Editorial Review

Jarvious Cotton's great-great-grandfather could not vote as a slave. His great-grandfather was beaten to death by the Klu Klux Klan for attempting to vote. His grandfather was prevented from voting by Klan intimidation; his father was barred by poll taxes and literacy tests. Today, Cotton cannot vote because he, like many black men in the United States, has been labeled a felon and is currently on parole.
--FROM THE NEW JIM CROW

As the United States celebrates the nation's "triumph over race" with the election of Barack Obama, the majority of young black men in major American cities are locked behind bars or have been labeled felons for life. Although Jim Crow laws have been wiped off the books, an astounding percentage of the African American community remains trapped in a subordinate status--much like their grandparents before them.

In this incisive critique, former litigator-turned-legal-scholar Michelle Alexander provocatively argues that we have not ended racial caste in America: we have simply redesigned it. Alexander shows that, by targeting black men and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control, even as it formally adheres to the principle of color blindness. The New Jim Crow challenges the civil rights community--and all of us--to place mass incarceration at the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in America. ... Read more

Reviews

Important, Eye Opening Work, February 14, 2010
Thirty years ago, fewer than 350,000 people were held in prisons and jails in the United States. Today, the number of inmates in the United States exceeds 2,000,000. In this book, Alexander argues that this system of mass incarceration "operates as a tightly networked system of laws, policies, customs, and institutions that operate collectively to ensure the subordinate status of a group defined largely by race." The War on Drugs, the book contends, has created "a lower caste of individuals who are permanently barred by law and custom from mainstream society." Mass incarceration, and the disabilities that come with the label "felon," serve, metaphorically, as the new Jim Crow.

The book develops this argument with systematic care. The first chapter provides context with a brief history of the rise, fall and interrelation of the first two racial caste systems in the United States, slavery and Jim Crow. Subsequent chapters provide close scrutiny of the system of mass incarceration that has arisen over the past thirty years, examining each stage of the process (e.g., criminalization, investigation, prosecution, sentencing) and the many collateral consequences of a felony conviction (entirely apart from any prison time) and how and why each of these has operated to the detriment of African-Americans. The book also explores how the caste system Alexander identifies is different and not-so-different from Jim Crow, the many political and economic forces now invested in sustaining it, and how it has been rendered virtually immune to challenge through litigation. The book concludes with an argument that while many particular reforms will be needed to change this system, nothing short of a social movement that changes public acceptance of the current system can solve this problem and offers critiques and proposals for the civil rights movement based on this analysis. Everyone who reads this book will come away seeing the War on Drugs and mass incarceration in a new light.

MUST READ: A powerful book!, January 5, 2010
Law Professor Michelle Alexander's long-anticipated debut puts a bright light directly on what is perhaps our greatest national shame: the extraordinary rates of incarceration for people of color in the United States.

Her writing is lucid and gripping; her arguments are clear and concise; her conclusions often are inescapable. She powerfully makes the case that the incarceration industry has become to the 21st Century what Jim Crow segregation was to the 20th: a system that undermines American ideals of justice, while reinforcing social inequality.

In what many hope will be a "post-racial" era, Ms. Alexander's voice is a courageous one. Even as she rightfully celebrates progress at many levels, she refuses to let our society ignore the fact that a million or more people of color are imprisoned today (out of all proportion to their numbers in the population AND even out of all proportion to their rate of criminal offenses, as documented by the government).

More importantly, she dares to ask (and attempts to answer) the simple question: how can this be happening in our country today?

Impeccably well-argued, "The New Jim Crow" is an inspired work - representing the debut of a bright, new and important voice in American life and letters.

COMPELLING AND CONVINCING, February 5, 2010
Michelle Alexander has the ability to see far beyond conventinonal wisdom and understanding. Her intellect is exceptional and her logic captivating. Her compelling and convincing book leaves no doubt about the wrongness of the War on Drugs. Highly educational and informative as well as thought provoking.

Can we start talking about race?, May 3, 2010
I'm a white man and I carry with me the cultural legacy of racism. I know I'm not alone but I don't find many other white people who are willing to venture into this uncomfortable territory and own up to our own racism. And while I've had a few conversations about race with black men, I must say I feel like I'm venturing into dangerous territory - how do I transcend the privilege I've had as an socio-econonmically advantaged white man to connect to those who rightly see me and my kind as an oppressor?

This was a hard book to read. I said that about "Slavery by Another Name" as well which is the companion book to this one as they both address a white power structure that uses prisons to humiliate, degrade, diminish and control black people. "Slavery by Another Name" addresses this phenomenon during Jim Crow and "The New Jim Crow" addresses how we've been doing this for the past thirty years.

To the extent white people and non-black minorities I know talk about race, its about why blacks continue to languish at the bottom of the American barrel. If other ethnic groups that have experienced discrimination manage to overcome it and prosper as Americans, what is wrong with blacks? I've always said it was slavery and its legacy, the Jim Crow era and its deprivations but now I realize that the story is even more complex, black men have been disproportionately single out for prison time, causing entire families to suffer the economic loss, the social stigma and family shame that accompanies such imprisonment.

I remember the O.J. trial and how whites were "shocked" that blacks had such a different take on the police and criminal justice. At the time, there was discussion about how black men were singled out for police harassment and arrest but I don't remember a discussion about why so many black men were imprisoned. In 1995, the impact of the drug wars wasn't fully appreciated but 15 years later with an even larger prison population, it is. The other thing about the O.J. trial that made it complicated was his role as a rich celebrity. In that regard, he took on the power and privilege of a white man and there was a sense that in his marriage to a white woman and in his lifestyle he had been escaping from his black upringing, betraying blacks. But when he stood trial, blacks hurried to support him against the white power structure.

This goes to the other argument the book makes which is the way black exceptionalism, the O.Js, the Oprahs, the Michael Jackson, Tiger Woods and Obamas allow whites to believe that racism is dead, that blacks are making it, a sign that our color-blind society has triumphed. This exceptionalism hides or excuses the results of a drug war aimed directly at the black underclass and which has snatched so many black men from their families and putting them at even greater disadvantage. After prison they are marked men, making employment very difficult, voting often impossible and public housing unlikely.

Class is not the subject of this book but I do think it is also at play both in terms of preserving the tense wariness poor whites feel towards any sign of "special favors" for blacks and as the lesser evil to that of racism but which has defined American life for so long and made everyone - rich and poor - look to the wealthy as successful and the poor as shameful losers.

Inconvenient Truths, March 26, 2010
This is an explosive book. We've all read the statistics about racial disparity in criminal justice, but Michelle Alexander brings it all together in this sweeping analysis of our dysfunctional legal system and the persistence of de jure discrimination in the Age of Obama. Clearly written and vigorously argued, The New Jim Crow makes plain that we haven't come as far as we think and that there is still much to be done. The ghosts of slavery are alive and well.

Powerful, Informative, and Mind-Opening, April 26, 2010
I have just put down Michelle Alexander's book after reading the very last word and I don't know what to say. I am literally so in awe, so grateful for her work, so amazed at her talent and gifts that I am truly without words to describe how I feel or what I think.

I am normally a very quick read but her book forced me to slow down. Not a word or sentence was unnecessary but rather so incredibly meaningful, meaty, and educational that I found myself only being able to read when I was well-rested and undisturbed. I am amazed at how effectively and clearly she informed the reader, me, about the current state of our justice system, the experience of police encounters (which was infuriating and would fill me with rage), and how the laws serve to disempower people and make them disappear. How she moved from data-driven, legal, educational, & rational arguments to a passionate appeal for change and a sharing of a real vision is astonishing.

I love how she writes, so clear and with a crescendo of support for her thesis, and what she wrote about. I'm truly grateful for this piece of work. The book is truly inspiring as it is mystifying that we are where we are. I haven't been able to stop telling people about her book but sadly am not nearly as eloquent and struggle to explain concisely the arguments.

I wish everyone would read this body of work. Well done!

Well Researched -- Well Done! Necessary reading, April 5, 2010
Painful to read, but necessary. Author did a great job. Well researched and thoughtful. The type of information you DO NOT receive from Mainstream Media. What a disgrace our system is, in this area, how cleverly disguised this form of social control is. If you have any interest in human rights and fairness, run out and get this book. (or order online here) Kudos to the author.

Your view of our Criminal Justice System will change forever, July 6, 2010
Earlier I reviewed Texas Tough and suggested questions it should raise in your mind. Now I have read The New Jim Crow and am flabbergasted at my ignorance. I had thought I knew much about our Criminal Justice System (having studied and taught about it for years) but now realize how narrow and restricted my understanding had been. A MUST read.
Texas Tough tells us WHAT; The New Jim Crow tells us WHY! Michelle Alexander has done an outstanding job of filling in many blanks in our knowledge and correcting our typical perceptions of the criminals and prisons and ex-offenders.
Readers who are serious about understanding the plight of Black Men and the War on Drugs, and are willing to learn from an intelligent and experienced Black female ACLU attorney, will learn about a whole new world not seen by White's.
I used the Kindle edition which works well since the text contains no graphs or pictures. A straight, honest read. Captivating!
My four stars instead of five is due to the repetitive nature of some information and some digression into a preaching rather than a strict information style. She may embellish the significance of some of the facts, but it doesn't diminish the message.

Powerful and informative--a must read for all interested in social justice, June 14, 2010
This is an amazing book told from the unique standpoint of a lawyer and a woman of color. Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" exposes the truth about the U.S. Prison Industrial Complex and it's true role as a mechanism for the criminalization and oppression of the non-white and poor of all colors.

Alexander presents example after example of years of targeting the poor for such things as drug use or possession--which are used equally among people of all colors and economic standing--yet only the poor are targeted for punishment, stop and search, police occupation of their communities and schools creating a mythology of the "criminal poor."

Those who have been incarcerated are forever marked as second-class citizens unable to participate fully in our so-called democratic society--unable to vote, to hold office, to get financial aid to go to college, to receive social services, and much more.

I recommend this book especially to the youth. This is their new reality now. The truth that can be gained from reading this book can make them free.

Thank you Michelle Alexander.

Sincerel,

Bonnie Weinstein

The most important book written this year, and maybe century!, June 5, 2010
MIchelle Alexander's book is a judgment on what America has become -- a racist prison state. "The New Jim Crow" is tightly researched and stand as an indictment of our nation. Read it and weep! Say, with Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country.
I was one of the early white civil rights demonstrators, then battled HUAC in the streets of Chicago, then led the Peace movement in Boston, brought a winning contingent into the runoff for Senate in Massachusetts, electing Ed Brooke the first Black Senator in the US ever, then was the Exec Dir of Alabama's :freedom democrats," electing the first blacks to office in Alabama since Reconstruction, then working in Congress for Earl Hilliard, Alabama's first black member of Congress and Vice Chair of the Progressive Caucus there, and organized the movement which brought unions into the halls of Congress to organize Congressional workers. And I ain't quit yet!
But through it all, I see with old, experienced eyes what the young eyes of Michelle Alexander see -- a police state America -- a racist prison state. Read the book! Look at the evidence! Then start working to save what little is left, if anything, of the real America so many of us dreamed. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Deborah Blum follows New York City's first forensic scientists to discover a fascinating Jazz Age story of chemistry and detection, poison and murder.

Deborah Blum, writing with the high style and skill for suspense that is characteristic of the very best mystery fiction, shares the untold story of how poison rocked Jazz Age New York City. In The Poisoner's Handbook Blum draws from highly original research to track the fascinating, perilous days when a pair of forensic scientists began their trailblazing chemical detective work, fighting to end an era when untraceable poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime.

Drama unfolds case by case as the heroes of The Poisoner's Handbook-chief medical examiner Charles Norris and toxicologist Alexander Gettler-investigate a family mysteriously stricken bald, Barnum and Bailey's Famous Blue Man, factory workers with crumbling bones, a diner serving poisoned pies, and many others. Each case presents a deadly new puzzle and Norris and Gettler work with a creativity that rivals that of the most imaginative murderer, creating revolutionary experiments to tease out even the wiliest compounds from human tissue. Yet in the tricky game of toxins, even science can't always be trusted, as proven when one of Gettler's experiments erroneously sets free a suburban housewife later nicknamed "America's Lucretia Borgia" to continue her nefarious work.

From the vantage of Norris and Gettler's laboratory in the infamous Bellevue Hospital it becomes clear that killers aren't the only toxic threat to New Yorkers. Modern life has created a kind of poison playground, and danger lurks around every corner. Automobiles choke the city streets with carbon monoxide; potent compounds, such as morphine, can be found on store shelves in products ranging from pesticides to cosmetics. Prohibition incites a chemist's war between bootleggers and government chemists while in Gotham's crowded speakeasies each round of cocktails becomes a game of Russian roulette. Norris and Gettler triumph over seemingly unbeatable odds to become the pioneers of forensic chemistry and the gatekeepers of justice during a remarkably deadly time. A beguiling concoction that is equal parts true crime, twentieth-century history, and science thriller, The Poisoner's Handbook is a page-turning account of a forgotten New York.

... Read more

Reviews

A Genuine, But Highly Entertaining, Poisoner's Handbook, December 31, 2009

The Birth of Forensic Medicine Against a Backdrop of Prohibition, January 15, 2010

A CSI for the Jazz Age, January 8, 2010

The Not-too-chemical Handbook, October 21, 2010
As I started "The Poisoner's Handbook", I thought this was a great book: a fine history of modern American forensic science, told through a double biography of Norris and Gettler, two of its major founders, and illuminated with engrossing tales of murder, mayhem, and nightmarish misadventure. That thought died as soon as I started to spot the technical explanations that were uninformative, misleading, or downright wrong. Will a dozen examples do?

p. 56: Hydrocyanic acid (HCN) is not a potent acid or corrosive; it is just about the weakest acid known. The fact that it is ferociously toxic has nothing to do with its acidic strength.

p. 22: Chloroform is not terribly corrosive; on keratinized tissue (normal skin) it has no effect at all.

p. 86: You cannot get anything by mixing arsenic (As), copper (Cu) and hydrogen (H2) because the first two are metals and the last is a gas that does not react spontaneously with either of them.

p. 179: Radium (Ra) does not react with water to produce radon (Rn); it produces Rn by atomic decay.

p. 183: Radium (Ra) does not decay to produce polonium (Po) and radon (Rn) - its atomic weight is far less than that of Po and Rn combined so it cannot produce both. It can decay to produce Rn, which then decays to produce Po.

p. 187: Sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) is not slightly acidic; as any highschooler knows, it is moderately basic.

p. 191: There is no such thing as diethyl phlatate. (Did Blum mean diethyl phthalate? Did anyone proofread this book?)

p. 201: Ethanol (EtOH) does not "dissolve" into acetic acid; it is converted to acetic acid by tissue enxymatic activity.

p. 206: DDT is not an organophosphate; it contains no phosphorous at all. It is a chlorinated hydrocarbon.
passim: Blum does not seem to realize that wood alcohol, methyl alcohol, and methanol are just three different names for the same compound, used at different times as chemical terminology became more precise over the years.

And at least two misconversions from US weight units to metric.

How Blum got a Pulitzer for popular science writing and a job teaching it at the university level I cannot imagine; perhaps her zoology is better than her chemistry (it would have to be much, MUCH better), but her chemistry is far too inadequate to qualify her to explain it to others.

I propose that henceforward any book purporting to explain chemistry for the layman should be vetted by a committee of ten members randomly chosen from the American Chemical Society, before it is let loose on the unsuspecting public. Why shouldn't popular science writings be subject to the same peer review that professional writings are?

If Blum had left out the chemistry or else got it right, this would be a four-star book; as it is, it's a one.

"This is a Poison. Warn Everyone...", December 30, 2009

Fascinating forensics history book - sort of a "CSI NYC, the Early Years", December 28, 2009

Well Researched, Well Explained Doesn't "Read Like Fiction", December 22, 2009

An excellent read, May 8, 2010
When I first saw this book, I wasn't really sure if I wanted to read it. But, it sounded intrigueing. Now, I extremely gladd I did. It's and easy read, it flows, and you really don't want it to end. I was really sorry when I got to the end, I wanted it to continue. A good written account of the birth of Forensic Medicine and Forensic Toxicology while weaving into a story. It's great when you are reading and all of a sudden you get to say to yourself "So thats why". I did that many times and throughly enjoyed the book, it will take its place in my permanent Library.

an amazing book, April 26, 2010
I am very interested in forensic medicine. when I read the review of Deborah Blum's new book I was intrigued and had to purchase it. This is for anyone who loves history, science and medicine and crime. As a New Yorker I had no idea that the first medical examiner was not a physician. I just assumed that position required such (it does now). I enjoy the way the chapters are organized...according to the type of poison. A good read and not terribly technical.

Immensely Entertaining and Engaging Account of Prohibition Era NYC, Murder by Poison & the Birth of Forensic Toxicology, April 22, 2010
This book hit a home run. It took us back to NYC in the early 20th Century, combining the prevailing politics, culture and science and how it dealt with death from exposure to toxins--either in the workplace or at the hands of a murderer. Entertaining, interesting and educational, the book describes how the the NYC Medical Examiner's office evolved from being headed by a drunk political hack to being competently run by accomplished and dedicated men of science. Investigating death and disease in the workplace and baffling murders by poison challenged these men, and they responded, with nothing more than some beakers, their education and their ingenuity and determination. In the process, the science of forensic toxicology was born. Unlike the overwhelming number of examples where scientific discovery and achievement resulted from commercial motivation (which I have NO problem with), here, forensic toxicology's creation and advancement drew its motive force from the altrustic need to reveal and punish premediated murder. The author's style was excellent for the subject matter, and demonstrated a true affection for the era and the science. She described complexity in an entertaining, understandable and even folksy way, and at times, made me laugh out loud. To disclose a personal bias making this book so enjoyable to me: Over the course of my adult life, I have had the pleasure of meeting and working with a few toxicologists, and I find common characteristics--tremendous intellect, scientific curiosity and objectivity, knowledge and appreciation of past and present scientific literature, and a laser-beam focus on detail and precision. I recommend this book to anyone who likes history of scientific discovery ... Read more

Editorial Review

The good news is that most soldiers are loath to kill. But armies have developed sophisticated ways of overcoming this instinctive aversion. And contemporary civilian society, particularly the media, replicates the army's conditioning techniques, and, according to Lt. Col. Dave Grossman's thesis, is responsible for our rising rate of murder among the young.

Upon its initial publication, ON KILLING was hailed as a landmark study of the techniques the military uses to overcome the powerful reluctance to kill, of how killing affects soldiers, and of the societal implications of escalating violence. Now, Grossman has updated this classic work to include information on 21st-century military conflicts, recent trends in crime, suicide bombings, school shootings, and more. The result is a work certain to be relevant and important for decades to come. ... Read more

Reviews

A fascinating study, January 23, 2004
ON KILLING is the study of what author Lt. Col. Dave Grossman has termed "killology". This odd term describes, not killing between nations, but the exact circumstances involved when one individual ends the life of another individual, with the primary focus being on combat situations. I've sometimes wondered how I (someone who has never been anywhere near armed conflict) would fare on the frontlines, as killing another human being seems like an almost impossible psychological task. As Grossman casts an eye over historical reports of combat, he found that, apparently, I wasn't alone in thinking that. During the First and Second World Wars, officers estimated that only 15-20 percent of their frontline soldiers actually fired their weapons, and there is evidence to suggest that most of those who did fire aimed their rifles harmless above the heads of their enemy.

Grossman's argument is carefully researched and methodically laid out. He begins by filling in some historical details, discussing the statistics for shots fired per soldier killed for the World Wars and the American Civil War. It's a refreshing and enlightening look at war that dispels a lot of misconceptions. An average solder in those wars was extremely reluctant to take arms against fellow humans, even in cases where his own life (or the lives of his companions) was threatened. Not to say that any of these people are cowards; in fact, many would engage in brave acts such as rescuing their comrades from behind enemy lines or standing in harm's way while helping a fellow to reload. But the ability to stare down the length of a gun barrel and make a conscious effort to end a life is a quality that is happily rare.

The book continues on then, detailing what steps the US Army took to increase the percentage that they could get to actually fire upon their enemy. By studying precisely what the soldier's ordinary reactions were, the officers were able to change the scenario of war in order to avoid the most stressful of situations. The soldier found up-close killing to be abhorrent, so the emphasis was countered by inserting machinery (preferably one manned by multiple soldiers) between the killer and the enemy to increase the physical and emotional distance. Every effort is made to dehumanize the act of killing.

Grossman spends a great deal of time discussing the trauma that the solder who kills faces when he returns to civilian life. Nowhere is this more apparent than in those veterans who returned from Vietnam. Those soldiers had been psychologically trained to kill in a way that no previous army had gone through, and there was no counteragent working to heal their psychological wounds. Grossman takes great pains to discuss how horrifying the act of killing is, and points out how detrimental it is to one's mental health. When the Vietnam veterans returned home to no counseling and the spit and bile of anti-war protestors, the emotional effect was astounding. Most of Grossman's thesis is supported by in-depth interviews and psychological profiles, but it is the story of the Vietnam veterans that comes across as the most disturbing.

Much of the chatter about this book seems to revolve around the final section, the discussion about our own civilian society. While this is understandable, I actually preferred reading the earlier portions, simply because they opened my eyes to a lot about the military that I had been previously ignorant of. I think it would be a mistake to concentrate solely on the argument's conclusion as it rests heavily on the case that has been building. In any event, the book eventually develops its final conclusion: the methods that the military uses to desensitize its soldiers to killing are also being used in our media, but without the proper command structure that keeps people from killing indiscriminately. In a military situation, firing a weapon without proper authorization or instruction is a very serious offense, and this is drilled into the mind at the same time as the desensitization. Without this safety, there is nothing to hold back the killing instinct, and this is one of the main reasons why the homicide rate has increased so dramatically.

Now, I'll say right off the bat that I was partial to this line of argument before I read the book; I think that children repeatedly exposed to such images would almost certainly become blas� towards extreme violence. But Grossman's book gave me so much more to think about. It isn't just a Pavlovian force at work here; Grossman points out many reasons (both stemming from society and the changing family structure) for why young people of today seem much more able to kill than their parents and grandparents were.

I was honestly surprised at how strong of a writer Grossman is. He manages to put forth his argument without boring the reader. By its very nature, a lot of what he discusses is repetitive and disturbing, but the subject matter is so compelling that I didn't mind. Grossman is very logical in his approach and his argument is a powerful one. I highly recommend this book, especially for people like myself who have never experienced war at close quarters. The summary I (and others here) have given is simply not nearly adequate to capture all of Grossman's thorough contentions. ON KILLING made me think harder about a subject that I hadn't given a lot of thought too before. The information and research here is invaluable.

Fantastic book, November 9, 2006
As a police officer we spend many hours in various forms of training. Some of this training is dedicated to the rules surrounding the use of our department issued firearms. Some of this training is dedicated to the physical skill of firing this weapon. None of the training is dedicated to what you go through after having actualy used this weapon against another human being in self defense. The extent of my departments response was...absolutely no critical incident debriefing and my appointment with the department phycologist occured 9 days after the shooting. The evaluation by the physcologist last 23 minutes total. At that point I knew that my well being was up to me to provide for. After some research I located this series of books by Dave Grossman. Purchasing these books was the best thing I could have done for myself. The information within these pages helped me understand all the stages of emotion that I was, and still am, going through. I would recommend these books to anyone in the military or in lawenforcement (or any family memeber there-of). They may very well have saved my sanity.

An insightful, ground-breaking study on why man kills man, May 20, 1999
Dave Grossman has written perhaps one of the most insightful books on what motivates men in combat since S.LA. Marshall's "Men Against Fire". Grossman combines the thoroughness of an learned psychologist with the practical viewpoint of a lifetime dedicated to military service. He provides us with a unique and truly fascinating look into the dark and often terribly painful mental process that brings a man to pull the trigger and kill his fellow man. As an officer in the Army, I consider this book an essential read for anyone who may someday bear the burden of leading men in combat. We often get such a distorted view of remorseless killing from the popular media that most of us are shocked to discover that the act of killing a man at close range is something that very few soldiers are capable of. In a similar fashion to S.L.A. Marshall, Grossman demonstrates with overwhelming evidence how the vast majority of soldiers are tremendously reluctant to kill, frequently prefering to risk their own death instead. The book offers such a profound and important perspective on the nature of warfare at the human level that I suspect it will some day be part a curriculum for training officers and non-commissioned officers on combat leadership. Although the book's primary focus is on the nature of killing in warfare, his conclusions have relevance for anyone concerned with the problem of violence in society. One of Grossman's most useful conclusions is the suggestion that virtual reality video games allow their users to overcome the natural reluctance to kill by gradually desensitizing the mind to violence. This erosion then makes it easier for those who are pre-disposed to aggressive violence to act on their desires in a violent way. With the recent string of high school shootings, Grossman's hypothesis has immediate relevance to current social issues. In fact, he has been a frequent commentator on these tragedies with several national news networks. In summary, Grossman's book peers cautiously into the darker side of man's nature to understand what drives him to kill in combat. What he finds there is vastly different from what we are taught to expect- simply that the vast majority of people are unable to look a fellow man in the eye and kill him even if his own life may be at stake. The forces that allow him to overcome that reluctance in the heat of battle include peer pressure, leadership, training, and physical distance and are examined in great detail.

A Powerful Refutation of the Soldier's Bloodlust, February 10, 2000
Those who have never had the privilege of serving in America's armed forces invariably believe the Hollywood depiction of the modern soldier as a soulless killing machine. As Lt. Col. Dave Grossman shows in his groundbreaking study of killing in war, nothing could be further from the truth.

Remember the steely-eyed warriors who descended on Normandy, Anzio, Guadalcanal, and a host of other blood-soaked battlegrounds during World War II? Only one in five of these combat infantrymen were willing to fire their rifles.

Shocking? Surely, given the popular depiction of our fighting men. But military training has never been able to fully eradicate the innate resistance of killing one's fellow man amongst the common soldiery.

Yet we're getting better at it, with disturbing implications for our society. Grossman's data shows that the current crop of soldiers, raised on graphic violence in movies and video games, is much more willing to slay the enemy. This is undoubtedly a good thing from a purely military point of view. However, the cost is a consequent desensitization to the suffering of friend and foe alike, and psychological trauma which lasts long after the firing stops.

The introduction of women into combat situations has not slowed the inexorable trend toward a more savage soldier. During training to endure potential captivity as prisoners of war, male soldiers are taught to conquer their natural tendencies to protect females through an active desensitization process (a soldier is a soldier, whether male or female; we all signed up for this, etc.) What impact this has once these brave men return to society is uncertain, but you can bet that one cannot turn their humanity on and off like a light switch.

A profound and disturbing study which belongs in every library.

LTC Grossman was my favorite Commander., March 8, 2003
I just wanted to write a quick note and review about LTC Grossman's book and his character. I read a review which stated that, "His only vaguely denounced and hidden desire to change the US Constitution make me want to examine Mr. Grossman's education and military record in depth."

Let me say, I served briefly under LTC Grossman, then Major Grossman as a new Second Lieutenant in the US Army. He was, in my opinion, one of the most intelligent, thoughtful, and studied officers I ever had the privilege of serving with. It was LTC Grossman, that first instilled in me how a professional soldier acts, thinks, commands, and motivates. LTC Grossman used to give a speech to ROTC Cadets during summer training at Ft. Lewis, WA that was so motivational, by the end the cadets would literally stand up and scream for more. The Army videotaped the presentation and often tried (unsuccessfully) to duplicate it. LTC Grossman used to lead philosophical discussions about the "warrior spirit" that would engage even the least interested. He first enlightened me to think about the mind of our enemy ("One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter") and has helped me understand the minds and motivation of those that attacked the U.S. on 9/11 (I served under LTC Grossman in 1996). You will not defeat an enemy until you understand and address the root cause of their grievances.

For those interested in LTC Grossman's thoughts, I can recommend taking a look at several of Robert Heinlein's books, which LTC Grossman recommended to me. Specifically, "Starship Troopers", the book bastardised by Hollywood in the movie under the same name.

Many of LTC Grossman's teachings remain with me today, and he is one person that will impart knowledge that stays with you for a lifetime. While studying for my MBA, I wrote my business plans in accordance with the 5 paragraph OPORD, or Operations Order, and as a result I had more than one professor ask me to review independent grant, business, and research proposals.

I read LTC Grossman's book as a Cadet, and while I have to admit, much of it made me feel intellectually humble, his overarching hypothesis has passed the litmus test of time. After the Columbine shootings in Colorado, I saw LTC Grossman on a morning talkshow addressing many of the concerns premised in his book "On Killing" which was several years old by then. The events of 9/11 make me believe that we can all learn a little from LTC Grossman that will help this nation understand who, what, why, and how this nation will fight and win the war against terror.

Alters opinions, March 13, 2000
I am a reporter. Most people would expect me to deny Lt. Col. Grossman's findings, pertaining to violence in the media, as sensationalist and misleading since I should know where my bread is buttered.

I admit, I was skeptical, but during research for an article on violence in the schools, I came across the colonel's book, "On Killing". After reading it, I became a convert.

The comparison of the military's usage of operant and classical conditioning techniques with the psychological effects experienced by juveniles when they observe violence - or participate in it, in the case of interactive shoot-'em-up video games - was quite enlightening. Col. Grossman brought a fresh perspective to the debate and convinced me to rethink my original opinion.

Of course, his theory wouldn't hold unless he could prove that humans, by nature, are unable to kill other human beings unless trained and psychologically conditioned to do so. I believe he did prove this point.

Simplistic solutions such as instituting media criticism courses, turning off the TV or banning guns won't stop the killing because they don't get at the core psychological problems and they don't address the enabling factors that are co-conspirators in juvenile violence.

Listen to this man.

Intriguing, yet fraught with problems, August 6, 2000
Grossman presents interesting and worth-while reading when dealing with the psychological workings of what it takes (soldiers) to kill. His hypothesis adding two additional phases to the typcal fight-or-flight response was new, at least to me, and makes sense. And his examination of ritual and rite involved with war, in particular the importance of ritual after war, and his coorelation between the lack of ritual and the high precentage of Vietnam vets who suffe(ed) from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was intriguing and even insightful.

Yet the book has significant short-comings. First is Grossman's lack of proper citation, footnotes, and supporting evidence. Time and again Grossman quotes experts or refers to people and studies but never gives the source. Grossman makes the error of assuming that his audience is as familar with this topic as he is. At one point, Grossman tells of a meeting with a mysterious Dr. Narut who reveals assassin training techniques taken right out of A Clockwork Orange, yet Grossman gives no other evidence to support this. These are elemental flaws in scholarship and rhetoric, and are the kinds of things that would not be tolerated in college research writing.

The Korean War (or Conflict if you want o be politically correct) is another problem. Grossman explains that during WW II only 15 to 20 percent of soldiers actually fired. By Korea this percentage was 50 to 55 percent, and by Vietnam it was 90 to 95 percent. My dispute is not with Grossman's numbers, but with the fact that aside from this statistic, the Korean War is barely mentioned, and its soldiers are never associated with the problem of PTSD.

The other, and most important, problem with the book is Grossman's reasoning behind the increase in violence in today's world, America in particular. Essentially, Grossman blames the media, television violence, Hollywood, and video games. His reasoning is akin to that against violent comic books in the 1950's when they were seen as being responsible for the rise in teenage crime. Grossman argues against the anti-hero of today's movies and against violent monster movies such as Friday the Thirteenth. He argues that violent video games condition teenagers just as military training conditions soldiers. Yet he gives no evidence to support his point of view. He cites not one study or even a magazine article to help him (oddly enough, if he had read King's The Danse Macabre, King's textbook on horror from 1950 to 1980, he would have found at least anticdotal evidence). And while he is trying to make this part of the book the crux of his entire argument, he fails miserably because he displays no knowledge or understanding of contemporary American culture or film history/theory and where such characters as the anti-hero derive from. In effect, Grossman comes off as a Nancy Reagan clone, with a "Just say no!" attitude that offers no real insight into why violence has increased, or how to deal with it. Where Grossman wants to hit the target the most, he misses far wide of the mark.

A Highly Flawed Work on an Important Topic, May 9, 2009
LTC Grossman's book is highly overrated by far too many readers. His book does offer some valuable information on the combat efficiency of people over time on the modern battlefield. There is also some excellent insight into post-traumatic stress disorder. He suggests that in the past soldiers had more time to reflect and examine their experiences before returning to peaceful lives back home. Either armies had to march home, which could take days if not weeks, or they had to take a ship, which could take a similar amount of time. Our current policy of rapid reintroduction of soldiers just out of a combat zone as a cause of problems today is an important one.

The rest of his book, however, is flawed and should be taken with a grain of salt. To begin with, he takes modern assumptions and assigns them to all eras and epochs of the past, as if people of the past all have the same outlooks and reactions that we do today - they just wore different clothes. His assumption that people are somehow inherently predisposed not to kill each other and only do so with great mental conditioning leading to psychological harm flies in the face of the obvious lessons of history. A reading of history suggests our ancestors often waged aggressive and enthusiastic war with little trouble. Even more importantly, they did not need video games or death metal to encourage them to do it. The society and its views of war, I think, has more to do with reactions of soldiers than any innate mental disposition.
Some items he mentions show a poor understanding of practical matters. He suggests that centurions simply stood around encouraging their soldiers to fight, while a student of Roman warfare would recognize that the centurions were often in the thick of the fighting and doing so by fighting. They often led just as much by example as by shouting orders. The author also asserts that the reason thrusts with a sword are not used much is related to some psycho-sexual mental block. This only proves he has little concept of weapons through the ages, not to say the fact that he has never seriously used one. He also fails to comment on the development of specialized thrusting weapons in the late middle ages or the development of rapiers. That these weapons were used for several hundred years and thrusting the accepted technique for inflicting damage shows a poor understanding of swords, not to say weapons of the past in general. I wonder how he addresses the spear, the most common weapon for thousands of years?

Even more troubling is his use of SLA Marshall's work Men Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command to justify many of his positions. He quotes Marshall's famous firing rate: less than twenty-five percent of a unit would engage in combat with the enemy. The first problem is: He ignores Marshall's reason for this occurring. Marshall felt a lot of this had to do with the way soldiers were trained - only to fire their weapon if they could see a target. In modern war, a target is not always visible, hence the soldiers did not shoot when shot at. The soldiers who did shoot often were armed with BARS, machine guns, flame-throwers, etc. That is weapons that are meant to be used against an area as much as against individual targets. The second problem is that recent research has suggested that it is very likely Marshall simply made up this figure. His methodology was more focused on recreating the battle experience, not obtaining specific pieces of information for statistical purposes. With doubt cast on Marshall's firing rate, doubt has to be cast on LTC Grossman's conclusions and arguments which stem from it.

Another problem with LTC Grossman's book is that despite saying he conducted over four hundred interviews, he quotes from these very little. In fact, he tends to quote from the same couple of works, Soldiers: A history of men in battle by John Keegan and Richard Holmes and Acts of War: Behavior of Men in Battle by Richard Holmes, over and over again. Because of the repetition and limited sources, many of his assertions seem poorly supported and to rely entirely on the works of other people. If he conducted all these interviews, why does he not reference them more? Also to consider, just because modern people have certain reactions in battle, it does not mean that this is how it has been through time immemorial. This reviewer highly recommends the works of Richard Holmes and John Keegan as an alternative to this poor work.

Finally, when he is given information that runs contrary to his views, he glosses over it or attempts to make it fit his conclusions. The most prominent example regards the guilt officers feel when men under their command die following that officer's orders. Essentially, he says none of the officers he interviewed expressed any guilt. Rather than concluding that maybe they really do not feel guilt, he concludes they must all be suppressing it. This is just absurd - a blatant attempt to make the facts fit a preconceived notion that the author has.

It is unfortunate that this book is accepted so uncritically. His work has affected the work of others in a detrimental manner. The subject is an interesting one, but unfortunately poorly researched. Grossman did do a service in pointing out the importance of the topic. His arguments and conclusion, however, are flawed and poorly thought out. Despite his claim to a history degree, he seems to have a poor grasp of the subject and its study. And in the end his book becomes a screed against violent video games, movies, and music, as if this is to blame for all our problems. My advice is to avoid this book if at all possible.

Off Target, January 7, 2009
Amidst the smoke and karaoke crooning of New Year's Eve, a friend and I got to talking about trauma. I'm a US Navy veteran; I never killed, but I served in hazard zones and as a police officer. She recommended a book--*On Killing*.

Written by Lt. Colonel Dave Grossman, US Army retired, the book describes itself as the founding study on killing. To my surprise, I found it to be a pseudo-scientific screed against media.

--On Insults--

Right off the bat, the paperback takes a swing at skeptics. It compares us morally and scientifically to tobacco lobbyists. It also plays the race card, accusing people who oppose censorship of being racist. The book dismisses personal freedom itself, declaring:

"I think most individuals would agree that the `just turn it off' solution probably rates right up there with `let them eat cake' and `I was just following orders' as all-time offensive statements."

I'm offended by populist statements accusing critics of racist tyranny! Yet I read the whole book.

--On Media--

Far from a study of killing, the central thesis states: "Finally, *and perhaps most important*, I believe that this study will provide insight into the way that rifts in our society combine with violence in media and in interactive video games to indiscriminately condition our nation's children to kill." (emphasis Grossman's).

To this conclusion, the book follows a chain of hypotheses:

1) People are pacifists.
2) Atrocities and social conditions push people to kill.
3) The military exploits conditioning to push kill rates higher.
4) Media adopts military conditioning to program civilian children to kill.
5) First Amendment and market controls are required.

--On Veneer--

Unbefitting these controversial claims, the content is superficial.

*On Killing* examines American infantry during modern wars. Yet it generalizes that all humans throughout history are innately opposed to homicide. The text doesn't try to consider nurture instead of nature, failing to explore killing across different cultures, demographics, or periods. Nor does Grossman offer a mechanism for aversion, preferring to prattle poetically about people.

Repeatedly, the author claims original research. In practice, his study is a pile of cherry-picked quotes strung together with personal opinions, urban legends, and movie references. Credible citation is also absent; I would expect APA format at least. The book finally admits to reliance on pop literature for most of its testimonials--not exactly sound science.

Indeed, whole chapters babble with romantic commentary. Vietnam studies stray into denial that we lost the war, egotistical assertions of American prowess, and diatribes on the treatment of veterans. I often felt like I was reading a talk-show transcript.

--On Histrionics--

Frequent hysterics reinforce this tabloid quality. It announces, "After nuclear holocaust, the next major threat to our existence is the violent decay of our civilization due to violence-enabling in the electronic media." Pardon me while my eyes roll right out of their sockets!

The tone also raised my eyebrows. It sticks to the page with sexual and slaughterhouse metaphors. Yet obscenities are scoured, notably "f---" and "s---". I suspect any book that compares itself to a sex manual, but strikes out the language. I also mistrust loaded phrasing: specifically the repetitious use of "the egalitarian United States", "violence-enabling media", "brainwashing", and "conspiracies".

The author uses those last two terms a lot, as *On Killing* slips into conspiracy theories. From the start, it declares media violence to be a genocidal plot against black people. The Vietnam chapters suggest an illuminati-like anti-war movement. The final sections build off fantastic *Clockwork Orange* CIA scenarios.

These creepy assertions bubble out of otherwise sedate passages, until less-discerning readers float atop without any idea that their feet have left the ground.

--On Manipulation--

*On Killing* really sails into space when it applies fallacy to American society. The central thesis states that humans are inherently adverse to killing, but modern electronic media reproduces combat conditioning without safeguards. Now I don't doubt media influences human behavior. I do doubt *On Killing* for drawing far-fetched conclusions from dubious methodology:

>Reliance on Arguments from Authority,
>Argument from Repetition,
>Band Wagon Appeals,
>and Inappropriate Analogies.

The book also suffers pervasive cognitive bias:

>Fallacy of correlation versus causation.
>Omitting reasonable alternatives.
>Reinforcing bias through false dilemma.

Example: The book claims graphic media is the only increasing factor in violent crime. This ignores the history of economic conditions, hard drugs, and firearms, or criminal immigration. The book further fails to account for pitfalls of statistical reporting. It reinforces bias by denying the potency of firearms and drugs. Grossman's false dilemma claims that science cannot safely prove a link between media and violence, so we should assume it on his authority.

--On Conclusion--

After 300-pages of war stories, *On Killing* asserts that Dirty Harry turned our children into murderers. It coyly advocates government censorship and public censure to control our expression.

This has nothing to do with a study of killing. This *is* another fallacy, related to the "irrelevant conclusion": the author presents an attractive set of arguments--those sympathetic soldiers-- then switches to a disconnected thesis. Overall, the book calls itself into question with what amounts to a 30-page non-sequitur.

To paraphrase the text itself, *On Killing* stakes out the same moral and scientific ground as the tobacco industry. It insults readers and their beliefs. Arguments are trite and sag with fallacy. And the histrionics--the melodramatic declarations, the conspiracy theories, and the twisted morality--makes this sham of psychology as crazy as the patient.

A different view of the Vietnam war., October 11, 2004
Grossman, D. (1996). On killing. NY: Back Bay Books.

To read Grossman's gripping study of killing in a military environment requires a degree of courage from the readers. In fact, those Vietnam colleagues who are not travelling well may be better off not reading this book for it peels back the psychological layers of training to kill, and then the guilt that has been generated from being part of the harvesting of the body count. Importantly, the author recognises that Vietnam was different, for a variety of reasons, to any other war that we have fought.

Grossman has impeccable credentials. He rose from the rank of private to lieutenant colonel and served in the 82nd Airborne, 7th Infantry Division and the U.S. Rangers and as a psychology professor at West Point.

After the Second World War, the British and Americans studied the phenomenon of non-firers. American studies confirmed that in battles only 15-20% of the troops shot to kill. In some situations where several riflemen were together firing at the enemy, others in the group would take on supporting roles (getting ammunition, tending the wounded etc.). There was a conspiracy of silence over the non-firers and those involved in a conspiracy to miss, even when their lives were endangered. The British confirmed that among the Argentinean troops in the Falklands, there was a similar rate of non-firers.

However, by the time of the Vietnam War, training techniques had been changed and the firing rates were around 95%. Herein lies the root of the problems faced by Vietnam veterans. As a result of the non-firing data, training methods were re-designed to remove the moral dilemma of taking human lives. Recruits were trained to shoot body shaped targets, not bullseyes and recruits were rewarded for "kills". At Puckapunyal (Recruit Training), recruits for Vietnam were instructed to aim for the chest, so if the enemy doesn't die they become a burden for their medical support teams. Bayonet training, which had probably remained unchanged for over 100 years, was designed to massively damage the enemy soldier's abdominal-thoracic region with a steel instrument possessing two specifically designed blood grooves. And, as the RDI said, "If you are unlucky enough to bayonet the enemy in the head and can't get your bayonet out, discharge a round and it should split the head open."
In, out, on guard! Kill, kill!
The NCOs' and officers' jobs in combat remain to get the troops to kill. I cannot agree with Grossman's observation that British officers do their jobs better because of the class distinction between themselves and their men, which allowed them to make more objective decisions (p. 168). The "fragging" phenomenon in Vietnam occurred because of this perceived officer indifference to the suffering of the troops.

Killing another human being is not a natural act, contrary to what the movies would have us believe. Grossman argued that only 2% of the troops are natural killers (psychopaths/sociopaths), the others need a variety of support strategies to overcome the feeling of guilt that eventually emerge. Perhaps a strongpoint of this book is the excellent diagrams, which capture the essence of key points in this treatise. The diagram showing the predisposition to kill (p.188) is a good example of Grossman's clarity of thought. He shows that the demands of authority, training and conditioning, experience, target attractiveness and group support all come into play before the trigger is pulled.

So, what made Vietnam different to previous and subsequent wars? Firstly, the training was different and the re-socialisation of recruits, particularly those conscripted into the military, was designed to make certain that the troops would kill. The troop rotations generally had new members of units arriving and leaving as individuals, thus denying them the support and absolutions for what they had taken part in. Thirdly, there was no safe rear area and troops had to be battle ready, always. The Swank and Marchand research of 1946 showed that after 25 days in combat troops suffered combat exhaustion, with a reduction in their effectiveness and ending after 50 days in a vegetative phase. Fourthly, the lack of support from the home communities turned many Vietnam veterans into pariahs and it took over a decade to begin to remedy this dreadful, politically driven alienation. As a result, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) manifested itself in many returning troops, who often left Vietnam and were expected to be civilians again within 12 hours. It was interesting that the British sent troops home from the Falklands by boat to overcome this specific problem of the lack of group absolution.

For me, this book was an interesting read, but importantly it made me understand myself and my veteran colleagues a little better.

[...]

Neil MacNeill, 31 Charlie.
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Editorial Review

In the town of Ada, Oklahoma, Ron Williamson was going to be the next Mickey Mantle. But on his way to the Big Leagues, Ron stumbled, his dreams broken by drinking, drugs, and women. Then, on a winter night in 1982, not far from Ron’s home, a young cocktail waitress named Debra Sue Carter was savagely murdered. The investigation led nowhere. Until, on the flimsiest evidence, it led to Ron Williamson. The washed-up small-town hero was charged, tried, and sentenced to death—in a trial littered with lying witnesses and tainted evidence that would shatter a man’s already broken life…and let a true killer go free. Impeccably researched, grippingly told, filled with eleventh-hour drama, John Grisham’s first work of nonfiction reads like a page-turning legal thriller. It is a book that will terrify anyone who believes in the presumption of innocence—a book no American can afford to miss.
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Reviews

Guilty Until Proven Innocent?, December 7, 2007
The phrase "Grisham book" and word "important" aren't often found in the same sentence, but John Grisham's 2006 non-fiction book, "The Innocent Man", allows me to state that Grisham has now written the most important book of his mega-successful career, and one of the most important I've read by any author.

The book recounts two murders in the small town of Ada, Oklahoma. Both victims are young women. In both cases, the local and state police investigating the case are stumped. But with a toxic blend of extremely circumstantial "evidence", shocking crime scene photos, junk science, inexpert experts, jailhouse snitches and critical "dream confessions" induced by near-torture tactics, the police pin the murders on four young men of the area, two per murder.

The "innocent man" of the title is 30-something ne'er-do-well Ron Williamson, a schoolboy baseball star whose dreams of playing in Yankee Stadium dissolve in the low minors in a mix of arm injuries, booze and the onset of mental illness. By the time of the murder that consumes most of Grisham's tale, Williamson has washed up back home in Ada, and deservedly earned a reputation as a loudmouth loose cannon of sorts. Still his worst crime is passing a $300 phony check.

Skipping forward quickly, Williamson becomes the focus of the police's investigation and ultimately finds himself on death row in an Oklahoma criminal justice system whose aim seems to be to continuously reduce the amount of respect shown to death row inmates until it reaches zero. Shrewd detectives that they are, the police "know" that there's a second killer because of a misspelled warning message written in catsup at the scene, "dont chase us or ealse." Enter suspect two, single father Dennis Fritz, whose main crime is to be a friend of Williamson.

I'll stop here regarding the "plot", even though this is a news story and you could look it up. While novelistic in format, "The Innocent Man" reads more like a newspaper report, or like a lawyer dispassionately recounting the facts of a case. (Well after awhile not so dispassionately, as the injustices against the accused and then convicted men pile up.) The issues raised by the case and brought to light by Grisham cover the gamut of criminal justice - abuse of police power, single-minded focus on particular suspects and deliberate ignorance of others, near-torture-induced confessions, prosecutorial arrogance, lack of resources provided to defendants, mishandling of evidence, coercion of expert witnesses, use of junk science to dazzle a jury, the general and mistaken belief by the community that the police only arrest guilty parties, and most compellingly in Williamson's case, the inability of the criminal justice system to recognize and deal humanely with mentally ill prisoners.

My wife read the almost 450-page paperback version in one day. She then bugged me to read it for several days until I interrupted my second attempt at Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer: A Novel and dove in. Even while sick, I finished it in a day-and-a-half. After his disappointing novella "Bleachers", I'd pretty much written off Grisham (never have considered him much better an airplane read in the first place), but I'm deeply grateful to him to recognizing the power of this story and bringing to the attention of so many people with this fine book. I also salute him for sticking to the non-fiction format, resisting the novelist's urge to fictionalize the story and embellish it with tie-ins to the Oklahoma City bombing, 9/11 and the like. "The Innocent Man" may not stand up as literature to recently-deceased Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song, but it's still a great book--the best true-crime story I've read with the most important messages about America's criminal justice system and its generally unrecognized threat to innocent men and women everywhere (and especially in Ada, OK where the DA that prosecuted the cases is still in office).

AMBIVALENCE, October 18, 2006
Ambivalence really sums up my feelings toward Mr. Grisham's latest book. Depressing is another. I applaud Mr. Grisham in his attempt to analyze the hows and whys of just what happened to Ron Williamson during his hectic, confusing, and sometimes just unlucky life. From outstanding major league baseball prospect, to drug and alcohol abuser, to mentally unstable convict, to exonerated felon, Ron Williamson never really knew any peace off the baseball diamond. His dream of a major league career shattered he simply withdrew into his own private hell of dope, booze, loose women, honky tonks, and insanity.
Sometimes a difficult book to follow, the darkness that Mr. Grisham maintains throughout the book is at times oppressive. How many times must Ron Williamson have to exhibit mental instability before someone, anyone, gets him real help and not just temporary "band-aid" his CHRONIC mental problems. It is a wonder that he didn't harm someone during his drunken, drug induced haze. Finally convicted of a murder he never committed, the complex judicial process to free him was very well told by Mr. Grisham. Ron's years spent on "death row" were both illuminating, sad, and frightening all at the same time. His eventual release and exoneration was the ONLY happy point in an otherwise sad biography of a profoundly unhappy life.
Again, I was ambivalent about this book. I can not say I enjoyed it but I did learn from it. This is not your typical light Grisham reading so be very careful. Be ready for a heavy, dark, oppressive book that while educating about the legal system, at the same time leaves one empty about the sad state of this nation's mental health programs. This up close and personal view of America's seamy underbelly will stay with you for quite awhile.

Somewhat Disappointing, January 7, 2008
The fact that this is a true story is both the book's greatest asset and it's biggest liability as well. To think that such irresponsible legal shenanigans could occur in America is truly a sobering thought. The manner in which the Williamson case and others described in the book were handled by the parties involved is disgusting. That aspect of the story makes the book an intriguing read.

On the flip side, the true nature of the story also holds Grisham back. In sticking with the facts, his creativity was limited. Among Grisham's greatest strengths as a writer are character development and intricate setting of the locale. In both of these instances, the facts limit what Grisham can do. Simply put, at times I felt I was reading the daily news, not a book.

Grisham should be applauded for writing a book that helped bring this injustice to a larger audience. The book may not entertain, certainly not to the degree of his best work, but what he did here was more important than anything else he could have written. Somewhere, at some point in the future, this book will prevent another innocent individual from being unfairly railroaded. If nothing else, Grisham should be proud of that fact, and we all should be grateful to him.

The True Nightmare, October 17, 2006
Justice sometimes get to be a commodity, rationed not by need but by wealth. This dirty secret is something all lawyers, including myself, know.

The justice system itself is designed to protect the truly innocent even at the cost of protecting the guilty. Thus a lot of safeguards are built into the system because experience has shown that once an injustice is done, it is very difficult to undo it.

Criminal lawyers, and although I am a trial lawyer I practice solely in the civil courts, will tell you that their greatest nightmare is to represent the truly innocent client. This is because although the law presumes the client is innocent, trial counsel, jaded by thousands of lies from clients, does not. If your lawyer does not truly believe in you, and you are truly innocent, can you get a fair trial?

The answer to this question is explored in what may be the best true-crime work since In Cold Blood. Ron Williamson, former minor league prospect, now burdened with incurable mental illness is targeted by the police and prosecutors in Ada, Oklahoma as the killer of Debbie Carter. Another man Dennis Fritz, whose real crime was to be a friend to Ron, is also targeted.

When the police fail to turn up a killer in nearly five years of investigation and an author puts the spotlight on the local police for a highly questionable conviction in another murder case, the cops and prosecutors press forward against Fritz and Williamson, using perjured evidence, discredited forensics, high emotion, and active concealment of exculpatory evidence. The trial judge tolerated the abuse of the defendants constitutional rights to the point of scheduling a Brady motion ( a hearing to punish the state for not turning over exculpatory evidence) after the trial, when it could do no good. The appellate courts, perhaps overwhelmed with appeals from the truly guilty, showed little evidence of ever having read the record.

So it came down to the federal courts for the system to correct itself. A federal magistrate judge carefully considered the briefs, and the trial record and was persuaded that Williamson had been denied a fair trial. The district judge, exercising the same degree of care as his magistrate and law clerks concurred, ordering the state to retry Williamson, who at one point was five days away from a date with death.

It was that order for a new trial that set into motion the events that would lead to the total exoneration of Williamson and Fritz.
When the DNA results were provided, they not only showed that Williamson and Fritz were not involved and also that the chief prosecution witness against them was in fact the real killer.

Nice Change..., November 27, 2006
To be honest, I had grown tired of John Grishom's books. They seemed to all have the same plot after a while. But this book...WOW. I was very impressed. What a scary thing to think that this goes on in our judicial systems, however, I have seen first hand that it does happen, everyday in our court systems. While some may feel that they were weighed down in too many facts, most true crime stories do this, but I didn't find it to be boring in the least. It was a great book, one of his best.

WHAT A SHAM!!!, November 23, 2006
"If you believe that in America you are innocent until proven guilty, this book will shock you. If you believe in the death penalty, this book will disturb you. If you believe the criminal justice system is fair, this book will infuriate you."

Whenever I think of John Grisham, I think of all the joy that he has brought to me through his writing, and I am always happy to see his new arrivals.

An Innocent Man is a work of non-fiction taking place in the state of Oklahoma, in the small town of Ada, in the eighties.

When Debra Sue Carter, a cocktail waitress is raped and murdered one night after leaving a bar, the police pounce immediately on Dennis Fritz, and Ron Williamson; two young men of Ada. With no evidence or witnesses, it seems as though the Law wanted to have someone to bring before the courts to prove they were doing their job. These two unfortunate men kept claiming their innocence over and over again, but all to no avail. Their appeals fell on death ears. Eventually, Mr. Fritz was given a life sentence and Mr. Williamson sent to death row.

How did the judicial system work that out? Why did they not spend some more time trying to get at the truth of what really happened that night? They spend their hopeless lives behind bars until one day; someone gets the guts to tear this charade to pieces, bit by bit, revealing the plain truth of that night.

What makes you mad about this case is to see the amount of precious time these guys wasted in jail. It took a toll on their mental and physical health, and someone should have to pay for incriminating these poor guys.
Reviewed by Heather Marshall Negahdar (SUGAR-CANE 23/11/06)

Not a true John Grisham Fan, October 15, 2006
John Grisham fans may regard this book with suspicion. It is not his usual gripping fiction. I will admit that I have read very few of his books because I am more interested in nonfiction; although I did read A Painted House and I loved it. However, this book is captivating. I was fascinated and couldn't put it down. Some true crime books predictably describe the crime and then in agonizing detail relay what happened during the trial, including transcripts of opening and closing arguments (which I usually skip through.) Grisham only includes information that is meaningful and allows the story to flow. I found it almost painful to follow every development of the evidence because I knew the significance and I was so sympathetic to the main character. I also enjoyed his occasional sarcastic comments here and there, which provided some amusement and levity.
I think that if one enjoys the true crime genre, and respects John Grisham's writing talent, this book is absolutely worth the read. I recommend it whole-heartedly. I was disappointed when I watched his interview on the Today show and he said he would likely never write non-fiction again.

Lack of remorse in Oklahoma, September 26, 2007
This story had a tremendous impact on me. I support the death penalty but was abhorred to see how flippantly it was applied in Ada Oklahoma. Read this book first and then log onto District Attorney Peterson's web site to read his defense of his actions that were the subject of the book. The first thing he displays on his website is the American flag. Then he has a lengthy and tedious defense of all the minor points in Grisham's novel. He provides statistics on the probability of innocent people being convicted of felonies as if this excuses him for almost sending an innocent person to his death. Peterson tries to blow off Grisham as an anti-death penalty advocate. I truly fear for the soul of Mr. Peterson and the good people of Ada Oklahoma - a bit of remorse and repentance for what they almost did to an innocent man would help them when they meet their Maker. Hiding behind the American flag might help now but certainly not later!

A Compelling Story, Told by a Master, November 19, 2006
I always enjoy an author who takes a chance and tries something new. It can prove he isn't a fluke or just lucky but genuinely gifted. Grisham's first foray into non-fiction is a powerful, thoughtful, important and ultimately (nessesarily) depressing and proves once and for all he is a master writer in more than one genre.
Ron Williamson's story is cautionary tale for a flawed judicial system that can, and unfortunately often makes horrible mistakes. The story of an innocent man found guilty and sent to jail for the crimes of someone else is sad, especially knowing even after years pent in prison that those years can never be returned. Some ultimately found innocent after first being convicted never live down the crime because there will always be those who will still believe he was really guilty, and the discrimination almost never ends. In the case of Williamson the injustice can never be undone, and that is just too horrific to dwell upon.
I'm sure Grisham didn't write this story to establish a basis for ending capital punishment, but maybe, just maybe that can be a single good result of his effort. As a civilized country we should be able to see beyond the rhetoric of those who think the death penalty does any good in any situation. But this book will probably bring back the debate and that can only be a good thing.
The writing is strong well paced, and the research that went into telling the story in an honest way produced an excellent result. Though I hope Grisham will continue with his fiction career, I wouldn't be at all disappointed if in the future he wanders again to non-fiction. He has the honest, legitimate chops for both genres.

Great Book, Terrible Story, October 13, 2006
Grisham's "The Innocent Man" is about how a former local baseball star and his friend' descended into a 12-year hellhole of criminal justice incompetence and abuse that led one to the state's Death Row and the other to a life sentence - contributors included their defense counsels, the Ada, OK. police department, jail staff, prosecutor and judge, and the state crime lab, Court of Appeals, and Department of Corrections. Lies, fundamental errors, fake science, and failure to provide basic mental-health care ruled, until a reviewer in the federal court system took the time to realize that a serious miscarriage had taken place. Even then it took another four years for the two to be freed thanks to DNA evidence (the prosecutor still fought their release), and still another four years for the real killer to be convicted - even though his strong likelihood of guilt was obvious at the beginning (last person seen with the victim, and in a conflict mode) and absolute DNA proof available when those falsely imprisoned were released.

Two lives were ruined - a travesty that likely would have been avoided if the judge and prosecutor involved had not been so anxious to save $7,200 on expert rebuttal testimony. Grisham also briefly referenced two others ensnared in a similar web that eventually won freedom through DNA, as well as two others that probably would have were the evidence available. Nonetheless, Oklahoma is back to "business as usual" - executing more prisoners/capita than any other state, including Texas.

The good news is that DNA testing has since become much more prevalent, and the justice system also has people like the federal court system reviewer who originally flagged the case, Barry Sheck, and others. Also, kudos to the relatives of the two falsely accused - they provided invaluable psychological support, and to Grisham for revealing the sometimes startling weakness of our criminal justice system. ... Read more

Editorial Review

A riveting true crime story that vividly recounts the birth of modern forensics.

At the end of the nineteenth century, serial murderer Joseph Vacher, known and feared as “The Killer of Little Shepherds,” terrorized the French countryside. He eluded authorities for years—until he ran up against prosecutor Emile Fourquet and Dr. Alexandre Lacassagne, the era’s most renowned criminologist. The two men—intelligent and bold—typified the Belle Époque, a period of immense scientific achievement and fascination with science’s promise to reveal the secrets of the human condition.

With high drama and stunning detail, Douglas Starr revisits Vacher’s infamous crime wave, interweaving the story of how Lacassagne and his colleagues were developing forensic science as we know it. We see one of the earliest uses of criminal profiling, as Fourquet painstakingly collects eyewitness accounts and constructs a map of Vacher’s crimes. We follow the tense and exciting events leading to the murderer’s arrest. And we witness the twists and turns of the trial, celebrated in its day. In an attempt to disprove Vacher’s defense by reason of insanity, Fourquet recruits Lacassagne, who in the previous decades had revolutionized criminal science by refining the use of blood-spatter evidence, systematizing the autopsy, and doing groundbreaking research in psychology. Lacassagne’s efforts lead to a gripping courtroom denouement.

The Killer of Little Shepherds is an important contribution to the history of criminal justice, impressively researched and thrillingly told. ... Read more

Reviews

The psycopath and the professor, September 10, 2010

Very Interesting Story of Earlier Serial Killer and Forensics Methods, September 19, 2010

Science and crime solving in the 19th century, September 10, 2010

Fascinating, Thorough And Disturbing, November 7, 2010

Account of 19th Century Serial Killer's Horrific Crimes, Supplemented With History of Forensics, October 6, 2010

Very interesting, September 27, 2010

People lie. Evidence does not., September 18, 2010

"One must know how to doubt.", August 27, 2010

Very Impressive, November 24, 2010

Intelligent, thrilling and educational, November 17, 2010

Editorial Review

In this brilliant work, the most influential philosopher since Sartre suggests that such vaunted reforms as the abolition of torture and the emergence of the modern penitentiary have merely shifted the focus of punishment from the prisoner's body to his soul. ... Read more

Reviews

About power and agency, not prisons, August 6, 2003
This book is no more about the history of prisons than the fable of the rabbit and hare is about animal competition. Foucault is writing about the power of normalization in western society.

Within five minutes of my residence there are two large Texas state prisons. The offenders incarcerated in these facilities exist in a network of interlocking disciplinary mechanisms, mechanisms that Foucault unveils in this book. The criminal justice system, the prison environment, the educational/training opportunities available during incarceration, parolee supervision, and the limited employment options on release all coordinate to encapsulate the offender's life. The offender's agency is significantly impaired for the balance of his life regardless of his domiciliary.

I live in a master planned, suburban community subject to a detailed and lengthy list of deed restrictions. These deed restrictions dictate the colors that I can paint my house, the height to which my grass can grow, the type of trees that I can plant in the front yard as well as the insistence that I plant three trees in my front yard. My wife and I have had to paint the front door twice in the last four years to comply with homeowner association threats, and we have been chastised for offenses as "severe" as leaving a hose uncoiled for too long in the front yard.

Now I admit that there is a modicum of agency in my decision to live in this specific community; however, just like the offenders incarcerated nearby, I live in a network of interlocking disciplinary mechanisms. I contend that my agency is also significantly impaired. The difference between my life and the offender's life is one of degree, not kind.

This is the message Foucault communicates with both style and substance in this book. He identifies three means by which power works on each of us to coerce compliance with the standards of normality: hierarchical observation, normalizing judgment, and examination.

The sad and simple fact is that surveillance is coercive. We might all see the public good in maintaining records of the offenses of the violent, but think for a moment about all of the records kept on you - telephone calls, financial transactions, medical tests and treatment, insurance claims, library check outs, video rentals, credit reports, credit card transactions, property ownership, internet sites, and tax filings. Hierarchical observation is a fact of modern life, and it seems to be steadily increasing.

By normalizing judgment, Foucault is referring to the power inherent in all social expectations. Try applying for a job, a business loan, a home mortgage, or a graduate program, and you will quickly feel the power of normalizing judgments. Woe to the applicant who stands out as different! Rarely do those exercising judgment question their standards, and even more rarely do they make exceptions on an individual basis. The message is loud - conform or else.

The last and perhaps most subtle power of normalization lies in the use of examinations. Even low paying professions (public school teachers, social workers, home day care operators) must attain licensure through examination. In Texas, third graders cannot be promoted to the fourth grade without passing a statewide exam. We endure the dominance of testing because of its presumed objectivity, but we all know that testing is not objective. Bias in design and in test conditions influence outcomes, and the testing continues despite an absence of evidence that it reliably predicts future performance.

I think this book is brilliant and disturbing. It is not always easy to read, but then, what book worth reading is? Foucault is given to dramatic images, and he does little to mitigate the impact of these images on the reader. Perhaps he is really trying to increase this impact. Since he is attempting to counter the powers of normalization, he may need all of the momentum he can get.

We Are All Inside the Panopticon Now, April 27, 2002
This book has been described as Foucault's masterpiece, and for good reason. Through this "genealogy" of history, Foucault shows us how modern society has become penal and coercive in nature; and perhaps more importantly, that all us now live in the midst of an abstract, authoritative public "gaze."

Although the book traverses a lot of historical ground, Foucault's discussion culminates in an analysis of Jeremy Bentham's prison concept. Bentham, the founder of Utilitarianism philosophy, believed that individual rights are subordinate to the state. In fact, he went so far as to call them "nonsense on stilts." As long as the government protected its people and treated them decently, he did not believe that the polity could be accused of oppressing its citizen - be they convicts or otherwise. Thus, Bentham was the first philosopher to give the modern penal system its rational underpinnings. Today, we take it as a matter of course that those who do not conform to laws are trucked off to prison. But with this book, Foucault attempts to completely undermine our intuitive sense of what is right, what is coercive, what is rational, and ultimately what is true. Perhaps better than any other author out there, Foucault shows us the subtle madness of Western institutional logic.

Foucault focused on Bentham's prison model, or the Penopticon as Bentham called it - which literally means, that which sees all. The Penopticon prison, which was popular in the early nineteenth century, was designed to allow guards to see their prisons, but not allow prisoners to see guards. The building was circular, with prisoner's cells lining the outer diameter, and in the center of the circle was a large, central observational tower. At any given time, guards could be looking down into each prisoner's cells - and thereby monitor potentially unmoral behavior - but carefully-placed blinds prevented prisoners from seeing the guards, thereby leaving them to wonder if they were being monitored at any given moment. It was Bentham's belief that the "gaze" of the Panopticon would force prisoners to behave morally. Like the all-seeing eye of God, they would feel shame at their wicked ways. In effect, the coercive nature of the Panopticon was built into its very structure.

Discipline and Punish is still relevant for today, even though the Panopticon has vanished. For starters, the United States government now possesses the technology to view see and hear anybody on the face of the planet. In fact, just recently the FBI announced that they have the right (invested in them by the state) to monitor any phone conversations they deem a threat to national security. Furthermore, for the same reason, the CIA or the DIA may use high-tech satellite technology to monitor actions anywhere on the face of the planet. Currently, these satellites have the ability to spot and read the date off a dime in the street. These new technological developments have completely altered the meaning "gaze" in the modern context. In a very real way, we are all living in the Panopticon now.

Moreover, Foucault would have never guessed the future of American prison systems. Today, Americans put more people behind bars than in any other country in the world, while public education, job training, and other resources that might potentially help people stay off drugs or out of crime in the first place are under funded. Furthermore, the vast majority of convicts who are released - many having been brutalized in prison - often end up behind bars again in no time, usually for small offenses involving drugs or petty larceny (that is, non-violent crimes involving property). Thirty years ago, when Foucault died, prisons were still run by the state. However, today prisons are increasingly being privatized and run as businesses, with the further benefit of huge government subsidies. The United States now prioritizes prison funding over education and rehabilitation - spending roughly 40 billion a year on operation and construction of new prisons. The prison industry is booming.

Anyway, this book is a must-read classic. It will abhor you, enthrall you, and provide immeasurable food for thought. It drove me to ask questions about the nature of knowledge, history, and the evolution of a persecuting society. Controversial to the teeth, this work will definately activate all your higher faculties and blast you off on all sort of theoretical tangents. Once I started I couldn't put it down. As Foucault said himself, he writes "experience book," and I couldn't agree more. I highly recommend having this experience, if only for the sake of where it will land you.

A final note for those who are interested... Oddly enough, Jeremy Bentham was not buried or incinerated like most people after he died. He willed his body to be preserved and displayed. It was dissected in a medical amphitheater at the Web Street School of anatomy in London, three days after his death. (By the way, this was illegal at the time. Only executed murderers could be dissected according to the law). His organs were then removed, and the original head replaced with a wax one. After being stolen by students as a joke, the real head is now kept in a safe in the College. The body, dressed in Bentham's own clothes, remains stuffed with hay, straw, wool, cotton and lavender to keep moths away. Since he was a founder of University College, Bentham is ensconced inside a glass fronted mahogany case (on casters), set unceremoniously in a busy hallway. He is regularly visited by scholars from all over the world, once went to a beer festival in Germany, and is brought to the table once a year for the annual Bentham Dinner. Amazingly, he was also trundled to the annual Board of Directors meeting for years, who still leave his old chair empty out of respect.

Becomes riveting around page 220, December 21, 1999
Foucault traces the history of the prison system and the fundamental change in punishment that took place in the seventeenth century from retributive punishment of criminals, 'supplice,' to the rehabilitation of delinquents. Foucault is concerned with this change as it demonstrates something pervasive and not just exclusive to the prison system--normalization, or socialization. All the silly little things done in schools, for instance, you will see in quite a different light after reading this book. It's one of those books that--well, at the risk of sounding supremely cornball, will open your mind. All mind-opening books are painful, though, and this is definitely a painful read, mainly thanks to Foucault's _terrible_ writing style. Apparently he wrote it in two days straight with the aid of way too much coffee. (This is partly the translator's fault--other translator's version are a [slight] improvement, and when Foucault wrote in English he did a better job than any of his translators. Slightly better, that is.) Be prepared for sentences within sentences within sentences within sentences within sentences, none of which are marked off by parentheses or dashes. Foucault uses commas very, very lavishly, as some sort of all-purpose punctuation mark, and shies away from periods as if they were the Plague. Eventually, you get used to it, though, and the content is actually worth it.

The Profit Order World, February 17, 2005
Reviewers are right about this book tracing the origins of the modern surveillance state back to the birth of the modern prison system but they are not mentioning the prime motive for this that Foucault points to: profit and capitalism. With the rise of industrial society it was more important to regiment and discipline the masses than 'off with their head' or hands. The panopticon prison idea was taken to the factory and service industry by industial giants like Carnegie and Rockefeller and the fruits of this profitable perversion can be seen all over society today: delivery drivers monitored throughout the day by GPS, social security cards, public schooling (founded by the same industrial giants) intellectual and psychological grading, job placement and conformity, credit ratings, licences needed to do everything but go to the bathroom, a growing snitch culture...Foucault's major thesis is that surveillance (discipline) aids profit and any deviation from profit leads to state-sanctioned punishment in the form of increased surveillance. As industry and profits increase so will the surveillance and discipline that make it run smoothly. Every facet of modern society works to this end. The irony is, as techno-pundits like McCluhan later pointed out, in the modern world the prisoner with a tv set has as much denatured freedom as the tycoon in his guarded estate and they enjoy a lot of the same things in a world where pleasure is increasingly programmed and vicarious; in a world that has turned from the moral order to the profit order, where bad credit today is the profit order version of the ancient moral order idea of excommunication. Everything that stands in the way of the profit order, whether it be an idea, person, religion, or country is attacked. Bottom line, we are all 'human resources' in the political economy, in the religion of capital: packaged and packed like a bunch of sardines with the capitalist state and its laws protecting the tabernacle of profit over all else. The inanity and inherent fraud of our system, not to mention the explosion of prison populations and an insane consumer society, makes a lot more sense after being traced by a renegade like Foucault. Of all his books this is also the easiest read. This is a beautiful book by a complicated man. by the way, he taught at the University of Buffalo for a short time.

Grisly..., May 13, 2000
Michel Foucault is a rather difficult individual to pigeonhole as belonging to one or another scholarly discipline. Is he a philosopher? Well, yes, but there is much more to his work than philosophical inquiry. Is he a psychologist? I suppose that could be argued. Is he a historian? Sort of, but then again his works contain so much philosophy....and round & round we go. So, probably the best thing to do is not attempt to confine Foucault to any one genre of scholarship.

The present book showcases all of Foucault's interwoven, cross-disciplinary talents. F takes us on a tour of the history of punishment in France & Britain over the course of the past 250 years. Surprisingly enough, our modern day image of huge prisons simply did not exist before that period.

The book grapples with the struggle of society to remain humane in a facet of life that is inherently inhumane: the treatment of our criminals. In doing so, F adopts the methodology utilized by Nietzsche in his "On The Geneology Of Morals."

We begin with the most grotesque executions of a few hundred years ago & witness how the paradigm shift went from vengeance to reform re: our handling of criminals. F notes how the primary goal of the prison became one of making the prisoner paranoid that he was being watched, which would (hopefully) instill within him the understanding that he could not get away with violating rules (both inside the prison & also once he was released back into society).

This is an extraordinary book that I would recommend to anyone who is interested in the judicial system, the history of the prison, or anyone who just has a curiousity about the social & political forces which decide the manner in which we mete out punishment to our malefactors. A great read.

Power, Discipline and Institutions in Modernity, October 6, 2003
I've read this book three times: First time was in undergraduate, second time was in law school, third time was last week. I can honestly say that my understanding of this work has grown with each reading, but that growth in comprehension has come more from my reading of other books either discussing or related to Discipline and Punish.

Specifically, I would recommend Jurgen Habermas's critique of Foucault, although I now forget which book of his contains his critique. I would also recommend Goffman's "Asylums" and Sykes "The Society of the Prison" as works which can illuminate Foucault's oft dense prose.

Foucault's main thesis is that the transistion of society into modernity has resulted in institutions which are increasingly devoted to the control of the "inmate's" time. The instituions use this control of time to develop discipline. Discipline is then used to both reinforce the strength of the instituion and also to expand the reach of institution's into the community.

As other reviewers have noted, this book isn't really about Prisons. Rather, the development of the modern prison represents the pinnacle of the relationship between power and discipline. Foucault leads up to his discussion of the prison by examining developments in other instituions: the work shop, the school and the barracks.

I really would encourage admirers of this work to read Goffman's "Asylums". The two books overlap to a considerable degree, but they both complement one another.

A challenge to traditional conceptions of the prison.

, December 3, 1996
Using academic works and legal documents dating back to the early 1700s, Foucault constructs a history of punishment in France, beginning with the spectacle of corporal punishment and public execution and ending with the institution of the modern prison. He argues that over the course of approximately eighty years (between the torture and execution of Damiens the regicide in 1757 and the opening of Mettray in 1840) that corporal punishment and public execution dissolved and incarceration became the punishment par excellence for transgressions against society.

This transition is rooted in two Enlightenment ideals: humanity and equality. On one hand, penal reformers argued that public execution is cruel and inhumane, and on the other, that the criminal laws and their corresponding punishments were too haphazard and unevenly distributed. In light of these criticisms, a series of political, economic, moral, and legal transformations occurred that found its ultimate expression in the establishment of the prison. Having argued this, Foucault concludes his discussion by explaining why the prison has been such a permanent institution in society, despite the criticisms that it fails to reform criminals and to reduce crime.

Everything considered, the title Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison is misleading. The title suggests a simple (or rather, complex) explanation of the emergence of the prison out of the classical period. Foucault does indeed construct a history of the prison, but his project involves far more than simply articulating the process by which the prison is born.

More generally, and more importantly, Discipline and Punish is a study in the relationship of power and knowledge, a theme that runs through the majority of Foucault's scholarship. This power/knowledge complex is the model by which Foucault constructs the birth of the prison in France. It is also the model used in his earlier works (e.g., Madness and Civilization and The Birth of the Clinic), though it is not as explicitly articulated as in Discipline and Punish. The power/knowledge complex is based on the premise that power and knowledge are intimately bound, that each relies on the other, and, in a sense, presupposes the other. With respect to the prison, Foucault states that power is not inherent in the institution per se, but in the techniques of discipline that were developed and on which the prison rests. Discipline "is a type of power, a modality for its exercise, comprising a whole set of instruments, techniques, procedures, application, [and] targets . . . And it may be taken over . . . by 'specialized' institutions," such as the prison (215).

When power is "taken over" by institutions, it has a tendency to generate bodies of knowledge. In the case of the prison, the body of knowledge that is created is the delinquent, including his behavior, his desires and fears, in short, his whole being. This knowledge reinforces any preexisting power and allows for the creation of other bodies of knowledge, such as criminology, sociology, and psychology.

Foucault's study draws on the work of Nietzsche and Marx. Building on Nietzsche's focus on power, Foucault argues that the various discourses occurring in society are rooted in the power/knowledge complex and that this complex is realized on and through the bodies of individuals, in this case, delinquents. However, Foucault is not clear about who exactly uses power and creates knowledge. He insinuates that the dominant class is the one that benefits most from the power/knowledge complex, although he never makes a decisive accusation. The historiography has a refined Marxist quality to it, which is to say that it is more complex than Marx's economic reductionism, but still holds the notions of class conflict, exploitation, and oppression. This notion is problematic due to the conspiratorial image it evokes. It is as if there is a small group of insidious people devising strategies to dominate the world. The reality of this caricature is improbable, although it is probably safe to say that many social institutions cater to elites.

Another point to take note of is that Foucault's construction of history is too logical, too linear; this may be an accusation directed at historical constructions, in general. Rather than the Enlightenment notion that history proceeds in a logical manner, it is our constructions of history that are logical. In retrospect, one can see the watersheds and landmarks that outline the etiology of historical processes, thus making logical constructions of history possible. Though historical constructions are useful in helping one understand the forces that shape one's life, even the most complete analysis cannot account for the day-to-day events that make history. Trends happen much more gradually than they appear in historiographies; watershed moments stem from relatively insignificant events that culminate in significant historical change. This is not to say that historical constructions are useless. Rather, it is a statement that the shortcoming of the method that is important to keep in mind. After all, a construction is merely a construction.

This having been said, Foucault's historiography is particularly thorough and complex. His analysis is a powerful explanation of how economic, legal, moral, and political reforms contributed to the birth of the prison. Moreover, Foucault's power/knowledge complex has wide applications in the social sciences and humanities. It is a major contribution to social discourses. Discipline and Punish is just one instance of the utility this model has in aiding us in understanding and explaining social processes. Given what has been said, the question now becomes: Who uses power/knowledge and to what ends?

Fascinating but politically static, September 30, 2001
According to James Miller's "The Passion of Michel Foucault" (which, by the way, is the best Foucault bio), Foucault described "Discipline and Punish" as his "first real book" and noted on more than one occasion its superiority to "The Order of Things," a prior book touted by some as his best. It's not difficult to see why he was so fond of this particular text. In "Discipline," readers will discover all of the things that have endeared so many academics and students to his work. For one, there are the radical, counter-intuitive arguments themselves. According to Foucault, western societies have moved away from a punitive mechanism focused on public torture to one based on prisons not because we have become more humane but because tortures no longer effectively served their purpose, to legitimize sovereign power (here, one can detect the virulent anti-Enlightenment strain that characterizes all of his books). But Foucault doesn't stop there. He argues that prisons are merely the visible embodiment of a broader, all-encompassing "power," the principles of which one can find crystallized in Jeremy Bentham's "panopticon." Basically, the panopticon is a model prison with an opaque tower in the center, which can house a warden or a guard, surrounded by the cages of the prisoners themselves. The panopticon creates an insurmountable power relation in which the prisoner, who can't look inside the tower to see if someone is there, internalizes the possible gaze of the authorities or the idea of being monitored perpetually, and behaves accordingly. Foucault goes on to argue that panoptic principles were not limited just to prisons, but eventually and on its own came to permeate schools, barracks, factories, and other social institutions. Hence, you have Foucault's basic thesis: that society itself is one grand prison. Did philosophy ever sound so sexy?

Equally enticing as the book's ultimate conclusion is the underlying historical method, which Foucault called "genealogy." One of the most interesting aspects of genealogy is its focus on the history of bodies, in particular the different ways in which power over time has manipulated the human body for tactical, social purposes (Foucault called this type of inquiry "the political technology of the body"; such intriguing, quasi-scientific terms, e.g. "the microphysics of power," is another fascinating aspect of the book). To be sure, the most controversial element of Foucault's historical method that can be found in the book is his unabashed description of it as "fiction." Readers may be put off by the notion that what they are reading is not really the truth; but for Foucault, truth per se was itself nothing more than the product or effect of power. So, "fiction" here doesn't mean "false" (since the latter implies the existence of an actual "truth"), but should be understood as a kind of "counter-fiction" to the hegemonic effects of truth.

The unanswered question in the book, however, is what we should do to combat this insidious "power." If power is so cunning and pervasive as to constitute who we are, how can we fight it except to entertain the bizzare notion that we should fight ourselves? "Discipline and Punish" pretends to present a concrete political work, but the political alternative is not really political at all, but more ethical in a Nietzschean, radically individualist way. In the meanwhile, countless children starve, women are prostituted by the thousands, and xenophobia runs rampant in this era of late capitalist globalization. Foucault cannot help us deal with these problems because the problematic of "Discipline and Punish" is normalization, not the problems of real suffering and evil in this world. So for those who want to read a fascinating and extremely erudite book that does nothing to change the world, I recommend "Discipline and Punish." For those more interested in making a real difference and want to deal with practical politics, I recommend anything by Chomsky instead.

A Guide To Complex Power Relations., January 18, 2007
As a benchmark in the fields of sociology, psychology and ostensibly criminal justice Michel Foucault's "Discipline and Punish, The Birth of The Prison" is not merely a historical treatise on the genesis of the corrections system in the West as much as it is an illumination into the human psyche as to why the need for "discipline" and "punishment" as applied to corrections exists.

Although Foucault provides a "provocative account of how penal institutions and the power to punish has become part of our lives," he also covers with some depth into the perceived failures of the modern prison by showing how the very concern with rehabilitation, for example, encourages and refines criminal behavior.

By way of illustration then, in Part Three "Discipline" under Chapter "Panopticism" Foucault states (p.218): "Generally speaking, it might be said that the disciplines are techniques for assuring the ordering of human multiplicities. It is true that there is nothing exceptional or even characteristic in this: every system of power is presented with the same problem. But the peculiarity of the disciplines is that they try to define in relation to the multiplicities a tactics of power that fulfills three criteria: firstly, to obtain the exercise of power at the lowest possible cost (economically, by the low expenditure it involves, politically, by its discretion, its low exteriorization, its relative invisibility, the little resistance it arouses); secondly, to bring the effects of this social power to their maximum intensity and to extend them as far as possible, without either failure or interval; thirdly, to link this 'economic' growth of power with the output of the apparatuses (educational, military, industrial or medical) within which it is exercised; in short, to increase both the docility and the utility of all the elements of the system."

In the final analysis then, Foucault links the "carceral" mechanisms of society such as commerce, industry, and of course prison which are intended to produce and maintain "normalization" to the element of strategy and necessity of combat.

Foucault's prescience in understanding human nature and the psychology of human relations and interactions surmises that the effect and instrument of complex power relations, bodies and forces subjected by multiple mechanisms of 'incarceration', and objects for discourses in strategy creates the power of normalization in society and continues to formulate our knowledge of how it should be construed and controlled with particular regard to our penal institutions.

An insightful and pioneering work rated at five stars.

JP

The spectacle, October 17, 2001
Foucault learns from history by looking backwards in time until a salient rupture appears, then goes forward detailing all of histories accounts. In Discipline and Punish, he takes us through the early 1800's to a time when the methods of upholding law and order were much more severe. He describes to us certain rituals of torture that were implemented not to uphold justice, but to extract truth. He contends that punishment was directed at the body and the spectacle of torture was the keeper of order. He then has us move past the Middle Ages to a rupture in history where the prison is born. Foucault now contends that punishment is no longer directed at the body; that it is aimed towards the soul. He posits that in our society we no longer have the spectacle of torture to keep us in line--no, a more economical restraint is applied: guilt & responsibility. It is the responsibility of being a model citizen that wills us to abide by the law. It is the fear of guilt that craves us to be `good'. It is the fear of being defined as `bad'; for fear of being suspect is as heavy as the physical chains worn by the malefactor-the ubiquitous invisible-chains; the inculcating chants of the anthems; the responsibility of the citizens to uphold the law and the guilt of not doing so. Foucault also inquires about other institutions-other architectural structures of power networks. One can wonder why the carceral system can be seen in schools, factories, hospitals, and so forth; these environments that we enter, spend a part of our lives in, and then leave to enter another. How many different institutions do you enter and leave in a day? How many hierarchical environments do you exist in the typical 24 hours? How many hierarchical roles do you play? How many different disciplines and regulations do you adhere to? One begins to feel fragmented, even schizophrenic, to the countless performances that we act out. Who are you really? Better yet, when are you? At work? When you are sitting home alone in your room? At any rate, it's a great book, but I wouldn't recommend it for the casual reader. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Avi Steinberg is stumped. After defecting from yeshiva to Harvard, he has only a senior thesis essay on Bugs Bunny to show for his effort. While his friends and classmates advance in the world, he remains stuck at a crossroads, unable to meet the lofty expectations of his Orthodox Jewish upbringing. And his romantic existence as a freelance obituary writer just isn’t cutting it. Seeking direction—and dental insurance—Steinberg takes a job as a librarian in a tough Boston prison.
 
The prison library counter, his new post, attracts con men, minor prophets, ghosts, and an assortment of quirky regulars searching for the perfect book and a connection to the outside world. There’s an anxious pimp who solicits Steinberg’s help in writing a memoir. A passionate gangster who dreams of hosting a cooking show titled Thug Sizzle. A disgruntled officer who instigates a major feud over a Post-it note. A doomed ex-stripper who asks Steinberg to orchestrate a reunion with her estranged son, himself an inmate. Over time, Steinberg is drawn into the accidental community of outcasts that has formed among his bookshelves — a drama he recounts with heartbreak and humor. But when the struggles of the prison library — between life and death, love and loyalty — become personal, Steinberg is forced to take sides.

Running the Books is a trenchant exploration of prison culture and an entertaining tale of one young man’s earnest attempt to find his place in the world while trying not to get fired in the process. 

Reviews

Surprisingly deep and excellent, September 19, 2010

Witty, funny, touching, and revealing, September 3, 2010

A surprisingly wonderful read!, September 23, 2010

A Long Sentence, September 19, 2010

Hopeful and Heartbreaking, September 16, 2010

Funny and Insightful Memoir of a Unique Job., December 5, 2010
In the free world, libraries are a gathering place for the community to share books, participate in events, or simply hang out, but what purpose does a prison library serve? To fulfill prisoners' legal rights to law books? To serve as a harmless distraction for inmates? To plant the seeds of rehabilitation? To teach how to be a "better" criminal? According to the accidental prison librarian, Avi Steinberg, the answer is all of the above.

When the Harvard educated, free lance obituary writer, Steinberg answers a craigslist ad for a prison librarian, he soon learns that his job in a Boston prison is anything, but the normal 9-5 routine. As the prison librarian, he is constantly torn between two worlds: jailer and educator; supervisor of an inmate crew and coworker to guards; friendly, but not friend of inmates. One of his coworkers confesses to Steinberg, "You're in a bind here, you don't have that uniform. Your authority comes from you, your actions alone." To fill this gap Steinberg rises to the role of "Sheriff Librarian" protecting his turf and keeping the inmates in line. Still Steinberg finds it hard not to occasionally identify with some of the inmates. For example, there is Jessica who comes to Steinberg's creative writing class to watch her inmate son in the prison yard. And there is also Josh Schreiber a prisoner with a background that matches Steinberg's, save for the addiction and burglary offenses.

Running the Books covers an unusual subject matter in an insightful, compassionate, and often humorous way. Steinberg is an observant writer who mastered the prison lingo and culture. I loved learning about "kites" (notes left in books); "catching a case" (a criminal offense); "skywriting" (sweeping hand signals done before a cell window) and "feeders" (staff who give food to inmates). Of course, not all of the subject matter concerns light topics, but even when Steinberg delves into disturbing or sad events the insights are worth the discomfort.

Running the Books is an enlightening and entertaining memoir of a colorful period in Steinberg's life.



Advance review copy provided courtesy of the publisher.

I want to fly a kite ... or skywrite!, November 24, 2010

More than a Place to Read, October 6, 2010

Funny, depressing, and everything else you could want in a book, December 19, 2010
Don't be fooled by its classification as a memoir, //Running the Books// has none of the boring self-reflection or trite "coming of age" moments that are usually found in that genre. Instead, it is a humorous and witty account of a Jewish kid who, inspired by a need for dental insurance, takes a job as a prison librarian.

The characters are colorful: a felon who wants to start a cooking show called "Thug Sizzle," a charismatic pimp/aspiring author, and a guard who starts a fight over a stick-it note, not to mention the quirky and sarcastic Steinberg himself. The subject matter is both amusing and disheartening without feeling schizophrenic.

Steinberg deals with important societal issues in a fresh way: censorship (should potentially suicidal felons be allowed to read Sylvia Plath?), the definition of art (contraband kites are often as poetic as any beat poet's work), images in pop culture (the cool-guy image of P-I-M-Ps versus the reality), and the efficacy of the judicial system to name a few. Perhaps the reason his exploration of these hot-button topics is so successful is because Steinberg always lets the anecdotes, and the societal problems that go with them, speak for themselves.

Reviewed by Kayli Crosby

Perfect Christmas Gift!!, November 29, 2010
I literally could not put this book down. And at the risk of making this whole review sound like a string of cliches, I have to also say that I laughed and I cried. Steinberg's memoir is a beautifully written account of his experience working with people very different from himself. Yet the remarkable empathy he shows toward everyone around him (inmates and co-workers alike) and the respect with which he approached his work as prison librarian keep the story from veering toward the exploitative. I was thoroughly impressed with the humor (I kept laughing so loudly I had to move from the 'quiet car' of the train) and thoughtfulness present on every page and found the book's structure to be innovative and elegant.

Most impressive to me were the themes Steinberg develops throughout the story, particularly the way he illustrates the emotional complexity of parent-child relationships.

My only criticism is that a few of the chapters could have been edited slightly for length.

I thoroughly recommend this book and think it's one of those rare books that will appeal to almost anyone of any age, especially people interested in books, coming-of-age stories, the prison system, parent-child relationships...but really anyone who loves a well told story!
... Read more

Editorial Review

Thrilling, true tales from the Vidocq Society, a team of the world's finest forensic investigators whose monthly gourmet lunches lead to justice in ice-cold murders

Three of the greatest detectives in the world--a renowned FBI agent turned private eye, a sculptor and lothario who speaks to the dead, and an eccentric profiler known as "the living Sherlock Holmes"-were heartsick over the growing tide of unsolved murders. Good friends and sometime rivals William Fleisher, Frank Bender, and Richard Walter decided one day over lunch that something had to be done, and pledged themselves to a grand quest for justice. The three men invited the greatest collection of forensic investigators ever assembled, drawn from five continents, to the Downtown Club in Philadelphia to begin an audacious quest: to bring the coldest killers in the world to an accounting. Named for the first modern detective, the Parisian eug�ne Fran�ois Vidocq-the flamboyant Napoleonic real-life sleuth who inspired Sherlock Holmes-the Vidocq Society meets monthly in its secretive chambers to solve a cold murder over a gourmet lunch.

The Murder Room draws the reader into a chilling, darkly humorous, awe-inspiring world as the three partners travel far from their Victorian dining room to hunt the ruthless killers of a millionaire's son, a serial killer who carves off faces, and a child killer enjoying fifty years of freedom and dark fantasy.

Acclaimed bestselling author Michael Capuzzo's brilliant storytelling brings true crime to life more realistically and vividly than it has ever been portrayed before. It is a world of dazzlingly bright forensic science; true evil as old as the Bible and dark as the pages of Dostoevsky; and a group of flawed, passionate men and women, inspired by their own wounded hearts to make a stand for truth, goodness, and justice in a world gone mad. ... Read more

Reviews

Fascinating topic, appallingly written., August 22, 2010
I was excited to read about the detectives in the Vidocq. However, the disjointed and confusing arrangement of the book -- along with the most overwritten, purple prose -- made me feel that I was swimming through syrup trying to get to the point. It's as if Michael Capuzzo was trying to insert his own character into the story and I wanted him to get the hell out of the way. I did finish it, and I did remain intrigued with the people depicted -- especially Richard Walter -- but this was IN SPITE OF the way they and their stories were portrayed. I really hope some other writer will take a stab (sorry) at this topic. PS: I would like to have a serious talk with whomever edited this mess, if in fact anyone actually did.

Riveting content, poor writing, September 10, 2010
It was a relief to read some of the other reviews that commented on how poorly written this book is. True crime is my favorite genre and the Vidocq Society is a fascinating subject, but I had to force myself to keep on reading. When I first brought it home from the library (thank goodness I did not spend money for it) I must have started the first chapter five times. I was actually worried that I could not follow the thread of the book and wondered what was wrong with me. I wish I had read these reviews first. They would have saved me all that worry that my comprehension skills were dying.

I agree with many other reviewers: purple prose that would be embarrassing in a paperback crime novel, metaphor upon metaphor, confusing organization (almost like all the paragraphs were cut up and dropped at one time and many did not get put back where they belonged), and I almost screamed every time the author referred to Richard Walter as "the tall thin man." I recommend to Capuzzo the self-editing book for writers by Renni Browne and Dave King. For those reviewers who wondered where the editors were, at the end of the book Capuzzo thanks his wife and SEVEN others who took on that task. I can only imagine that at one point they all threw their hands up in the air and said, "Let's just publish the darn thing!"

Disappointed, August 25, 2010
Like several other reviewers, I was initially intrigued by the concept of The Murder Room. The true-life murder mysteries do indeed captivate, but ultimately the author's writing style gets in the way of the stories. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the way he organizes the material. Is it chronological? I can't decipher. He introduces countless characters in a seemingly endless stream of murders committed in various regions of the US. He jumps from the 50's to the 90's to the 70's without so much as a heads up to the reader. He has a great germ of an idea and seems to have spent a good amount of time investigating the complex cases. What a pity....

Interesting People, Bad Writing, August 15, 2010
In Mountain Home Magazine, I read a fascinating article about "The Living Serlock Holmes" that caught my attention. From there I learned that the Vidocq Society actually existed and that they even had a book coming out this month that would help sate my growing curiosity. The stories are very interesting for the most part, but I can't stand the way the author chose to write about them. The first half of the book was tremendously hard to get through.The majority of it seems to be a fragmented biography about Frank Bender. I can't even remember the number of times I had to read about a short, muscular, ex-boxer, whose a Casanova of Philadelphia. He's the least interesting character, but has the most written about him. I respect what the man has done, but too much space on the page was devoted to talking about his sexual prowess.Likewise, the author goes overboard in his use of metaphors. I get that these men are righteous purveyors of justice, but do I have to be told so on every second page? To have a "green thumb in the garden of death" for example, is overkill after taking two pages to talk about how expert these men are in their field and how often they are exposed to the grim reality of death. The author tries to take worldly men and make them something they're not, and it comes off as outlandish. The pages were spilling out with high-arching metaphors long after the point was made and after the first fifty pages, I felt like the title should have been called "God's Chosen Ones." Read this to learn about three very interesting people and the society they created, but have some aspirin handy.

Interesting subject but a difficult read, August 21, 2010
I'm a great fan of mysteries and nonfiction crime stories, and so the story and stories of the Vidocq Society interested me. However, I was disappointed with this book in general. I found (as other reviewers here did) his style disjointed and difficult to read and would often have to re-read passages to try and figure out what exactly he was trying to say. I didn't buy the Kindle version but sympathize with those who complained about the Kindle price as well.

Murder Solved, August 14, 2010
I sat down to read the first chapter of this book and never put it down again. There are three crime experts at the heart of the book. They formed a club that they named after the famous French criminal, Vidocq, turned crime fighter in 1833. The club has 82 members to coincide with Vidocq's age. Most interesting to me were the parts based on Richard Walter's criminal profiling. He's so precise with his profiles which are based on seemingly little information. He's able to pin point either who might have committed the murder and sometimes even finger the exact person. It's so hopeful to know there are people who use their skills to put old cases to bed and I imagine this helps give victim's family members peace. This is a nonfiction book that reads like a grim thriller. There are even literary references old and new.

Fascinating, VERY Dark, and the writing has clear room for improvement, September 7, 2010
This book is about a fascinating group of men and women who created a "club" with the purpose of solving unsolved murders. The three central "characters" in this true story each have a genius that enables them to do the seemingly supernatural when it comes to solving crimes. Each of the characters are fascinating and their abilities cause you to shake your head over and over again in amazement.

Having said that, you should be warned that this is a VERY dark book. The most heinous crimes are described and discussed in graphic detail. The work required to solve the cases involves corpses and long descriptions of the thoughts and actions of the killers. The crime solving wizards, two of them in particular, live in dark worlds that are far from normal or functional. They are good men, in the sense that they are passionate about justice, bringing the guilty to reckoning, and bringing closure and peace to families who are desperate for answers. But they flawed and in some cases, significantly so.

In terms of the writing, it leaves much to be desired. The book is severely disjointed. The first 3rd to half of the book is quite difficult to follow. The writer jumps forward and back in time attempting to create drama, which could have worked well, but in this case only serves to create confusion and jar the reader. You find yourself reading several pages of a new chapter wondering what the heck the writer is talking about because it has NO connection to anything you've read up to this point.

****************** Slight Spoiler Alert ********************************

The writer takes you through many of the cases in detail throughout the book. One of the techniques used to create drama is to leave you hanging in the middle of a case and moving on to another case which keeps you in suspense regarding the outcome. This is effective, but sets up the biggest disappointment of the whole book.

Several of the cases are "bigger" in the book than all the rest, and you are strung along with these cases for almost the entire book. The writer could have brought conclusion to each of these cases in any order he chose. But one case is focused on above all others and the desire for closure on that case is built above all others. This author chooses to wrap the book with this particular case open. We never find out what happens. The book just ends. I felt like I had been conned. I know its avante-gard in this post-modern world of ours to not have a happy ending, but in this case, after so much death and staring into the bleakest possible form of human depravity and evil, we needed SOME redemption. The author had plenty of opportunities to give it to us since so many of the cases were wrapped up so brilliantly. But alas, we are strung along for a climax that is anything but. It was a real disappointment.

Cold Cases and the Ninth Level of Dante's Inferno, August 30, 2010
The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World's Most Perplexing Cold Cases, Michael Capuzzo, Gotham Publishing, 448 pages, $26.00.

I've read all of Sherlock Holmes. I've read Arthur Conan Doyle's biography. I've read enough of the history of crime detection to know who Eugene Francois Vidocq was. So I'm not in the center of this author's target audience. The book may have been written for a much wider audience. And during middle school, I read lots of Readers' Digest condensed novels. If I was still reading RD's condensed novels I would have been satisfied with Michael Capuzzo's effort to tell the story of the Vidocq Society, which come to think of it he really doesn't do. The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World's Most Perplexing Cold Cases, is really a greatest hits [excuse the pun] of the Vidocq Society.

I have been trained as an historian and am sensitive to issues of chronology, cause and effect, and unsupported generalizations. Somehow the word 'hoopla hoops' and the 'serial killers' search for authentic self-expression' are in the same sentence that attempts to describe the 1950s. The initial chapters come across as being interview notes poorly knit together. Paragraph transitions must have been written by fictional detective Philip Marlowe created by Raymond Chandler during the 1930s, 1940s and the 1950s. At times Capuzzo inserts his own character into the story and I began to wonder how accurately he transcribed the interviews he made with the three leading characters.

On the other had the murder stories are compelling as are William Fleisher, Frank Bender and Richard Walter, the prime movers of the Vidocq Society. Fortunately the subtitle of the book is wrong. The Vidocq Society members are not the 'heirs of Sherlock Holmes'. They are real people who are brilliant, hardworking, intuitive and possibly flawed individuals. In a stunning monologue detective Richard Walter, having reading the classics of Western Civilization, graphically describes how the descent of serial killers' personality corresponds to Dante's levels of hell. The cases covered in The Murder Room are at times heartrending and horrific. Other cases are mundane and presented in a fashion which encourages the reader believe that local police detectives at times are lazy, uncreative and out of touch with their profession.

Compelling stories are told without suspense in The Murder Room. A newspaper journalist and I read the book during the same week. Though debating some merits of Capuzzo's style and organization, we both agreed that there are currently too many unemployed book editors and proofreaders. What is the difference between a benefactor and a beneficiary? Capuzzo needed a professional editor/proofreader.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, but not as a model for style, organization or clarity. The substance of the stories is compelling even if the handling of the material by the author is not.

good stories, poorly written, August 22, 2010
Vidoq members may be "the heirs of Sherlock Holmes" but the author is not the heir of A.C. Doyle. Wordy, convoluted prose and a scattered narrative murder these stories.

Sherlock Holmes Not!, August 25, 2010
Read the one star reviews because they are a great synopsis of this book. It is extremely repetitive and dull and methinks that the author is trying to stroke the egos of two of the founders of the Vidocq Society. The third founder is actually the most interesting character but he gets short shrift. Possibly because he was not a personable or likable fellow (to the author). So there is not much about him - just tantalizing bits here and there but never enough to satisfy. And I guess there must have been some "liability" issues because the few cases that are actually presented end with the club members saying they know who did it. But of course these "solved" crimes are never revealed for the reader. And the history of the various buildings where the society met over the years is simply not relevant to the story. All these people are so talented and we hear about buildings instead of cases! My impression was that all the Vidocq Society members are given short shrift because the author remains in hot pursuit of praise, repetitive praise, and ever MORE praise for two of the founders. I am giving it 2 stars, because the author condescended to include the third founder (Richard Walter), who really is the star of the book as far as I can tell. Here's to you, RW! Carry on! ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

The Story of the Century still being hid from the public, November 15, 2007
This is the best kept secret of the last 60 years with more subplots and surprise situations (with no endings in sight). Haslam is a very modest and humble man calling for what should be an obvious formal investigation into many issues still unresolved. He claims he's NOT the investigation, but his exposure is enough that if one reads the work entirely with an open mind, they will understand why 60 Minute TV Magazine Producers call this the "story of the century." Haslam introduces us to an unsolved murder of one of the leading cancer researchers of the last 75 years, Mary Sherman. Her autopsy was sealed for around 30 years, and Haslams explanation of how she died makes far more sence than the official police report written under questionable police procedure. Most importantly, Haslam introduces us to the dark side of the Polio Vaccine and the complications it went through during it's development and the lasting problems we are now struggling with because of it -- the SV-40 VIRUS. It's all over your interest, but ask your doctor or a med school faculty doctor about the SV-40 Virus, and you'll learn, they know nothing about it. Their education and training has been so carefully compartmentalized and they know nothing of these issues, but they are all over the internet if you choose to look. Haslam teaches us about many doctors who lost their careers trying to blow the whistle on these issues.
In short the polio vaccine made from monkey kidneys carried the SV-40 virus which remains dormant inside baby boomers who received the polio vaccine until the immune system is weakened to the point where the SV-40 Virus can transform into one of the major cancer's: lung, breast, soft tissue, bone cancer, etc. In the early 50's 22,000 new cases of polio was called an epidemic, and Ed Haslam now ask, how come around a million new cases of cancer each year is NOT being called a cancer epidemic? I think it's a fair question.
Hopefully, you will read Haslam's work and get your family, friends and associates to read it. Main stream media had a chance to share this with us in 2000 when 60 Minutes had spent more time and money on this story than any other segment of the TV Magazine's history according to their producer, but the network producers would not permit the program to air. Hmmm? Don't you want to know why? Read DR MARY's MONKEY, and you'll begain to have your eyes openened. Edward T. Haslam and Judyth Vary Baker are modern American heros, and only until you have read their works will you even begin to understand why I hold them in such high esteem. Only until you read their works can you begain to understand the price they have paid, the risk they bear; so you and I can learn the truth and demand something be done about it for us, our children, and our children's children to the nth generation.

A cold case murder investigation links to the JFK assassination and the soft-tissue cancer epidemic, May 20, 2007
This is a significantly updated version of Mr Haslam's 1995 book, "Mary, Ferrie & the Monkey Virus". If you only have the older version, you will want to get "Dr. Mary's Monkey".

This book covers many areas of interest for a wide reader audience. Readers interested in new information about the JFK assassination will likely be the main audience, but other topics receive a lot of well-documented attention as well. These include epidemiology (polio, soft tissue cancers, AIDS), cold case murder investigations by an 'amateur sleuth', vaccines, New Orleans history, US medical research history, and scientific topics--linear particle accelerators in particular. Readers interested in any one of these topics should find this book interesting and credible.

I am not going to review this book in detail. Readers already know if they're basically interested or not, and additional detail is available from links I list below. I merely provide a shoppers' guide by addressing three points:

1. I believe that both the specialist and the general reader will find this book interesting, if not fascinating.

2. Ed Haslam is a credible author.

3. You can find out more about this book and its author for free with some links I provide.

This book is very well written and organized. It contains dozens of black and white photographs, charts, graphs and maps. These graphics, while unfortunately not indexed, are nonetheless placed strategically in the text to aid readers' understanding of the text. As a former New Orleans resident, I appreciated the historic photos and maps of New Orleans. While Mr. Haslam does provide a lot of information, a strong, page-turning narrative style underlies the information.

Seasoned JFK assassination investigators may be wary of YAKAB (Yet Another Kennedy Assassination Book). The publisher's decision to include a foreword by Jim Marrs, while possibly attracting additional buyers, may raise some people's skeptical antennae. Mr. Haslam was raised in New Orleans and spent much of his educational and professional career there. You will probably agree with me after reading this book that Mr. Haslam was uniquely placed to write this book. To the two-part question, "Is the author credible, and will I learn anything new from his book?", I answer, "Yes and yes." For example, a possible motivation for Oswald's well documented visit to Clinton, LA is found in these pages. In a brief epilogue, "The Perfect Patsy - Rethinking Lee Harvey Oswald", Mr. Haslam presents three well-considered scenarios concerning Oswald's involvement in the JFK assassination.

It is easy to find out more about Ed Haslam and this book. The obvious first thing to do is to Google his name. Mr. Haslam's late father was also named Edward T. Haslam, so you will find links related to him, as well as another unrelated Edward T. Haslam. I see that URLs are technically forbidden in Amazon reviews, so I will just tell you what to search on to be sure to find links I consider to be important and useful.

Browse the book, including sample chapters by searching on drmarysmonkey.

Find links to video interviews with Ed Haslam and an important witness interviewed for his book, Judyth Vary Baker, by searching on themonkeyvirus.

Last but not least, especially since this is how I first heard about Ed Haslam, is the extensive archive of Dave Emory's radio programs. Mr. Haslam appears on eight Dave Emory "For the Record" programs. Do a search on:
wfmu "Dave Emory"

There's a main page and an archive page. Look for "For The Record" FTR # 577 and 526 on the main page, and dx-FTR-019 (six separate files, a-f) on the archive page.

(Technical note for owners of mp3 players: you can record Real Audio files on PCs (Linux or Windows) in MP3 format by recording them as they play with the freely available Audacity player/recorder/editor.)

I see that a book mentioned by Mr. Haslam, "Lee Harvey Oswald: The True Story of the Accused Assassin of President John F. Kennedy, by His Lover (Paperback)" by Judyth Vary Baker is now available through Amazon. The book (as yet unread by me) was unavailable (temporarily suppressed?) at the time that Mr. Haslam wrote about it. Ms. Baker's book is regarded with varying skepticism (no pun intended), according to the reviews I have read on Amazon. Reading about Ms. Baker in Mr. Haslam's book may assist potential buyers of Ms. Baker's book.

Edit: December, 2010: Me & Lee: How I Came To Know, Love and Lose Lee Harvey Oswald by Judyth Vary Baker has been released, and I have given it a very positive review.

Conspiracy Theory, New Orleans Style, August 23, 2007
Having lived in the New Orleans metro area for almost twenty years, author Edward T. Haslam's expose, "Dr. Mary's Monkey," linking the murder of Dr. Mary Sherman in 1964 to the Kennedy Assassination and to a world-wide health epidemic triggered by cancer- causing viruses effecting the populace today, puts a lot of extra spice in the otherwise already piquant political roux that substantiates the eclectic yet sometimes covert gumbo that differentiates this sultry city from other metropolises in the United States. Not only does Haslam provide residents and other aficionados of this area with a thrilling history of dot-connecting events that literally traverses from one end of St. Charles Avenue to the other, he does so compellingly in simple colloquial language that facilitates his theory involving a cover-up of far-right wing politics gone very wrong.

Haslam espouses his New Orleans charm frequently in an engaging manner that makes him extremely readable; his first chapters tell of his remembrances from childhood of primate virus research first brought to his attention by his father, a graduate of Harvard Medical School and professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Tulane University. Later as an attendee of the prestigious Jesuit High School, fellow students (the sons of other New Orleans leaders) pique his curiosity further by providing otherwise unpublished information about a claim made by then district attorney Jim Garrison that connected the recent Kennedy assassination with an underground medical laboratory which was inducing cancer in mice by injecting them with monkey viruses.

Rather than spoil Haslam's smooth disclosure of this explosive material involving the prominent Dr. Alton Ochsner, founder of New Orleans Ochsner Clinic and Hospital, the polio vaccine (developed by growing polio viruses in monkey kidneys), a plot to develop a biological weapon meant to stamp out the spread of communism in Cuba and the rest of the Latin American world, the involvement of Lee Harvey Oswald, the Mafia and the notorious David Ferrie and the scheme to obscure the facts regarding the death of cancer-researcher Dr. Mary Sherman, I will focus on Haslam's ability to tell a good story. He devotes a chapter to each of the key figures in his theory, concluding with some well-thought out speculation regarding the rise in cancer in the past fifteen years.

If the book has one fault, it is that although Haslam provides the reader with the information that he has accumulated and well-documented, as in any other conspiracy theory, he cannot verify all of his information. The appearance of three Judyth Vary Bakers subtracts from some of Haslam's plausibility, but only if you don't buy into his theory that as he collected information, the puppeteers orchestrating the concealment of the facts delivered a few red herrings, the stink of which attempted to jar him off the right track.

Nevertheless, "Dr. Mary's Monkey" scares the reader silly with its implications about how powerful men can bend and twist reality as we perceive it while perilously changing the future of an entire generation. On the higher philosophical plane of right versus wrong, it speaks poorly of our American culture and what can and will be done in the shadow of flag-waving freedom.

Bottom line: While Edward T. Haslam's "Dr. Mary's Monkey" suggests scenarios that may or may not be fully substantiated at this time, the author compiles an interesting and totally absorbing page-turner that screams for local, if not national attention. Wisely interspersed with maps, newspaper articles and photographs, Haslam presents his theory in a colorful manner which bespeaks his New Orleans charming background. Recommended.
Diana Faillace Von Behren
"reneofc"

Victims, May 22, 2007
See attached the news 1967 article on Jack Ruby's death: "The Sun quoted those who saw him near the end as saying: He insisted that cancer cells had been injected into him in prison. " I also attached two news articles on Mary Sherman's death. She was killed too, but they transported the body to her apartment to make it look like a rob and stab murder. This was on the day that the Warren Commission started "investigating" the New Orleans connection. Mary Sherman was working for doctor Ochsner on the secret "Get Gastro with cancer" project. Judyth Vary Baker and Lee Oswald, and Clay Shaw and David Ferrie worked also on this project. Jack Ruby knew about it too. They were all killed, except for Shaw, he was high level CIA and could be relied on to keep his mouth when prosecuted by Jim Garrison, although there is some debate on whether his death was natural too. Judyth wasn't killed because she remained low profile and kept silent for 40 years.

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judyth_Vary_Baker

See also the two pages of Double Cross, the biography on Sam Giancana written by his brother and godson. It says on page 416 that the list of weapons aimed at Castro included a cancer-producing injectable agent.

Wim




Some of the causes of death listed appear on the surface to be natural.
Keep in mind that the CIA developed methods to "make it look like an
accident". This was documented through the testimony of CIA technicians
to the Church committee who told of TWEP technology (Termination With
Extreme Prejudice) in 1975. These methods are designed to not be detected in postmortem examinations. I have a couple of exerpts of declassified CIA documents to demonstrate the case. One of the techniques involves the injection of cancer cells, heart attack inducement, as well as non-chemical techniques which require no special equipment. Based on the strange circumstances of Jack Ruby's death in prison (he died from lung cancer but the cancer cells were not the type that originate in the respiratory system). Ruby wrote notes and spoke to several people saying that jfk was killed by a conspiracy and that he had been maneuvered into killing Oswald who was a fall guy. He claimed to have been injected with cancer cells when treated with shots for a cold. He died just before he was to testify in Congress. He had told congressional investigators that he wanted to talk but he needed protection.

Exceptional Historic Account, November 20, 2008
There are few books written in our lifetime that truly effect history. This is one of them.

Edward Haslam is masterful in explaining one of the most horrific,medical crises of all time. Building on his investigation into the 1964 murder of Dr. Mary Sherman, he not only discovers that our government has covered up the cause of our recent soft tissue cancer epidemic, but it is complicit in it. As if that isn't terrifying enough, he connects the dots and learns that our government has been in the business of creating biological weapons - some to be used as a means to assassinate heads of state.

In a chilling twist of fate, Mr. Haslam's primary witness, Judyth Vary Baker, proves beyond a doubt that all of this is connected to Lee Harvey Oswald and the assassination of President Kennedy. Ms. Baker was an associate of Oswald's, as well as his girlfriend. Her story about their activities in New Orleans during the summer of 1963, explain the real reasons why Oswald was set up as the patsy.

But, this is not another assassination book. It is an historical account that should not only scare the daylight out of us, it should make the reader angry enough to want to do something about it. The conclusion is nothing short of population control...otherwise known as, mass murder.

Mr. Haslam, and his publisher, Trine Day, have taken a tremendous risk in bringing this evidence to the public. They, along with Judyth Vary Baker, are true American heros who deserve our gratitude and support.

If you can stomach the TRUTH!, November 16, 2008
Expendable Elite: One Soldier's Journey into Covert Warfare Dr. Mary's Monkey is a book that should capture your attention if, in fact, you care about this nation, the truth and the mystery surrounding the deaths of JFK, Lee Harvey Oswald, and US Navy LCDR William Bruce Pitzer. I know many of those talked about in this book. I know the covert action system that uses compartmentalization, subterfuge and undocumented actions to silence those who would bring the truth to bear on tragic, illegal activities of our government that uses the Mafia, US Army Special Forces and CIA to accomplish what would otherwise be legally impossible. I was one of those trained to kill and terrorize.

Monkey research still going on..., March 30, 2008
I did not put this book down until I finished it. I have lived in the New Orleans area for more than 35 years. I am not the least surprised by anything put forth in this book. I believe the polio story...and am one of the people who got the vacine. I just found out that I have the HPV virus, but no cancer -- yet. I have so many friends with soft tissue cancer.....no one seems to talk about the increase in cancer. Also, the Tulane primate center is still in operation. A few years ago, several monkeys excaped and it is not known if all were ever captured. There are dense wooded areas and a river near there. I also believe the stories about the medical experiments. Great book..... really gets one thinking. Fascinating that some of the sealed documents are now available through the freedom of information act. They seem to back up the author. We will never know the truth. It is, however a great read!

Extremely highly recommended, October 12, 2009
This book gives a very different view of recent American history.

In the 1950s, Jonas Salk developed a vaccine against polio, then ravaging America. It involved inoculating children with dead polio viruses, so their bodies would build up immunity. Just before the mass inoculation was to begin, a technician injected the vaccine into some monkeys. The supposedly dead viruses were not exactly dead, so thousands of children contracted polio. The safer Sabin vaccine was quickly developed, and rushed into production.

The bigger problem for the Salk vaccine was that it was impregnated with cancer-causing monkey viruses (imagine the panic if that became known). Consider today's epidemic of soft tissue cancers. A secret program was rushed into existence to look for some sort of vaccine. Such a program involved lots of mice (thousands), and someone to do the day-to-day observing of the mice, someone like David Ferrie (later to be well-known in JFK assassination circles). A defrocked priest and former airline pilot, he was a long-time CIA asset. Also needed in such a project was a cancer expert to do the actual mutating of the viruses.

Mary Sherman was a world-renowned cancer researcher with a list of qualifications as long as your arm. It is unknown why she would get involved with a right-wing fanatic like David Ferrie. In 1964, her burned and naked body was found in her apartment. The press tried very hard to make it look like a lesbian burglar sex killing, even though there was no sign of forced entry. The bizarre thing is that her entire right arm and the right-hand part of her torso were gone, like they had been disintegrated. The small fire that was set on her bed, to cover up the crime, was nowhere near hot enough to do it.

Mutating viruses required huge amounts of power, on the order of several million volts. A linear particle accelerator was powerful enough, but they require very heavy-duty wiring. The author found evidence of such wiring at the US Public Health Service Hospital in New Orleans. The author theorizes that, one day, Sherman touched the wrong button, or there was sabotage, causing all that energy to ravage her body. It was quickly decided to bring her back to her apartment, stab her in the exact right place in her heart (she may have still been alive at that moment), and cover up her death. This whole arrangement also required a courier to travel from Sherman to Ferrie and back again. His name was Lee Harvey Oswald. He was killed after the JFK death to silence him; having him on a witness stand would have publicized things that powerful people did not want publicized.

This is a wonderful piece of writing. It is a huge eye-opener, and will make the reader look at cancer in a whole new way. It is extremely highly recommended.

Brilliant, May 23, 2008
Haslam's brilliant non-fiction book weaves together many strands: cover ups and long-neglected follow-ups in the unsolved 1964 murder of a talented cancer researcher; a mysterious underground lab involved in secret work with cancer viruses--work that has had far-reaching harmful effects on world health; the New Orleans mafia; the CIA; a prominent and well-connected physician; an eccentric and political pilot and self-taught lab technician; and Lee Harvey Oswald. The book raises many questions that make you wonder where the media has been in all of this: The dropped Sixty Minutes episode, the History Channel episode that never aired again, and the memoir by a lab assistant/lover of Lee Harvey Oswald, which went out of publication after only two weeks.

This book demands a wide audience. It ought to be a best-seller.

A real page-turner, May 31, 2007
This is a fabulous book. A fascinating unraveling of overlapping mysteries. Any student of the JFK murder and/or cancer and/or HIV will find information here to fill in blanks left out from other investigations.

Ed Haslam is an excellent writer. I was captured as much by his use of words as the incredible story he tells.

Fascinating. Fascinating. Fascinating. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

Amazing, September 19, 2001
Appropriately enough, one of the best cop shows in the history of television was based on one of the best true crime books ever written. Journalist David Simon spent a year observing Baltimore Homicide detectives and it is their poignantly true stories -- almost all as funny, heartbreaking, and memorable as any fiction -- that make up this book. While fans of the TV show will immediately recognize the initial templates for such beloved characters as Frank Pembleton, Bayliss, Munch, and others, this amazing book is much more than just a basis for a classic television show. It is, quite simply, one of the most insightful books about modern law and order ever written. All of the detectives live brilliantly on the page and Simon's prose reminds us what great writing actually is. Though this is a word I've probably overused in this review, there is no other way to describe Simon's achievement: amazing.

The finest non-fiction book I have ever read, March 15, 2000
Simon's Homicide reads not as a murder mystery, not as a documentary, and not as a dramatic novel, but as a life lived in the Baltimore homicide unit. The reader does not feel passive, as though he were watching the goings-on through a filter like a television or even a bystander. The reader is there, with the detectives, sharing their experiences, sharing their very thoughts. This book is a masterpiece, a book that completely enthralls you to the point where during the time you are reading, nothing means more to you than the resolution of each case, each obstacle, each crisis. Please, do yourself a favor and read this remarkable book.

First Rate Journalism, July 28, 2000
I've always felt that the main problem with the TV show version of "Homicide" is that, good as it is, it just can't match the gritty realism of the book it is based on. Journalist David Simon spent a year as a fly on the wall observing the Balitimore Police Homicide Unit, and dutifully recording everything he saw by and large without editorial comment. The result is absolutely indespensible for anyone with an interest in law enforcement. Being a homicide detectives is a tough job both emotionally and professionally with many hours of tedium that can often result in the frustration of an unsolved case. Particularly poignant is the story of a unsolved child murder case that haunts one of the detectives to the point of endagering his mental well being. The value of this book to the nation's hard working law enforcement professionals simply cannot be understated.

Best Cop Book Ever, October 25, 2005
I will keep this short: I have been a city cop for almost eighteen years and I defy anyone to find a better book about policework than this one. This is the closest you can come to knowing what being a cop is all about short of actually wearing a badge.

A Candid look at a Year in the Life of a Homicide Division, April 5, 2000
I picked up this book without realizing that it was the genesis of the television program by the same name, and I was immediately dragged in to the stories. Written as a yearlong narrative of the events and personalities of the Baltimore Police Homicide Division, it really gives the reader a feeling of being along for the investigation. The dialogue and descriptions are so realistic and insightful that I found myself wondering how the Detectives felt to read this objective reflection of themselves. The pacing of the book contributes to the overall effectiveness of the narrative by educating the reader slowly as to the characters, the lingo and the mentality of a Baltimore homocide detective. By the end (and I was sorry to have it end) I felt like I knew the detectives and the criminals and the victims and their families. If you like true crime, this is the book for you!

Been there and done it, November 8, 2009
I was very familar with this book as I am a former member of the Baltimore homicide unit. I did not have a chance in the past to read it, but now that I am retired I read it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I know most of the homicide members that are mentioned in the unit and some of them worked in my squad when I was there. It certainly depicts what goes on daily in the Baltimore homicide unit.

the absolute best of its kind, November 10, 2004
The television show was excellent, but HOMICDE the book is much better. It is perhaps one of the finest pieces of narrative non-fiction of the past 50 years. David Simon's background as a journalist for the Sun makes him uniquely qualified to examine the inner workings of a homicide unit, and to lay bare the shortcomings and serious flaws of Baltimore's city government (the action in the book takes place during the worst of the crack wars in the late 80s, but it's remarkable how little things have changed).

What's more, Simon writes with great deadpan humor and is able to find both humanity and wit in this true-life story of the "murder police." He is truly one of the most accomplished narrative writers of our time. I also highly recommend THE CORNER, another look into Baltimore's gritty urban landscape.

Brilliant and readable, March 9, 2004
Here's a book that gets into the minds of homicide detectives like no other. The author is insightful and thorough, but his writing style is a celebration of brevity. Working within the law and sometimes around it or even in spite of it, the detectives are revealed as all-too-human but praiseworthy individuals. Read this with Randy Sutton's "True Blue : Police Stories by Those Who Have Lived Them" and you'll have the best writing on cops and crime available today.

A harrowing look at police life in the big city, September 28, 2002
This is an amazing book. Two people picked this out of my "To Read" list as their suggestion for what I should tackle next. Interestingly enough, I had already started it. I had heard about this book originally on a private list that I'm on, but never saw a copy at any bookstore that I went to. Then I heard that there was a TV show based on it, but I still couldn't find a copy anywhere. Just as I was about to give up, I passed through Powell's Books in Portland, and found a first edition hardcover for cheap--and it was worth three times that amount.

Simon spent an entire year observing a squad of Baltimore homicide detectives. The result is an incredible page-turner, filled with humor, pathos, stupidity, politics, brutality, and, through it all, death. This is not Hill Street Blues, and especially not Barney Miller. As realistic as Hill Street Blues tried to be, it really can't touch the mundane uniqueness--the singular exciting boredom--that is the job of homicide investigation.

To parody Dr. Seuss, "Ah, the things you'll see!" This is a travel book as much as any trip to a foreign land--an exploration into the world of police procedures and life. It's not a place many of us would choose to live in, much less visit. I much prefer to read about it.

Photos missing from Kindle edition, December 14, 2009
The print edition of 'Homicide' has a 8-page set of black and white photos in the middle:

1) 6 portraits of detectives that appear in the book.
2) below them 6 pictures of the characters they inspired in the TV series.
3) and three more: 2 detectives at a crime scene, David Simon at the pub with the guys, The Board.

These pictures are gone from the Kindle edition. Whereas this is a rather minor loss, you are not missing anything essential from the reading experience, something has been subtracted from one edition nevertheless. So you've been warned. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. With Assassination Vacation, she takes us on a road trip like no other -- a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage.

From Buffalo to Alaska, Washington to the Dry Tortugas, Vowell visits locations immortalized and influenced by the spilling of politically important blood, reporting as she goes with her trademark blend of wisecracking humor, remarkable honesty, and thought-provoking criticism. We learn about the jinx that was Robert Todd Lincoln (present at the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley) and witness the politicking that went into the making of the Lincoln Memorial. The resulting narrative is much more than an entertaining and informative travelogue -- it is the disturbing and fascinating story of how American death has been manipulated by popular culture, including literature, architecture, sculpture, and -- the author's favorite -- historical tourism. Though the themes of loss and violence are explored and we make detours to see how the Republican Party became the Republican Party, there are all kinds of lighter diversions along the way into the lives of the three presidents and their assassins, including mummies, show tunes, mean-spirited totem poles, and a nineteenth-century biblical sex cult. ... Read more

Reviews

If only Vowell wrote the texts...., March 28, 2005
I've never really gotten the whole idea behind "American Studies" in universities. I really did not enjoy history as a student. If only Sarah Vowell had written the texts or been the teacher. She is a history nerd, geek, whatever--she is brilliant, laugh out loud funny, and earnest all at the same time. Her take is on three presidents who were assasinated (the majority of the book describing Lincoln's life, assasination, and the lives of his assasins). This book is something of a departure from her previous two collections of esssays, which ranged over a wide variety of topics. This book is more focused, but Vowell's voice and wit are intact, even more entertaining than in previous volumes. I hope Vowell's next book tells us about Hollywood, animation, and her other passions on the heels of her performing a voice in The Incredibles. There has to be so much fodder for her droll observations there. Sedaris might be getting a little stale these days; Vowell certainly is not.

I'll buy a Vowell, Pat., March 29, 2005
Actually, two. Or maybe three. Or as many as I want! Sarah Vowell has produced a delightfully charming, witty, and introspective look at, of all topics, presidential assassination, in her new witty and evocative book "Assassination Vacation".

Those of us who know Vowell from her numerous and witty appearances on the highly respected "This American Life" series know exactly what to expect when picking up a Vowell book: something interesting, funny, with pieces of introspection thrown in. She delivers her promise in her new tome. Vowell, a self-avowed history nut, decides to drag certain hapless aquaintances around the places associated with three presidential assassinations: Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley.

Along the way, she shares information she has researched or learned, which makes this book one of her more scholarly, if that word could ever be applied here. She actually makes history more palpable, more real for people to digest in an entertaining way. How many of us would desire reading a book about the famed assassin Leon Cgolgosz? Put Vowell's name on the cover, slap a salty title on the book, and bang, we're lining up book-in-hand to purchase it. (Oh, and by the way, Vowell finally deciphers the mystery of pronouncing Cgolgosz, which is.... is... hmmm, I suddenly can't remember).

Whenever you read a piece by Vowell, invariably, you never read it in your own voice, but her Sarah's voice ringing through, or was it Violet Parr from the Incredibles... oh wait, it's the SAME person). I guess that's the mark of a good writer, that she has developed her own style strong enough for us to hear her reading it to us. At any rate, this history nut who also goes ballistic whenever he comes across a plaque, gives this book five stars for a truly enjoyable read from a truly enjoyqable writer.

History, humanity, and humor, August 19, 2005
I have read "Take the Cannoli" and am halfway through "The Partly Cloudy Patriot", I read these books because Assassination Vacation was the best book I've read by an uncelebrated author in my life. Sarah Vowell is witty and independent, she makes one feel a connection to her and a profound enlightened guilt at the loss of history.
The assassinations of Lincoln, McKinley, and Garfield are the book's topic. But the true value of Vowell's Vacation is the wonderment of where we came from, and how men who shaped the world are remembered only by small bronze plaques that are at once unremarkable and intriguing. For any kid that was in AP or Honors US History this book will make you grin remembering the stories layed out on chalkboards that seemed so dull then, but Vowell gives them meaning and life.
She is neurotic, patriotic, intelligent, witty, and alluring; in other words she is a perfect political writer. There is no paragraph that seems a waste of time. No story that isn't fascinating. You become a small child staring up at the Lincoln Memorial again, jaw on the floor, eyes wide staring at the man who saved the Union. And you feel a quiet drumming in your chest to do something about it, to make people remember what matters.

She makes history entertaining, August 20, 2005
The book is fascinating not only for the historical trivia it provides, but the author's introspective look at herself. She knows she's weird, but she also can't understand why everyone is not as fascinated as she is with presidential assasinations. Her precocious and morbid nephew is fascinating as well.

She has a fond affection for Garfield and McKinley. She worships Lincoln. She totally hates G. W. Bush. She humanizes the assassins without excusing them. She likes to tie the assassinations together by showing the historical thread.

It is a very remarkable book. I disagree with her on several points, but I am fully entertained at all times. The depth of scholarship is amazing and her journey to different historical sites provides a list of potential vacation sites for history buffs that will last for years.

Brilliant, January 6, 2006
The intelligent, witty, slightly neurotic and definitely morbid Vowell strikes again with her personal journey on the trail of three presidential assasinations (two of them largely forgotten). Only someone like Vowell could turn this potentially dark topic into something funny and interesting. Though not intended as a pure history, there is plenty of historical tidbits thrown into this commentary, woven into Vowell's contemporary experience and personal voice. Highly entertaining!

The Darling of the Day, January 16, 2008
Sarah Vowell's very chatty and informal overview of the first three successful presidential assassinations manages to chart, in its off-kilter way, a compelling if highly selective version of American history from the Civil War to the Spanish-American War through a series of anecdotes concerning the assassinations, the presidents who were the victims, the assassins themselves, and most of all the U.S. historical events associated with these events which Vowell manages to visit with the help of her friends and family, and where she meets a charming assortment of local volunteers who become the unofficial heroes of her narrative. Even if you're well versed in Stephen Sondheim's ASSASSINS, which explores much of the same territory in a completely different manner (and which Vowell enthuses over at the very beginning of her narrative), there's still much to find new and interesting here, and Vowell's candidness about her political affiliations and enthusiasms are very refreshing.

Vowell does identify herself on the bookjacket as "a McSweeney's person," and for better or worse that is a fairly accurate self-assessment. On the plus side, the book is charming, hip, ironic, and clever. On the other, it can be a bit self-consciously twee (favoring anachronistic terms in her writing like "looky-loos" and "mosey"), it's in strong need of an editor, and Vowell seems to need to tell us constantly how many supportive and brilliant friends and relations she has. It's almost impossible to nitpick, though, about someone who can be fervent and honest about her nerdy love for American history. This is a fun book to read.

Maybe educational, definitely fun!, March 3, 2007
You're about to read a book about 3 U.S. presidential assassinations. (1) The book will include some information on the assassins, the culture of the US at the time they were killed, and what remains to honor the fallen presidents today. (2) you're about to have a kick-in-the-pants good time.
Those two concepts sound incongruous, but the really fun part is experiencing the author, Sarah Vowell, pull them together chapter by chapter. The author is opinionated, and open about it. She doesn't like the Bush administration and says so. If that is enough to keep you from enjoying this book, give it a pass. If you're on the more rational side, you ought to have a ball. I did not know that Abraham Lincoln's son Robert was actually present at 3 assassinations. I howled with laughter when Vowell describes him as a sort of Zelig of presidential doom. I did not know that the original Oneida Commune embraced free love. I loved it when Vowell sums up their religious theology as "Let's move upstate and sleep around". Vowell is smart, sassy, and neurotic, luckily for us, she is also obsessed with history. Seeing presidential assassinations through her eyes is just about as much fun as assassinations can get. You may think that a severe understatement, but if you read this book, you'll know what I mean. Begin sceptical, finish laughing (and slightly more informed).

She went on, and on, and on..., October 14, 2009
Here's the thing -- I love, love, love "The Partly Cloudy Patriot." It might be one of my top 10 books ever. And, after reading "Assassination Vacation," now I know why.

I think Sarah Vowell is hilarious in small, diverse doses. But "Assassination Vacation" was a different kettle of fish. I have to admit that the singularity of her historical fascination/geekiness on the topic of presidential assassinations got on my nerves after a while. I got bored and skipped a few paragraphs here and there, to be honest.

I kept thinking back to her description of Al Gore in the "Partly Cloudy Patriot" as a smarty pants, which I agree is why he probably "lost" the election to George Bush. (He didn't, really, but that's another story...) There was a tinge of smarty-pantedness here, and, frankly, I got annoyed. But if you are really interested in the minutiae of presidential assassinations, this is the book for you.

PS -- lest anyone think I am a conservative crank, I am, most emphatically, not.

4 stars for the idea, January 20, 2006
I am a fan of Sarah Vowell. I enjoy her commentaries on NPR and as part of this American Life. I LOVED Take the Cannoli, but somehow Assasination Vacation didn't live up totally to it's glory. It was good and I would recommend it, but it pales a little in the shadow of Take the Cannoli.

But being a slightly morbid person, I couldn't pass up a book themed on assasinations, especially from someone so wry and amusingly bitter.

On the trail of Jinxy McDeath, July 17, 2005
Sarah Vowell, most fascinating of young writers, has taken on a macabre subject - the first three assassinations of US presidents - the topic of her obsessions and nightmares. TV interviews with Vowell might give the impression that this is a lighthearted romp through the deaths of our leaders. While her book has its funny and ironic moments, Vowell truly has spent quite a bit of time haunted by this topic...much to the detriment of her social life.

The book follows Vowell and her sister, young nephew and various boyfriends, as they travel to various sites associated with the assassinated presidents. Some sites are neglected statues to nearly forgotten leaders like Garfield and McKinley. Some sites hold more public interest, relating to artifacts associated with Abraham Lincoln. There are stops at obscure museums contain bits of bone from Lincoln or his assassin. Former sites associated with the assassination night - such as the house where Secretary of State Seward was attacked - that are now gone, victims of a century's worth of urban change. A truly creepy scene occurs in the woods near the site where John Wilkes Booth died: Vowell stumbles upon a hidden shrine to the killer of our 16th president. Sic Semper Tyrannus, indeed.

Throughout, there is the human fascination with the remains of the dead - to desire to personally see or hold a portion of the body of a person one has known only through reading or lore. Vowell explores her own need to handle or visit these modern relics, and this brings the reader an echo of the semi-religious pursuit of connection with people of the past. To her credit, Vowell moves away from the merely macabre to discuss the political atmosphere at the time of the assassinations. Garfield's death allows her to explore the Oneida Commune in upstate New York frequented by psychotic assassin Charles Guiteau, probably the only guy who couldn't score in that free-love environment. McKinley's death gives Vowell a chance to examine the anarchist movement that was so attractive to immigrants and those dispossessed by Gilded Age America. She takes a detour to give witness to Teddy Roosevelt's heroics - including a pit stop in the Spanish-American War to witness the putatively heroic ride up San Juan hill that cemented his reputation for bravery.

While enjoyable and informative, the book left me wanting more information about Garfield's and McKinley's deaths. Obsessed with still-extant remains, Vowell sometimes skimps on details of the actual events. And sometimes her liberal politics and observations on her personal life take her too far off-topic. But other items - like her hilarious focus on Robert Lincoln - son of Old Abe - make up for these imperfections. Bizarrely present at the assassination or death of three presidents, Lincoln earns Vowell's nickname "Jinxy McDeath." Rubbing shoulders with so much high-profile death, Lincoln himself had a long if ordinary life, living long enough to attend the 1923 dedication of his father's memorial in Washington. It is these details that make "Assassination Vacation" a delicious read, and their lack that left me craving more. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Foreword by Timothy J. Mullin, of ''Unintended Consequences.''

Since the 2002 edition, over 200 pages of various revisions have been included during the annual reprintings. Amazon carries the latest 2009-on printings which include Boston's several page analysis of the Heller decision. (This is not some completely new edition, as some reviewers have incorrectly inferred. Three-fourths of the book remain the original text of 2002. The other fourth are revised pages from 2003-2009.)

While Boston recognizes that gun/gear prices have changed, and that a few new worthy products have emerged, he does not feel that the title yet deserves a completely revamped edition. Good basics never change, and BGB is pretty thorough about those. ... Read more

Reviews

A tome distilled from several dozen tomes, January 4, 2003
If you are involved in an aspect of arms ownership that is not completely relegated to target/hunting matters, then this is the book to give that person. One problem with defensive/offensive arms and their handling, is that the entire industry of munitions as available to the U.S. civilian is made of junk, useless junk, non functioning junk, and the occassional gem. While Boston may be able to tell you in one sentence why rifle XXX is way inferior ro rifle YYY, but in this book, first and foremost, he explains WHY one is inferior. Then the 'why' is placed in the context of the legal availability of certain weapons. And from that is distilled the cream. the cream being the best available to the civilian under current regulations. If these implements are going to be such that 'you would bet your life on them' only the cream will do. You get a little 'combat rifle history' which will make you understand the importance of proper control placement, and why a rifle was designed a certain way. While the book will not nail on the head the only things you should buy, what the book will do is allow you to eliminate 90% of what is not feasible and otherwise junk. The T&E of weaponry takes up the largest part of the book. There is also a large section concering handguns and handgun ammo. I thought rifle ammo was neglected. ALso the statement that 'SS109 5.56 is a major improvement over 55 graim ball' is now proven to be wrong by its performance in Afghanistan. You then have a section on sniper rifle choice. OUt of 300 available calibers you are honed down to perhaps 10. An artcile on .50 cals. .50 Cal ammo. Night vision, I actually learned the difference between various Gen. devices. Scopes. Really every conceivable piece of fighting gear is touched upon. That is why if you read this book, you will eliminate 90% of whats out there from your vision. There are philosophical sections on the warrior mentality, philosophy, shooting, these make entertaining reading. In all, there is no book like this, and it is worth every penny but it is not the end of knowledge, it is the beginning. In other words, even though you may have narrowed your search for a tactical scope down to 10 models, you must then fill in the rest of the picture about the 10 and how they work and then train, train, and train some more.

I do have one caveat. The author is obviously and tremendously trained in almost all aspects of martial arts. Yes, shooting is a martial art too. However, to my knowlegde, and Boston makes no reference to it in anything I have read by him, that he has taken down an oppenent with karate, knife, etc., or had someone in his custody and 'under his gun', much less shot anyone or been shot at. Its not like I have either, but if Boston has one weakness, it is this. No practical combat experience. You might want to balance his book with other material by bona fide veterans, etc.

The Ultimate Book for Firearms Owners - Monumental!, January 14, 2003
Boston's Gun Bible stands alone as the very best all-around reference for firearms owners. Not only does it cover practical rifles, pistols, and shotguns in detail, but it has a wealth of valuable information on related subjects such as optics, practical carry, training, legal issues, and legislative issues. The new expanded and updated edition (with 200 extra pages) is fantastic!

This weighty tome is an absolute MUST for all gun owners. At $28 it isn't cheap, but as I stated before in reviewing the previous edition, it is worth every penny.

Boston's observations and conclusions about guns are precisely researched, scientific, and relatively dispassionate. Unlike many other writers in the firearms field, Boston has consistently shown that he is willing to change his mind when presented with logical evidence.

This is a book that may very well save the life of yourself or a loved one. It is also a highly influential book that may contribute in the long run to the restoration of our Constitutional Republic and freedom around the world. Boston's Gun Bible doesn't just whine about the decline of our God-given Constitutional liberties. Rather, it shows practical solutions that individual Citizens can and must take to insure the liberty of future generations. It is nothing short of a monumental work of non-fiction!

Don't just buy one copy. Buy two! You will soon find that you'll need an extra copy to lend out to family members and friends.

OBTW, if you already have the older edition, then I strongly suggest that you buy the new expanded and updated edition. This valuable new information is well worth the investment.

As a published fiction writer, I stand in awe of this important piece of non-fiction. It deserves a place of honor on the bookshelf of every freedom-loving Citizen.

Semper Paratus,>Author of the pro-gun novel "Patriots:Surviving the Coming Collapse."

Inspiring careful reflection and considered action, December 26, 2002
Boston's Gun Bible, written by Kenneth W. Royce, is scholarly and philosophical, as well as passionate, political and technical. It is no accident that Mr. Royce cites the ultra-science fiction/political satire, Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, as "one of the five best novels I have ever read". Like Stephenson's book (Stephenson is postmodern Melville) Royce's "Bible" is a collage, a pastiche, a rich simmering brew of humor, ideas, opinions, cant, rant and instruction.

Given the book's patchwork style, I think it best to review it according to themes. There are three I will consider: 1. Technical Aspects of Firearms; 2. Philosophy of Firearms;
3. Politics. Other themes which are thoughtfully developed in the 848 page book are on the laws governing gun use, women and guns, self-defense, tactics and training, combat rifle history and how to become a rifleman.

The Technical discussion is one of the strongest sections. I came to this book as a complete newbie as far as firearms are concerned. But the technical part of the book rewards careful reading. It is a complete and meticulously considered course on firearms - how to buy them, how to evaluate them, how they work, how to keep them working, etc. Of the 46 chapters in the book 22 are devoted to this one topic. In his sections evaluating various rifles and pistols, Mr. Royce, using a system he devised, rates dozens of rifles and pistols. His system employs "63 criteria...to rate the controls, features and specifications of combat rifles." And while it is true his full system is deployed only against rifles, the system itself is an extremely useful tool for evaluating any firearm, and also comparing firearms among themselves within distinct classes

The Philosophical aspect of the book is as difficult and convoluted as the Technical part is straightforward. On the one hand, this is in the nature of philosophy. On the other, the difficulty has to do with the purpose and meaning of guns in human culture. This topic has no Socrates (unless it is Nietzsche), and Mr. Royce in this book provides what is only a rudimentary outline. (In his other books, none of which I have read, he may articulate more fully his philosophical arguments.) Mr. Royce's view of human society is that it consists of a very large number of sheep-like beings, who are preyed upon by a few rapacious predators and/or bad governments. He seeks to lay out a third position: "those who refuse to be either", and offers as an example, "an armed libertarian".

The core values of the Third Way are the values of the Warrior, and in any number of ways, Mr. Royce drapes the term Warrior in the full regalia of an ancient and venerable tradition. By denying the Warrior as predator (Mr. Royce's Warrior is no berserker, no pirate, no storm trooper and no imperialist) he evokes a sterner, more finely tempered kind of life, where honor, personal responsibility and concern for others hold pride of place. Human life is intrinsically a life of struggle, and in Mr. Royce's view, a person can accept the reality of this and learn to fight, or he can flee this responsibility, outright by becoming prey, or indirectly by delegating his role to other "protectors". Unfortunately, as any reading of history will attest, the protectors all too often themselves become the predators. Only the Warrior, living a value imbued life that explicitly eschews violent domination of others, can move beyond the predator/prey cycle. The state for which the Warrior strives is that of liberty, and the life of liberty in human societies is moved by four forces, symbolized as the soap box (discussion), the ballot box (formulation), the jury box (interpretation) and the cartridge box (decisive action). In the real world, the first three do not exist in a substantive way without the fourth. And for that reason, firearms - "liberty's teeth"-are the necessary though not sufficient conditions to resist servitude.

The Political themes of this book are the most passionate, and the least organized, of all.
Royce very rightly champions the second amendment as not only the safeguard of the right of each individual to keep firearms but the major bulwark against evil doers and tyrannous governments. Scattered throughout the book are many statistics concerning the relationship between gun ownership and crime. Just in case you are wondering, when a society is armed, there is less crime. Any society which disarms its citizens AND maintains a low rate of crime, does so only by sacrificing many of what we still regard as fundamental human rights (i.e. Japan).

With respect to tyrannical governments, Mr. Royce's arguments are not convincing, at least to me. Certainly, he does have history on his side. "Death by government" was a central motif of the twentieth century, and many previous centuries as well. People would do well to be wary of governments. They would do well to be prepared to take action against tyrannous governments. The question is, Do Americans now face such tyranny? Has the time come to step off the soap box, batten down the ballot box, burn the jury box and open the cartridge box? Mr. Royce is convinced that such a time is imminent, but his arguments in this direction are flimsy. The Political side of the book does not answer to the Philosophical side.

This is a strong book, which I recommend most highly for anyone who is interested in firearms, and who wishes to learn more about any of the themes I have outlined. Owning and using guns is a method which, in mature use, inspires careful reflection, as well as considered action.

Absolutely Essential, March 21, 2007
I bought this book thinking it would merely be a handy reference on firearms, so I was utterly floored by its unexpected intensity and passion. Rather than just giving you the "how", it serves up a healthy dose of the "why" as well. This deeply American book should be required reading for everyone. The writing is lucid and honest, at times funny, and the lessons are indisputable. The citizen disarmament advocates use hype and emotion to further their cause. BTP's Gun Bible meticulously dismantles their rhetoric with facts and reason. I challenge "gun control" advocates to read this book and walk away with your convictions intact.

Invaluable Reference for both the Novice and Experienced Shooter, April 15, 2006
I purchased this book soon after reading the author's first work of fiction, Molon Labe, and I couldn't be more happy with the purchase. Given all the gun media out there that competes for your reading dollar, this is about the best $20 i've spent in some time. Gun Magazines all make their livelihoods selling advertising to gun manufacturers and thus, their reviews tend to sugar-coat flaws. Not so with Boston! His evaluations are unbiased and cut like a razor. Had I bought this book before I purchased my $1400 Armalite AR-10A4 that jams at least a round or two per mag regardless of the ammo/mag, I would have saved a good deal of money and bought a FAL or M1A to start with. The book lives up to its title in that it is a compendium of hands-on researched and empirically analyzed information about firearms for all purposes, with an emphasis on home defense and defense of Liberty in general. I have read and reread the book so many times in the last 4 months that I expect I'll need to replace it soon. The poor thing is starting to fall apart; it's that solid of a reference.

Other reviewers have gone in depth to explain the contents of the books so I will not duplicate their work. However, I find it helpful to mention the three sections that have been the most useful to my interests. I was interested in purchasing a full power battle rifle (308) to replace my jamming AR-10 but given the costs involved, Boston's complete evalations of all the major battle rifles (AR-10, FAL, HK91, M1, M1A, AR-15, Steyr AUG, AK-47, AK-74) were invaluable in helping me to select a DSA Para FAL that fills my needs and goes bang every time I pull the trigger. The second area that was very useful for me was the surplus ammunition evaluation. Nowhere else have I found a solid accuracy evaluation of various types of available surplus ammuntion for 308, 223, and 50 BMG surplus projectiles. Given a battle rifle's appetite for ammunition and Boston's maxim "Ammunition turns money into skill", information ranking the accuracy of surplus ammo in various rifles alone justifies the cost of this volume. Lastly, a section of the book has a solid evaluation of the items needed and costs of getting into 50 BMG target rifle shooting. Boston provides a full evaluation of what is required (rangefinders, ammo, reloading, optics) as well as ranking rifle models previously unheard of by me and most "gun-guys". While the book definitely doesn't discourage one from purchasing a 50 BMG rifle, the text is definitely an eye-opener that these behemoths aren't for everyone, especially those without a well-rooted money tree.

Overall, Boston's Gun Bible is a very solid book (and an exceptional value) for both the novice interested in purchasing their first defensive handgun or hunting rifle to the experienced enthusiast looking to thoughtfully fill up their gun safe. Should you buy it outside Amazon, be sure to get the current edition which has been updated since the 1994 "Krime Bill" expired. The version offered here on Amazon.com as a New Book is the updated edition.

good & helpful, but flawed, December 13, 2007
I was very excited to read this book. Based on the reviews, I knew that I shared most of the author's leanings on both politics and rifles.

On the plus side, Boston's Gun Bible contains tons of great information that can't be found in any other single volume that I've come across so far. When it comes to gear, this guy really knows his stuff. For that reason alone, I think it's a worthwhile book for any proud `gun nut' (like me); I don't regret the purchase and I intend on keeping the book.

That said, the book does suffer from some flaws in three areas that kept it from being as pleasurable of a read as I expected. The net result is that one has to wade through a fair amount of unfocused venting in order to glean the worthwhile information that the book does in fact contain. The flaws in question are haphazard organization, historical errors of fact and analysis*, and writing quality that I can best describe as C-.

Since it looks like all three of these problem areas have been addressed by previous reviews, I'm only going to discuss the one that I found most distracting: the author's lackluster writing skills. Perhaps I'm being abnormally picky here, but still, I think Jeff Cooper for one would agree with me on the value of good, technically correct, clear prose.

There are the usual suspects - bad grammar and typos - throughout; I often wondered whether a competent editor had ever looked at Mr. Party's manuscript. In addition, some of the author's New-Speak-like jargon seems clever at first, but rapidly gets annoying after a couple dozen pages.

By far the most annoying thing, though, is (as a prior reviewer noted) Mr. Party's constant changes in fonts, especially his ridiculous overuse of italics. When you only occasionally use italics, their intended effect - emphasis of a crucial word or phrase - comes across clearly, and everybody is happy. However, when you use italics too much, as I believe Mr. Party does, it eventually stops having the desired effect, and instead creates the effect in the reader's head that the author suffers from some kind of voice-modulation disorder. I found it very distracting.

One can only imagine how much better this book might have been if Mr. Party had also, in between all the firearms classes he's attended, taken the time to attend a writing seminar or two.

*One historical problem I can't resist mentioning: Mr. Party essentially doubles the actual number of Soviet KIA from the Afghan War; moreover, he wrongly attributes these & the resultant Soviet defeat there primarily to the Afghans' skill with the 303 British bolt rifle. In reality, the Afghans were losing the war until American aid arrived in the form of better weapons (more modern rifles, heavy machineguns and artillery, mines, and, most crucially, the Stinger missile which neutralized the Hind gunship threat.)

Thick enough to stop a bullet, February 9, 2009
Well, probably a .25 or .22.

Where to start? OK...This book has both quality AND quantity. Great bang for the buck in these times of everything costing more, and books costing even more than that.

Boston's books all have a sense of urgency that would turn into ranting in many writers' hands. But this is avoided by Boston's keen sense of organization (both on the page and out in the world, he *is* the FSW founder), combined with pretty damn good proofreading, editing and page layout, especially compared with most small press fare.

And the man can *write*. While he obviously thinks a mile a second, he still manages to get it all down in a polished way.

Being that I am a recovering liberal who used to be afraid of guns, I found this book quite an eye opener. It's not just about guns, though the gun stuff is covered and then some. (If you just want books about guns, period, there are plenty of good gun books, Massad Ayoob has written many.)

Boston's Gun Bible is very short on shotgun info (though the line about "condo beehivers and drywall" was hilarious), and not too heavy on revolvers, but Boston likes rifles and semi-autos. This is probably the best rifle book extant. And Boston doesn't cover much on shotguns and revolvers because he "writes what he knows", and he knows what he loves. He loves rifles.

If you want a shotgun book, I recommend "Modern Shotgunning" by Dave Henderson. It's detailed and sweet. Sort of feels like a knowledgeable grandpa passing on his life experience with hunting. Boston's Gun Bible feels more like it's written by your crazy uncle, who it turns out isn't crazy after all. Maybe the crazy uncle is really the only sane guy in the family, because he really understands how the world really works.

Reading this book is a direct pineal download (yes, you'll lose sleep) to the true spirit of the men who created America, men who spoke their constitution with arms. Arms not as symbols, but as actual TOOLS.

In these exponentially turbulent times where America is becoming a welfare state and a foreign country (and that includes many who call themselves "true Americans"), Boston's Gun Bible will help keep your "aim true."

When I bought this book, I was just looking for a book on target shooting and home defense. I got so much more.

Guns, as with any defensive tools, are owned and practiced so hopefully we never have to use them. But an unwillingness to push back when dragged off isn't what this country was based on. And even that has become an unpopular opinion with many of the shiny happy sheeple.

Reading Boston's Gun Bible, I'm reminded of this quote from Charles A. Beard:
"It is sobering to reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence."
==-
MichaelNotMike

I have 70+ "gun books", I only travel with 1. This is it., September 16, 2006
Yes, I disagree with Boston on a couple minor technical points (and was proud to see my "contribution" on Aimpoint optics in the latest edition), but being active-duty Army, this is the only civilian weapons book I make room in the bags for when deploying overseas. When our battalion was issued M14 rifles from storage, the class I gave on iron-sight zero procedures came right out of BGB. I'm on my third copy as it keeps growing legs, and bought copies for some of my soldiers as welcome-home gifts.

BTW, the M855/SS109 is better and punching holes in things, but you're correct in that its inferior on soft tissue. When possible here, I followed SOCOM's lead ans scrounged some Black Hills match grade 5.56 loaded with the 77 grain Sierra. Works great if you don't have an M14 handy.

The definitive work...., January 31, 2001
If you are going to only own one book on guns, this is it. Soup to nuts on why to own a gun, which ones to buy, what gear works, you name it. The section on U.S. gun laws is worth the price of the book alone. It's 700+ pages that doesn't gloss over anything; whether he's rating battle rifles or exploding the myths of gun control, Boston has clearly taken his time and done this one "right". A word of caution for those not familiar with Boston's work- this is not a book about hunting- it's about the true purpose of the Second Amendment clause "to keep and bear arms". You might as well go ahead and order two copies, because when you read it you're going to want to share it with friend....

Must have book!!!, March 4, 2007
I accidentily discovered this writer when I won an auction lot of books. I was overwhelmed by his frank hard-hitting style of writing and no holds barred truth. This book is by far the best I've ever seen on guns. From the technical knowledge, little known facts/tricks, tactical information it's like a complete course in one book. Just one tip like how to use the width of your front sight as a range finder is worth the price of the book (-ie- the 8 moa width of a M14 front sight lines up perfectly with the army targets at a certain range). I received an expert marksman award in the military and believe me I never received any training about this. There is so much information presented that each chapter in itself could I think be expanded into its own book. Especially the chapters on battle rifles and becoming a rifleman. Other valuable information such as home defense, what to do in event of a self defense shooting, etc. Invaluable stuff that someday could save you or your families lives or at least keep you out of prison. I hope he continues to keep writing and expanding on this material cause I'll be buying them all. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Here, from Jay Dobyns, the first federal agent to infiltrate the inner circle of the outlaw Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, is the inside story of the twenty-one-month operation that almost cost him his family, his sanity, and his life.

Getting shot in the chest as a rookie agent, bartering for machine guns, throttling down the highway at 100 mph, and responding to a full-scale, bloody riot between the Hells Angels and their rivals, the Mongols–these are just a few of the high-adrenaline experiences Dobyns recounts in this action-packed, hard-to-imagine-but-true story.

Dobyns leaves no stone of his harrowing journey unturned. At runs and clubhouses, between rides and riots, Dobyns befriends bad-ass bikers, meth-fueled “old ladies,” gun fetishists, psycho-killer ex-cons, and even some of the “Filthy Few”–the elite of the Hells Angels who’ve committed extreme violence on behalf of their club. Eventually, at parties staged behind heavily armed security, he meets legendary club members such as Chuck Zito, Johnny Angel, and the godfather of all bikers, Ralph “Sonny” Barger. To blend in with them, he gets full-arm ink; to win their respect, he vows to prove himself a stone-cold killer.

Hardest of all is leading a double life, which has him torn between his devotion to his wife and children, and his pledge to become the first federal agent ever to be “fully patched” into the Angels’ near-impregnable ranks. His act is so convincing that he comes within a hairsbreadth of losing himself.Eventually, he realizes that just as he’s been infiltrating the Hells Angels, they’ve been infiltrating him. And just as they’re not all bad, he’s not all good.

Reminiscent of Donnie Brasco’s uncovering of the true Mafia, this is an eye-opening portrait of the world of bikers–the most in-depth since Hunter Thompson’s seminal work–one that fully describes the seductive lure criminal camaraderie has for men who would otherwise be powerless outsiders. Here is all the nihilism, hate, and intimidation, but also the freedom–and, yes, brotherhood–of the only truly American form of organized crime.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Reviews

Not the Definitive Case History, but Still a Darn-Good Tale, March 1, 2009
I remember thinking, years ago, when I first heard about this case, "Man, that'd make a heck of a good book!" And it did.

I'm not going to rehash the plot line, several of the other reviews have covered that nicely. What I will say is that the book holds your attention through every page, only slowing down as you realize that the case is coming to an end. I read the whole thing during one Saturday spent waiting for my daughter to finish her dance lessons - it is that interesting a book.

What always amazes me in these true stories (I'm in the middle of reading William Queen's Under and Alone) is how these hyper-paranoid outlaws are repeatedly infiltrated by guys who, essentially, just show up and hang around. If I were looking to setup an OMC (outlaw motorcycle club) I'd have a hard-rule: you must commit a serious felony in our presence - one arranged by the club. They'd still get infiltrated, it'd just be a little harder.

And another point it's not always clear to me is what exactly the 81's are doing that amounts to serious big time crime. I understand that they're violent, use drugs, work hard at being social outcasts, etc., but in this story, most of the crimes depicted amount to selling one or two guns at a time, some drugs and random acts of violence. After having read of the massive and profitable drug operations mounted by the Hells Angels' Canadian chapters I'd expected some of that here.

This is not the complete story of this interesting case: It's Jay Dobyns' story and the other case agents, his family, and ATF supervisors are less real that Jay Bird and his Red & White targets. There are some serious tales to be told by people in this book who make appearances and fade away, props used as set decoration where Jay is definitely the star.

Jay Dobyns is a fascinating guy. In the media blitz surrounding the release of this book, I've listened to hours of interviews on podcasts and late night talk radio and he's interesting and very articulate. Given that the book is about a third profanity (okay, I'm exaggerating) I hadn't expected that. He's also incredibly patient. I was listening to one pod-cast interview where the interviewer was slow, rambling, interrupted and generally irritated the heck out of me. Dobyns answered with patience and serious consideration to even the weirdest utterances by the host. Personally, I wanted to check the guy's pupils.

In the book, Jay is brutally honest particularly about himself and his failures to his family and friends. As I read it there were parts where I wondered if he understood that his wife might also read this book! He must have at some point, because his interaction with his undercover "girlfriend", Jenna "JJ" Maguire, is glossed over to the point of almost non-existence.

It's in those interviews that you get to hear about the aftermath of Operation Black Biscuit and I urge Dobyns to write the other half of the story: the prosecution that fell apart and, more ominously, the ongoing threats to him and his family. In August 2008 his house burned to the ground and his wife and children barely escaped with their lives.

The story of the ATF infiltration into the most famous of the self-described Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs deserves a wider and more documentary accounting, something along the lines of Lou Cannon's Official Negligence, everything you ever wanted to know about the Rodney King incident and it's aftermath. I'm left wondering what happened to JJ? As a woman agent in the middle of the male-dominated Hells Angels, her side of the story would be something worth reading.

So, this is a great, though incomplete, telling of Operation Black Biscuit. I hope some enterprising journalist find the time and support to put together what the late Paul Harvey called, "the rest of the story."

A Raw, Real and Riveting Memoir, February 22, 2009
Captivating from the first page, NO ANGEL thrusts the reader into the inner world of the outlaw motorcycle gang, the Hells Angels. This is the story of an obsessed man, who with the all-or-nothing mentality in his makeup becomes the first undercover law enforcement agent to penetrate this notorious group.

The story is conveyed with brutal honesty. Jay Dobyns, using the alias "Bird" relies not only on his memories of the two year ATF case known as "Black Biscuit," but also on surveillance tapes and transcripts. They help provide detailed dialog between the operatives and their suspects. He puts you in the dark rooms, smoke-filled clubhouses, beer-soaked bars and inky tattoo parlors as you witness his transformation from a sandy-haired football star and all-American dad to a scary looking dude with a braided goatee. He becomes Bird.

He also becomes a patched Hells Angel, sacrificing everything dear to him in the process: his family, his friends, and nearly his soul. In a moment, however, just before the case shuts down, he experiences a revelation. It's not merely about the good and evil among the Hells Angels or in himself, it was the basic understanding this "brotherhood" was "nothing more than a support group for misunderstood loners held together by hate and money." Immersed in this HATE for so long, he ultimately casts it aside for everything he LOVES, and expresses this personal epiphany with tremendous humility. In spite of a disappointing outcome for Black Biscuit and his exposure as an undercover agent, this makes Jay a hero, and makes NO ANGEL a story worth reading.

There are many characters on both sides of the law and a slew of unfamiliar terminology and acronyms, but photos, glossaries maps and lists are provided to guide the reader. Very well done.

Michele Cozzens is the author of Irish Twins

Accurate portrayal of a colossal waste of tax dollars, April 7, 2009
This is a good book written from the first person perspective of undercover ATF Agent Jay Dobyns. The operation "Black Biscuit" was a lengthy and vastly expensive attempt to infiltrate the Hells Angels in Arizona. The operation was a success from the operative's perspective, but in reality it was a huge waste of tax dollars, which became evident when the case fell apart during prosecution. The most interesting aspect of the book was the internal struggle within Dobyn's life as he tries to balance his undercover role with that of a career law enforcement officer and family man. Dobyns also struggles with the fact that he identifies with and truly likes many of the Hells Angels he is targeting and deceiving everyday. Dobyns does not try to paint himself as a hero and admits to many mistakes, which gives the book credibility.

Inside Arizona's Hellish Culture of Angels, July 17, 2009
Jay Dobyn's riveting story of undercover work inside the Hell's Angels of Arizona kept me glued to the book in one sitting. The frenetic pace of events that Dobyns describes, with the help of Nils Johnson-Shelton, was as wild as it gets; and at times a bit confusing. It took a while to get acquainted with the diverse cast of characters that were quickly moved into the manic story line; about halfway through the book, I finally felt comfortable with the players and their quirks, including the main character himself---Dobyns, our tough-minded and cleverly deceptive hero.

In the end, the nearly two year oddesey of undercover work had taken its toll on ATF agent, Dobyns, who had psychologically morphed into one of Hell's Angels own. When the action climaxed during Operation Black Biscuit's multi-tiered enforcement, the reader will breath a sigh of relief that the author wasn't caught in the cross-fire, and was able to retreat with his life intact; at least physically.

This is one tough guy; although he downplays his heroism with a matter of fact description of some very scary events; there's no mistakng that his largely thankless work during this undercover assignment required unfathonable perserverence and guts.

His story is fascinating and compelling; a close and very human look inside the hellish culture of Arizona's Hell's Angels.

The story lacks a climax, March 31, 2009
I was disappointed to get to the end of sometimes tedious reading and not have a finale.

What a dead end..., August 2, 2010
This book certainly was a fast-past, no holds barred account. But in the end, the main conflict in this book was the author's inner struggle.. It really is all about him.. He goes on for almost a whole page about how he made a grilled cheese sandwich for his kid. While just giving you sidelines about the Angels. I do commend him that he blames himself for his fanaticism for the case- plunging into the Angels' thug-life and almost losing his mind.. (Unlike someone like Sarah Palin who writes a book just to cast all her failures on others) But in the end, this shows the government's wasting of money and time. In a post 9-11 world, why should the ATF really care about a bunch of guys in the desert moving low amounts of drugs and alot of firearms in a carry-permit state?? If the Hells Angels were REALLY a problem, wouldn't the communities where they had their clubhouses have put pressure on the state and the police to clean up? Thank goodness he got out in one piece, but he should have been reeled in long before things got way too deep..

HA in Flip Flops, March 30, 2010
This is a very funny book, which was not really what I was expecting. I was expecting more fights, head banging, Sturgis-type rallies, all the stuff you think of when you think of a bikers. The book is actually more about an upper-middle class college guy getting thrown into the "white trash" American subculture - and liking it. If you have an advanced degree with some letters after your name but still like to hang out at the local honky-tonk you will definitely appreciate this rare book.

It's okay, May 3, 2009
I have read Hunter S. Thompson's book, George Wethern's book, and Sonny Bargers Biography. This book was very readable, I read it in one sitting, however with any "true story", I have issues.
The book is well written, and certainly a page turner. The author admits to various "indiscretions" (dick fingers intended) and of course finds God and family at the end. However, he does have litigation pending against the ATF and needs to come off well in this book.
A very telling vignette in this book has to do with the the author encountering members of law enforcement (of which he was a member)at a motorcycle rally and being outraged that they would want to meet a ranking member of the Hells Angels and at the same time being extremely condescinding towards the officers in question.
Worth a read although the author will get on your nerves, as he is obviously covering all his bases. His ghostwriter obviously has talent (and not as overworked as the poor soul who ghosted George Wethern). Agent Dobyns was enthralled with the Hells Angels (re: his intrpretation of the Laughlin incident with the Monglols)and he has years of experience working undercover.
A good outsiders view of the Hells Angels, and a book where they come off looking pretty good. As I said, a very good read. I would recommend. Be sceptical of the author and his ghost writer (Nils Johnson-Shelton), but enjoy the view.

no angel, March 31, 2009
If you like the subject, you'll like the book. Jay'Bird'Dobyns tells the story of an undercover ATF agent,and his team, infiltrating the bikers of Arizona and northern Mexico. I had a hard time with the attitude of 'Bird'. Sometimes he's just to much of a cop. I found it hard to believe that the bikers from Arizona accepted him as readily as He says they did. I did find it interesting that the more "Bird' associated with the bikers, the more he became one. He loved the freedom of the biker world. How could he not? Our world is about Freedom. His world is about suppression. This book is very well written.

NO HONOR, August 26, 2009
This "expose" of the "inner workings of the HAMC" reads more like an apologia for Agent Dobyns' bad behavior during his undercover role as an outlaw biker. "That drunk girl who I carried into my motel room and spent the night with? I was only PROTECTING her from the evil Hells Angels!" "I didn't cheat on my wife with those two teenagers either." "And I certainly never used illegal substances while I was working OC -- I only PRETENDED to inhale all that weed, and those tapes you have of me tweaked out of my gourd? Well, I attribute that to Hydroxycut and Starbucks pumpkin lattes!" Pathetic.

A lot of the crimes he discusses were not committed by Hells Angels -- many were not even bikers. Do not see how that is relevant. And let us examine some of the horrible crimes he protected the public from. Well, it seems he initiated his very own "buyback" program -- bring in a junk gun worth twenty bucks, and he'll take it off the streets (he stated they were being shipped out of the country) and give you ten times what it's worth in cash. Heck, lotsa folks took him up on it. He was throwing around handfuls of taxpayer dollars not only on buying junk guns but by presenting himself as a "high roller." Then, he claims to have murdered a rival MC member in hopes of being allowed to prospect for HA. He shows them photos of a body in a ditch and hands over a bloody vest with that MC's patch on it. When everyone goes, "Damn, ain't that sumpthin, y'know we never told you to go and do this" he uses that to charge them with "conspiracy to commit homicide" -- which the jury threw out when they heard the facts.

Throughout the book he crows about what a "hero" he is, and repeatedly insults the bikers and their culture. He even goes on to say he doesn't even like motorcycles. But then he goes off on some schizophrenic tangent where he starts talking about how much he respects certain members and how he wishes he could also earn a patch.

I agree with the other reviewer that Jay Dobyns is no Billy Queen -- an ATF UC in a similar situation who actually went deep cover and joined the Mongols rather than wearing fake colors and going home on the weekends. Queen was a lot more honest about his feelings and his experiences as well. Dobyns? I don't think anyone trusts him anymore. But it seems that MANY Federal UC operations are like this . . . which is why UC work is prohibited in most civilized countries. Our tax dollars at work. ... Read more

Editorial Review

A national bestseller—7 million copies sold. Prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial, Vincent Bugliosi held a unique insider's position in one of the most baffling and horrifying cases of the twentieth century: the cold-blooded Tate-LaBianca murders carried out by Charles Manson and four of his followers. What motivated Manson in his seemingly mindless selection of victims, and what was his hold over the young women who obeyed his orders? Here is the gripping story of this famous and haunting crime. 50 pages of b/w photographs.

Both Helter Skelter and Vincent Bugliosi's subsequent Till Death Us Do Part won Edgar Allan Poe Awards for best true-crime book of the year. Bugliosi is also the author of Outrage: The Five Reasons Why O. J. Simpson Got Away with Murder (Norton, 1996) and other books. Curt Gentry, an Edgar winner, is the author of J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets (available in Norton paperback) and Frame-Up: The Incredible Case of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings. ... Read more

Reviews

Fast, Full, and Scary, March 24, 2001
Helter Skelter is the #1 best selling true crime book ever because of three things: It is the story of one of the highest profile murder cases in the world's history, even 30+ years after the fact, it is still an amazing and unique story, and finally, Vincent Bugliosi is a fabulous writer. Most books written by non-writers might tell a good story but not in a dramatic way that a true author otherwise might. Bugliosi has no problem doing that with his books.

I thought I had a pretty good idea of most everything that had happened during this whole ordeal that ended the era of "peace and love," but I didn't know the half of it. Bugliosi needs over 700 pages to vividly recount every second of what led up to the Manson murders and every detail of what was done to bring the killers to trial and put them away. This is without question the fastest and most intense 700 page book I've ever read (and I've read a few), and that can be credited to the sheer madness of this case and the brilliance of the deep-thinking, amazingly-talented prosecutor who closed the case and then wrote this book to tell everything about it.

====A TRULY STARTLING, AMAZING, WELL-WRITTEN MASTERPIECE====, August 27, 1999
I highly suggest that everybody read this book. It is, without hesitation, a genuine masterpiece in real life horror.

The first page on the book reads: "The Story in Which You Are About to Read Will Scare the Hell Out of You". That is not an understatement. This book literally kept me up at night fearing that someone could just simply walk into my living room at any minute. It was so vividly described that it put the fear of God in me when I could literally picture the entire array of murders accurately inside my head. It is such a horrifying aspect, a sea of thoughts that will forever remain inside your subconsciousness. I guarantee that when you read the passages describing the horrendous Tate/LaBianca murders, you will gradually build the entire picture inside your brain, to the point where you will feel like you are there, looking down on an excruciating scene of human barbarity. Not ONE detail is left to the imagination.

You will feel like you are inside the investigation, working with Bugliosi to pinpoint these motives, journeying with the killers step by step as they act out there darkest fantasies. You will begin to second guess "The White Album" and be disturbed by Manson's seemingly psychotic interpretation of it. (Make a point to listen to this album afterwards, and you will feel transported back to the Spahn Ranch where the madness soon ensued) You will feel yourself singing crazy ballads with the Family, you will become ancy inside Susan Atkins' jail cell. You will be scared alongside Linda Kasabian on the long night ride to the Tate house. All these feelings and more will incorporate your senses whilst reading this horrifying story.

All I can do to recommend this book enough to you is to say that it stayed with me and disturbed me for years to come. Every time I read this novel, I become obsessed with the events, haunted when I'm lounging around "in the dead of night". Trust me, reading this book is like surviving the events yourself. With its graphic detail and play by play analyzation of every possible occurence, "Helter Skelter" is one of the best true crime novels ever written. I can't suggest a better title for you to read. Be warned, however: Only immerse yourself in this world if you have a desire to be constantly frightened and possess a strong tolerance for graphic descriptions of violence. Not a book for the kiddies!

Reviewed by J.C. Hoyt

Only the absolute BEST pieces of art recieve the highest rating on the universal scale of stars. Hint, hint.

Murder Mystery Solved, May 31, 2007
One night in 1969 in Los Angeles, California, there were several murders at the home of movie producer Roman Polanski who was away on a trip. One of the victims was Sharon Tate, a beautiful but talentless actress who was eight months pregnant. A short drive away there were two more murders of Rosemary and Leno LaBianca. On their refrigerator, inscribed in their blood were the misspelled words, "Healter [sic] Skelter."

Fear gripped the city while the LAPD began the manhunt for the killers. With the arrest of Charles Manson, it is up to a prosecutor named Vincent Bugliosi to prosecute one of the most difficult charges of all--conspiracy to commit murder.

That is what this story is about--murder, the bungling, the luck, the disappearances and murder of lawyers, the trial and the prosecution that had to bend and adjust to ensure killers did not walk free.

While this book is several years old, it is still thrilling in how it can inspire fear because it was real, and because truth is stranger than fiction.

The final irony is that a number of these murderers who freely admitted to, and evenly gleefully revealed their lack of mercy during their unspeakable crimes, now blame Charles Manson for what they had done.

If you can find someone else to take the responsibility, then you can avoid seeing yourself for what you are-- murderers.

Gripping, taut, all too real.






Thx.

Vince Bugliosi Takes on "Christ" - and Triumphs, May 23, 2004
In the early months of 1976, my high school sociology teacher told us of a fascinating and horrifying book called "Helter Skelter" that had commanded his rapt attention for months. Published in 1974, "Skelter" was Vincent Bugliosi's riveting true-crime rendering of the notorious Manson family and their murderous crime spree in August 1969. Bugliosi, significantly, was the prosecuting attorney of Manson and his malignant minions and he succeeded - brilliantly - in ridding our society of these senseless savages.

I was seventeen years old then, and although I was no stranger to the extremes of human aberrations, I was mute with horror at some of my teacher's revelations. (Sadie Mae Glutz's weird name - and the equally goofy name she gave her newborn son - were the least of her post-partum peculiarities.....Manson family females had to wait until the slobbering canines devoured their meals before they could nourish their own inner children......) Several months later, as a freshman newly transplanted at the University of Kansas precisely seven years after the abominable crimes, I purchased a paperback copy of "Skelter".

The prodigiously gifted prosecutor has created a spellbinding re-creation of the events surrounding that long-ago August weekend. Moreover, he has delved into the pathology of Manson and exposed the mass murderer for what he is: a manipulative, savvy, cold-blooded and narcissistic individual - someone who does not deserve to taste freedom - ever.

If you think you know everything about what it takes to convict a criminal - especially someone who (cleverly) avoided the crime scene - "Skelter" reveals the protracted, painstaking and dedicated efforts put forth by Bugliosi to convict these deviants. In those pre-O.J. days in L.A., Bugliosi was fortunate to have a jury who listened - without bias - to the truth, to the overwhelming evidence, and to a talented prosecutor's stunning summation. Happily, Bugliosi was victorious, but his accomplishments didn't end with the 1971 verdicts......

Read "Skelter" and learn about the vast research and skill employed by the prosecutor to vanquish his foes (which included a Judge Ito-like milquetoast who referred to Manson's chief assassin as "poor Tex" and nearly derailed the conviction of Charles Watson).

Yes, "Skelter" is much ado about Vincent Bugliosi - and rightly so. The prosecutor will forever have my respect, loyalty and admiration for removing these vicious killers from our midst. However, there are valid sociological lessons to be derived from his narrative. Most of Manson's followers (including the would-be messiah himself) endured difficult childhoods. However, a whole lot of us endure wrenching situations. Many seductive and charming people use these traits to lure vulnerable people to their licentious lair - but that doesn't give us license to commit unspeakable crimes. In the end, neither Manson nor his "family" elicit sympathy - not from this reader.

In March of 1978, after suffering a nervous breakdown and subsequently enrolling in an out-of-town college that fall, I was accosted on a daily basis by every Hairy Krishna, Moonie, self-professed religious zealot and would-be spiritual savoir on the campus. I couldn't speak very well back then, but I still refused these transparent ministrations - forcefully. Yes, I was disenfranchised. Yes, I was unbearably lonely. Yet I remembered something a wise priest once said, "Remove yourself from the occasion of sin, lest you fall into sin."

We should all, no matter what our religious preferences may or may not be, steer clear of false prophets. In the pantheon of sin, Manson was among the very worst of offenders. Not only did he lead his starry-eyed disciples into evil, he exploited them for his own aggrandizement. To be a destroyer of humanity (a transgression that can never be repaid - not in this life) must surely rank among the worst crimes of all.

My eternal thanks and gratitude go to Vincent Bugliosi for providing the victims and their families a most precious gift - justice. It can never bring back their loved ones, but as Doris Tate (Sharon Tate's mother) said, "After the convictions, we slept through the night for the first time since Sharons' death." The value of justice can never be adequately measured, just as the lives of those innocents lost can never be restored.

A frightening, destructive close to the idealistic 60's, January 9, 1999
"If this was not a proper case for the death penalty, no case ever would be." In that one sentence, Vincent Bugliosi sums up exactly how horrific, senseless and sadistic these murders were. This is definitely not a case study for the squeamish, and Bugliosi leaves no stone unturned in his prosecution, as well as his investigation, of the Manson murders.

Co-author Curt Gentry narrates the first half of the book in the omniscient third-person, informing readers of the stark facts. On August 9, 1969, 10050 Cielo Drive went from being Sharon Tate's "love house" to a slaughter house where 5 victims (Tate, her friends Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Voytek Frykowsky, and an unknown bystander, Steven Parent) were stabbed repeatedly, and in some cases, shot. The most horrifying image is the death of Sharon herself, who was nearly nine months pregnant, and in her most vulnerable state. The following night, August 10, Rosemary & Leno LaBianca were the victims of the massacre. Aside from the graphic nature of the crimes, messages had been printed in blood. Among them was a mispelled one: "Healter Skelter".

Gentry gives details on the LAPD investigation. At times, the police come off as the Keystone Kops with their obvious mistakes (for instance, an officer presses the gate buzzer at the Tate residence, obliterating the bloody fingerprint originally left there). In other instances, some officers are shown to be thorough in their interviewing techniques and investigations (most notably Dianne Lake, a former member of the Manson family).

When Gentry begins to unravel the horrors of one Charles Manson, a small-time pimp and criminal who had spent most of his life in federal prison, the narration is at its most compelling. Eventually, one of the perpetrators of the "Helter Skelter" murders, Susan Atkins aka Sadie Mae Glutz, blabs to her cellmates once too often, and (thankfully) gets the killers arrested. Bugliosi gets assigned to the case.

Bugliosi apologizes for the abrupt change in the narration, since he picks it up in the first person singular. However, his ability to relate the details of the case, the personalities of the killers and victims, the forgotten clues, interviews with understandably frightened witnesses, and his analysis of the dynamics of the Manson Family will soon make the reader forget this change in the "voice". Bugliosi is a trial lawyer who puts 150% into his work, and to read his account of why he had to prove motive, how he got the maximum amount of information from his witnesses, etc., is to read a masterpiece. It's rare to see any lawyer that dedicated to his job. Bugliosi not only has an eye for details that are seemingly unimportant at first, he also has the ability to articulate the main points of the case in a manner which is easily understood by someone unfamiliar with criminal law--a rare combination. The trial was almost as bizarre as the murder, with the defendants behaving as if they were unruly students in a classroom, and laughing at inappropriate times. The most unforgettable moment would have to be Manson's attempted attack on the judge, as his co-defendants admiringly looked on. Those 3 women, as well as the other Manson family members (including the prosecution witnesses), believed that Charlie had magic powers. Considering that he and his four co-defendants were found guilty and got the death penalty, only to have the death penalty overturned by the U. S. Supreme Court, it would seem that maybe Manson DID.

In the afterword, Bugliosi goes on to name other unsolved murder cases in which the Manson family members are suspects (there are possibly about 40 victims in all, or even more). His eloquent trial arguments are a reminder of what could have happened if this case had been assigned to a lawyer who DIDN'T always have his eye on the ball. The scariest thing about these cases is that Manson could have easily walked, given the initial lack of concrete evidence. Bugliosi is probably the all-time champion prosecutor when it comes to circumstantial evidence cases. For another one of these books, check out another one of his books, "Till Death Us Do Part". His final argument is so concise and thorough in the way it covers every possible issue, it must certainly rank among one of the finest arguments in U. S. history.

This review is for the KINDLE edition, August 9, 2009
Let me just say that this is a great book, however buy the print edition. There is a list of illustrations in the Kindle edition, but I've yet to find an actual illustration. The FOOTNOTES are grouped together in the back. Not helpful in understanding California law and police procedures in the late 60s. I feel like I bought half a book.
Again, read this book, it's great, but get it in print.

Hey Amazon! If you had mentioned these things in the description, I could have made a better choice. Please, please make these things clear from the beginning. It's my first Kindle disappointment, so I'm not bitter, just sad.

The Definitive story by the prosecuting attorney, June 25, 2003
Bugliosi holds nothing back and gets as graphic as the case requires; this is not for delicate dispositions, it is a raw, brutal and monstrous example of what depravities evildoers are capable of when the right (or wrong) mix of degenerates come together.... Manson trolled the streets for the homeless, runaways and neglected disenfranchised youth and made them his own "family" to use a comforting term is a grotesque parody of what family means to all decent people. None of these people on their own would have come together and created this multi-personality Hydra Manson created; he has a special gift for gaining trust and making his worst depravities become reality by virtue of the control he wielded over these lost souls. This is evil, and the right ingredients were concocted to effect one of the worst serial killings of the twentieth century. The background was that Manson was brought up to the house on Cielo by Greg Jakobson who was involved with Manson on some dune buggy deals, and when he found out that Manson fancied himself a country singer he brought him to Cielo to meet Terry Melcher, Doris Day's son and a then record executive who listened to Charli's "music" and promised him, more facetiously than real, a recording contract. This was simply passing the time, and a fatuous, meaningless conversation that Manson took to heart, very seriously. When the contract never transpired, Manson felt betryaed by Melcher and wanted to get back at the pigs/establishment he saw as standing in the way of his success. Although he spent time trying to find Melcher, and when he contacted the Doris Day house in Beverly Hills, he was rebuffed. Melcher wisely ran up to Carmel to hide out with his mother. Manson, however, did know that there were people, Hollywood people, living there, and he made his plans from that information, to send a message. He sent his team, Susan Atkins, Tex Watkins, Leslie Van Houten et al., to kill the pigs...unfortunately, the people were the worse for wear, and Frykowski, a big tough Pole, was no match for the violence he woke up to; being stabbed multiple times he quickly lost blood and then they turned their attentions to Abigail Folger and Sharon Tate. Jay Sebring (black belt in karate) gallantly tried to protect Sharon, but he was no match for the numbers of the group and their sheer bloodlust. Up until tbat night, Manson was viewed with some wariness, as he was obviously rather disturbed, but the full extent of his madness was not discovered until that August night. I lived at the bottom of the hill where the house was, and arrived home around midnight and saw the car parked at the bottom of the steep road that led yup to the house...I thoguht it was kids making out. A Boy Scout leader a few miles away in Beverly Glen heard the screams, but the canyons have tricky acoustics and we heard nothing, right below the house. My brother had lived at the house when Melcher was there and made some offhand references to crazy Charlie, but he was nothing to be feared until that horrific night. The next morning I was awakend by many, amny cars going up the street, which was unusual, since it was a steep street, and we never got traffic; I looked out the window and counted twenty or more police cruisers and ambulances constantly traveling in a grim convoy up the street, and helicopters flying overhead...this went on all day, and after that, the circus started with tourists coming fom all over the United States to see the "murder house." I had met Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski at a small dinner party and never forgot how stunningly beautiful she was; absolutely breathtaking in person, and so sweet. The trial and the frightening lack of remorse was haunting, and we all armed ourselves with guns, not knowing if they would be back; when they were caught in a stolen car raid at the Spahn Ranch, everyone breathed easier....a friend of mine had a cabin in the Sierras and her mother drove up by herself one time and said she saw a schoolbus with hippies in it and they stared at her and as she told me alter "Gave her the chills." The combination of these lost souls came together and created a monster that tortured and murdered many people, inclduing Shorty Shea and the La Biancas. Th trial and the crime itself is recreated in meticulous detail and you must marvel at the tenacity and the will of Bugliosi to endure this several month long trial...and emerge victorious. The Supreme Court, in a questionable decision, rescinded the death penalty; but for that, they would more than likely have been executed by now. So they still come up for parole and they still get denied, and long may that continue, because there is no doubt whatsoever, despite claims of new found Christinaity, they would do harm to others when they could...this is a horrific glimpse into the minds and wills of people who are beyond any help or humanity; they are monsters.

Take the disclaimer very seriously!, December 4, 2002
When you open the book, the first thing you come to will be a disclaimer that warns, "The story you are about to read will scare the hell out of you." This is no exaggeration! Don't make the mistake I did and read it alone in the middle of the night! I was so terrified that I was afraid to close my eyes.

Vincent Bugliosi does an effective job of putting the chilling story of the Manson murders into print. You will learn a few things about our country's criminal-law system as you read the book, so it's very educational.

The greatest tragedy in this true-crime story was that Sharon Tate worked hard all her life for stardom yet would find it only in death.

I cannot help but empathize with all the murder victims -- some of whose bodies will never be found -- but most especially with the Tate and LaBianca victims whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The Best Ever -- Had To Give It 5 Stars, May 12, 2000
I realize it is strange to say this is the "best" book ever and one of my all-time faves . . . the subject matter is SO disturbing and the entire tale of Charlie Manson and his family is just plain creepy. But I am a fan of true crime books, and this is the best one out there. Bugliosi does such a fabulous job giving background info, delving into the lives of the Family, describing and detailing the two summer nights when they committed the Tata and LaBianca murders . . . it is so frightening and so disturbing . . . I suggest you DO NOT read this book late at night when you are in a hotel room or apartment all by yourself. You will swear something or someone is creepy-crawling around. To this day that simple phrase "creepy-crawling" makes the hair on my neck stand straight up.

Bugliosi does a wonderful job with this book -- I usually am not a fan of long drawn-out courtroom descriptions, but Mr. Bugliosi makes you feel as if you are right there and "in on the action." Of course, perhaps these courtroom chapters are fascinating because the defendants themselves were so strange, so odd, so malicious and without remorse, that everything they did was of interest. The book is the most frightening, disturbing, realistic, well-written, bone-chilling I have ever read . . . and it is all the more frightening because it actually happened. I first read this book about 4 years ago and have re-read it about 3 times since, and I feel like I pick up on something new each time.

This is one of those books you just cannot put down -- even though the descriptions are gruesome, the crimes heinous, the family's lifestyle so bizarre and disconcerting, Manson's hold on them so difficult to grasp . . . you keep turning the pages, reading faster and faster because you simply cannot wait to find out what happens next. I highly recommend this book -- as long as you do not scare too easily. This is one book that stays with you for a long long long time.

This Story Will Scare the Hell Out of You, August 30, 2006
"Helter Skelter" gives you fair warning when opening its cover. It tells you that you are about to have the hell scared out of you. And it's not kidding.
Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi wrote this granddaddy of true crime back in 1974 and even after 30+ years, "Helter Skelter" remains a true crime classic. The book is a hefty one (over 700 pages)and dissects not only the crimes, but also Charles Manson's background and the Family's various travels and journeys, including run-ins with the law prior to the infamous nights in question. The trial is also covered, which could be in excruciating detail for some.
Even with the glorification of violence today, "Helter Skelter" remains a true story that is so frightening because it could have happened anywhere, to anyone.
Read this excellent account, but be sure that the lights are on and all the doors and windows are locked. ... Read more

Editorial Review

In this "riveting"(The New York Times) work of nonfiction, a sociologist infiltrates the world of Chicago's crack-dealing gangs

First presented in Freakonomics, the story of a young sociologist who embedded himself in Chicago's most notorious gang and captured the world's attention. Gang Leader for a Day is the fascinating full story of how Sudhir Venkatesh gained entrance into the lives of a group of drug-dealers and went on to witness-and participate in-events that have rarely been described in print. A brazen, page-turning, and fundamentally honest view of the morally ambiguous, highly intricate, often corrupt struggle to survive in an urban war zone, it is also an emotional and complicated look at the friendship that develops between the sociologist and a gang leader, two ambitious men a universe apart. ... Read more

Reviews

"Sudhir, you're getting into something you shouldn't be messing with...", January 11, 2008
Thus Reggie, a Chicago gang member, warned the author of this book. Thank goodness, Venkatesh wasn't frightened away, and the consequence is this narrative about a Chicago crack-dealing gang.

I first learned something about life in a Chicago housing project when I read David Isay's heartbreaking Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago (1999), and something about the street drug trade in David Simons and Edward Burns' grueling The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood (1998). Both have become classics. Sudhir Venkatesh's Gang Leader for a Day is, I believe, destined to join them as an on-the-spot narrative of gang culture of Chicago. Some of the people whose lives he tracks--J.T., Clarisse, Mama and Pops Patton, Reggie, Millie, T-Bone--grow on you until you feel as if you actually know them.

While a graduate student at the University of Chicago, weary of cold statistical analysis, Venkatesh began hanging out with the Black Kings, a crack-selling gang who headquartered in the Robert Taylor Homes projects. He wanted to get in touch with the gang subculture through direct observation. He entered into the project pretty naive and just a bit too full of himself. Seven years later, after following the Black Kings and establishing a relationship with their leader, one J.T., the things he'd seen and heard made him a lot more streetwise and a little less cocky.

During his seven-year study, "Mr. Professor," as J.T.'s mother initially called Venkatesh, learned that Chicago gangs, or at least J.T.'s outfit, lived in a culture of violence and machismo, but also functioned in an unexpected way as police in their own territory. From the perspective of society, they were lawbreakers. But at Robert Taylor Homes, they were also lawmakers, keeping a tight rein on adventitious violence and, through acts of "philanthropy," keeping the local economy fueled with drug money.

He discovered about halfway through his research with the Black Kings that he'd witnessed or heard about so many gang and drug deal activities that he'd do well to seek legal advice. When he did, he discovered (to his discomfort) that there was no such thing under the law as "researcher-client confidentiality," and that he was in a vulnerable legal position. At one point during his project, he actually worried that "he was falling into a hole [of criminality] I could never dig myself out of" (p. 250)

He realized that getting wounded in gang violence nine times out of ten meant either that nobody would call an ambulance for you, or if they did, that no ambulance would make a run into the inner city war zone to pick you up.

He learned that there's a city-wide organization and hierarchy when it comes to many Chicago gangs, including the Black Kings.

And from spending all this time with pushers, junkies, gangsters, civilians, hookers, and cops, and learning firsthand about their lives, he learned that it's risky to make holier-than-thou comparisons. When he bade J.T. farewell, for example, Venkatesh mentioned to the gangleader that he wasn't sure he was ready to jump into another longterm research project. J.T. cannily observed that there was little else Venkatesh was qualified to do. "You can't fix nothing, you never worked a day in your life. The only think you know how to do is hang out with n-----s like us" (p. 281).

An excellent, fascinating book, sometimes frightening, at other times unspeakably sad, and at still others funny: but always with the feel of authenticity and never sentimental. Highly recommended, as is his American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto (2002) and especially his recent (2006) Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor. In fact, the latter book could easily be read as a companion volume to Gang Leader for a Day.

Interesting read that left me conflicted, March 16, 2008
This book is definitely an interesting read, particularly if you are not from the wrong side of the tracks. For most middle and upper class readers, I believe this is an insightful and voyueristic view of the lives that are so often forgotten about in this country.
Having grown up on the wrong side of the tracks and having lived in the projects for a time, I found myself deeply conflicted by the author's portrayal of others and himself. In the end he is only somewhat honest with himself about being the biggest hustler of all in the book. How exactly do you eat people's food and sit on their couches and follow them around for six years and in the end say you weren't even friends? Is this simply artificial distance inserted to make himself seem more scholarly, or does he really feel this way about the people who greatly contributed to his career? He tries to distinguish himself from the very people he interacted with and at times participated in morally questionable behavior with by describing himself as dressing appropriately for an Ivy League professor while returning to visit the ghetto. This description of himself at the end of the book brought home sharply to me the reality that most people will take a look at this world, like the author, and then put it down and walk away from the very real needs that real Americans have and it left me frustrated and angry. For every person who makes it out, there are hundreds left behind and most people are unwilling or unable to do anything except close a book and forget. I highly question that anything will be done as a result of this work to significantly improve impoverished Americans' situations, a view that the author confirms.
For all of the conflicting statements about various individuals moral choices in the book, the real heroes are the people who are trying to make the best of a bad situation. J.T., the drug dealer who gave the author the unprecendented access, reflects the true complexity of his environment and the ways in which people rationalize what they have to do in order to make a life for their families. And in many ways all of the people who spoke with and participated in the author's journey through American poverty reflect the same principles and values that the rest of America have. We all make choices and do what we have to do to get by, no matter how cultured we pretend to be.
So while I am frustrated by the author's need to distinguish himself from the people who shared so much with him, I hope that this book makes people think about the people around them and the very real suffering that occurs in our own country. I know from having lived in a place not to far removed from what the author describes, I cannot turn away and forget. While other people see a middle class girl now, in many ways I will never be separated from that life and I know that even this book does not begin to address the long-term difficulties involved in irradicating poverty in this country. And the main reason for this is in this book: you can leave the projects, but it never really leaves you and thus many people end up back there no matter how hard they work to get out.
Gangleader for a day, therefore, should represent a reality check for America, especially as our economy slows.

Fascinating But Flawed..., July 20, 2009
Ever loved a song so much, you wish it had been written by a better band? That's what reading this book is like: Venkatesh gets three stars on the strength of his premise alone, but it only takes him about 4 chapters to spoil what he began. Here's what you can expect, once that 100 page honeymoon is over...

1.) Dialogue so false it makes George Lucas sound like a naturalistic writer. No disclaimer can excuse the dead ear Venkatech reveals whenever called upon to recount spoken words. The people with whom he interacts are voiced as sitcom-level caricatures; we meet the wise old woman who takes no guff, the insecure young tough, the smooth elder thug who maintains his rep with almost professional detachment, etc.

2.) A total lack of Academic responsibility. I'm not talking, as others have, about the moral questions raised by the author's witness of so many crimes - that's something you either forgive or not, before picking up the book. I'm talking about the fact that, for any given phenomenon, he only really entertains one theory, or one frame of explanation. The view of ghetto life he formed in the classroom is not one he's prepared to change, and he's really only interested in gathering details to fill out that view. But such is the problem - if you're not ready to change your mind on fundamental questions, then don't call it "research".

3.) An often shocking whiff of upper-middle class condescension. There is no easy way to this, so I'll just say it: the author treats his mostly black subjects with a smugness that is sometimes quite disgusting. It's a disguised, liberal kind of smugness, but it reveals what kind of expectations Venkatesh brought with him to the experience. He fawns over his subjects (never worse than with Ms. Bailey) so excessively, that it can only be the product of genuine surprise. Time and again, he seems to say: "Look at these wretches, how startling and cute it is when they say something clever!"

Now, in writing this I probably picked up a bit of steam, and overstated my case. No doubt about that, but in the interest of balancing so much uncritical praise, I'll let this stand...

Disappointed, April 6, 2008
I am a graduate student in Sociology and received my BA in the same from Berkeley. I bought this book because I was trained by another sociologist who did extensive work on gangs and I was interested in comparing the two. As this is a sociological book, I expected the introduction to layout methodology and detail how the author dealt with this kind of fieldwork. I also expected to find some connection to sociology. This book is more like a novel than an academic work and I am quite disconcerted that it has gotten such positive attention.

For a graduate student, which Venkatesh was at the start of his project, to not understand that a sociological researcher is not covered by the First Amendment is startling. I learned this in my sociological methods classes as an undergraduate, how could he make it four years into his research before W.J. Wilson informs him he could be legally liable for watching illegal activities? Further, the continued use of deception in this research is ethically problematic as well. To allow J.T. to even partially believe that Venkatesh was writing a biography places the researcher in an ethical dilemma - one that Venkatesh minimally addresses. Venkatesh would have done well to address this issue, as well as issues of his personal biases (he comes from a privileged background), reliability and validity - all of which are important to a sociological book.

Finally, Venkatesh makes a patently false claim. At the end of the book when talking to J.T., Venkatesh states that there has never been an inter-city study of gangs that would allow for comparison across region. THIS IS FALSE. Martin Sanchez-Jankowski of U.C. Berkeley wrote "Islands in the Street" after spending ten years conducting participant observation research on gangs ALL ACROSS THE U.S. Sanchez-Jankowski's book is still in print and for Venkatesh to not even know about its existence indicates that he did little other research to go along with his field work. If he had conducted a literature review, this book would have been known to him. I believe that the heading "A Rogue Sociologist Takes to The Streets" is simply a grandiose self-reference designed to sell books. If you are truly interested in learning about gangs, check out "ISLANDS IN THE STREET."

A Naive Graduate Student Learns about Life in the Projects, February 6, 2008
This book is as riveting an academic research report as you are ever likely to read.

In Freakonomics, many people were fascinated by a section that described how most crack cocaine dealers lived at home with their mothers. Why? They make less money than minimum wage. The source of that factoid was research conducted on site by Sudhir Venkatesh, author of Gang Leader for a Day, who describes in this book how he did that research and came to make decisions one day for part of the Black Kings gang in Chicago.

In the process of reading this book, you'll learn more than you ever expected to know about the ways that the poorest people support and protect themselves. You'll also find how drug-dealing gangs are both a help and a hindrance to the poor.

More powerfully, you'll be exposed to the great difficulties involved in observing the lives of the poor and the gangs that spring from them. The moral and ethical dilemmas this book presents are almost beyond belief.

Professor Venkatesh was a graduate student at the University of Chicago when his curiosity about the school's neighbors caused him to draft a questionnaire and head for the largest local housing project. Once there, he was detained by the gang whose territory he had invaded. Knowing nothing of gangs, he spent an uncomfortable night wondering what would happen to him. He piqued the curiosity of the gang's leader, J.T., and was granted ever widening access to the gang's activities and to the lives of those in their territory.

Take a close look at those who need help before deciding you know the answers.

Ethics, who needs 'em?!, February 28, 2010
Gang Leader for a Day is certainly an entertaining, captivating and quick read. It's a page-turner, I'll give it that. But, it left my stomach churning.

This book is a written account of Venkatesh's doctoral work at the University of Chicago's Department of Sociology (a legendary program). Yet, anyone familiar with social science research will be left befuddled upon reading this book. Venkatesh skirts the explicit ethical requirements of social research throughout his project, to an amazing and sickening degree. He exploits the already-marginalized population of poor Blacks for his personal gain - lying to them throughout his project, deceiving them of his purpose, and knowingly placing certain persons in harms way. For me, this book was an exercise in ego and exploitation, and a prime example of what NOT to do in research.

If it were simply a personal account of someone who hung out with gang members for the heck of it, it would still be an example of exploitation and entitlement - but it would end there. Unfortunately, it is the account of a successful sociologist who knowingly violated professional ethics and exploited an impoverished community for the betterment of his career. (for a more technical/academic explanation, see: Puff the Magic Sociologist from the Tenured Radical)

Read? Sure. But do so with a critical eye and some basic knowledge on the ethical obligations of social researchers.

Not Just A Gang Book, March 12, 2008
I picked up this book expecting it to be solely about infiltrating a gang. Instead, I learned about all the different people living in the "projects" (gangs, tenants, prostitutes, vagrants, et al) and how they interact amongst themselves, their community (the housing authority, local shop owners and police) and those few outsiders (child services, reporters and politicians) who dare to enter their world.
After reading this book I learned more about those people than any facts and figures could show... and that is one thing the author was trying to show.
If you only want to read about gangs, drugs and violence, then this is not the book for you.

Good for you *and* fun to read, December 29, 2008
This is a fascinating book. Venkatesh develops close relationships with the gang's leader and many others in that community, and he gives us a rare first-hand look at inner-city urban life. Venkatesh explores the economic, class, and racial tensions in that world but does so in a straightforward, no-nonsense manner free of any academic jargon or awkward theorizing.

It's interesting to hear his description of the quantitative vs. qualitative split among sociologists. He concludes that mere data crunching and statistics are severely limited in their ability to provide true insights into the community he writes about. This book is compelling evidence that a qualitative approach can be much more effective.

I'm also a big fan of the Wire, and Venkatesh's account confirms many of the observations made in that show: the futility of inner city life and the war on drugs, the sophisticated economic structure of the drug dealing gangs and the often brilliant management skills of its leaders, and the huge racial chasm that still exists in many parts of this country.

Gang Leader For A Day, like Freakonomics--where I first read about Venkatesh and his gang experience--presents keen analysis as well as unpretentious, accessible writing. It's nice to have books that are good for you but also fun to read.

RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "JUST ANOTHER DAY IN THE GHETTO AS AN OUTSIDER LOOKING AT LIFE FROM THE INSIDE.**RIVETING!**, January 16, 2008
The author Sudhir Venkatesh is currently a professor of sociology at Columbia University. In 1989 when Sudhir undertook this brazen life-threatening, information gathering expedition deep inside of one of the worst ghetto's in America he was a mere first year grad student at the University Of Chicago. As he entered this epicenter of drugs, killings, crimes and powerful gangs, he was armed more with naivet� than with chutzpah or cojones. Sudhir had started attending seminars where the professors posed the classic sociological questions: "How do an individual's preferences develop? Can we predict human behavior? What are the long-term consequences, for instance, of education on future generations. The standard mode of answering these questions was to conduct widespread surveys and then use complex mathematical methods to analyze the survey data. This would produce statistical snapshots meant to predict why a given person might, say, fail to land a job, or end up in prison, or have a child out of wedlock. It was thought that the key to formulating good policy was to first formulate a good scientific study." He liked the questions, but compared to the living-breathing people he saw on the streets of Chicago, "the discussion in these seminars seemed cold and distantly, abstract and lifeless. He found it particularly curious that most of these researchers didn't seem interested in meeting the people they wrote about."
Sudhir decided, perhaps naively, that he would simply "walk" to where the people that were being studied resided and ask them questions. He first struck up friendships with some older men at Washington Park which resided just across Cottage Grove Avenue from the University Of Chicago. One gentleman named Leonard Combs, aka "Old Time" told him, "Never trust a white man, and don't think black folk are any better." Another acquaintance Charlie Butler said, "You got two kinds of whites in this city, and two kinds of blacks. You got whites who'll beat you if you come into their neighborhood. Then you got another group that won't invite you in. They'll call the police if you come in their neighborhood - and the police will beat you up." As far as blacks; "You got blacks who are beating their heads trying to figure out a way to live where you live! Don't ask me why. And then you got a whole lot of black folk who realize it ain't no use. Sudhir started interviewing the men and Charlie could see how dismayed and dejected Sudhir was. "Before you give up," he said, "you should probably speak to the people who you really want to talk to - young men, not us. That's the only way you're going to get what you need." And that advice is what led to this "UN-FLINCHABLE", "UN-RELENTING", "UN-FORGIVING", "UNFORGETTABLE" book!

Sudhir went to the University Of Chicago library and checked the census records to find a tract with poor black families with people between the ages of 16 and 24. This led him to the Lake Park projects Building Number 4040. Sudhir just a few months removed from a long stretch of time following the Grateful Dead wearing a tie-dyed shirt and donning a ponytail, innocently strolled into a dark, damp, abandoned building smelling of urine and hopelessness, carrying a clipboard with sociology questions. Before he could even get used to the nauseating odor of urine and vomit he was surrounded by members of the "Black Kings" gang. They at first thought he was part of a rival Mexican gang and before you could blink your eyes one gang member had a gun at his head and another gang member was wielding a six inch knife. Sudhir kept telling them he was a student trying to take a survey. When the leader of the local housing project J.T. got involved he said , "Well ask me a question." So in the midst of guns, knives, and urine, Sudhir asked his first question."HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE BLACK AND POOR?"

From that point forward J.T. takes a liking to Sudhir for a number of reasons, one of which is he mistakenly thinks Sudhir is going to write his biography. As the story progresses the reader learns that the "Black Kings" has an organizational chart that rivals IBM or General Motors. Over time J.T. does such a good job at the Lake Park Projects that he's "promoted" to a new territory in the Robert Taylor Homes. The Chicago Housing Authority had built this project between 1958 and 1962. It was the size of a small city, with 4,400 apartments housing about thirty thousand people, encompassing 28 buildings. "In newspaper headlines, Robert Taylor was variously called "Congo Hilton," "Hellhole" and "Fatherless World" and this was when it was relatively new." In a "Gangland-like" Forrest Gump story the reader and Sudhir are taken along with J.T. as we learn what everyday life in a ghetto that even the police do not want to come to is really like. We learn of the types of family structure, self-policing, business, beatings, killings and drugs that is as common in that area, as the air we breathe is to non-ghetto residents.

From the first gripping page of the Preface when Sudhir says: "As I opened my eyes, I saw two dozen people sprawled about, most of them men, asleep on the couches and the floor. No one had lived in the apartment for a while. The walls were peeling, and roaches skittered across the linoleum floor. The activities of the previous night - smoking crack, drinking, having sex, vomiting - had peaked at about 2:00 AM. By then the unconscious people outnumbered the conscious ones - and among the conscious ones, few still had the cash to buy another hit of crack cocaine. That's when the "Black Kings" saw diminishing prospects for sales and closed up shop for the night." At that point the reader is hooked and it only gets better from there!

Excellent read, September 19, 2010
A lovely style combined with an interesting story makes the book eminently readable. I finished the book in 3 days. He offers a very personal account of how these gangs operated. It doesn't come off as super scientific, but it does answer and ask a few questions in a systematic fashion throughout the work. ... Read more

Editorial Review

During his twenty-five year career with the Investigative Support Unit, SpecialAgent John Douglas became a legendary figure in law enforcement, pursuing some of the most notorious andsadistic serial killers of our time: the man who hunted prostitutes for sport in the woods of Alaska, theAtlanta child murderer, and Seattle's Green River killer, the case that nearly cost Douglas his life.

As the model for Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs, Douglas hasconfronted, interviewed, and studied scores of serial killers and assassins, including Charles Manson,Ted Bundy, and Ed Gein, who dressed himself in his victims' peeled skin. Using his uncanny ability tobecome both predator and prey, Douglas examines each crime scene, reliving both the killer's and the victim'sactions in his mind, creating their profiles, describing their habits, and predicting their next moves.

Now, in chilling detail, the legendary Mindhunter takes us behind the scenes ofsome of his most gruesome, fascinating, and challenging cases -- and into the darkest recesses of ourworst nightmares. ... Read more

Reviews

How to spot dragons before they hatch, December 29, 2004
I bought Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit, for research purposes. I'm writing a book about playing the "good guys" who hunt typical movie slashers, and this book seemed like a good introduction into how the ESCU works to catch the bad guys. What I got was something else entirely.

John Douglas is a very scary man. He's someone who has seen far too many horrific crimes, such that they affect him personally-when his kids scrape their knees, Douglas recounts tales of children torn in half by a murderer. When his wife cuts her finger with a kitchen knife, he points out how the spatter pattern would tell a story about what happened. Ultimately, this sort of exposure leads to a divorce and Douglas is upfront about the damage his profession did to his job.

The book starts out with Douglas in the hospital, the victim of being overworked and without enough manpower to help him. Near death, he recounts the creation of the ESCU and his struggles in making the profiling of serial killers (he invented the term) a legitimate profession. But it does not go into much detail as to how the ESCU works. In fact, it's more about Douglas and about the murderers themselves.

And what a ghastly rogues gallery it is! We have serial killers who invent vigilante groups to cover their tracks, we have killers who like to fly prostitutes out to woodlands and then hunt them down like deer, killers who believe God is telling them to kill people, and killers who strangle, rape, drown, and stab.

I read "Legacy of Blood: A Comprehensive Guide to Slasher Movies" at the same time and found an odd juxtaposition between the two books. Legacy of Blood states that the comfort of slasher flicks is that the bad guy is easily recognized by his disgusting appearance and his sudden attacks, when in reality serial killers often look like normal people and torture their victims for hours.

Not true, according to Mindhunter. Indeed, many of the killers are degenerate slimeballs, incapable of social contact and forced to use blitz-style attacks against the weak and helpless because of their inadequacies. Many have severe stutters, bad acne, or some other disfigurement. Nearly all have been abused in some fashion by their parents.

By now, the serial killer traits are well known: bed wetting, fire starting, and torturing small animals. But Douglas makes it clear that in every case, it's the child's upbringing that so horribly warps them to a life of murder. There are no strong role models to stop these children from turning into monsters; indeed, when children fall into the cracks, serial killers are what sometimes crawl out of them.

Unfortunately, exactly how Douglas comes to his conclusions is a lot like magic. Despite all of his attempts to legitimize what he does, his efforts amount to "and then magic happens!" Then Douglas comes up with a startling accurate profile. He never lets us know when he's wrong. That's a minor quibble with a book that I couldn't put down.

Mindhunter is as much a cautionary tale as it is a woeful biography of Douglas' life. Only one of the victims actually manages to turn the tables on their assailant. And in just about every other case, the killers were on murder sprees that lasted years with dozens of victims. As Douglas puts it, "sometimes the dragon wins."

As an author, this book gave me a host of ideas on how the good guys and the bad guys work. As a citizen of the United States, it gave me a new appreciation for the FBI. As a husband, it gave me a healthy regard for the mentally disturbed. A must read for anyone who wants to understand how to spot the dragons before they hatch.

The Amazing Douglas!, February 3, 2002
This is the first of Douglas' books I've read. After having read Robert Ressler's 2 books, I found this to be more of the same serial killer profiles, with a different spin on the same cases that Ressler reviews in his books. "Mind Hunter" has more of Douglas' personal & professional journey woven into his case studies. It's somewhat boastful of his accomplishments, and, at times, self congratulatory, but still very interesting. The book achieves a good level of insightfulness into the minds and psychopathology of the serial killers profiled. The disappointment lies, however, in that Douglas casually glosses over exactly how his profiles are derived and constructed from the particular facts of each case. Little to no analytic methodology is presented. (I mean, it's not as if readers are gonna run out and take his job away from him if he reveals too many tricks of his trade). In fact, Douglas presents his ability to profile as if he's a magical psychic, pulling personality theories out of his hat. Low and behold! - once the investigations are complete, he ends up with an accurate profile, and people are amazed by him! Nonetheless, it's an enjoyable and very interesting book. If you're intersted in criminal profiling, it's worth a read, but it's not as in-depth as say, Michaud and Hazelwood's "The Evil that Men Do".

Great Book, May 25, 2002
This book is a great start to those who are interested in behavioral sciences, the subject profiling or life in the FBI. The book is detailed in the techniques John Douglas developed and is very easy to read for a person who is not familiar with psychology.

The book starts off with Douglas' early life, entry into the FBI, and the struggles he endured to get profiling on the map. Then, Douglas procedes in showing the reader how success in famous cases thereafter solidified profiling as a real, if somewhat imperfect, science. Douglas goes case by case, pointing out what he looks for in determining the type of killer responsible, and the clues needed to single out the offender.

If you are interested in profiling, John Douglas will show you how he and others like him have done it for years. Unlike the previous reviewer stated, Douglas DOES show you how a trained professional would profile a criminal, but the reader should not expect to be able to profile someone themselves because it takes years of experience and training. He shows the reader what type of physical and behavioral evidence he looks for when creating a profile. In one chapter, he even decides to take you step by step in detail on how he developed a profile for a killer.

Profiling is a behavioral science technique and while Douglas integrates psychological theory, it does not get at all technical or something that the reader will not understand. Douglas and Olshaker made sure this was a book that anyone could read.

John Douglas covers a lot of cases in this book and while they may not be detailed to every piece of evidence in the case, the book overall succeeds in showing the reader how the cases were solved, a general idea of FBI life, profiling, and the criminal mind.

...And no, as explained in Douglas' books, serial killers or others cannot read this book and come up with a way to get away with murder... an attempt by a killer to use this sort of tactic would just implicate him further by blatent behavioral cues, as explained.

If you like this book, I would definitely recommend any of John Douglas and Mark Olshaker's books.

Discriminating readers, March 16, 2004
What many reviewers of John Douglas and Mark Olshaker's book seemed to have overlooked is the tie-in between the biographical information and the profiling techniques John helped to develop. The story of John's mother inquiring into his sex life leads directly to his 'everybody has a rock' theory. The story of betting on raindrops clearly shows why criminals continue to commit crimes: because they can.

John's other biographical stories help illustrate how diffcult life inside the FBI can be. The list of victims in a murder isn't limited to the one murdered; they include the family, neighbors, friends, investigators working a case and Federal law enforcement officers and their families. Anyone considering a career in law enforcement or with the Bureau, should take this into consideration before signing on.

In the context of writing, there are two ways to tell a story; telling vs showing. Mark and John chose to write this book by showing the reader how profiles are constructed. No, you won't find a step-by-step instruction manual within these pages, but you will find the method fully illustrated. An example is the Trailside Killer profile. Carpenter approached his victims in isolated areas and used a blitz attack from the rear to disable them. John Douglas wondered why and took the reader through the steps; the killer didn't attempt to lure or trick his victims as had Bundy. Instead, the killer felt the need to take the victims by surprise even in isolated areas of Tamalpais Park. This told John the killer felt awkward, possibly had a handicap. A physical impairment or disfigurement would have been noticed by others in the park at the time of the murders. That left a speech impediment. The rest of the reasoning behind the profile is detailed quite clearly.

John's methods aren't magic but a result of years of studying human nature, a creative way of thinking about a problem and a background based on intensive interviews with hundreds of convicted killers.

Ego plays a large part in the life of any law enforcement officer. Had John Douglas or Robert Ressler, or Roy Hazelwood spoken to police departments in an unsure manner, would any of those agencies have paid attention? That confidence carries over into real life and to the written word.

For those seeking an inside look at the FBI, there are other books available. Mindhunter, however, is the story of the FBI's first profilers (All of them, not just Douglas) and a look at the Behavioral Science Unit.

Mindhunter, along with John's other books co-authored with Mark Olshaker, show the impact of murder on those closest to the crimes --the families and loved ones. John Douglas' caring for the surviving victims shines from every page in which he talks about that impact, the friendships formed through tragedy, the advocacy of victim's rights and his push to have VICAP become mandatory.

If I could give a higher rating, I would rate Mindhunter a 10.

Some good, some not so good, June 28, 2000
Well, I must be honest. I loved the book. I like the field of criminal profiling and think it deserves the attention. However, Douglas' books aren't really objectice science. They aren't really even psychology. Keep in mind that Douglas is an ex FBI agent, not a forensic psychologist. He probably has a rudimentary understanding, at best, of psychological principles. I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, just know that he will look a a crime scene and give a very different "profile" of the killer than a forensic psychologist. Actually, I don't think forensic psychologists even examine crime scenes, the interview suspects and victims to gather evidence. So don't take anything in this book as law. Just because Douglas has the "Crime Classification Manual" doesn't make it scientific. Treat this book, and his others, for what they are, more of a biographical memoir of his days assisting in the investigations of serial murder, rape, child murder etc. And yes, he does like to take a lot of credit, but he also makes it clear in several of his cases how well the police and local authorities did their job and how the killer was brought to justice with "good, old-fashioned police work". He may have a bit of an ego, but he also has a great deal of insight and experience (from a law-enforcement perspective). Although his experience doesn't necessarily shed new light on the actually motives and psychology of serial murders and the like. An interesting and terrifying read? Yes. Objective behavioral science? NO.

Biographic story of John Douglas and the Serial Crime unit, September 22, 2001
REFERENCED BY CANDICE DELONG'S RECENT BEST SELLER:
I read this book because of a reference in the book by Candice DeLong called: "Special Agent : My Life on the Front Lines As a Woman in the FBI". In Ms. Delong's book she made many references to work that John Douglas' group did and cited this book many times. This book gave me further insight into how the Serial Crime unit evolved.

ONE THING THE BOOK DIDN'T DO, WAS EXPLAIN HOW THEY CAME UP WITH A PROFILE:
Many cased were cited in this book and the profiles that were tied to them. However, still after reading this book, I did not come away with an understanding on how they established that the potential culprit was early 20's, did not know the victim, drove a VW beetle (this can't be too great for sales), lived with his Mom and used to be a bed wetter. I can hypothesize, how this was derived, but the book only gives you that much. I imagine many hours of correlating details of solved crimes helps provide the statistical information, they use. This data I'm sure is also closely guarded. One thing they did state was some serial killers were quite bright and no doubt this date could be used as a blueprint to hide your identity. Thus, the need not to publish it. Ironically too many serial killers, were police buffs. All the more reason, not to share it here as well.

JOHN DOUGLAS COVERS MANY HIGH PROFILE CASES IN THIS BOOK BUT, IT IS MORE A BOOK ABOUT HOW THE THE SERIAL CRIME UNIT AND HOW THEY LEARNED SOME OF THE TECHNIQUES THEY USED.
Ironically, common sense prevails. Why not ask some of the perpetrators now that have nothing to lose and a lot of time on their hands. The unit begins interviews with some of the more nototious killers to see what their thoughts were when they committed the crimes they did. As predicted some offenders were less than candid, but even in their lies some insight was gained.

THE LOGIC AND STRUCTURE OF MANY SOLVED INVESTIGATIONS WAS DETAILED. Here you can see where involving this unit may be able to save precious time. From evidence gathering, questioning and staking out various locations associated with the crimes. There is a pattern we all follow. As humans, we are all creatures of habit and compulsion. Those of us driven to crime and horrible acts of violence even more so. John Douglas discusses this in many situations they dealt with.

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A BOOK THAT:
Covers many high profile cases in broad strokes and deals with the logic behind profiling, while also
showing the people and the process involved in building a department devoted to this, this is the book for you.

BUT, IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR
Detail case specifics and how all that profiles are generated, this is not it.

JOHN DOUGLAS DOES A NICE JOB WRAPPING UP THE DETAILS OF HIS LONG CAREER AND A PART OF IT HE FEEL PASSIONATE ABOUT. We should all be so lucky to have an opportunity to shape the world around us as he has. He has paid the price with health and family issues, but the outcome, I'm sure he would never change. Bravo.

Excellent book, August 17, 2003
I am the Director of Criminal Justice courses at Dodge City Community College, and I offer a course in criminology and offer a serial killer course. MindHunter is a required book for the criminology course. Douglas is able to explain psychological and criminological theories in a way that is easy for the average person to understand. Reading this book helps students apply the theories from the course to something they can understand. I receive positive feedback every semester from students who have really enjoyed reading the book.

I met John Douglas a few years ago, and attended one of his seminars--his presentation on profiling was excellent!

Profiles in Courage, February 2, 2004
John Douglas is a retired FBI agent who, along with collegues Rob Ressler and several others, developed a new strategy to catch some of America's (and the world's) most deplorable but elusive killers: Profiling. This new behavioral science took a look at a crime scene and the victim her/himself and after piecing these clues along with the clues left at similar murder sites, detectives were able to come up with a "profile" of the perpetrator of the crime. How? Because Douglas and others had gone to the heart of the matter: the criminals themselves. By interviewing them in prison, they were able to see why they killed, what drove them to it, their preferences, backgrounds, and fantasies. Often, the profiles were so eerily accurate that it seemed like witchcraft. Eventually, it was embraced by law enforcement and came to be a most invaluable tool for which all of us in society should be grateful for.
John Douglas describes his beginnings and his own story is as interesting as that of the sick men he later profiles for the reader. There are many insider-anecdotes for us to live vicariously through and plenty of bone-chilling (but not overly-sensationalistic) details of horrific crimes to keep us awake at night.
Luckily, a lot of these guys are locked up for life and some have even kept their dates with death (like America's most charming serial killer, Ted Bundy, who was fried on the electric chair after years of appeals and dozens of murders). But it's not that there aren't still antisocial personalities out there, waiting to explode; the apparent decline in such crime I think is due to men like Douglas, who have made studying these men his cause so that he can stay one step ahead of them. Also, Douglas and his contemporaries worked tirelessly for victim's rights and have made it possible to track cases all over the country via computer so that people can never get away with running away accross the country--to kill anew--ever again. (Bundy did just that, and because things like VICAP were not instituted yet, he went from Washington to Florida and killed more women in the southern state where no one had heard of the vicious killer.)
This book is not for the weak- it will scare you. But it is also an empowering way to look into the minds of the men (it's mostly men who turn into mass killers) who committed the crimes and become aware. I feel I learned how to "defend" myself at least psychologically.
And I consider John Douglas a real hero.

This book is one that you can't start without finishing., August 31, 1999
Douglas's career experience is anything but boring. Sort of a biographic story, Douglas tells how he struggled to find a career for himself and then stumbles his way into the FBI. He takes us through how the criminal profiling unit became a recognized unit under the FBI. However, don't get me wrong, the book is rich with terror as Douglas recounts the cases he worked with some of the most brutal criminals of our time. I never used to read for pleasure and since reading Mindhunter, I have gone on to read Obsession and Journey into Darkness (also written by Douglas and Mark Olshaker). I strongly encourage anyone who has an interest in criminology, to read this book.

There Are Evil People, December 31, 2006
For those who believe that evil exists in the world and some people should not be allowed to walk among us, this book is for you. John Douglas recounts the formation of the FBI's Investigative Support Unit. He describes some to the nations most notorious serial killers and the story of how they were hunted down and, in most cases, brought to justice.

He offers a great pearl of wisdom near the end of the book regarding crime in America: "I believe that the only chance of solving our crime problem is if enought people want to. More and more courts and more prisons and better investigative techniques are fine, but the only way crime is going to go down is if all of us simply stop accepting and tolerating it in our families, our friends, and our associates."

Douglas is a strong supporter of the death penalty and explains his reasoning several times in the book. The NRA's "Refuse to be a Victim" course recommend's this book for "insight into criminals' minds". If you simply do not want to know about evil people, do not read this book.

The only negative for me was that Douglas has a very high opinion of himself and, in many of the cases, rides in and "solves" the crime with his profile of the killer. Also, not a "gun guy" he gets a reference to S&W and Colt backwards (p. 230) and refers to a .223 Mini-14 as a "high powered hunting rifle" (p. 241).

A worthwhile addition to your library. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The author's harrowing and critically acclaimed first book chronicles his year riding with the Hell's Angels and other motorcycle gangs, an "experiment" that ended when he was beaten nearly to death by a group of Angels. 20,000 first printing. NYT. ... Read more

Reviews

Fascinating look into an underworld, August 8, 2000
Hunter holds himself back and lets the story tell itself. That's is both good and bad. I am a big fan of his Gonzo-style and must admit I missed it. In "Hell's Angels" his writing style was supplanted by the lifestyle he adopted for a year in order to journalize the "trips" of the notorious California Motorcycle gang. Unless you were previously exposed to some (true) stories of the Hell's Angels, much of this book will be eye-opening for the gang did and didn't do. I hadn't been and only knew the myth perpatrated by the media. Hunter does his best to expose the NY Times, Time Magazine and others for their taget-picking, fear-baiting, if-we-printed-it-it-must-be-real style of reporting and de-myths many of the groups exploits. Hunter focuses his story of two or three "runs" the Angel's take. He captures the anti-social attitudes and behaviors of the gang without judging and relates the booze, pills, sex and thuggery stories without embellishment (or so it seemed to me). Read this book if you've ever wondered what the gang life was like for this group of misfits '60's drop-outs. Read this book if you enjoy HST and his eye for the real story.

The Flip Side of Americana, January 23, 2002
The Hell's Angels and the outlaw biker gang phenomenon have always made for interesting discussion. One needs only to recall some of those B movies made in the 1960's about the Hells Angels and how many "ordinary" folks fantasized about living the life of a biker gang memeber. This book was written as sort of an expose'into the lives of "typical" biker gang members. It follows the history of the group from the end of World War II up to about 1966. I found it an enjoyable, easy read when I first read it 20-some odd years ago. I think the reader will come away with the understanding of why some individuals find the biker lifestyle an expression of total freedom, albeit within the seedier side of society. Anyone with an interest in the subject matter would find this a good book to buy.

Thompson's most overlooked, and best, work, March 23, 1997
I'm always surprised when fans of the great Doctor tell me they haven't read Hell's Angels. Sure, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is probably his most humorous work, and some say it is the most profound. Fair enough. But Hell's Angels has much more substance, and it has a sort of historical significance about it for Thompson fans. It is the story not only of the famous biker gang, but, on a less obvious level, the events that shaped the character of Hunter S. Thompson and made him a true master of modern literature. It also shows what a gutsy journalist can do (and become) when he throws himself into a story. I've been a journalist going on 12 years now, and I blame Thompson for my sorry fate. Reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas when I was a high school senior led me to this "low trade," as the good Doctor would put it, but reading "Hell's Angels" several years ago reminded me why I chose this field and gave me the guts to stick with it, despite having to work for a wimpy newspaper publisher who eventually fired me for stirring up too much trouble with businesses owned or controlled by his millionaire friends. Thanks, Hunter. You bastard

HELL'S JOURNALIST, January 22, 2000
Feared by his superiors and sometimes colleagues. Loathed by the literary pundits who couldn't stack up against him. In 1965, Hunter S. Thompson shed light on one of the darkest subjects of the 60's. The Hell's Angels Motorcycle Riders. Thompson shows little remorse for infiltrating the place[s] where no other journalist dare tread, and even chronicling the experiences in a book he had to have permission to research and write, from the very subjects of the book. That permission went beyond legalities. Thompson was governed by another rule. The Hell's Angels' Rules. Readers will be shocked, surprised, and maybe sickened while they delve from the safety of time passed into the world of the most notorious two- wheeled gang in history. However, readers will also get a history lesson. A lesson obtained with real blood, sweat, and fears. Thom Ryan

One of the best books I have read all year, May 17, 1999
The book Hell's Angels, by Hunter S. Thompson, is one of the best books I have read all year. The one thing that effected my liking to this book was not the description, it was not the plot, and it was not the excessive sex, drugs and alcohol. It was the fact that Hunter Thompson was living with the actual Hell's Angels for almost two years, for the sake of journalism. Hunter Thompson is by far no saint (as you might know if you read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), but some of the things that were done in the time period that Thompson was living with them were down right sinister. Behind all the rape and the pillaging and the absolute destruction of human beings were the Neanderthals, that would strike fear in the heart of any decent, hard working American. The book goes into great detail about the ways that the press can manipulate a story, and the way that can mislead the reader, and the results of this. The worst thing about this is that a lot of the Angels had things happen to them that they were completely innocent of, but just the mere fact that they were Hell's Angels made them the enemy. In no way am I condoning any of the actions that some of the Angels partook in, but there is a large difference between committing the crime, and being friends with the people that committed the crime. I recommend this book to anyone who has ever wondered what lies on the dark side of society, and to any one with a strong stomach. Thompson is an excellent writer and does go into (sometimes obscenely excessive) detail.

This Isn't Your Typical Thompson, July 19, 2004
Having read Hell's Angels, A Strange and Terrible saga at least eight times starting in 1968, I never cease to be amazed at the criticisms leveled against it in the ensuing years, the major one being that it's not a Fear and Loathing book. I'm pretty sure it was originally a (very) long article written for The Nation magazine. The Nation ain't Rolling Stone, kids. If you are coming to this book expecting Hunter's usual blend of fact, fiction, and hallucinations, you will be sorely disappointed. "Gonzo journalist" though he is, the operative part there was journalist. He had, after all, developed a rather strong food habit since birth, and had no desire to kick it. He explores the Angels' mystique by letting them provide the history, their then current attitudes, and their lives as outlaws outside the system. He then blends research and his observations gleaned from riding with them for the better part of a year into the mix, producing a riveting book.

Since the recent death of Marlon Brando, his movie The Wild One has gained a new audience; it is in fact based on an incident Hunter chronicles in this book, the Rape of Hollister. Oddly, nothing remotely similar to the movie happened there, and some other legendary "motorcycle riots" such as the one at Laconia, New Hampshire, weren't initially riots at all, and certainly didn't involve the Angels, though the media portrayed these events as the brink of Armageddon and gave middle America yet another "dangerous group running wild in their midst," something else to freak over in addition to Communists hiding under every rock.

The Angels became, over time, what people expected them to be. Hunter recognized this transformational quality in his own profession: if other reporters, from respected national magazines, could make up stories or at least embellish them enough to freak people out, he could do it better! What you will find in Hell's Angels is great reporting, an unflinching look at real wildness and personal risk, and the genesis of what would become Hunter's trademark style.

If for no other reason, fans of Tom Wolfe, Ken Kesey, or the "Beats" (including the real "Dean Moriarty" from On the Road, still alive at the time, still driving, and hanging out with the Pranksters) should read this book for the legendary Acid Test at Kesey's place at La Honda when Hunter and the Angels showed up (by invitation, as Kesey was burning to meet them). In a singularly rare occurrence, we find two journalists just before they became instant icons writing about the same private party, rather than, say an inauguration, or awards ceremony, or some other public spectacle; the "public" was definitely not invited to La Honda. Compare Hunter's account of that weekend with the one that appears in the Electric Kool Aid Acid Test; you might just be surprised by who is the more "legitimate" writer.

I obviously love this book and highly recommend it, but again, it isn't FEAR and LOATHING WITH THE HELL'S ANGELS; it's far too serious a situation for that, as you will discover upon reading it. (And if that idea somehow still escapes you, watch Gimme Shelter, the great Maysles brothers' documentary of the Stones free concert at Altamont; if THAT doesn't do it, go down to your local biker bar and kick over a few choppers; you'll deserve what you get.)

"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.", July 2, 2006
R.I.P. Hunter S. Thompson. We barely knew ya.

Before Thompson really exploded into journalism, creating what is now known as "Gonzo Journalism", he took a writing assignment that led him to enter the world of the 1960's gang of motorcycle rowdies called 'The Hell's Angels'.

What is seen in today's society as a feisty road trip was, in the mid 60's, the equivalent of going into Iraq to chum-up with the enemy. Thompson was just the writer to take on this type of assignment, diving into a scorned sub-culture, and managing to air out the results with enough literary style for the entire world to grasp. In the 1960's, the words 'Hell's Angels' created as much fear in polite society as 'Mideast Terrorists' does today.

Thompson rode with the Hell's Angels for approximately one year, getting to know them and gaining, if not their respect, at least their tolerance. His account takes us through the infamous "Bass Lake" weekend, an event that had half of the State Of California on high alert.

While Thompson doesn't go as far as to portray the Hell's Angels as 'humane', he does present them as 'human'. He wrote, "To see the Hell's Angels as caretakers of the old "individualist" tradition "that made this country great" is only a painless way to get around seeing them for what they really are -- not some romantic leftover, but the first wave of a future that nothing in our history has prepared us to cope with". Included with Thompson's own writings and observations are quotes from many of the members from the gang, often credited without real names because of their borderline intentions or aberrant vocalizing of violence. Beer, $ex, Broads, Battles, and Bikes.

I think you will find it amazing how forward-thinking Thompson's observations are. What he wrote here in 1966 holds as much truth and foresight today as it did then. His projections of human nature are uncannily accurate. Perhaps genius is doomed, so to speak.

What else you will find in this true account of a intriguing trip with a gang of rebels is an entertaining read. Historic and important, the account of this sub-culture's lifestyle is nonetheless a fascinating tale. Thompson's style, though in its embryonic stage in 1966, shines with as much energy and spirit as it did throughout his lifetime. Thompson remains one of the greatest writers of this era.

Of outside interest, on The Criterion Collection edition of the DVD 'Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas' are the extras 'Hunter Goes To Hollywood' featuring Hunter S. Thompson (who as a rule avoided cameras and publicity), a reading of correspondence between Hunter S. Thompson and Johnny Depp (read by Johnny Depp), and 'Fear And Loathing On The Road To Hollywood', a 1978 documentary with Thompson. With Thompson gone, these DVD extras are as much worth the price of the movie, and a must for die-hard fans of Thompson. Also, check into finding a copy of Thompson's last interview, in the May 2005 issue of Playboy Magazine.

All things Hunter, 'Hell's Angels' is a great read whether your interest is in the author, the era, or the culture. Enjoy!

Interesting to a point, March 19, 2003
If you're a fan of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, don't expect to find that same genius in Hell's Angels. Not that it's a bad book. It isn't. Some of the sordid activity of the Hell's Angels is quite an interesting read... but at other points in the book I found myself skimming, i.e. the descriptions of the cycles, etc. However, one thing I really admire about the book is it's sheer objectivity. Thompson neither loves nor hates the Angels. He obviously shows contempt for some of their loutish and criminal/psychopathic behavior, but also distinguishes them as misfits looking for a home. If you're looking for an expose on biker gangs that would reflect their modern dimensions, obviously this book wouldn't be for you, but as a history lesson in outlaws it has strong merits.

Gonzo Goes Hog Wild, July 2, 1997
Roll up your sleeves boys and girls, if you read Hell's Angels the Doctor is going to inject you with a dosage of Outlaw Reality and Hog Rage as it were. The Hell's Angels are the last vestiges of the American Outlaw, 1%'s they're called, outside the outside, committed to a life of Freedom, punctuated by violence, booze, barbituates, indiscriminate sex and of course cruising the Amercian Wastelands on their Great Metallic Steeds, stripped down Harley Davidson's known affectionately as Hogs. Hunter S. is in his own right a one percenter. This book shows the Dr. of Gonzo's journalistic zeal, as he braves the world of the Angels, driving not a Hog as he should but a Dark Shadow. This is only too perfect as Hunter is the dark specter following the dastardly deeds of these bastard bikers. This book displays Hunter's ballsy journalism, as well as allowing him to focus on a central theme that would go on to pervade his other works: the outlaw and his importance to American society, a society that is dredged to the hilt with phonies, gutless wonders, souless greedmongers, hypocrites, cowards, politicians and other scum, capitalisitc, bureacratic, pig-like and otherwise. Hell's Angels is the journalistic calm that precedes the storm of hallucinagenic brilliance that was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. So one way or the other let the Doctor of Gonzo vaccinate your mind from the mindless surge that makes up the money grubbing, TV watching majority of this Great Country of Ours

Wild Ride, Wild Writing, Off-The-Wall Literary Brilliance!, December 24, 1996
The original demonstration of gut-wrenching, brutally-insightful, stream-of-consciousness journalism as displayed by the board-certified and often self-stimulated Doctor of Gonzo himself. The born-in-America phenomenon of outlaw motorcycle gangs is irreverently exposed -- the rumbling, drinking, riding, snorting, fornicating, smoking, racing, is exposed and finally culminates with the outlaw bikers joining forces and beating the crap of the author. It's a fitting finale to a wild & crazy ride with a wild & crazy group of anti-social, tatooed, psychopath, drug & alcohol enhanced Harley outlaws and their motorcycle mamas. "Hell's Angels" is a classic and literary predecessor to the next step, "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas." He's wild, he's crazy, he drives a Vincent Black Shadow, he's Hunter S. Thompson. ... Read more

Editorial Review

In 1998, William Queen was a veteran law enforcement agent with a lifelong love of motorcycles and a lack of patience with paperwork. When a “confidential informant” made contact with his boss at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, offering to take an agent inside the San Fernando chapter of the Mongols (the scourge of Southern California, and one of the most dangerous gangs in America), Queen jumped at the chance, not realizing that he was kicking-starting the most extensive undercover operation inside an outlaw motorcycle gang in the history of American law enforcement.

Nor did Queen suspect that he would penetrate the gang so successfully that he would become a fully “patched-in” member, eventually rising through their ranks to the office of treasurer, where he had unprecedented access to evidence of their criminal activity. After Queen spent twenty-eight months as “Billy St. John,” the bearded, beer-swilling, Harley-riding gang-banger, the truth of his identity became blurry, even to himself.

During his initial “prospecting” phase, Queen was at the mercy of crank-fueled criminal psychopaths who sought to have him test his mettle and prove his fealty by any means necessary, from selling (and doing) drugs, to arms trafficking, stealing motorcycles, driving getaway cars, and, in one shocking instance, stitching up the face of a Mongol “ol’ lady” after a particularly brutal beating at the hands of her boyfriend.

Yet despite the constant criminality of the gang, for whom planning cop killings and gang rapes were business as usual, Queen also came to see the genuine camaraderie they shared. When his lengthy undercover work totally isolated Queen from family, his friends, and ATF colleagues, the Mongols felt like the only family he had left. “I had no doubt these guys genuinely loved Billy St. John and would have laid down their lives for him. But they wouldn’t hesitate to murder Billy Queen.”

From Queen’s first sleight of hand with a line of methamphetamine in front of him and a knife at his throat, to the fearsome face-off with their decades-old enemy, the Hell’s Angels (a brawl that left three bikers dead), to the heartbreaking scene of a father ostracized at Parents’ Night because his deranged-outlaw appearance precluded any interaction with regular citizens, Under and Alone is a breathless, adrenaline-charged read that puts you on the street with some of the most dangerous men in America and with the law enforcement agents who risk everything to bring them in.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Reviews

to my old freind Billy St. John..., April 20, 2005
As the ex-wife of one of the main characters in the book, I can tell the readers that William Queen told the whole truth and nothing but the truth...it was 100% accurate and in no way exaggerated. Only on a few minor occasions did his recollection of events differ slightly from mine, but only the smallest and most unimportant of details. This book was amazing and well written - good job Billy! I cannot describe the feelings that ran through me as I read this book, as I read page after page of events that I remember like yesterday. I was also taken back to the phone call I got from Billy on May 19th, 2000, telling me who he was and what was happening. How I didn't belong with those people. Even though I had to re-live all the feelings of hurt and betrayal I felt the day my life changed forever, I am thankful now to be out of that life and where I am today. Not only was this man a hero in the eyes of many, but he changed my life. Billy, in the event you ever read this review, I just wanted you to know that.

Uncompromising and Brutally Honest, April 21, 2005
A "great" book written by a true American hero. Queen exposes these bikers for what they are, criminals, family men, brothers, motorcycle enthusiasts and, most of all, too human. While some are absolutely evil, most seem to be guys who have been lured by the outlaw lifestyle and all its rewards without willing to accept its punishments as well. Remember, the motorcycle gang came into being primarily with true American heroes of WWII, looking for adventure after losing the pumped up lifestyle of war. William Queen goes under cover and remarkably infiltrates the Mongrol MC. Ultimately he becomes "patched in", a full fledged member of this criminal enterprise. The stories he tells are heartbreaking at times, brutal at others, but all the while Queen never lost sight of his goal of exposing them for what they do. He experiences what has become the all to often dilemma for these type of law enforcement agents. These are indeed his brothers and he is knowingly working to put them in prison for the rest of thier lives. Queen taps into his own sense of betrayal, outrage, sadness, and fear, as the investigation continues. Quite a remarkable investigation and a remarkable book.

ABOVE AND BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY, April 12, 2005
Motorcycle clubs have been romanticized in this country for over fifty years and while 99% of them (and my brother-in-law is a member of a club) are decent, hard-working everyday guys and girls, it's that 1% that has always piqued the interest of the general public and the reason there were so many movies dealing with gangs like the Hell's Angels in the 1960's and 1970's. The public has an infatuation with them much like with the Mafia.

Bill Queen is nuts...has to be to do what he did and live amongst these people for over two years, doing drugs and commiting crimes just to prove his worth to the gang. And he didn't just risk his life then, but even now he is a target for those he helped bring to justice. It is most interesting how Queen notes that these men are so much like the Mafia in that there is true love and friendship among the members, and yet they wouldn't hesitate to kill their own if they stepped out of line. It's a kind of almost hive relationship that most people just cannot fathom.

Wow, what an incredibly riveting tale. Bill Queen certainly gives new meaning to the word guts.

Fellow Retired ATF Special Agent, February 14, 2006
Bill Queen, whom I knew personally, has captured the essence of working undercover against outlaw biker groups. I also did numerous criminal cases against them, albiet much less deep undercover, long before Bill's brilliant effort. ATF management was even harder to work with back then. Many managers came from the old 'still bustin'" days of Eliott Ness with that same mentality. Bill's successful prosecutions are a tribute to the tenacity of he and the case agent, John Ciccone, who both overcame not only the obstacles of the criminal case, but overcame the obstructive "numbers" driven management.

This book is a "must read" for law enforcement, their families, and anyone interested in going into the field. It's insight, honesty, and accuracy make it unique in a field often cluttered with "wannabes". Great job, Bill.

Erik R.

A lonely vigil through America's murky back alleys, May 25, 2005
If there's a lesson that can be drawn from Queen's lengthy travels through the rough part of town, it's that life as a Federal Agent isn't what it's cracked up to be. As a people, we're bred on a steady diet of flashy police dramas (CSI, NYPD Blue, Law and Order, etc.). They do little to prepare the average cadet for what they're going to confront in the criminal tar pit that Billy Queen wades into.

Undercover work, in general, is a fine way to ruin your marriage, wreck your nerves, and lose your sense of identity. Be prepared to sacrifice the life that you once had, and sadly witness the fallout that results. It's almost as if Queen suffers more than the people that he help put away. This is the fine print that the recruiters don't want you to read.

Speaking from direct experience, undercover work is essentially an act of betrayal. You live with these people, eat with them, party with them, and then testify against them in court. An agent might take years to be accepted into the fold, and then have to dump it all over the side of the ship in the blink of an eye. It's bad enough that you lose contact with your old friends, now you've got to give up all of your new ones. Guess what? Now you don't have any friends.

As Queen observes, it wasn't easy. There were actually times when he considered giving up his role as an ATF agent and crossing the line to the other side. I can't say that I blame him. His Mongol brethen often treated him with more respect, and genuine love, than his ATF handlers (who, more likely than not, saw Billy as an expendable "resource").

You're on your own, surrounded by a group of individuals who, by the standards of modern society, aren't much more than animals. It takes a very strong individual to survive the rigors of this sort of undercover work.

Billy, man, I don't know where you are, but I have a feeling that you might read this review some day. Many thanks for pouring out your memories, and heart, onto the printed page. People like me will try very hard to pass on your words to the younger folks, so that they might understand, and appreciate, the plight of the under-paid government employee known as the ATF agent.

Amazing Bravery, August 5, 2006
Thank God for William Queen!!! I just finished his book -Under and Alone - and am amazed at what this man went through to get the bad guys. What a great human being! I loved that part at the end of the book where he writes about knowing that these were serious bad guys that needed to be put away - but there was another factor - after living with them for 2 1/2 years he had witnessed it, lived it, felt it, and understood the love that these guys felt for their brothers, him included. That gave me goosebumps. There was a thin line there for him. Not everything is black or white. Sometimes there is that gray area. I hope that he remains safe and can have happiness in his life. He certainly deserves it!!!

William Queen: King of Courage, April 2, 2006
This book is about an undercover agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, William Queen, worming his way into full membership status of the vicious Mongols motorcycle club in an attempt to shut it down through convictions stemming from purchases of illegal weapons and narcotics. Although Mr. Queen's bravery is unquestionable, the end results just don't seem to justify the extreme time, effort and expense involved.

Although I thought the author left some questions and situations unanswered and unresolved, the book was entertaining and might make a good movie. What I especially enjoyed about the book was that it was not a one-sided affair. It was not a black-and-white good-vs-evil story. The book describes well the comraderie and human side of some of the Mongols as well as those of Mr. Queen. The best example of this was when Mr. Queen's mother died. The Mongols expressed their sympathy and showed respect to William en mass, while not a single ATF agent, even those with whom he had the strongest bonds, expressed an ounce of concern.

The book also showed the ATF's bureaucratic BS that William had to contend with while trying to remain undercover, do a job and stay alive and healthy. All this certainly depicts William's courage and focus. It's a shame that he did not receive the support from his own agency that he needed. To his ATF managers, William was nothing more than a number, a pawn to be thrown to the wolves if the investigation proved fruitless or went otherwise bad. His dedication and courage speaks volumes about his character.

The book is hard-hitting, direct and full of human issues. It describes well the danger and violence brought forth by gangs such as this as well as the innermost thoughts and feelings of those who try and stop them. It's a good read and one that you'll not want to put down.

Really a good read, June 23, 2006
This book is easily a 5 star review save for a few minor things. It is a shame Amazon does not have 1/2 stars you can add. This is a really interesting book above an undercover agent that infiltrates and actually gets patched into the Mongols(an outlaw motorcycle gang). What makes this unique is how far into the gang he actually got, and that it involves a gang other than the Hell's Angels who have had more than there share of books written about them. This is a quick and easy read, which is good in one way, but it left me wanting for more. I think this could have been fleshed out a little more. I would have liked to hear more about how his deep undercover mission affected his kids and family. Aside from a few paragraphs, the author breezes over the subject. It is a minor quibble, but the story was so interesting, I would have loved to have more.

Excellent reading, February 8, 2006
I couldn't put the book down. I can only imagine what kind of situations Mr. Queen went through that were not in the book. Both touching and sad, these guys really cared for their brothers and I can see where Mr. Queen had a difficult time with the operation. It is too bad everyday people can't create bonds like these guys had. I ended up wishing they didn't go down the way they did. I would highly recommend.

What a ride!, April 17, 2005
As gripping as any well written crime novel this real life account of an undercover ATF agent's infiltration into a terrifying motorcycle gang is the type of book you just can't put down.
The book offers unique, almost anthropological, insights into a modern day motorcycle gang while at the same time exploring the toll the assignment took on the author himself.
I recommend this book to all fans of true crime as well as those who enjoy and intense white knuckle ride.
Destined to be a classic. ... Read more

Editorial Review

With the publication of this book, Capote permanently ripped through the barrier separating crime reportage from serious literature. As he reconstructs the 1959 murder of a Kansas farm family and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, Capote generates suspense and empathy. ... Read more

Reviews

It Just Doesn't Get Any Better, February 8, 2000
The magnificence of "In Cold Blood" doesn't lie in the subject matter but in its treatment. There are--unfortunately--more depraved criminals and more elaborate police investigations detailed in a great many "true crime" accounts. But I doubt that any of them is as well written as "In Cold Blood."

I haul my copy out every 2-3 years just to remind myself how wonderful the rhythms and nuances of the American language can be at the hands of a master. I am totally drawn into the lives of the prosperous and completely unsuspecting Clutter family of western Kansas and the two drifters, Perry and Dick, who by themselves didn't amount to much but together proved lethal that fall night in 1959.

A trivia note: Capote's research assistant on this book was Nell Harper) Lee, who shortly after would become famous as the author of "To Kill a Mockingbird."

I'd recommend Gerald Clarke's excellent biography "Capote" to learn about this one-of-a-kind book, its creation, reception, and how it affected the author's life.

It made my blood run cold..., April 11, 2006
On November 15, 1959, in Holcomb, Kansas, the four members of the Clutter family were dragged from their beds in the early hours of the morning and tied up. All four were shot in the head with a shotgun at close range. None survived. The killers left few clues, and there was no apparent motive for the slayings.

On assignment from the New Yorker, author Truman Capote, along with his assistant Nell Harper Lee, traveled to Holcomb in late 1959 to investigate the killings for an article. The article was completed, but still Capote remained in Holcomb. He conducted interviews with every person in town; he poured over police records and statements. Once the killers, drifters Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, were caught and sentenced, he even interviewed them on Death Row. The Clutter killings became an obsession for him; and that obsession turned into a book that would become a literary milestone, that would singlehandedly introduce a new genre to the literary world: the nonfiction novel. He called his piece of creative nonfiction IN COLD BLOOD, and it so consumed him that it would be the last thing he'd ever write.

I didn't expect this book to move me so deeply. In most true crime books that are written today (at least in my experience), the evidence is presented straightforwardly, unemotionally; the facts are dry and textbook-like. Such is not the case with IN COLD BLOOD. Capote's prose is mesmerizing. His descriptions of Holcomb and its inhabitants are vivid and lively. His research is impeccable, presented flawlessly, lushly, sweeping the reader away on waves of vibrant language.

And his imagery is heartbreaking: Nancy Clutter teaching a neighbor to make a cherry pie, Dick Hickock deliberately hitting a dog on the highway, the Clutters' old mare standing alone in an overgrown pasture. With startling empathy, Capote transports his readers to the Holcomb, Kansas, of late 1959: We feel the tension and sorrow clouding the town; we watch as the police nearly crumble under the weight of their investigation; we're with Dick and Perry as they flee across the United States to Mexico, leaving a trail of bounced checks in their wake, and we're with them in their cells on Death Row. We're right there the whole time, from the day before the Clutters are killed to the day after their murderers are executed. And Capote is unflinching; he keeps us there, even when the honesty of his prose makes us uncomfortable, even when we can't imagine reading on but somehow can't seem to stop.

And this is the genius of IN COLD BLOOD: It is a violent, unflinching account, sorrowful beyond belief (and made even more so because it's true); but, in the hands of a master like Capote, it's really hard to stop reading about this unfortunate family and their motiveless, pathetic murderers. This book made me sad, it made me shiver; but I'm glad I read it.

A true classic..., July 6, 2006
I received Truman Capote's In Cold Blood as a gift, and this book is a true gem in the true crime genre.

Herb Clutter was a wealthy rancher and prominent citizen of Holcomb, Kansas. In 1959, Clutter, his wife, and his two teenaged children were brutally murdered in their home. The killers are two paroled criminals, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, and they think that they have executed the perfect crime. Their involvement is no surprise as Capote introduces them at the beginning of the book. Capote chronicles the search for the killers by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (the KBI).

Capote writes In Cold Blood in a folksy, easy going style. He goes from one character to another, seamlessly switching from the third person to the first, and then back again. His down-home descriptions mirror Kansas in a simpler time. Capote writes about the jury "Not everyone was attentive; one juror, as though poisoned by the numerous spring-fever yawns weighing in the air, sat with drugged eyes and jaws so utterly ajar bees could have buzzed in and out." Capote also shows surprising empathy for the murderers, and Hickock and Smith accumulate a few fans.

Although In Cold Blood is 41 years old, reading it now couldn't be more timely. First, the film, Capote, was recently released. In Cold Blood became his most successful book. Also, Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles J. Shields was just published. Lee and Capote were neighbors, friends and collaborators. Lee did much of the research for In Cold Blood, and Capote rewarded her by dedicating this book to her (along with Jack Dunphy). I'm sorry it took so long for me to read this classic and I now have to follow up In Cold Blood with these two works.

Suspenseful, empathetic, sparsely elegant, respectful, and above all, tragic, February 27, 2006
I have meant to read this book for some time. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that seeing the Capote film is what finally induced me to read it, but I suppose that must be true. I had seen the film the previous weekend, bought this book during the following week, and just this past weekend, devoured it in all of two days.

Capote's masterpiece tells the story of the senseless, brutal killing of a rural Kansas family in 1959. It is beautifully written from start to finish -- in an understated way. If you come into this experience, as I did, conscious of the narcissism of the author, you might be surprised at the writing style. It is very humble, no Joycean or Nabokovian literary showing off. The story is paramount; the author does an amazing job of staying invisible, and respecting that story.

Respect is the feeling that is conveyed throughout the book. The telling is very respectful of the Clutter family; you learn of what remarkable people they were, even as they met their ends. The author is also fundamentally respectful of the people of the town, and of the local law enforcement. The book is not without its implied questioning of the judicial process, but again, I greatly appreciated the empathy and respect that pervaded the book.

This fundamental respect for human dignity even, in a more disturbing way, pervades even the discussion of the lives of the killers. The author candidly relates the biographies of these two men. On one level, this conveys an understanding of how they came to be what they were, but on a deeper level, it's all still a mystery. Left unanswered, still, is what really causes a man to be a killer. There is a great sense of tragedy throughout the relating of their formative lives -- perhaps not a respect for who they eventually were, but a respect for who they *could* have been.

Extremely unsettling is the sheer randomness of it all. The chain of events that causes the Clutter family to be killed is so random, so out-of-the-blue. Capote conveys how thin is the line between everything all seeming well and orderly in the world, and disaster striking out of nowhere.

Also coming through very clearly in this book is a cultural moment in time. You read it, feeling that this rural Kansas society is a vanished world. It's a stoic, God-fearing community, but the urban Capote betrays little condescension toward it. Quite the opposite; he seems duly impressed that the only reaction from the crowd to the killers' transference back to the town is one of silence -- no attempted violence, no shouted insults. The restraint and dignity of the townspeople amid this tragedy seems foreign to modern eyes. I found myself liking these people very much, despite my own preference for urban living.

But nothing undoes the basic feeling of tragedy that pervades the book. The author sifts through an incredible amount of detail about the crime; information that could only have been gleaned with a tremendous amount of cooperation from the killers themselves. There are details here that we could never have known about unless both killers had related them in their own separate interviews: details both of the crime itself, and of their activities, and further crimes and near-crimes, when on the lam.

The final portrait is of two worlds colliding -- a dysfunctional, violent world amid the undercurrents of society, rising up to strike the normal, orderly world of the Clutter family. It leaves the reader feeling as though nothing can be truly safe in our world, as long as the mysteries behind this story remain unresolved.

AS COMPELLING AS EVER, January 30, 2006

A resurgence of interest in the life and work of an author occurs rather frequently. It happened with F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. Such is the case today with Truman Capote, probably due in large part to the acclaimed film "Capote" with an award-winning performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

There is another fine performance in store for us with the audio edition of what many consider to be Capote's masterpiece, In Cold Blood, read by Scott Brick. A winner of AudioFile's coveted Golden Voice Award as well as several Earphone Awards, Brick is a veteran of film, television and radio work who seems to read with an intuitive sense of the author's intention. It has been said of him that "He lets the author's words do the work." Wisely so, especially in the case of this novel which, upon publication in 1966, Life Magazine called "A masterpiece.....a spellbinding work."

As many know, this is the book in which Capote detailed the 1959 murders of a wealthy farm family in Holcomb, Kansas. It was, as Capote described it a "non-fiction novel" because the events were true yet he described them in literary form. It was a crime that shocked the nation, the slaying of Herb Clutter, his wife, and teenage son and daughter. There was no apparent reason for the carnage that took place in their home.

When Capote read of the murders in the New York Times, he and his friend Harper Lee (To Kill A Mockingbird) went to Kansas where they interviewed the citizens of Holcomb and investigators. He would later have access to the two men apprehended for the killings. Capote spent years writing his novel, which is by turns a fascinating psychological study of two sociopathic murderers and an unforgettable portrait of a crime and its aftermath.

- Gail Cooke

Gripping!, January 26, 2006
This book hasn't really dated since it was written. With the exception of a few references to the years, it could be set in a present-day world. Capote takes us on a through the lives of the Clutter family before they were brutally murdered one Saturday night. He intertwines the lives of their killers and the men who found them and the result is a gripping, nail-biting tale of a brutal crime and the people involved. From time to time you have to remind yourself of the fact that all this really happened...

The audio presentation of "In Cold Blood" is particularly memorable as the narrator, Scott Brick, is one of the best readers I have ever heard. He brings Capote's book to life, complete with voices and accents. Coupled with excellent writing, Brick keeps us tense and excited throughout the book. I spent many evenings not wanting to get out of my car at home as I didn't want the book to end.

If you're new to audio books, this is an excellent one to start with.

Capote's Classic, June 20, 2003
Mr. Capote did us a great service in probing every facet of the tragic murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas. But for his careful research and lucid prose, the courage of the Clutters, and the savagery of their murder, made all the more tragic by the quality of the family's character, might well have gone unrecognized. Although our era scarcely needs another shocking crime about which to read, In Cold Blood is worth re-visiting. At one level, Capote's book reminds us just how much has changed in a relatively short span of time. It is almost impossible in today's world to imagine reporters waiting anxiously in Holcomb for the return by car of the accused killers; now, even cities of modest size would have dispatched any number of helicopters to hover over the vehicles in transit and the footage would be delivered to our living rooms, and we would find ourselves addicted to the sound of the copters and the chatter of reporters. At another level, the book shows how little has changed. The murder of the Clutters is a modern story, a sad precursor to our own violent times. Capote knew that Holcomb, Kansas was a tale of innocence lost after the passing of the Clutter family. Now we know it was not just Holcomb's loss.

Capote Chills and Informs., December 31, 1999
I am almost embarrassed to admit that I couldn't put this book down. Embarrassed because in essence it is a hard core voyeuristic experience. You will in fact end up attending a movie awash in unabashed bathos and violence...and it will be very hard to avert your eyes. While Capote had to be aware of this effect...I dare anyone to get the picture of Nancy Clutter out of their mind... he ends up having bigger fish to fry. The psychological constructs of the killers are remarkably fresh for a book written in the mid-sixties. The issues of the pernicious effects of child abuse (one of the killers, Perry Smith was abused) were not to be thrust into the public's consciousness for another 20 years, yet Capote has a very modern feeling for the features of the abused persona. Equally prescient was Capote's portrait of major depression as suffered by the soon-to-be-murdered Mrs. Clutter. The picture is scarily accurate for a third person account of a disease that was still thought to a purely psychological problem back in those days. It is SO accurate one has to wonder if Capote was in fact recounting symptoms he in fact had felt at one time or another ...anywhichway, still an eye-opener for something written in the sixties. I's also hard to leave this book without having to confront some very basic questions regardng good, evil and the purpose-of-life. If you haven't read this book, do..it is the book least likely to be put down during a long plane trip.

As Good As It Gets, June 6, 2006
This "nonfiction novel" by Capote is truly a masterpiece. I remember trying to read it as a teenager and finding it too harsh, which is certainly an argument for returning to reread books in adulthood!

In painstaking detail, Truman Capote describes the lives of the Clutter family of Kansas so clearly, and with such precision, that we feel that we know them and we are shattered when four out of six family members are brutally murdered.

He employs equally descriptive characterizations for Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, two troubled ex-cons who set off on a cross-country car trip, hoping to rob the well-to-do Clutters and destroy all eyewitnesses.

I read a quote by Capote today in one of his other books where he said that one of the hardest things about writing In Cold Blood was trying to keep himself out of it. He succeeded beautifully. Although it was he who interviewed the Clutters' neighbors, townsfolk and family of the murderers, the book is written in such a way that the interviewer himself is invisible.

So is his bias, if he had one. The gruesome acts of cruelty committed against the Clutters made me -- a staunch opponent of the death penalty -- rethink my position. Then later on, when I read about the sad childhoods of the killers, particularly that of Perry Smith, I was ambivalent about whether or not they should have been sentenced to death. I believe that Capote wanted us to have both of these emotions -- empathy and revulsion.

He would certainly roll over in his grave today if he knew how long it took for a typical death penalty case to be tried or how much money was involved in all of the appeals.

My only complaint about In Cold Blood is that very little was said about the two remaining Clutter family members. Perhaps this was deliberate. Capote may not have wanted to further intrude on their privacy and grief, but that omission left me wondering how they could have possibly coped with the demolition of the rest of their family.

Fantastic book. Highly recommended.

Sigrid Macdonald

Four shotgun blasts that changed a town forever!, October 23, 2005
Recently re-read this disturbing factional story of unspeakable horror after some thirty-odd years, revisiting the pain of Holcomb, the scene of the tragic, senseless snuffing out of the Clutters. Controversial on its publication due to its blending of fact and fiction, a hybrid composite that had not been done before, Capote's "In Cold Blood" grippingly reconstructs, in all their brutal detail, the 1959 grisly, cold-blooded murders of the Clutter family on their farm in the plains of western Kansas when four shotgun blasts changed the town of Holcomb forever. This fictionalising of real events, complete with imagined dialogue between real-life characters, broke new ground and established Capote as the inventor of True Crime "non-fiction novels".

Capote reconstructs the lead-up to the gruesome murders and the aftermath. In the lead-up, Capote cross-cuts intermittently between descriptions of the routine domestic life of the Clutters in their small farming community near Holcomb and the transient lives of the drifters Smith and Hickok - what's chilling is their humaness in the picture Capote draws - as they drift cross-country towards Holcomb. The aftermath comprehensively covers the search for and apprehension of the killers and their subsequent trial and incarceration on death row.

Capote's case-study is concerned not just with the who of the crime but the why, probing into every facet of the lives of the killers, the background influences that shaped them, taking us into their minds to give us the opportunity to get to know them, exploring the psyche of the criminal mind to discover the psychological motivation that can turn men into monsters. A forerunner of classic true-crime titles such as "Fatal Vision" by Joe McGinnes, "Daddy's Girl" by Clifford Irving and "Blood and Money" by Thomas Thomson, "In Cold Blood" is itself, an American classic and one of the best American books of the 20th Century .
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Editorial Review

Kim Meeder has seen horses go where no one else can tread - stepping through the minefield of a broken child's soul in a dance of trust that only God can understand. From a mistreated horse to an emotionally starved child and back again, a torrent of love washes away their barren places. Kim's ranch is a place where this miracle happens over and over again. It is a place where the impossible flourishes, where dreams survive the inferno of reality - a place where hope rises. ... Read more

Reviews

Hope Rising - be careful!, November 7, 2004
Be careful? Yes, because this book can grab you and change your life...especially if you love horses and kids. After it was given to me by a friend, I passed it on to my daugher in law, who is an outstanding horsewoman. Like wildfire, everyone in our family read the book and now there's this plan brewing to start a ranch on the east coast to do what Kim does there in Oregon.

I loved the transparency with which she shares her (and her husband's) struggles. The way that her faith emboldens her to keep on doing her "little bit" to make a difference in a world of indifference, neglect and abuse motivates me to do the same.

This book was written in Kim's heart before it was written on paper. How many times do we get to look into someone's heart? Not often.

So be careful....when you look into hers, you might just get inspired to look into your own.

"Hope Rising" within me, January 17, 2005
This is truly an incredible book. The underlying theme throughout is that we are all broken, hurting people, but that through our own experiences, we become equipped to reach out and offer love and compassion to others. Mistreated and neglected horses become instrumental in the healing of abused and hurt children, and the children offer healing to the horses. Even the very land where the ranch is located was undesirable and "mistreated," and they planted "rejected" trees from local nurseries. The short stories give glimpses of countless miracles worked by the hand of God and how a little faith can go a long way in turning something broken and seemingly undesirable into a beautiful place where healing and absolute miracles are seen every day. This is definitely a book to read with tissues in hand, but it is well worth the tears.

What a powerful book!, September 29, 2003
Having recently re-entered the world of horses, I'm constantly on the lookout for quality books about all things horse-related. When I came across Hope Rising at a local Christian bookstore, I knew this was one book that I had to get. From the cover art to the comments on the back, to the brief selection I read through, the book grabbed my heart.

Kim has a gift of being able to relate the stories of Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch in a powerful and beautiful way. Her heart for the Lord and for His children and creatures shows through in every story. She addresses the horrors of what she's seen and experienced in a way that's honest, but doesn't overdo it with graphic details. Her focus remains on the Hope she refers to in the book's title. She always comes back to the fact that God can make beauty from ashes, no matter how hopeless a situation seems.

This book is one that anyone would benefit from reading, regardless of their feelings about horses. I know for me, it's already been life-changing. Kim and her husband's work at Crystal Peak is an inspiration for anyone who wants to impact the world for Christ, no matter what the arena in which they choose to do so.

Beauty from ashes, July 26, 2006
Our daughter loves horses so we bought this book for her. To my surprise the whole family loved it as we read a chapter at a time out loud. If you want to develop your compassion and your vision for real beauty, read this book. It shows the potential and value in seemingly worthless things. Or more specifically in horses that some see as worthless. Or in a child that has no hope. Kim Meeder has experienced the worst and the best in life, and describes the transition between the two incredibly well.

One of thebest I've ever read!, August 12, 2004
This book is one that has touched on every emotion I've ever experienced! From sadness to anger to compassion to love! This woman has my utmost respect for what she does for the children and the horses! If people would recognize how these animals could help troubled children, there would be no more horse slaughter in the U.S. because unwanted horses would be adopted and put to uses like this all over the world! What a great way for two innocents to overcome what our society does to them! I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone and everyone!

MUST READ!, August 6, 2006
This book weaves so many heartfelt things together beautifully...scenery, family, community, horses, and of coruse the kids. The Meeders are not wealthy, it shows what determination can do. It's an honest look at the world in all of the good and bad. I own my own horse and being a horse lover made it all the more poignant. However, I feel everyone could really appreciate this work wether or not they are involved in horses.

I also appreciated the faith in God that was woven through the book in a "real world" sort of way. Kim Meeder is a wonderful example of living a life of service and it is definitely well portrayed in her writing. She can take the simple things and make then so meaningful.

Wonderful book!, January 24, 2005
I was truly inspired and delighted by this book. I couldn't put it down, her stories of faith and courage took ahold of me! I laughed, I cried, but most of all I thanked God for leading me to this book and sharing in her experiences.

Great book!!!!

The most touching stories I have ever read!, January 4, 2005
This book was given to me by a friend of mine that actually works at the ranch here in Central Oregon (Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch) and I have been recommending it highly to anyone that loves horses or kids or both. It is a compilation of short stories and since I have gotten to personally meet the horses it was great to know more of the history behind many of them and the kids thats lives are touched by them. I love horses and the wonderful people that make this ranch run so I recommend this book highly!!! Read the first story by clicking on "Search Inside This Book" and you can read the first story and you will want to read more I guarantee it!

A heart wrenching book full of Love for others, February 24, 2006
Originaly purchased for a special 10 year old girl who loves horses, I decided to read first. I could only get thru one chapter a night as each one was so emotionaly charged and so wonderfully written I wanted to savor each one. Altho, I ultimatly decided this book was too advanced emotionaly for my 10 year old I will pass it on to other friends who love horses and will probably give it to the girl at a later date. Kim Meeder is an excellent writer and draws you into the story with such compassion and Love for her calling it is dificult to put the book down. I was never a horse person before, however, I learned so much thru the stories that when I pass a pasture now I look at the horses in a different light. Thank you Kim for a glorious gift you are giving the children and the horses. God Bless you and your endeavors.

"Hope Rising" is a beautifuly written book., November 22, 2004
"Hope Rising" is a beautifully written book. The prose is lyrical and emotionally compelling. Each chapter is a pearl that stands alone, yet the chapters build on each other to produce a inspiring book, giving the reader a complete picture of Chrystal Peakes. As I read the last page, I found myself longing to visit this magical place. ... Read more