No comments about In Love with a Serial Killer (Blake's True Crime Library).

4 comments about The Enforcer: Johnny "Pops" Papalia: A Life and Death in the Mafia.

1. The Enforcer is a wonderful book for anyone who has a feeling for the life of the mafia. Johnny Papalia was a one of a kind who beat all the odds in life and the mafia. This book is highly recomended. 5 Stars



2. Probably the best Canadian organized crime history yet! And I have read several.With Pops killed and the Musitanos getting 10 years (Feb 5/00),the Papalia story continues. What's next for Organized crime in Canada?



3. I read this book 3 times and every time I learned something new. I can honestly say that I already knew all this. I am Frankie's adopted son. I didn't know much about this buisness and when I asked he himself told me to read this book. After never understanding I understand. And I garentee you that this book is a real life and indepth look at life in the real Canadian Mob. It will tell you about the family's buisness and personal affairs. If you have ever wondered about the inner workings of a true Mafia family, this book will tell you. Nothing sugarcoated just the truth.



4. This is one of the best books about organized crime/mafia l have ever read; it is concise, factual and full of much detail and well reasoned explanations, it was great to read a book by a journalist who has done his research well and is also a very good writer. This book brilliantly captures the rise of Johnny Pops and the Mafia in Canada, especially Hamilton, Ontario in the 20th century.
   
   All the rackets of gambling, stand over, [...], labor and drugs are well covered and explained as the author links various criminals together and how they interacted, co-operated and fought each other. The book details the violent, and uncertain world of Johnny Pops and other criminals and Pops comes across as a man who was scared of nothing except the tax man and later in life going back to jail where he spent a quarter of his life. This book is great read for true crime buffs.

5 comments about Someone Has To Die Tonight.

1. Jim Greenhill's topnotch investigative writing is clearly visible in his true crime Someone Has to Die Tonight. While the story will chill the reader to the core, Greenhill's crisp writing and detailed characterization of each member of The Lords of Chaos will hold everyone's interest until the last page. The story chronicles how one teenage boy is able to control other seemingly normal boys to the point of committing crimes that escalate from pranks to murder. It is a wake up call for all of us who naively believe such things can't happen in our community. For those interested in true crime and psychological thrillers, Greenhill's book can't be beat.
   
   Tekla Dennison Miller, author, Durango, CO



2. This is a great true crime book, written in an unusual style, packed with incredible detail. It reads almost like a fiction thriller. The part that takes the reader thru the night of the murder, moment by moment, is absolutely riveting, edge-of-your-seat suspense. The portrait of alienated youth that it presents is quite disturbing and frightening. There is so much detail, it puts the reader right there in southern Florida with the "gang" called the Lords Of Chaos as they vandalize and rob for kicks, escalating rapidly into homicide. as the story unfolds. The author uses a style of writing that is fragmented, choppy and more prevelant in fiction. I've read 100's of true crime books, but never one written in this way. His sentence fragments may put you off at first, but its a good technique for moving the story along very fast. This is one of those books that is very difficult to put down until you are finished, a real page-turner. I look forward to more books from this writer---he seems to be a major new talent on the true-crime scene.



3. I guess I'm the only one so far in this review who didn't like the writing style of this book. I saw the Dateline NBC special about this story and I also enjoy reading true crime so I thought this book would be a winner for sure. But it just couldn't grab me because it didn't play out like an interesting story but rather a long, boring article with too many details. It was so hard to make myself pick it up after I laid it down, and when I did I just wanted to skim through page after page, and that's no fun. So after a month of playing that game I just gave up on it.



4. I was really impressed with the writer of this book. It kept me on the edge of my chair; in fact, I hated to come to the end. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys true crime stories.



5. This was a great book. Having followed the story in the newspaper as it happened years ago, I have retained an interest in the tale. I was enthralled with Greenhill's rendition of this tragedy from the very first page. Now, I'm waiting for the follow-up mentioned at the end of this book.

3 comments about Murder Most Foul: The Killer and the American Gothic Imagination.

1. Haltunnen has conducted a thorough research of early American execution sermons, court records, news articles, and novels dealing with murder and murderers. Her findings are chilling: men who murdered their wives or their entire families, women who murdered their newborn babies, people who murdered out of jealousy, guilt, or pure hatred, or for reasons unclear. Her focus is on the way the public reacted to these murders throughout history: early sermons portrayed the murderers as ordinary sinners, and the message was that anyone could fall prey to sin; later, the image of the murderer changed into that of grotesque moral monster, and accounts of the murder itself and the suffering of the victim became much more detailed.

   Surprisingly hard to put down, this book is a valuable reference for changing societal attitudes about crime, sexual behavior, and morality. The individual accounts are riveting, but often sketchy, as they are placed in the context of a rhetorical discussion. Some accounts are mentioned only briefly, and then mentioned again in a later chapter; the reader often has to consult the index to get a full account of any one crime, and even then, many details are missing, left to haunt your imagination.




2. Just had to put my two cents in. I had Karen's class on Society and Culture during the Industrial Revolution about 5 years ago and it was THE most fascinating class I have ever had. Ideas I learned in that class still come up even in random small talk. Makes me regret I majored in literature. I look forward to getting my hands on this book! Thanks Karen for being such a great instructor!



3. Karen Halttunen's book is a wonderful introduction to true crime narratives from the late eighteenth to the mid nineteenth century. This is a strategic period as the narratives changed from execution sermons to more secular, gothic-tainted narratives that, in turn, influenced the way we look at murder to this day. This general look at this period is an excellant broad view of this period that can be enhanced by Patricia Cline Cohen's Murder of Helen Jewett and Amy Gilman Srebnick's The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers, two significant murders from this period that demonstrated and influenced the changes that are part of Murder Most Foul. It is a fascinating period and interesting topic that is very well served by this book. I can sadly see my own prurient interest in these accounts but it comforting to see some of it explained in a historical sense.

5 comments about In the Name of Satan.

1. this book is, as might be expected, terribly written and totally dull, and of course it doesn't even begin to probe how horrific or really disturbing this crime in particular was, but it does have some info in it. i heard about this slaying in 1997 and saw the novel in a mall bookstore, and bought it. there is something about this crime--three predatory, evil, psychopathic monsters luring a mischevious but basically innocent young girl into the woods to murder, rape, and torture her--that, to put it mildly, makes one despair. i am theoretically against the death penalty, but this case particular i have to admit that i would applaud the execution of these three genetic wastes. he tries to make the teenager who confessed into some sad hero because he came forward and admitting to stabbing a helpless girl to death. wow. what a prince. maybe we should give him a kiss, a hug, and a gold star. i sympathize with alienated and disaffected teenagers, having been one myself, but this is simply a matter of evil. even at my angriest and most decadent, and this is true not only of me but of my more dissenting and rebellious friends in high school, would i have been capable of anything like this. strap them in the chair, and if you can get away with it, put em on the rack.



2. I don't see why everyone always has to critize books expecially when it is a true life story about a young girl who died not knowing she was going to. (even if the book lacked information) I can diffenitly say that this book is my favorite. Its a book that keeps you wanting to read it all the way through, with out stopping. I recommened this book to anyone who cares about what goes on in this world. I am deeply sorry for Elyse's family. I am glad those bastards got the sentence they deserved.



3. for the trees wasted to print this book. It was horribly written and an insult to decent Satanists everywhere. During the 2 or 3 days it took me to finish it, as I moaned about the awefulness, I had my boyfriend ask me more than once "Why don't you just stop reading it?" Indeed, why didn't I. My only consolation is that I didn't pay for it.



4. It's twisted and sick but readable! It's a story about a couple that go out raping and molesting young women. Although it is long and drawn out I thoght it was ok. Nothing Major, just ok!



5. While reading this true crime book, I couldn't decide if I was reading about an actual crime or being given a textbook lesson on satanism and how teens become involved in the occult.
   
   Information about the crime itself was interesting, but provided little detail about what actually occured. Readers were given a summarized account of what occured on the night of Elyse Pahler's murder. The rest of the book was devoted to the deceased's friends and their thoughts; the teenager murderers legal wranglings; and in depth information about the occult. I found the latter two accounts to be extremely repeatitive and boring.
   
   Lastly, why was this book written before Royce Casey's sentenced was issued? The one defendant who stood to be punished the harshest despite that he solved an unsolvable crime for police. Guess I'll have to search Google for that information.

5 comments about Poisoned Vows.

1. I am fascinated by the criminal mind, and the story of Jill Coit is fascinating. I recommend the book to true crime enthusiasts. It is well written. I like the way the author chronicles a little bit of the history of each place that Jill Coit finds herself. Not too much--just enough. This woman was so intelligent had she pursued a more "legal" lifestyle, she might have become the first woman President of The United States. The author shows through out the story how focused, single-minded, and intent she is on using up and destroying every man she decides to date and/or marry. But after all was said and done, I don't think the author even knows what makes this woman tick. I know that I don't. It is no fault of the author, because Jill Coit is too complicated. It is extememly sad how her own sons had to testify against her in order to put a stop to this woman. Now that she is behind bars in one of the Countries toughest prisons, maybe she will begin to figure herself out. What is amazing to me is that she has absolutely no remorse, and I do not believe that she even realizes that she has lead her life in the wrong way. She is not crazy. She is just without conscious. Thanks to the author, I enjoyed this book immensely.



2. My major complaint with this book is that there isn't any completion to any part of the story. The main character marries man after man, dumps him, moves on to another victim, etc. There is no carry through with the separation, divorce, murder etc. Even when the "black widow" is brought to trial, the author ends the book reporting that she and her cohort have been fould guilty of murder in the first degree, but there's isn't an account of the sentencing phrase of the trial.
   The whole book is a series of "left up in the air." More time and atttention should have been devoted to finalizing the relationship with each husband.
   This said, the book is very well-written. The author moves the text along at a steady pace, but the chapters are a little too lengthy.



3. Jill Lonita Billiot was destined to be a coniving woman. By the time of her arrest for the murder of Gerald "Gerry" Boggs, her name "techincally" was as follows: Jill Lonita Billiot Ihnen Moore Coit Brodie Dirosa Metzger Steely Boggs Carroll. And one must not forget that Billiot (her birth maiden name) should actually be dropped and "Johansen" added as she manipulated an ederly gentleman to adopt her, whose fortune she later inherited.
   
   Many of Jill's marriage overlapped one another, making her a bigamist along with (most likely) being the record holder for number of marriages!
   
   Poisoned Vows offers a extremely detailed account of the path most traveled by Jill that lead to her convincing her boyfriend (an adultrious affair, nonetheless) to assist her in murdering the one man who was ready to expose her for what she was: a lying, cheating, manipulating, greedy female fatale. Gerald Boggs was distraught and angry when he learned that not only was she remained married to Carl Steely while they were married but she had also lied about being pregnant with and giving birth to a daughter belonging to him. Of course, this wasn't the first time Jill had lied about phantom children. Nor would it be the last time she would play a role in the death of one of her husbands....
   
   While I found the book to be difficult to read, offering details that are confusing; this is not an issue that can be blamed on the author. Clifford Linedecker did an excellent job in attempting to keep the facts sorted for the reader, even if the information is often repititious. I was a bit disappointed that Jill and co-defendant, Michael Backus, was still weeks away from sentencing at the time of writing this book; I feel that the book should not have been published with that info. Otherwise, however, this is an excellent read for any true crime fan.



4. The author describes Jill Coit's life as it was - however, I liked the book "Charmed to Death" better. I had to deal with Coit while working at the correctional facility and all I can say this that she continues to play her games with everybody in prison... if she does not get want she wants she finds ways to mess with the staff and threatens with law suits! She plays the staff against each other - but else is there to do for her? She got life without parole, that is her way of keeping busy in prison. There is also a movie out about her, but I was only able to get it from the United Kingdom on a European format DVD.



5. I wasn't sure I'd like this book when I bought it, but it ended up being a real page-turner! This woman was absolutely incredible and seriously insane to do what she did, and Cliff Linedecker shows us the events that led up to her victimization of many innocent people, mainly naive men who thought she cared for them. One of the better-written true crime classics. Shocking and unforgettable!

5 comments about Crime Beat: A Decade of Covering Cops and Killers.

1. The reviews of this book on Amazon are generally negative. Most of them say something to the effect of "a rip-off because its nothing more than Connelly's old newspaper stories". Uh, that's the point: Connelly wanted to show how his time as a crime reporter in Florida and California shaped his view and, more importantly, gave him a series of "moments" that eventually worked themselves into his first and subsequent novels.
   
   Connelly did not spring forth a full-blown writer of best selling crime novels. He learned about crime, cops, lawyers, criminals, victims, judges and the system by seeing it up close and personal day after day as a reporter.
   
   You can watch Connelly grow in this collection of articles. They lack the excitement of a Harry Bosch novel, which is something many of the Amazon reviewers complain about, because Connelly was reporting, not inventing and controlling. One of the criticisms was that the articles were repretitive. Well, yes, they are because they were published over a period of time. An article describing the trial had to repeat the details of earlier stories reporting the crime. In the newspaper, these articles were separated by months or even years. Following one another in book form, if you don't realize the point of the book, sure, they seem repetitive.
   
   In truth, this book is probably best for those fans of Connelly who are as interested in the art of writing as they are in Connelly's excellent novels. The book provides insight into Connelly's development as a writer; it is not intended to be the same kind of read as "The Poet" or "The Lincoln Lawyer".
   
   There are a couple of things about the book that provide grounds for criticism. First, the original copyright is 2004, not 2006. This angered some people who thought it was some kind of rip-off by the publisher. In fact, the 2004 edition appears to have been a private edition. The other criticism I have is the inclusion of an overblown, pretentious and silly bit of "intellectual" interpretation by someone named Michael Carlson. This afterword is just plain silly in trying to explain to the reader the meaning of what he or she has just read. Unnecesary and not at all interesting or informative.
   
   Jerry



2. I can't agree with Mr. Saperstein's review at all. I found the introduction and the afterward the best parts of the book. I can't imagine that if Connelly had not liked the afterward that it would have been included; whatever pretentions it may have probably owe themselves to the enthusiasm Michael Carlson has for Connelly's writing. I certainly didn't find it troublesome.
   
   What did bother me, quite a lot, was the format of the vast majority of the book, which consisted of reprinting Connelly's 'true crime' newspaper articles. Because of the nature of the beast, a column in a daily paper, each article had to contain the history of the story. Because each crime or criminal had several articles included, this meant an enormous amount of repetition. Sure, that's necessary in a newspaper, but it just leads to boredom or frustration in a book. I really felt that these articles should have been heavily edited--perhaps the first and last article could have been included verbatum, but the middle ones should have been rewritten, perhaps with copious quotes from the originals. Certainly the crimes, the criminals, and the cops Connelly wrote about were fascinating--and having lived outside of the US for almost 20 years I had missed almost all of these cases--but the manner in which they were presented was, unfortunately, not fascinating at all.
   
   But I'm still going to buy every piece of fiction Connelly writes.



3. Crime Beat is a collection of true stories, organized into three sections: The Cops, The Killers, The Cases.
   
   Before becoming a novelist, Connelly was a reporter covering the homicide beat. These vivid articles, written by Connelly the journalist, lead the readers past the yellow police tape following the investigators, the victims and the killers to tell their true stories. Any of these stories could become fodder for future escapades of Connelly's fictional hero, Detective Harry Bosch.
   
   Although fascinating in its entirety, at times reading and re-reading accounts of the same crime became tedious. Written by anyone else, it is doubtful this tome would have been received as enthusiastically.
   
   However, Connelly's writing talent shines through in any venue and Crime Beat provides the reader a glimpse into the seedy underworld of crime.
   
   The first rule of writing is to write about what you know. Michael Connelly knows Los Angeles inside and out, including the newsroom, the LAPD, and the criminal elements in the city.
   
   Connelly, crime reporter-turned novelist, proves that indeed he knows his subject well. New readers expecting to find one story within the covers will be disappointed but die-hard Connelly fans will appreciate this collection of true fascinating background stories of murder and mayhem.



4. If this book is a crime, then the defendants have been saying, well what do you want? ... It is what it is, just a series from Connelly's days as a reporter. But surely the point is that you build up a trust with a writer, and in this case, Connelly lets his fans down by allowing his publisher to cash in on an easy book that contains stuff he hasn't even looked at in twenty years. When other crime writers (such as James Ellroy) have turned to their early days, it's been with the benefit of hindsight, knowing how you got from A to B, which at least provides you with momentum as a fan. Crime Beat is simple reportage, living and dying on the strength of the stories, only one of which (about a gang of third rate hit men) proves fascinating. The only thing you can say for sure by suffering through this, is that Connelly made the right career choice. Better for all of us that he keeps writing his strong, distinctive novels, then his flacid, repetitive journalism. Not one thought was given to editing so save your fifteen bucks for Harry Bosch.



5. I checked the audio book out from the library. Couldn't get through it. After the 3rd CD, I returned it. The same information is repeated over and over and over and over.....for a second I thought my CD player was repeating the same tracks. Incredibly dull and annoying to hear the same articles about the same cases again and again with the same information and descriptions. How this got passed the editors, I have no idea.
   Unless you want to be bored to tears, skip this one.

5 comments about Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Boss.

1. Man, I sure hated all those mafia books on the shelves taking up space in my bookstores! I thought, who cares about these cretins? Not me!! Even though I have a couple thousand true crime books, none deal with Cosa Nostra, I've never seen The Sopranos, and have only seen Godfather I. The topic was of zero interest to me.
   
   However, having loved Mr. Carlo's '96 Night Stalker, I admired his writing stle enough to pick up Ice Man.That book just blew me away because of the way Mr. Carlo was able to actually humanize a monster like Richard Kuklinski (not glamorize!). There were no holds barred when it came to his reporting of the atrocities committed, but Mr. Carlo's use of backstory and tell-it-like-it-is views from Kuklinski's family had me hooked from the beginning to end. And for the first time, I bought several copies and mailed to friends in Texas that couldn't care less about such things. Now THEY are buying Mr. Carlo's books, too.
   
   This leads me to his book Gaspipe. I didn't even hesitate to buy it because it was written by Philip Carlo; that's good enough for me! It's extremely rare to find a book where the author and family live next door to the book's subject, grew up in Bensonhurst where so many made guys lived, and understands "the life". If Mr. Carlo can turn my taste in non-fiction around with just two books, then I consider that a writer with a truly great gift.
   
   While he never sugar-coated the horrific crimes Anthony Gaspipe Casso did, just as in Ice Man, Mr. Carlo makes you see the whole man, especially his deep love for his parents, wife and kids. (Yes, I know Hitler adored his mother!) And NO WAY would I ever have had sympathy for a mudering goon like Casso, but it really hacked me off about the FBI's actions in picking and choosing the evidence to come out in court. It's also an OUTRAGE that the government didn't honor their commitment to Casso's 6-1/2 years sentence like they did for other informants.
   
   I am a huge fan of Mr. Carlo, and have ordered his other books. i wish him many happy years of writing and continuing his meticulous research.



2. Great Novel-like read...Altho author biases towards Casso, he truly makes a hero out of him in reader's eyes. Paints vivid pictures of every crime and non-crime-related tale and leaves reader waning more and more after each chapter, not only about Casso but every Made Man mentioned.



3. i'm disaapointed by this book, I got half way reading it but got bored. Nothing I have not read already in the papers. I give it 1/2 star.



4. CARLO SPEAKS WRITES ABOUT A STAND UP GUY WHO IN THE END RATTED OUT HIS OWN DOG IN HOPES OF GETTING OUT OF JAIL.



5. I will not revisit what the others have said but I will emphasize that this book is extremely well-written. I could not put it down and read it in one sitting. It gives you great insight into the mafioso of more recent times.
   
   Unfortunately the author is biased and is much too sympathetic towards a man who was obviously a psychopath who can only be described as sadistic and blood thirsty. Also the preoccupation at the end with corrupt prison guards sounds like just what a mafioso would say who was whining about his loss of freedom. Quite frankly he deserves to live the rest of his life in a very small prison cell estranged from everyone he thought nothing of betraying when he was outside. He was clearly a bad candidate for witness protection and although Gravano did revert to form (as a drug dealer) I have no doubt Gaspipe would have probably done the same by seeing how many more times he could shoot someone without killing them to make them suffer.

5 comments about Sniper: Inside the Hunt for the Killers Who Terrorized the Nation.

1. Title: Sniper
   Author: Sari Hortwitz
   Publisher: Random house incorporated
   Place of Publication: New York
   Copyright Date: September 2003
   Retail Price: $24.95.

   Authors Summary: For more than three weeks, the nation watched in disbelief as Washington, D.C., and its suburbs were held hostage by gunmen shooting innocent civilians at random. Sniper is the account of those gunmen, John Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, and the massive manhunt that ended with their capture by a heavily armed SWAT team in an early-morning raid at an interstate highway rest stop.

   Main Characters:
   Charles Moose,
   Lee Boyd Malvo, and
   John Allen Muhammad

   My Opinion: I really liked the book it explained in detail about each step everyone took to solve this horrifying event and how every one truly faced it and went through it. Id really recommend for every body to read this tragic book.




2. Ten times better than "Chief" Moose's self-serving 'book'.



3. It's really not the authors' fault, but there are so many people that worked on this case, it is confusing trying to keep everyone straight. Same with the victims. To me, this book never fully developed the characters. It's more like a rundown of what happened, but nothing of substance. This book is mainly about Malvo and Muhammed, but who are they really? At the end there is a brief conversation from Malvo that was very interesting because it gave some feedback on what he'd done, but that's it. I just felt a void, like what was really the point? By the end I was ready to be done with the book and move onto something better. I bought this from a book club and wish I hadn't.



4. What is the face of evil? In this sniper case, the faces are two - a 15-year-old boy and a man old enough to be his father. They are ordinary faces; yet they methodically killed and wounded as many as 5 people a day without mercy. Their movements were random, frustrating police and FBI agents. Acting on mistaken information of a white van, the officials floundered - clueless, while the pair remained invisible and deadly - shooting from a small hole in the truck of a dark blue Caprice. All around them a tempest roared.
   Authors Horwitz and Ruane tell us chapter by chapter what happened, who the killers were, who the victims were, and how they ultimately were captured.



5. The book by MCP Chief Charles Moose,"Three Weeks in October," tells about what happened during the sniper terror that gripped the Washington Metro area. But "Sniper," tells a whole lot more about what actually happened. The exact locations of the murders and woundings, the way the victims died, the way they were shot. It takes you step by step with the crime solvers and with the snipers. Daily, you find out what really happened, where it happened and why over 250 law enforcement officials were so baffled and had a difficult time capturing the snipers. I live within minutes of many of the crime scenes and I will tell you that my entire family was terrified. It changed our lives, made us jumpy when we went outside. Pumping gas was a real horrific event too. But the book also tells of the heroes such as Chief Moose, who was just about at the end of his rope and showed his humanity with tears at the shooting of a student. Of course Captain Barney Forsythe, who spent long hours, above and beyond his duty day, trying and stave off the killers is too a hero. If you want to have a good idea of what it was like during those harrowing days in October, read this book. The fine authors, from the Washington Post, tell it just the way it happened. I hope that we never ever have to deal with the fear that was thrust upon us in Montgomery County and the areas surrounding us again. But in these times, one never knows what the day will bring. Also, remember that the police are not here to protect us. They are here to uphold the laws.
   
   
   Kudos to "nine-Henry-ten."

2 comments about Murdered in Jersey: Expanded Edition.

1. The author offers summaries of 60 murder cases which took place in New Jersey. At first I thought that the short reports were simply too short, but as I got in the rhythm of the book I thoroughly enjoyed the scope of the undertaking. This book is especially interesting for anyone who has lived in NJ for a while as the localities, newspapers, reporters, attorneys, and facts of the crimes all seem surprisingly, and sometimes chilllingly, familiar. Also, the author offers information on books and newspaper articles for those who might want more detailed information on each crime described. This is a good idea for a book, probably every state in the union should have one like it.



2. I have lived in New Jersey my entire life, so I was interested in reading the Gerald Tomlinson book, Murdered In Jersey. While interesting, this is a lightweight and very superficial look at some famous and not so famous murders in the Garden State.
   
   Tomlinson briefly chronicles 60 different murder cases in New Jersey from 1922 to 1992. Since these are cases, there are actually many more than 60 dead victims. Many of them are headline-grabbing cases, the most famous being the Lindbergh kidnapping, the Robert Marshall murder of his wife (which Joe McGinniss wrote about in Blind Faith), and the kidnapping and murder of Exxon executive, Sidney Reso. Some of them I had completely forgotten about, like the case of Black Liberation Army member Joanne Chesimard, who was involved in the killing of a state trooper and was later broken out of jail by her fellow BLA members. She is still at large (presumably living in Cuba). Many of the earlier cases were mob killings. It also seems that many of the earlier cases remain unsolved. Perhaps this can be attributed to better crime solving techniques including DNA analysis, better surveillance, and better scientific testing. Still, many murderers have their own stupidity to blame for being caught, while police officials still believe in just plain good luck. The Reso kidnappers were caught when a police officer observed Arthur Seale using a payphone with rubber gloves on his hands.
   
   While I enjoyed Murdered In Jersey, this is really a book of murder-lite. The body of the book is only 211 pages. Divided by 60 different cases, it only leaves a couple of pages for each murder. The Lindbergh kidnapping is only five pages. This only gives you the briefest of overviews about a crime for which hundreds of books have been written. It does provide the reader a good introduction to cases they might like to read more about, however.