g. bipolar depresssion, paranoia, ADHD, CD, ODD, etc. He hypothesizes that single, mass, and serial killings have similarities with the Nazi/Hitler's paranoid anti-Semitism, Gaza Strip atrocities and various terrorist factions of more recent vintage.

   He opines the only feasible remedy would be prevention of child abuse and cites pilot studies underway, and also specifies factors impeding implementation of other remedies including treatment of convicted murderers. He details his basic neurologic testing format including specific tests directed at eliciting impairment of the frontal lobes, the latter being somnething he states most/many neurological examiners fail to do. Dr. Pincus has worked successfully on a number of defense cases aimed at getting death sentences switched to life without parole.

   The treatise is not overly technical, the writing style is a bit wordy, and very minor detractions were noted (i.e. XYY in not a chromosomal deficit but a chromosomal excess or defect; Trisomy 21 is no longer referred to as mongolism but Down's syndrome; and this reader is skeptical that someone could & would drink a 12-pack of beer and a pint of whiskey in 45 minutes (one can every 3.75 minutes & not counting the hard liquor).

   This study is an important contribution to the study of homicide and it provides engaging thought-provoking commentary on what makes murderers murder and also a workable solution to the problem of homocides. This book gives ample graphic grisly details of physical & sexual abuse, sans pictures, which some readers will find disturbing, but so then is murder. This is a must read.




4. I just finished "Base Instincts: What Makes Killers Kill" and I am adamant that our society shows so much more monetary respect for crime and punishment than early childhood education. We have had recent headlines about men, here in Austin, spiking babies and toddlers like footballs after a touchdown, in anger, killing or maiming them and ending up in prison for life. While this outrage is profoundly disturbing, professionals dither at whether or not early childcare intervention is ethical, cost effective or necessary in our society. Paying attention to parenting of the young child uplifts not just that family, but our societies future well being. Child abuse is the single most important determinant of future violence, and it is endemic and epidemic in our frontier based national mind set. We need to launch an all out campaign to raise the national consciousness about the importance of the nurturance of women, and the children that they in turn nurture, in the first three years of life, and beyond.



5. Pincus weave a fascinating, true tale of what makes killers tick in this 2001 book. Pincus himself interviewed hundreds of killers during his career as a neurologist. He combines his knowledge of the human body and psyche to draw his own conclusion about why people kill. Whether or not you buy into his theory, Pincus offers a solid case in a well-written, slim book that is an excellent, quick reference for fiction crime writers.
   Angela Wilson
   Author

1 comments about Trial of the Century: People of the State of California vs. Orenthal James Simpson.

1. Without a doubt, Schmalleger's "Trial of the Century: People of the State of California vs. Orenthal James Simpson" is the best book ever written about this trial. Two essential points must be made.

   First, the intended audience of this monograph is criminal justice students. Schmalleger thought that students could learn court and legal concepts by employing the Simpson trial. This is a brilliant strategy. For example, students will learn and will not forget concepts such as "evidence," "direct evidence" and "circumstantial evidence."

   Second, when one is finished reading this book, one will understand why OJ was found not guilty. The reason is simple, but not obvious. Much of the book includes court transcripts. We actually read the exact words of the lawyers and the judge. This is the real eye-opener. OJ did NOT win because of the "race card." He won because his lawyers (F. Lee Bailey, Johnnie Cochran, Robert Shapiro, Alan Derchowitz, Carl Douglas, Peter Neufeld, Barry Scheck, and Gerald Uelmen) were much more competent than the prosecutors (Gill Garcetti, Marcia Clark, Christopher Darden, and Hank Goldberg).

   Reading the transcript is much better than hearing the words. With the written word, the reader has an opportunity to analyze the sentence structure and understand the power of the words being used. Simply stated the defense were better orators than the prosecutors. The defense had command of the English language and the prosecutors did not.

   My conclusion from reading this book: If OJ had an all white OBJECTIVE jury, he would have been acquitted. It was not the evidence; it was the manner in which the evidence was presented. Evidence was presented within the context of the spoken word and the prosecutors -- particularly Christopher Darden and Marcia Clark -- were seriously lacking.

   There are many other books written about the OJ Trial. These include "Without a Doubt" by Marcia Clark and "In Contempt" by Christopher Darden. The central theme of these publications is "blaming." Neither Clark nor Darden would take responsibility for their incompetence as prosecutors.

   Another book by Vincent Bugliosi is entitled "Outrage: The Five Reasons Why O.J. Simpson Got Away With Murder." Bugliosi also includes transcript pieces, but interjects his opinion. Schmalleger has an opinion but does NOT share it with the reader. He forces the reader to come to his or her own conclusion: OJ didn't win, Clark and Darden lost.

1 comments about Starkweather: Inside the Mind of a Teenage Killer.

1. The subject matter was very interesting, but I noticed so many obvious mistakes. It was so distracting. There was one section that was missing the last half of a descriptive paragraph. I have never seen a book like this before. It was like they published the book with out copy writing it. If you can get past that I'm sure you'll love it.

5 comments about Give a Boy a Gun: A True Story of Law and Disorder in the American West.

1. As the daughter of Bill Pogue, one of the Game Wardens murdered by Claude Dallas, I know the true story of what happened that day. Jack Olson did a wonderful job of interviewing almost anyone involved and investigating the lifestyle of Claude Dallas that led to this tragic event. I learned as much from reading this book as I did sitting through the long and frustrating trial.



2. Read "Outlaw" by Jeff Long as well. He interviewed several key people that Mr. Olsen did not include (most declined to be interviewed at the time). All in all a fairly accurate and factual book and if you lived in the area at the time it stirs strong memories and emotions. Those who lived close to the events cannot forget Bill Pogue and Conley Elms.



3. In getting to know Claude via correspondence for several years,I believe that I can make a fairly accurate assessment of Claude's true character. Therefore, I believe I can fairly assess the book's veracity and plausibility. The book was interesting, entertaining, and exciting. Mr. Olsen presented the story in as truthful a manner as he could-considering he did not know Claude. In my opinion, overall, a very good book!



4. This book was extremely well written, and I would recommend it to anyone, regardless of their particular interests or hobbies. I know it is a cliche to say that "I could not put this book down," but it fits here. Olsen's writing style is easy and flows well. The whole story is so tragic, but I think the author does a good job of analyzing the events surrounding the murders of two Idaho fish and game wardens. Claude Lafayette Dallas, Jr. is clearly a murderer and yet he also has some sympathetic qualities that the author brings forth. It's a shame that the book is out of print, but if you look hard enough you can get a copy (thankfully, Internet searches will make it easier for you).



5. A very compelling story told nicely in one of the earlier books of true crime writer Jack Olsen.
   
   The story is fairly and dramatically presented and the author does of good job of giving the reader charachter background to make the story matter.

5 comments about Hastened to the Grave: The Gypsy Murder Investigation (Hasand to Grave).

1. While I was out of town, some strange stuff happened in my old neighborhood, so I grabbed this at the public library to read on the bus to work. BAD CHOICE: The laundry sat, the kid whined, bedtime came and went and the book didn't make it through one morning's commute. Who were the good guys and the bad guys? Why do some people attack wrongdoing with tenacity, and others just treat it like business as usual? I wish some fact checker had gotten out a map of the city so they hadn't displaced Balboa Street to the Sunset, and moved Colma into the city. You wouldn't know if you live someplace else, but details is details. The story is riveting. I came on line to research it further (yeah, sick.. but it coulda been one of my parents: they went to West Portal for deli), and found this reviews section. My recommendation: Read it and think about it. What would you have done? What are you doing? What can you do?



2. I can't believe someone had the courage to write this book. I am sad to say that it is more serious than this book could ever expose. It is hard to fathom that people could be so vicious and sick and to do such crimes. My grandmother was a victim of some of these sick, twisted people. I am so glad that Jack Olsen had the guts to write this book. I could not put it down. I wish there were more books on Gypsy scams, crime and murder.



3. My first Jack Olsen book and definitely not my last. Read it straight through the night. Although I found the focus on Fay Faron a bit much and would have prefered more pictures of the victims and especially the perps (the better to watch out for them), this book was an excellent read. The outcome is absolutely amazing--proving once again that police politics win rather than justice. Thank goodness that people like Fay Faron exist. Taking into consideration that we all will grow old, this book should be read by everyone.



4. I have read all of Jack Olsen's true crime novels and consider myself a huge fan of his work. However, I was very disappointed in this book because of its focus on Fay Faron, who I found annoying. The story was a good one and Faron was an integral part of the story, but Olsen's intense focus on her took away from what could have been an outstanding book, like all his others.



5. Do not be misled by the hype on the cover! "Jack Olsen's particular gift is his ability to illuminate the souls of his characters."?? I feel bad for author Mr. Olsen. I couldn't find any illumination. There is no real emotion. Eight pages of chilling photos?? The most chilling photo is of private investigator Fay Faron in a cheesy Sam Spade get-up. This book is amateurishly written. Maybe the point was to bring to our attention the problem of scams targeting the elderly. In this it has barely succeeded.

4 comments about National Nightmare on Six Feet of Film: Mr. Zapruder's Home Movie And the Murder of President Kennedy.

1. I love reading Richard Trask's books about the JFK assassination; and this one, published in late October 2005, is certainly no exception. It's very informative and definitely a worthy addition to anyone's collection of written materials surrounding the shocking murder of President John Kennedy in November of 1963.
   
   "National Nightmare On Six Feet Of Film: Mr. Zapruder's Home Movie And The Murder Of President Kennedy" is a softcover volume containing 392 pages packed with just about every conceivable piece of information revolving around the infamous 26-second color motion-picture film taken by Dallas dress manufacturer Abraham Zapruder on November 22, 1963, which is a film which shows, in all its morbid detail, the assassination of an American President in broad daylight on a city street in Dallas, Texas.
   
   Mr. Trask details the full history of the film and provides a good deal of background and biographical information on Mr. Zapruder, an ordinary Dallas businessman, born in Russia, who, by pure happenstance and coincidence, turned out to be the amateur filmmaker whose name will forever be associated with the death of JFK.
   
   But, if it weren't for the prodding of his secretary, Lillian Rogers (who encouraged Zapruder to go back home and retrieve his 8mm Bell-&-Howell movie camera shortly before the President's motorcade arrived in Dealey Plaza), that brief and awful 26 seconds in history would probably have never been captured through Mr. Zapruder's lens.
   
   Like Richard Trask's other books on the JFK assassination which focus attention on the photographic aspect of the tragedy, the text of "National Nightmare" is ever-readable, easily-understood, and refreshingly-non-biased when it comes to taking a "Conspiracy vs. No Conspiracy" position by the author. Mr. Trask lays out the facts and leaves it at that.
   
   This book's endnotes/footnotes are all positioned at the back of the book in one separate section, so as to not clutter up the main text of the volume. (So keeping two bookmarks handy is recommended, because a lot of interesting info can be gleaned from some of these endnotes too.)
   
   One big surprise to this writer when perusing this book was seeing a COLOR version of the Robert Croft photograph printed on Page 67 (within a 16-page spread of mostly all-color photos and Zapruder Film frames). I had never seen the Croft picture in color previously. And it's an excellent-quality print of that famous amateur photo that I found in this volume, too. The picture is needle-sharp and the color is virtually perfect.
   
   The Croft photo, by the way, depicts the President's limousine on Elm Street, just after the car has made its sharp left turn from Houston Street in front of the Texas School Book Depository. It was taken at a point equivalent to Zapruder frame #161 (per this book's text and captions), which is just about the time the first gunshot was being fired in Dealey Plaza.
   
   Other highly-recommended publications authored by Richard B. Trask (centering on the photography of President Kennedy's assassination) ..... "Pictures Of The Pain" (1994) and "That Day In Dallas" (1998). The latter is a condensed version of the former, focusing attention on just three of the photographers who took pictures in Dallas on the day JFK was killed (Cecil Stoughton, James Altgens, and Jim Murray).*
   
   * = Although condensed into a smaller number of pages than that of its predecessor "POTP", "That Day In Dallas" does contain "revised and enlarged" material throughout its limited number of chapters. And the specific photographs represented within that volume are unrivaled in their clarity and quality of physical presentation, in this writer's personal opinion.
   
   I truly enjoyed both of those books, and was very glad to see "That Day In Dallas" come out a few years after "POTP", because "That Day" provides a larger-print format for many excellent-quality assassination-related photographs, including several pictures you're not likely to see in any other book on the subject.
   
   As a companion piece to "National Nightmare", I would also recommend highly the MPI Home Video DVD "Image Of An Assassination: A New Look At The Zapruder Film" (released in the summer of 1998), which contains four "digital" versions of the entire 26-second Zapruder Film in various formats, including "zoomed-in" variants and a previously-unseen "Widescreen" version of the movie, which includes the imagery between the "sprocket holes" from Mr. Zapruder's "camera original" film.
   
   That DVD also contains some valuable and collectible "bonus" video programming, including interviews with Zapruder associates, as well as the March 1975 "Good Night America" program (hosted by Geraldo Rivera), during which U.S. audiences first saw the horrifying images of Mr. Zapruder's movie. The DVD also has a crystal-clear video copy of the Live interview that Abraham Zapruder gave on WFAA-TV just hours after he had filmed the assassination.
   
   Many of the above-mentioned items from that "Image Of An Assassination" DVD are also referenced by Mr. Trask throughout the well-written pages of "National Nightmare".
   
   ---------------
   
   In "National Nightmare On Six Feet Of Film", Richard Trask has admirably filled in yet another in a seemingly-never-ending series of pieces of subject matter that comprise the wide and varied fabric that form the mosaic of literature covering the topic of the John F. Kennedy assassination.
   
   Nowhere can be found a more detailed and fact-based history of Abraham Zapruder's historic film than that which resides within these 392 pages.



2. I whole-heartedly agree with Mr. Von Pein's extremely comprehensive review. If you are into the photographic and film record of the Kennedy Assassination, as I am, than Mr. Trask's published works will satisfy your desire for an in-depth analysis of the major photos and films taken during the November 21st-November 22nd period of time. All three of his books are worth the investment for the wealth of photos they contain and the analysis of those photos.
   As to NATIONAL NIGHTMARE, I liken it to that first cup of cold water after a long run. It is satisfying and quenches the thirst. Mr. Trask approaches the history of the film and his analysis of it with no agenda. He is not out to change anyone's mind as to "who dun it," unlike David R. Wrone, who does a good job of describing the history of the film in THE ZAPRUDER FILM: REFRAMING JFK'S ASSASSINATION, but then goes off into the wacky world of Zapruder film tampering by unknown conspirators. I consider myself a historian, an as such, am much more impressed with Mr. Trask's objective approach to his subject. One gets the impression that he discounts the conspiracy theories in favor of the Warren Commission findings, but it serves as an undercurrent, not as a presumptious raison d'etre for the existence of the book. Mr. Trask simply presents the photographic record in wonderful detail, leaving the theories for the reader to muddle over.
   This is really an extaordinary book, and my hope is the Mr. Trask (I hope you're reading this, sir) publishes a book of all 400+ frames of the Zapruder film in the largest, clearest, most colorful format that technology can provide and takes a page to analyze each frame of the film. One frame per page accompanied by a page of analysis would amount to a holy grail of sorts for me and no doubt for all those who understand the importance of analyzing the history of November 22, 1963 through the numerous photographs and films taken on that day.



3. Richard Trask's objectivity must be maddening to the conspiracy nuts since he clearly doesn't give credence to their silly theories, while at the same time he doesn't openly criticize their ideas. He isn't looking for a fight. He simply researches the objective photographic history and refuses to jump on the bandwagon of insanity currently awash in the country by those claiming the Zapruder film has been altered. I was glad that he did not spend a lot of time in this arena, it would have cheapened the high quality of work Trask is known for. ALong with "Pictures of the Pain" Trask must be ranked among the great photographic historians of this case. I highly recommend this work



4. I'm almost finished reading this book and I must say that it is one of the best books about the Kennedy assassination. It has everything from the detailed history of the Zapruder film to a 16 page color section that includes the famous photos by Mary Moorman, James Altgens and Phil Willis, to over 100 black and white photos and diagrams of Zapruder frames and rarely seen photos and still frames from other movies made that day. I took the advice of another review on this board and bought the book with the DVD 'Image of an Assassination'. When the book references frames from the Zapruder film you can view the DVD to see exactly what it is the author is talking about. What else can be said about a book that comes in it's own wrapper. Probably a lot. A treasure.

5 comments about Murder in Memphis: The True Story of a Family's Quest for Justice.

1. It breaks my heart to read what Debbie Groseclose's family went through after her murder. Beware, the court descriptions of what happened to her as she was killed are very graphic. A great read. It reads like a fictional mystery book but the fact that you know everything that happened in the book actually happened makes it chilling.



2. This is one of those books you can't put down, very sad. Well written.



3. Anyone who opposes the death penalty should read this book.
   
   Why the people who committed this crime are still drawing breath is beyond my comprehension.



4. I've read many true crime books and this one is a favorite. I absolutely could not put it down. The crime was horrific but the book is very well written and your heart will bleed for the family.



5. This book first interested me because I'm from Tennessee and then because it occured in my lifetime. I can't believe this murder took place. The most devastating part, after finding the victim, is the fact that the death sentence does not mean the death sentence. If I was a member of the victim's family; I just don't know how I would hold it together after all they've been through. When a case is as open and shut as this case was, I don't understand the rights of the accused. Obviously, the murderer does not think about thier victim's rights (to live); so why should the murderer be treated any differently.