True Crime Books

This is one of the earliest books written by Ann Rule, and one can tell. Ms. Rule hasn't yet honed her talent for drawing the reader into the world of the victim and the criminal. That's not to say that this is a bad book - far from it! It's just not quite as polished as Ms. Rule's later books. I have always enjoyed Ms. Rule's books, and I recommend this one, with the caveat that it is an early book.

I am a huge fan of Ann Rule's work and this is another good read....I couldn't put this book down. Rule does not disappoint with this book or any other of her books for that matter.

The book was good. Just read it. If you know Ann's writting then you won't be disappointed at all. If this is your first time reading Ann, then hang on. Ann is able to take you to where horror lives. Her descriptions of the killings and killers are intriguing. The worse part is this is all true crime. Ann having the back ground in law enforcement is how this author is able to get so detailed. I won't write about what's in this book because you just need to read all of Ann's books. This may not be helpful but, you know what. I got started on Ann because I picked the book up and just started to read it. Now, go out there and read !!!

I enjoyed this book but didn't find it as interesting as Ms. Rule's later works (e.g. Small Sacrifices, Stranger Beside Me). Perhaps it is because the investigative/legal aspects of the case were relatively trivial. It could also be that Ann's writing has improved but who am I to judge?

In any case, if you have read her later books first, you'll still like this one, but lower your expectations a bit.

Joel

Before serial killers were even "serial" (generically referred to as "mass murderers"), Jerome Brudos was collection women's shoes and undergarments. And when that wasn't enough, he collected the women themselves!

Ann Rule does a great job of detailing the crimes of sexual deviant Brudos as he escalates from stealing women's undergarments off clotheslines to raping his victims' lifeless bodies repeatedly. His crimes are so demented that even seasoned detectives (and true crime readers!) blanched at the things Brudos had done to his victims and his lack of remorse when confessing to them.

Rule also gives readers a glimpse into the effects of a perverts crimes on his family; specifically, Brudos wife, Darcie. This young lady was tried and convicted by neighbors and others simply on the grounds of "guilt by association." Despite suffering the humiliation of her husband's crimes, coping with the stress of knowing these things occurred within feet of her backdoor where her children played, and figuring out how to start over as a single women with no income and two small children, she was charged as an accessory based on blantant lies of gossipy old bitty who's sister lived next door to the Brudos'. Fortunately, a jury did not convict and Darcie was reunited with her children to begin their lives again.

A very interesting read. A bit tedious in places, but overall an excellent piece of true crime.

Excellent for fans of true crime novels. Very strange facts about killer, Eddie Gein. Couldn't put it down!

Good book if you looking for information on Ed Gein. Some very good picture included in book. Lots of inside information about the ghoul of Wisconsin. Some information in book is widely known, but there's lots of information that is generally new from most news reports on Gein. Really helps you to understand (somewhat) the makings of a killer.

Quest que cest,yes, just what is it about those psychokillers past,present and future that holds our attention.Words are used to define their acts such as ghoulish,fiendish,psychotic necrophilic deviants etc, but why do they do it and just what is the root cause of their extreme antisocial behaviors.How can one live with these episodic,violent bloodbaths and continue to function as if all was right with the world.Deviant is an excellent start on your quest for comprehension.It chronicles the life and times of one of the most notorious killers who wasn't all that notorious at all, at least during the daylight hours.Edward Gein,a local town simpleton who took the oedipal complex way too far and acted out in the only way he knew how, was well on his way to becoming a legendary boogieman. The research is sound and factually based on the circumstances of his early life, his distorted relationship with his mother and those around him.His penchant for nocturnal,necrophilic activities such as grave robbing, his unique use of skin and bone applications in home decorating ideas you would never find in Better Homes and Gardens,and the art of human butchering are all here for the reader to digest.For those who enjoy this stuff it is a fast read,a real page turner.Gein is practically iconic now given that this occurred in the late 1950's.The setting is yet another rural,midwest,one horse town described by some as the dead heart of Wisconsin,an appropriate description for Plainfield, a dismal,barren,isolated patch of mostly dead farmland with nothing to do except slowly go insane.Ed Geins actions are considered to be the bedrock of most of our literary and cinematic killers,all fashioned and linked in some way to what he did and how he did it.Schechter does a good job in keeping with the facts without too much conjecture or sensationalization.Deviant is all you'll need if you want to know about the grandaddy of them all,the actual example all of our most nightmarish killers were modeled after.Just how many deaths,local disappearances and actual grave robbings took place has remained a mystery. He admitted to some things but could not recall others.A real cool character that Ed Gein.He was someone you would never suspect which is why he evaded detection for over a decade.How could the local idiot commit such horrible acts?This is the crux of the facinating field of forensics and psychiatry with regard to the criminal mind.There is a potential Ed Gein in every town in America,hell the world as well.Read and learn about them and hopefully you might not be next on the menu for decapitation and flaying which for Ed Gein assisted in his hobbies of dress and jewelery design. This book is a winner and will enhance the macabre section in your library.

Ed Gein was just CRAZY INSANE!!!!! The author did a good job in trying to figure out what in the WORLD could have compelled someone to such insanity. Good read

This was a great book! I was completely obsessed with reading it. I finished it in two days. The prose wasn't terribly difficult. This book really went into the facts of the case in an interesting way. You end up feeling a little sorry for Ed Gein, but still never wanting to have been around him in any way. I recommend this book for anyone who loves true crime stories or like to read about psychopaths.

Goes into very much detail. You'll find yourself hating this woman. But don't be too harsh; possibly she was a product of her biology.

Kathryn Casey might be the Ann Rule of Texas true crime. This book is a complicated web of interesting characters including a bisexual, sociopathic gold-digging monster in the form of a beautiful woman named Celeste Beard who has no conscious for her actions. She would do anything to get what she wanted which was easily lying, cheating, having sex with men and women, manipulating her lesbian lover Tracey Tarlton who comes across as sympathetic but disturbed character, her ex-husband Jimmy Martinez who was having an affair with her during her last marriage to millionaire Steven Beard who tried as hard as others to get away from the monster in his bedroom. Celeste manipulated people as easily as she breathed. She was worse than any hurricane or tornado to hit Austin high society on it's knees. Her first husband was so terrified of another nasty divorce that he committed suicide even though he was married to a different woman and far unlike as Celeste was even in her youth. She made outlandish claims of abuse by her own adoptive father. Worse, she was a mother to beautiful identical twin girls who wanted nothing more than to be loved by their mother. They were also victims of Celeste's abuse to the worst degree. She manipulated Kristina to cover up for most of her own crimes. Jennifer and Kristina's relationship were always strained by Kristina's loyalty and devotion to Celeste, their mother. At one point, they stopped calling her mom and referred to her as Celeste. In my opinion, Celeste is more terrifying than any monster as this book makes her out to be. I felt sorry for Tracey who got caught up in Celeste's web of lies and terror and that she shot an innocent older man who she believed was terrorizing Celeste and abusing her. She is serving 20 years in the same prison as Celeste but separately away from her.

Being a true crime sleuth, I used to think Ann Rule was the best true crime writer ever. This book wiped my thought on that completely away. This author had such an amazing way of telling a great story, kept the book flowing from one page to the other, had amazing details about all of the characters. It felt like I was actually there witnessing it all myself. And the courtesy photos were superb too. I like to check back and forth while reading who the main characters are while I'm on that certain chapter. And while I did say "characters" I do know these are true stories. Still after I read this story, I went online to find out more about everyone involved. I have recommended this book to all of my fellow true crime pals.

A great book. Could there ever have been a more accurate portrait of a true-blue gold digger? Why some women (and men) feel a sense of entitlement to the money/property of others simply because they are (or were) married to a financially successful person is beyond me! You want money? WORK for it! Some lazy people would rather marry for it -- or kill for it! Great book. I felt so bad for Steve's family. They were helpless and had to sit by while Celeste planned, plotted and executed her plan to murder Steve -- all for the money. What a shame. Kathryn Casey is a great writer. I used to be hooked on Ann Rule, but got tired of her "Series" books. Now, I'm going to be looking for more stories written by Ms. Casey. She did a wonderful job of showing what a shallow and callous gold-digger Celeste really was.

I had seen Celeste's story on Power Privilege and Justice and Snapped and had been curious to read more about this woman who struck me as vindictive, unredeeming and just plain evil.

She has absolutely no good qualities at all. She uses everyone around her for her needs only. Her own daughters are treated like servants. I didn't blame Tracey Tarleton for shooting Steve Beard. She was another of the countless victims that Celeste used for her selfish reasons only. True crime fans will not be disapointed with this great read.

Gabriel García Márquez wrote News of a Kidnapping to tell the story of the ordeal of ten Colombian journalists who were abducted and held by Pablo Escobar's drug organization in 1993 and 1994. A native Colombian and Nobel Prize winner for fiction, García Márquez weaves together the story of Maruja Pachón and the other captives, with the story of how Escobar and his Medellin cartel held their country in his power for years while he amassed a fortune, wreaked terror on ordinary people, and bargained for the right to be imprisoned in luxury in the place of his choosing.

Escobar captured prominent journalists Escobar to bring the attention of the country to his demands, and ultimately to have the assistance of the victims' families in making his extradition to the United States illegal. García Márquez tells the stories in a linear fashion - clarifying the political, legislative and legal aspects of the story. At the same time, we see the arbitrary ordeal of the ten captives. Two of the abductees were eventually killed - one outright by the kidnappers and the other in confusion at a critical moment of release and rescue. The others are released over a period of months, after being moved from house to house, with changing groups of guards, and always the uncertainty of the outcome.

While García Márquez clearly has little patience for Escobar and his group, he manages to give the stories a context that makes some sense of them, while acknowledging the inherent insanity of what happens through the long months of captivity, bargaining and exchange. He makes no overt judgments about how the captives, their families, and their guards acted. We are left to understand them through the memories of the months spent together in small spaces, under tension.

Pablo Escobar and his cartel have largely faded from our consciousness of the world today, replaced by other troubles in other places. So much of that drug war took place in a setting difficult to understand, and distressing in the way that far-off troubles can often be - alarming but distant, echoing in someone else's life. In this account, we see what it means to wait month after month without the solace of logic or hope that larger forces can come to our aid, at the mercy of chance, emotion, and the decisions of people we cannot control.

Armchair Interviews says: If you want an intense view of a country at war with itself through the eyes of its victims, pick up News of a Kidnapping. Then try one of Márquez's novels."

"News of a Kidnapping" reveals García Márquez first passion: journalism. Though it's a novel, it's inspired on a series of real events that happened on Colombia several years ago. There's no evident criticism, but it reveals and illustrates the political situation of Colombia at that time (though it is still happening at the present). If you read this book, you're going to suffer both the hostages situations as their families' (as if you were either one).
But besides the dramatical situations, what is extremely interesting is the way the events are narrated. The odd chapters narrate the kidnapped people situations, their suffering. The even chapters narrate their families situations.
Though García Márquez always tend to jump back and forward into time in the same page, here the plot is more lineal and, as i said before, more journalistic.
Evidently, the kidnapping is one of the most awful crimes a human-being and his family can suffer, and by reading this, you will find out why.

When you walk into a bookstore and go to the history section, and look for latinamerican history, you will find this book there. It is absolutely outrageous that this book is sold as if it were titled "A History of Colombia".

Kidnapping is a phenomena that has plagued Colombia for some time now, as it provides the economic means for the civil war in Colombia. However, kidnapping is not the axis our major point of our history.

This very well written book is an account of a kidnapping from the inside. Gabo actually spoke to the people this happened to, and penned it nicely. This book is sad and reflects a reality which should only exist in nightmares.

Worth it.

I bought this (Spanish edition) at a little shop in Montreal, expecting GGM's usual weird fiction. I was surprised to find that it wasn't weird fiction at all, but a true story (if such a thing exists). Actually, I was very disappointed throughout most of the book - it read like sappy "news" reporting in the US, all about what wonderful people the kidnap victims were, along with all their successful children & marvellous friends, etc. I had lived in Colombia for a couple of years just before the events in this book took place & was at least somewhat acquainted with some of the people & situations involved, and I am not that enthusiastic about them. The priveledged, educated, neo-liberal class in Colombia doesn't get an awful lot of sympathy from me - I was mostly surprised that GGM was so supportive of them - but then I realized that that is where he comes from. By the end of the book, I had to admit it was very intriguing & I'm glad I read it, but I think it's spoiled GGM for me, too. This book will probably change the way I see his fiction works.

This is my first attempt at GGM's work. The author's writing style is very different in accounting the events happened during that kidnap saga. As he explains the events unfolding, he carefully adds the background information of the appropriate character(s) involved in the scene and he gets back to the present by providing the correct dose of the past. Though the reader aware of the victims killed, the heart races every time the government forces goof up and we wonder whom going to get killed. That means successful writing. The book details the exhaustive account of how all the sides acted during the period of kidnapping, how professionally and emotionally the victims' families handle the situations. The author explains them in a measured quantity rather than tiring the reader with too many deatils.

The translation is great and I can't help feeling that Edith Grossman got into GGM's mind and translate it exactly what he was trying to put it. Very rare I come across a translator like that.

Worth reading.

As an MCI employee, who lost their life savings and their job to the fiasco that was the MCI/Worldcom fraud, the fact that anyone responsible for it's failure are allowed to PROFIT in any way, even through a book is a TRAVESTY! I only gave it a star because I had to, in order to publish this review.

This book reminds me of what happened at Enron because like Andy Fastow, this guy was doing side deals with 900 phone number companies who owed millions to MCI. He would cook the books at MCI so that it would appear that the debt had been paid off..then he would arrange to collect the debt himself...and MCI was never the wiser. Amazing what you can get away with in the corporate world...NO CHECKS AND BALANCES AT MCI.

I read this book for a business ethics class I am taking. Additionally, Walt came into our class to speak to us, telling his story and answering questions. I definitely found this to be the highlight of the class. I think Walt's story really demonstrates how easy is it is for a "good" person to get caught up in unethical behavior that can sprial out of control.

So MCI, like Enron, was caught. And many others, including AOL, escaped from the crime of channel stuffing and/or cooking their books to meet Wall Street estimates, which was as common in the late 90s as speeding on a interstate highway today. It was implicitly required by Wall Street, in order to justify the shares of the company being used as currency for future acquisitions--MCI/Worldcom was just one of many 'guilty parties'. None of these people deserved to go to jail, certainly not as many years as Schilling and Ebbers, to appease greedy shareholders--yes greedy--who were burned when they were too greedy to unload their shares before the crash. Poor babies, I really cry for you (not). Yes, America loves a scapegoat. And America loves a loser who repents. Support your local con by buying this 'tell all' book and feel the schadenfreude.

Walter Pavlo, Jr.'s story is an interesting tale, one that was later obscured by the larger fraud that occurred after he left MCI and after MCI merged with WorldCom. It's an important story nonetheless because it provides the reader with insider insight into how public corporations push their employees to "make numbers" and what happens when those employees not only take it too far, but learn how to game the system to their own advantage.

Neil Weinberg does an excellent job telling the story, doing so in a way that doesn't make his co-author, who just happens to be the subject of the book, come off looking like some kind of hero while everyone else looks like a villain. In other words, I felt like what I read was the truth as opposed to a one-sided account of the situation.

Pavlo may have been gone by the time that Bernie Ebbers, Scott Sullivan and their friends were cooking the ledger, but this book provides ample evidence as to how they were able to do so and how they got away with it for so long.

I was a journalist and I covered the WorldCom accounting scandal. It was the little stories like these that were the brush strokes of the larger portrait of fraud. Every company has its "Wally" and reading Pavlo's story is an important reminder of that.

This book is an excellent resource to help show the successes and failures of applied mathematics in forensic science. I plan to use this book as a resource to show students that mathematics has a very practical side.

I do well with statistics, but if youre not competent with statistics you'll miss about half of the material in this book.

You wont 'get' it, and you'll be bored.

The other things I dont like about the book are the assumptions that suspects stay put and stick to their patterns. They dont. Suspects are worse than tomcats about wandering off and staying gone.

But, hey! It keeps math geeks off welfare, and it looks good to morons who dont know any better....like police management.

Elementary, and then some. The book is a very simple read. Anyone who can follow the show can also follow this book. But the math...

On page 84 it gives an example that says that there are 75 black taxis and 15 blue ones, correctly stating that this is a ratio of 5:1, then it goes on to say that the chances of a taxi being black are 1 out of 5. Clearly, this should have been 1 out of 6. (If there are five of one thing, plus one of another would make a total of six, not five.)

Using 1 out of 5 instead of 1 out of 6 makes the math work out easier with little difference in the overall outcome, but come on. Two guys with PhDs in math making mistakes on elementary school level math? In a book that features math?

As Einstein once said: "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler."

(It might also improve the book if they added an e-mail address to direct errata to next time around.)

I majored in math in college so I found this book quite interesting. I also am a fan of the show itself. It's a little technical at times but over all a good read for someone who is fascinated by modern crime solving techniques where math plays an increasingly useful role. Recommended for sleuth hounds.

Provides the background on mathematical techniques for solving eg. seemingly random crimes by identifying the most likely residence area for the perpetrator, determining whether the number of deaths while a suspect nurse is on duty is likely due to chance, assessing the likelihood that an individual within a crowd is a terrorist, etc.

The bad news is that it doesn't even reference the most famous statistical tool for crime reduction - New York City's COMPSTAT, nor does it explain how credit card companies determine that a particular transaction is likely fraudulent.

WOW! If you are from Pueblo,CO or the towns mentioned in this book you will be amazed. Last names are very familiar as well as the places it talks about. I absolutely loved it. Now people I know are borrowing the book and there is a waiting list.

Having been born and raised in an Italian family during the 1930's and 1940's in Southern Colorado,( Walsenburg, Pueblo, Agular) I found the discussion of organied crime in the local mountain communities a step down memory lane. I found the references about Mr. Charles Blanda, aka Charlie to his friends, to be the most interesting. Mr. Blanda was a family friend, he was always a gentleman and was a very good boss. My mother was a bartender for 35 years in Walsenburg, Pueblo and Denver. She worked for Mr. Blanda at the Holliday in on 7th. St. for about 5 years 42 to 47. As a little boy I stopped in to see her from time to time and always had a Cherry Coke and a conversation with Mr. Blanda. I also recognized several other names of people that I knew personnaly as a kid. It is a very interesting look down memory lane as I am now 73 years old. Long, long ago.
Cecil R. Sowers Jr. Gysgt U.S.M.C. (Ret)

My daughter was the victim of a stalker, who will soon be facing years in prison. Unlike a lot of the people who read this book, I purchased it because I wanted to read what a terrible place prison is so that I can feel that he is truly being punished. While this book did answer many questions that we had about the arrest procedure, bail, etc. I would have liked more in-depth information about day to day prison life. The book just gives a brief summary about most topics, and doesn't go into detail at all.

My sister is in a county prison, so I sent her this book. She said she loved it ... even found some things to laugh about ... and passed the book amongst all her acquaintances there.

KK REVIEWER' Guidebook to a Distant Country
Yes, you are a good person. But a relative or friend may not be so law-abiding. And stuff happens. Here is what to do if you are ever arrested (mostly what not to do) and what you can expect if put behind bars. Written by two professors of criminology one was a former correctional officer, and the other served eleven years in federal custody, including maximum security. They know what they are talking about, and they dispense their straight dope with surprising clarity and uncommon elegance and wit. (One chapter is called 'You've Got Jail!'). They've written a guidebook to a distant country and its alien customs and ways may you never arrive there. You get street-smarts from inmates and wise counsel from the Man. I rank my books by how dog-eared they are this one had nearly every page marked and underlined. This is one of the books you want to read before you need it.

There is some good advice in this book, but it is really only for men who face incarceration. There is a scant chapter devoted to women, which in my experience offers little useful info.

Of course, if one is facing incarceration, any good advice is very slightly comforting.

Prison is a mean ugly horrible place. The rules are all subjective until someone wants them to be otherwise. Prison is about politics not justice in America. Prison is about so much more than just what what happens in the court room.

There is NO book that can teach you to survive in prision because, life in prison is never a static picture. Prison life is just that LIFE. The minute you take an physical or intellectual snapshot of a living thing it changes in the next instant. The whole deal about surviving in prison is being able to adapt to change. Prison is an environment whose constantly changing factors are designed to keep newbie's and punks off guard. Prisons are run by the convicts with the help of the officers in ways designed to maintain many differing constantly shifting balances of power.

In prison Alliances needs passions angers and the power that goes with them are in constant play shifting ebbing and flowing to meet the needs of the moment. Survival in prison is all about making sure you know what the next game is BEFORE IT IS PLAYED by the officers or inmates. Each prison has its own heartbeat, culture and niches' that no one book could ever prepare you for. Simplistic answers to complex problems like to avoid rape fight for all you are worth in prison is stupid. Yes fighting will delay a rape but fighting alone is just posponing a rape in prison.

Surviving in prison is about fighting but also includes using your cunning to situate yourself in ways that give others reason not to see you hurt. Sometimes surviving prison is about being more brutal, cold hearted or creul than others. Smart people with skills can sometimes survive because, if you can write great legal breifs or have other other legal skills valued in prison you can work it to your advantage so you have protectors.

Develop non-sexual skills that help those with power in prison so they help you in return. Help strong respected inmates who have nothing but personal protection to offer you in return write, draw, learn to read or achieve some other life goal they want for themselves. I guess what I am saying is their is no one cut and dry way of surviving prison. What you must do to survive prison is learn to see opportunities that allow you to survive without being turned out before anyone else sees and takes advantage of them.

Funny as it seems there are some inmates who are tired of the stupidity of prison and they would protect from all harm someone who is teaching them. Prison is about learning how to see and exploit every opportunity to survive you can identify before it is detected by your fellow inmates or destroyed by prison staff \ administration. No book can teach you how to survive prison because surviving prison part instinct, part psychology, part bluff, part bare handed fight and part a sadistic will to do whatever it takes to survive. A book that hopes to teach you how to survive prison is obsolete the minute the words are written because, prison life changes in real time.

In prison you can get your head kicked in for just being unimaginative with your game because, if your game is lame it is considered a disrespectful insult to those you are trying to run it on and that can lead to a brutal fight. Read the book for fun and background but don't expect any book to prepare you for survival in prison because no matter how good a book is, prison life is so much more hellish and real than even the best intentioned man's words can convey.

Surviving prison has to be done in a way that conveys your own style because trying to follow a books advice on surviving prison is like thinking living in prison is a recipe you can copy. Surviving in prison is no recipe it must become part of who you are on the deepest levels of your psyche and soul because it it is not you will be beat down for being fake, not real. See if you think a book will prepare you for prison life you will be up hells creek without a paddle when that book runs out of ideas. This book will not have the right solution for every issue you will face in prison life. The book can not supply dynamic solutions and problems in prison are the most dynamic you will ever face because, change from moment to moment is how convicts and officers keep you off guard and ready to be used and exploited. Real inmates don't need no book to survive prison and that will be your down fall that will tell on you.

Use the book to get in touch with the person you are on the level of the most real and prepare that person for prison situations you see in this book. First rule of survival in prison is keep it real, if you can really fight fight, if you can really con then con, if you can exploit then do it but be true to your skills. There is no such thing as fair in prison anything that allows you to survive another minute in prison is as an intact man is always fair. Your job in prison is to survive by fighting to be and stay real without BS about your life and your dealings with others. See everything and say nothing. Never snicth and sometimes to avoid more beatings by knowing when to take a beating prison is filled with complicated decisions that no single book can ever deal with fully. Thats the problem with this book it answers questions but not in the detailed ways that take into considerations all the complexities of prison life.

You are a fool if you think prison inmates are not smart. Convicts are some of the smartest people alive they are in prison because they chose to employ their vast skills to antisocial tasks. No one single book will ever explain the complex nature of surviving prison life so read the book for insight but don't go inside thinking you KNOW prison life because this book could make you just smart enough to make dumb mistakes prison might not decide to forgive.

The book was both informative and well documented for very shocking and somewhat disturbing subject matter. There was a great deal of detail to the point of too much but the author's closeness and passion for the case was evident. He left no stone unturned with vivid accounts and interviews of victims and who had first hand knowledge and backed his research.
For conspiracy theory buffs it's a must read. You come away with a new view of our local and national politicians and the lengths to which they will go to achieve and stay in power. Also makes you think of who really controls our country. Are we manipulated for a higher cause or by some super-rich men behind the scenes with diabolical motives? You read the book and decide. If nothing else this book makes you stop, reflect and truly think.

This book is a real eye opener. It's amazing how a story like this has been virtually suppressed in a "Free" country such as ours. I don't want to hear about American Idol or Britney Spears, these are the news stories that should be getting air time. There should be an independant task force set up for the protection of children who are being exploited and brutally abused. Try doing a search, isn't it amazing you really can't find one? Kind of makes you wonder. The fact that there are so many influential politicians involved in this scandal gets you to thinking do we have the fox gaurding the hen house??

THIS IS A MUST READ FOR EVERY PERSON IN THE WORLD.

JOHN DE KAMP IS A BRAVE, INTELLIGENT MAN.

This is a good book in that it proved that we often do not see what we think we see nor hear what we think we hear. DeCamp does a good job in showing how what the media and government, have told us about the Oaklahoma City bombing, the Vietnam war, the patriot movement, the drug trade, pedophelia, and satanism has been half truths at best and out and out lies at worst. The only short comings with the book is his admitted restrictions from revieling the grand jury evidence in the Franklin case. You get a sense of what he cannot tell you, but where and how to go about doing your own research for the information.

To all of the detractors and those who think this is merely crazy conspiracy BS.

The horrible crimes documented in this book are not fictitious bunk made up by the author. Everything he wrote is verifiable, much of it was direct testimony from the CHILDREN that were abused by these, often wealthy and prominent, f'ing-inbred- lowlifes, and everything can be backed up with credible EVIDENCE. Mr. Decamp so much as said that if anyone believes that he is lying, or being untruthful about ANYTHING he's written in his book, then that person should just 'go ahead and sue him'. He wrote that, he in fact, "welcomes" any suits that anyone would like to bring against him challenging his honesty in what he's written in this book. So, if you're questioning Mr. Decamps honesty here, you should do something about it, instead of immediately dismissing it with your poor complaints, arguments, or lack of independent thought.

Ultimately, Mr. Decamp concludes that the reason why this huge cover-up has gone on for so long, is because there are very prominent people who like where they are in the social hierarchy, and if this scandal were to reach the mainstream then the whole "system" itself would collapse entirely, thus threatening the security of their position. The sick perpetrators and coordinators identified in this book are willing to let innocent children be abused and murdered in order to maintain their privileged, insignificant little lives. How very sad. But you do, as the saying goes, reap what you sow.
Go watch Conspiracy of Silence.

The author explains how the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS) church began. When people began following the teachings of Joseph Smith, and believed him to be a Prophet of God, they followed his teachings and were polygamists, because Smith told the people that a revelation from God told him that men were to take multiple wives in order to build up the kindom of God by allowing unborn soles bodies in which to incarnate. This continued until the United States outlawed multiple wives and began to imprison men who were practicing this. At that time the standing leader of the LDS (Mormons) said he had had a revelation from God that pologamy would no longer be accepted.

Many men and women did not believe these revelations, and moved around hiding their pologmany. From this, two cities on the borderline of Colorado and Arizona were "born," and the people migrated to this region. Nestled away near the desert, this group lived in peace for years under the leadership of a President AND several men who made up the governing board of the FLDS church. Problems existed for women and children even with the governing body.

Warren Jeff's was a man who liked to study Hitler, and how he controlled his victims. As the elder men died, Jeff's was put in as the current Prophet. Jeff's was able to disolve all the committee men, and ruled himself with no one watching what he was doing. Under his leadership, the people lived in total fear. All their money was taken and placed in a community fund that Jeff's controlled. Children were molested by Jeffs, both boys and girls, and it was not uncommon for him to knock on a member's door and demand they allow their 13 or 14 year old daughter to marry someone HE had picked out, stating that God directed him.

During his reign, all pets were taken out of town and killed on one day, boys were kicked out literally on the streets for minor offenses in order to keep the young girls available to be married to old men.

The police force, judge, county government, etc were all FLDS members and ruled by Jeffs. Men who complained were sent packing, and their wives and children were given to other men.

Men, boys, women and young girls began to speak out, and eventually the FBI became involved.

The author tells the story well, ending with the conviction of Jeff's for the rape of two 14 year old girls, and sodomizing a boy. It is well written, interestering, and answers a lot of questions that arose recently with the government taking 400 children from the compound.

I know, I know, I should wait until I finish reading this. But I am 2/3 of the way through this book, and it gets better every day. I can't wait another moment. I bought it because I worked with Mr. Singular in Denver 25 years ago. He was a great writer then, and he's better now.

This book goes way beyond everyone's repulsion at the sex-with-a-minor charges or the polygamist-cult aversions most of us have. It drills way down into the history of all of the players in this drama. A saga like this doesn't grow and build for as many years as this one has unless it's complex and has a huge cast of characters with a variety of needs/lusts.

It covers the willingness of the U.S. government to turn a blind eye for many decades (and still seems to be doing so, in many cases). It names names, and introduces us to the people who got passionately involved in exposing Jeffs and his cohorts for what they really stand for. And, perhaps best of all, Singular tells us the stories of the women who were (are) victimized by this man and his way of life. It shows us how they each came to the realization that the way of life they'd grown up with was wrong, and how they extricated themselves. It introduces us to others who have come in from the outside to protect them, and why.

This freak has affected so many people--Singular also goes into great detail about the society of "Lost Boys"--countless "useless" male teens (these communities have an excess of men, who are useless because they can't carry children) he threw out of their homes and cast into the streets with no education, no skills, and no normal socialization experience--and the efforts to save them. Efforts that seem to be working.

Others have written books on this subject, but I venture to say this is the best researched and most detailed. This book shows us how easily a religion becomes a cult. At the end of it all, which religion doesn't have a dark side?

First of all, I need to point out that indeed Warren Jeffs is not a "Mormon Polygamoust." He is a fundamentalist Mormon, which the author does enforce many times throughout the book. I wonder why this is part of the title...

Anyway, I found this book very objectively written, and very respectful of the FLDS members themselves, which I applaud fullheartedly, however, the book wasn't as interesting as I expected it to be. It was full of legal jargon and drawn out courtroom scenes.

This is certainly worth the read if you have read "Stolen Innocence" by Elissa Wall. It puts her story in a different light and very interesting to compare the two books.

This book was done before the April, 2008 raid on the FLDS property near San Angelo, Texas, which put the cult back in the news again following the events depicted here. It is essential background in understanding how the Texas stronghold of this religious sect might play out. Why this group appeals to women at all is a mystery to me, but it seems like a good deal for a man, as long as he does NOT cross the self-annointed prophet, who functions as God on earth to the thousands of members. The man can have many women, including teens. The women, or "wives" in a non-legal, spiritual sense, can't contradict or refuse to service their husbands or especially decline to let the husband accept another "wife" into the family. You've heard the name Warren Jeffs, the now disgraced prophet, but this book tells you about his damaged personality, his crimes against his followers, and his short time as the supreme leader. One surprise is that many of the people still living in the twin cities of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona, the original home of the FLDS, are no longer following the Jeffs' prophet-producing line, or taking underage girls to bed. That's good news. The bad news is that many living members apparently practiced pedophilia, incest, and (in effect) pimping their daughters to curry favor, while abandoning and rejecting their teen sons in order to make more girls available for older men. It is unlikely many of them will ever be prosecuted in this life. If you have even a casual interest in the doings of the FLDS cult, this book will be useful to you. We have not yet figured out why so many people are susceptible to the divine claims of the David Koresh/Jim Jones/Warren Jeffs brand of psychopathology, and this volume does not address that question except to note that if you are born into that belief system, and isolated enough so that contrary views are never presented to you, it is pretty damn hard to break out. The HBO series "Big Love", about a man with three families in an urban setting, is well-written and well-acted by beautiful men and women. Some of the secondary characters represent the darker side of fundamentalist LDS life. This book presents more about the less pleasant folks, and less prominent are the articulate, educated plural wives and hard-working husbands seen in the television show.

Warren Jeffs is indeed a twisted man. But the author is either ignorant or has an unexpressed agenda. I've done some reading on the Mormon's enough to know that they excommunicate polygamists like Jeffs, or in his case, his father who started this sect.

So, to include in the title of the book the phrase "mormon polygamist Warren Jeffs" is misleading. In fact, I understand it to be an oxymoron -- once a mormon becomes a polygamist, he is excommunicated, so can no longer call himself a mormon (since "mormon" refers to the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints -- the one with HQ in salt lake). But then again, the author may have done so purposely in order to sell more books which, after all, is the objective, true?

I would look elsewhere for info on these Fundamentalist LDS groups and for info on the Mormons themselves.