True Crime Books

I read this book a few years ago and found it to be a good read keeping in mind that "The Damage Done" was the first (Hilton) book of its genre. You can pick this book up at almost any bookstore in Thailand. Although it paints a negative image of Thai prisons, I don't think the Thai government minds this so much since it re-enforces the country's zero drug policy. Of course Mr. Fellows plays the role of victim very well like most of your former "Hilton" residents, by minimizing their own responsibility is to be expected when reading this type of book. Atleast this book has originality to add to its credit where other "Hilton" books fail in comparison to the point of reguritation. The Damage Done is no "Midnight Express" but still makes for a worthwhile read.

Interesting story with great detail. Warren leaves nothing out and after reading this book, you do not want to go to jail. Very unimaginitve that jail get be like this

"THINK ABOUT THE MOST WRETCHED DAY OF YOUR LIFE. MAYBE IT WAS WHEN SOMEBODY YOU LOVED DIED OR WHEN YOU WERE BADLY HURT IN AN ACCIDENT, OR A DAY WHEN YOU WERE SO TERRIFIED, YOU COULD SCARCELY BEAR IT.

NOW IMAGINE 4000 SUCH DAYS TOGETHER IN ONE CONTINUOUS CHUNK" .

In 1978 Newtown footballer Paul Hayward, William Sinclair, and Warren Fellows was convicted of heroin trafficking between Thailand and Australia. They were sentenced to life imprisonment in the notorious Bang Kwang prison - better known as the Bangkok Hilton.

For the Australian public, Warren Fellow's story ended in 1978. For Fellows, it was the beginning of 12 years of hell in a place where sewer rats and cockroaches are the only nutritious food, where autocratic prison guards giggle as they deliver pulverising blows and where the worst punishment is the khun deo - solitary confinement, Thai style. The Damage Done is one man's story of an unthinkable nightmare. It is not Warren Fellows' plea for forgiveness nor his denial of guilt, but a story of endurance and survival and the abuse of human rights during which Warren speaks with frankness of the decade of life he wasted in leg irons. It is an essential read: hearbreaking, fascinating and impossible to put downIt is a brave and compelling read that poses harrowing questions on the nature of justice.

There are very few things in this world that could be worse than being sentenced to a long stretch in a Thai prison. I picked up The Damage Done while on holiday in Bangkok and my trip certainly took a turn for the frighteningly paranoid.

In The Damage Done, Warren Fellows readily admits to smuggling drugs between South East Asia and his native Australia. He further admits to the many criminal indiscretions of his youth which brought him to his most unenviable predicament. However, Fellows never begs for the sympathy of the reader but rather recaptures his not so anomalous tale of traversing an Asian court system and subsequently its notorious prisons.

Fellows captures the rancid food, drug abuse and violence found in a Thai prison and the consequences such an environment plays on a captive's mental and physical state. Still, Fellows abstains from turning his experience into a preachy tale of woe, and keeps his work cuttingly sharp and extremely interesting.

It seems that the news is filled more and more with tales of Western tourists being tried and convicted in non-Western justice systems. Fellows offers a glimpse into what transpires once the news coverage dies and the convict is left to his own devices; a stranger in a strange land.

These would be the first three adjectives I've use to describe this book.

It didn't seem to develop in much of a linear fashion the way that stories ordinarily do, but instead leaps from one torture to another with no remarkable amount of literary finesse. As you surely know by now, the daily ordeal that Fellows managed to survive are described in excruciating detail. I knew this, like anyone even considering this book would, but it was still excessive. Having spent the last year in SW China, I'd consider my tolerance for shock and disgust to be not insignificantly higher than that of the average American, but it was still too morbid for me to really enjoy at all. Fellows should be commended both for writing a piece that scores of readers are anxious to digest and especially on blaming his decade of torture on his own faulty judgement rather than on foriegn judicial process. Their methods are barbaric, but it's hard to argue that Fellows authoring this wouldn't have an influence on any well-read person considering a career in international drug trade.

I hope that whoever reads this enjoys it more than I did, but probably wouldn't be recommending this one. Lesson learned, if you somehow didn't know this already: don't smuggle drugs into Thailand if you aren't prepared to answer to horrific consequences like these.

Frank Beachum, a former small time troublemaker, now peaceful family man, is convicted of murder and sentenced to die. Despite always protesting his innocence and waiting through 6 years of appeals, he is now on death row, due to recieve the lethal injection within hours. A reporter who was due to interview Beachum for the last time, is killed in a car accident, forcing the newspaper to send Steven Everett in her place. Everett, a hopeless womaniser whose marriage is about to fall apart, is caught with his editors' wife and knows that this is his final chance to keep his job. Some facts about the case don't seem right to him so, in an almost last minute effort, he solves the puzzles. This was made into a movie with Clint Eastwood and, although I haven't seen it, can well imagine that the crazy, last minute solution must have been very exciting. The final procedures which accompany an execution are chilling enough to freeze the blood in your veins!

I read a lot of crime fiction, and frankly most of it is unremarkable. The few five star novels I read stand out in a sea of mediocrity. It usually doesn't take long (sometimes within a few pages) to know that a novel isn't like all the others; that it's exceptional. Such is the case with True Crime, the most flat out entertaining novel I've read in a while.

This high praise is not because of the novel's groundbreaking plot (the race to save a man on death row has been done before and the race against the clock conclusion is admittedly contrived and melodramatic). No, what sets this novel apart is the writing.

Klavan has created a cast of characters who are vividly compelling, flawed human beings. His dialogue is sharp, insightful, and convincingly authentic. His observations about human nature are remarkably perceptive. He gets inside his character's heads in a way that few authors of crime fiction ever try to. Klavan puts you on death row, with all its rituals, and makes you feel the same heartbreaking desperation that Frank Beachum feels in the hours before he has been condemned to die.

If I'm giving you the impression that this is a slow paced character study, with a depressing story line to boot, this couldn't be more wrong. This is as pure an adrenaline rush as you are likely to find in a novel. True Crime is pure entertainment. The suspense is relentless and the narrative, from the perspective of a reporter assigned to the execution on short notice, is cynical and darkly funny. The reporter, Steve Everett, is an unconventional leading man, an absolute (and there's no other word for it) sh**heel. He's also one of the most entertaining characters I've come across in a long time (right up there with Clete Purcel from the Dave Robicheaux novels).

True Crime could have been another run-of-the-mill thriller, but it isn't. Yes, it's thrilling, but more than that, it's perceptive, and thoughtful, and at times quite moving.

PS: I added a comment to discuss the ending that is a ***SPOILER***. Don't read the comments if you haven't read the novel.

This is a very intense read. One of the best suspense novels I have ever read. The book, like in most cases, is better than the movie. *** Recommended reading- "Body Of Evidence" by Patricia D Cornwell. ***

Why isn't Andrew Klavan better known? He's written a large number of superb crime novels, many of which have put me on the edge of my seat. TRUE CRIME is no exception. This is a truly first-rate suspense novel.

The story is simple: a man seats on death row, with only 18 hours before his execution. But Steve Everett, a newspaper reporter, finds reason to believe the man is innocent, and races against the clock to find evidence that will support a last-minute reprieve from the governor.

Klavan does a superb job of describing the death-watch scenes, which I felt were both chillingly realistic and emotionally compelling. All the characters are superbly drawn, and none of them are straight heroes or villains. The reporter character, for example, is not a very nice guy. But that doesn't stop him from trying to do the right thing.

I plowed through TRUE CRIME in one sitting, and the last 200 pages just flew by. This novel is extremely tense, but it's a real blast to read. I enjoyed it enormously. I know Klavan is taking a break from novels to write for movies; I hope he returns to book-writing in the near future. I want more novels like this.

Highly recommended.

*NO SPOILERS*

This was the first book in a long time in which I wanted desperately to jump ahead to read the last few pages to see what happens. As it was, I whipped through the last twenty or thirty pages, skimming and skipping details to get to the end (as soon as I finished, I did go back and re-read more carefully to fill in details).

Interestingly, I didn't at all like the main character - he was obnoxious - a definite anti-hero. I did feel deeply for the condemned man and his family - having to leave his daughter behind hit home strongly; I wondered what I would say to my daughter in similar circumstances.

On the down side (and in retrospect), a couple of the sub-plots, while great in revealing character, didn't really need to be there, but, of course, they did help immensely develop the tension and roller-coaster ride.

Overall, one of the best reads for me in a long time. The suspense kept me turning the pages.

hell i didn't know there was one as big as the sixth family , as donnie brasco would say fughetaboutit. lol

This is a well written and brilliant book which comes from two accomplished, experienced journalists who are experts on the global history of organized crime and the Mafia. The amount of research and analysis that has gone into this book is amazing and it fully enjoys a 5 star review. The book is very detailed and can be dense at times to wade through the facts and absorb the international and national ramifications of this book. Hang in there and read it carefully, l sometimes read some chapters two or three times to grasp fully the international links of Mafia clans based in North America, South America and Europe.

A branch of the Sicilian mafia has planted cells in the North and South America that have been active since the 1940's and have slowly grown into powerful criminal cartels with links all over the world. In particular Canada which is the home of the Sixth Family with clever and powerful Vito Rizzutto as first among equals. Drugs are the main game for the Sixth Family, but according to this book they are also active in counterfeiting, stock fraud and was even involved in a bizarre search for some lost gold ingots in the Philippines that used to belong to ex President Marcos, l would not even be surprised if they even made a buck out of this book too.

The Bonanno mafia family from New York sent its feared enforcer Carmine Galante to Montreal in the 1950's to setup an offshoot of its own in that city. Galante succeeded so well that for years tribute flowed from Montreal to New York and that city was used to traffic drugs into the USA from the French connection and later Sicily. The Sixth Family bloomed in Montreal from the 1950's onward and gradually became the Montreal crime power in its own right as the New York influence dwindled away to nothing. This book also contains much information about the Bonanno crime family and its operations and how it tried to handle an influx of Sicilian born wise guys into its midst from the 1970's. Eventually there was much suspicion on both sides and some wiseguys ended up whacked. This is a great read for the true crime history buff

The Sixth Family by Lee Lamothe offers a detailed look at the infiltration of sicilians and drugs into the traditional New York families through Canada. Lamothe does an admirable job connecting the dots chronologically.

this book has it's interesting points but over all is very long and boring. i would have definately waited for the softcover and then only read it when I was out of other things to read.

This book covers much of the same territority as Crittle's "The Rise and Fall of Joey Massino" and although it's longer and contains more detail, it's harder to read, perhaps for that reason. Account of Vito Rizzuto's doings in Montreal, the book's subject, is reason for reading this book, but you might find it slow going, at times. Vito was convicted of murder in New York, after Canada gave him up. Seems like the FBI's game plan was and is to put all mob bosses in jail, no matter how long it takes.

Now you see it, now you don't. The traditional forms of the well-known con games--the old hat tricks--are well covered in this book. But, the book is remiss in covering the trend toward legalization of cons. (Yes, a "sanitization" process is in full sway, which threatens all of us. This is not touched upon.)This book, however, is excellent at delving into the psyche of the con man. It examines, and exposes, the thinking processes to a remarkable degree of accuracy.In all, there are some valuable points to be learned and absorbed about this "profession" from this book.

..........and helps reinforce the addage, 'You can't cheat an honest man"........

The way this book was written was more for victims then Con artists. Being a retired con this book really didn't teach me anything that I didn't already know except maybe on how to sell a dog using a persons greed, this has me thinking what else I can use other then a dog to use to sell on the greed factor.

The author also makes the assumption that cons have long rap sheets and go to jail quite often, in my career I have been arrested once back in the 80's when I first started out and had a 90 day stay at the gray bar hotel and was given a one way ticket out of town on condition of my release and that I would not talk to the press (The police chief didn't want me to talk to the town reporter)

He also makes the assumption that a con has no friends and no social connection, first rule on being a con, do not con people in your backyard or city for that matter, airline tickets are cheap these days and it is not hard taking a Friday night flight out and a Sunday night flight back (Day job you know in sales)

The author also makes the assumption that all con games are illegal, with the right lawyer that you can bounce off ideas with can come up with how to make it legal.

If you want to get into the business I would still read the book and purchase others on the newer games, if you use any of the tricks in this book you will surly get a stay at the gray bar hotel since these are all well known by now.

Also the author makes note of a lotto scam and you need to be a foreigner from another country to make it work, another reason you can't cash in a lotto ticket yourself is if you owe on child support or back taxes which your winnings will go to pay that off, you don't have to be a big winner in the lotto 5 out of 6 still wins in the thousands.

Just remember seek legal advice before you break the law!

Dennis has written a book that, by the title, has you thinking he has crossed over to the other side. However, once you finish the book, "How to become a Professional Con Artist", you will understand that those who have chosen this life are void of any human committment such as love, family and a future. Dennis takes you into the world of the con artist and shows you that money is to be made, but at a supreme sacrifice. His having worked as a law enforcement officer for 31 years and dealing with these low lifes, he shows that you may not get rich with a regular job, but the rewards are far better. I commend Dennis for a great book. Once I started reading it, I could not put it down. Each page is filled with great advice and humorous points. Being a law enforcement officer and a magician, who also works bunco, I highly recommend this for not only cops, but members of the general public as well. Keep up the great work ...

An interesting look at a crime that often is overlooked as a crime. A very honest and engaging look into the lives of con-men and how this shouldn't be tolerated. The author really states his opinions and reason for writing the book in the last chapter.

This book does a very good job in trying to explain some of the causes of violence and some of the systemic failures in our society. It also provides an interesting narrative of the people involved in the story.

I am a descendant of James Butler. For the record, that family is not Scotch-Irish, they were English and had been for hundreds of years. They went to Virginia from England in the 1600's not because they were poor or down trodden but because they were wealthy and well connected with the intentions of making more money.

Shoddy research just makes me cringe.

On a cold wintry day in March 1978, Willie Bosket, a 15-year-old boy with an extensive juvenile record, shot and killed a middle-aged hospital worker in a New York City subway robbery. Eight days later, Willie robbed and killed another man under similar circumstances. Shortly thereafter, he was arrested, confessed, and was found guilty of these two homicides. He was given the maximum sentence for a juvenile of five years for the two murders. He felt not a whit of remorse for his actions, and was quoted as such in the papers.

A few days later, New York Governor Hugh Carey, reading about the trial in the New York newspapers, became so incensed that he immediately called a special session of the state legislature in Albany. He proposed and was successful in passing a new law in record time, the Juvenile Offender Act of 1978. This law allowed kids as young as 13 to be tried in adult criminal courts for murder and receive the same penalties as adults. This law was a sharp reversal of 150 years of American tradition. New York became the first of many states to make this watershed change in juvenile justice policy. Willie Bosket had made history.

If All God's Children were merely a harrowing recitation of the criminal life of Willie Bosket, it would be a fascinating chronicle of the "most dangerous prisoner in the history of the state of New York." But it is much more than that. It is also a multi-generational tale of the Bosket family dating back to 1834 in South Carolina. It in particular traces the interweaving stories of Willie Bosket and that of his father, Butch Bosket, with all that they held in common-genius-level IQs, a history of explosive anger, psychopathic tendencies and a conviction for two homicide.

In telling this saga of the Bosket family, Butterfield has successfully woven together a sociological treatise on violence in America, a cautionary tale of the pernicious effects of slavery, and a genealogical study of a truly tragic family.

Armchair Interviews says: A stunning read.

This book was indeed an eye-opener. I encourage all who are concerned about our society as a whole to study this book, and especially those who are in social services. Mr. Butterfield should be applauded for this work.

I'm not A reader of books. I was refered this one and I can't stop referencing it in everyday conversations. This book is not only a great history lesson of Racial tensions but also a great look into the history of violence in our Black Youth....

CAUSE OF DEATH: FORENSIC FILES OF A MEDICAL EXAMINER isn't just for college-level students of forensic medicine: it's a pick for any interested in forensic investigations, which will include many a legal reference collection as well as public library patrons. Chapters from a veteran medical examiner and forensic pathologist document the case histories and real-life challenges of autopsies, pairing detailed autopsy notes with insights on victims, murder methods and more. Perfect not only for health libraries but for law libraries and general-interest collections.

Never having watched CSI, I was curious about why the daily goings-on of a medical examiner would merit a book. I did not have to read far to realize that this was fascinating stuff! Cause of Death demystifies what happens behind doors that no one ever wants to go through, but all enevitably will.
Dr. Cohle and Mr. Buhk allow the reader to see and smell the county morgue from an "over-the-shoulder" view. The authors present a perspective that preserves the sanctity of life, but damns some of life's behaviors and actions. The book does not sensationalize the macabre and sometimes horrible circumstances and details of death; it does reveal the bizarre, the terrible, and sometimes humorously ironic details that man (and woman)does to himself or others.
The writing style of the book allows the reader to learn more about individual victim cases. The reader can go along for the victim's last car ride all the way to the victim's last gurney ride; The reader can get a taste of the victim's last choice of poisen or the authors' last choice of music; the reader can experience how interminably long ten seconds is when a baby is being shaken by an angry father; and the reader can sense that the cause of death is not a television show to be wrapped up during a sixty minute time slot.
Great read!

Stephen D. Cohle, MD is the chief medial examiner for Kent County, Michigan. During his years as the medical examiner, he has performed thousands of autopsies. Some have been part of high-profile murder cases, but the majority are not fodder for the next episode of CSI but are instead of just men and women, and sometimes children, who met their end through normal, though still heart-breaking means.

Cause of Death is told from the perspective of the medical examiner, but is unique from some of the other books by well known forensic pathologists. This volume does not highlight sensational cases, like the Jon Benet Ramsey case, but are instead full of what are just regular folks who happened to find their way to the morgue in various ways. It also gives the reader more of a sense of what a real medical examiner's office is like. There are no exhibits of murder weapons from famous cases, but there is a display of alcohol, delivered with some of the bodies who so often meet their demise as a result of the contents of these bottles.

Along for the trip, and co-authoring the book, is Tobin T. Buhk, who once told Cohle that he should write a book about his experiences. Buhk joined him in the morgue over the course of several months, and was able to witness and sometimes participate, in the autopsies of several people. This gives the authors the chance to bring the reader into the stories as more than just a casual observer. We are able to experience the operations of the morgue through the eyes of the expert, Dr. Cohle, and the novice, Buhk.

The Kent County morgue is not what you see on CSI or Law and Order. It is a place that is a collection of contradictions. The bodies that are brought into the room are treated with the reverance and professionalism we would all hope they would. But contrasted with this is a constant-changing soundtrack which varies from Los Lobos to Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Music is always playing during the autopsies, sometimes providing a counterpoint to the tragedy before them.

Along with the surgical gowns, latex gloves, and face guards, humor is another prophylactic used in the morgue. It is brought in to protect, not against disease, but the melancholy that comes from spending day after day determining the various manners in which humans find to end one another's or their own lives. And Tobin discovers, after just a few trips to the morgue, that sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying.

Each chapter contains one or two cases that came through the Kent County Medical Examiner's Office. Each contains a description of the case and the methods used by Dr. Cohle to determine, if possible, the cause of death. Unlike television, it is not an immediate process, done in moments. It sometimes takes hours to perform a complete autopsy, and even then it may be days before toxicology reports confirm the cause of death. This is truth of working in a morgue.

The book gives an honest account of what it really is like to work in a morgue. All of the sounds, smells, and there are a lot of smells, that make up the work of the medical examiner. If you ever thought it was glamorous to work in a morgue, take a glance through this book and you will qickly realize, it requires a high degree of training, long hours, and a willingness to look at the worst of humanity day after day. Kind, gentle people are not the majority of the traffic at the morgue, and even when they are, many times they arrived due to the actions of someone not so kind or gentle.

definitely an excellent read. for those who have read "clarence darrow for the defence" and enjoyed it, this book may very well make you feel like you are visiting an old friend.

Over the years I have read all about Clarence Darrow but this is the first time that I have ever actually "talked" with the man. This is a very personal encounter with a very great man. I am so glad that I ordered this book.
The book reviews a bit of his childhood and a good part of his legal career. But even with sufficent knowledge of Mr. Darrow's career, it is interesting to hear about it all from him and in his own words. From a writer's point of view he is an instruction in clear and straight forward prose style. He removes a lot of streotypes and rumors.
He is writing the book at age 75. He is very melancoly and the text is somewhat poetic at times - the ending especially.
I wish that I could have know Clarence Darrow but this intimate conversation will have to do, I guess.

Interesting for style as well as insight into courtroom tactics, psychology of jurors, crime and muckraking. His basic premise about jurors: If he can get them to imagine, he can get them to doubt. So his approach, always personal, was perpetually appealing to imagination. It worked, mostly, even when clients were guilty. It's his reliance on reason that makes him a skeptic. Causation is the basis of his world and personal views. Seeing the effect of the law, he argues that judging is worse than judgement, and he would dispense with both. He is at some pain to describe what he gave up to plead, rather than the life he gained by it. His seriousness can be attributed to the injustices he saw, effects he attributes more to chance than choice. He espouses the theory of continental drift, in 1939! A sharp mind interested in everything. As he says himself, if he had to do it over, . . . he'd have been a scientist.

Darrow takes the reader through some of his most famous cases and explains the philosophy with which he approached his career and the law in general. Any reader interested in the history of the period should find his accounts fascinating: Eugene Debs, John P. Altgeld, the MacNamara Case, the Loeb-Leopold murders, and the famous Scopes "monkey trial" case are just some of the points touched upon in the Darrow autobiography.

Darrow is a clean and competent writer, if not an artistic one. The prose is easy to read and understand. In places, the book can get frustrating because he leaves a topic well before the reader has lost interest. Future publishers would do well to publish this book together with some pointers for further reading.

The Da Capo Press edition is published with a very strange little introductory essay by Alan Dershowitz. In it, he seems more interested in rehabilitating the memory of Bryan than he does in introducing the book. The reader may want to skip it until after finishing the main book itself.

Beyond the obvious lawyer/law student audience, I would also recommend this book to readers interested in labor politics, the early history of the 20th century in the US, and social justice.

This book successfully captured the life of Clarence Darrow, who is no doubt one of the greatest attorneys of the early 20th century. His abilities to defend the indefensible are most extrordinary. I will certainly recommend this book to anyone espeically pre-law or law school students.

This book was required for my Serial Murder class, and while it was interesting in the beginning, it is not anymore. I find it very repetitive and out of date. All of the information found in the beginning pages is from 1993-ish and earlier. It really does need an update. I also think that the authors need to have more sources in the book (it seems like the only sources are from the authors' articles).

Scholars and criminologists beware! Behind a paper-thin scholarly veneer, this volume is worse than useless to any serious reader. The authors open with self-congratulation of their own "research vigor," denouncing competitors who produce books "loaded with errors," then deliver a slim volume containing literally hundreds of careless mistakes--countless names misspelled, cases misplaced geographically and chronologically (one killer hanged in 1896 is described as active in the 1940s!), etc. The index is a joke, with most of the page citations inaccurate, and that's only the beginning. Some killers appear twice under different names (their own and some garbled version), while others appear to be mythical characters (e.g., "Leslie Hooten"). The most hilarious error finds a list of "Serial Killer Victims" in the index naming several authors from the book's bibliography ... plus O.J. Simpson! Worst of all, the book appears to be one massive ego stroke, with the primary author referring to himself by name more than 80 times in less than 160 pages. At a hardcover cost of 28 cents per page, anyone desiring accurate information on serial murder is well advised to shop around.

This book was extremely helpful in my research on serial murder. It is a good, concise, rendition of research, & theories,of multiple homicide. I recommend this book to anyone writing a research paper or who wants to learn more on the topic of serial murder.

Two important things must first be noted: Amazon.com is listing a 1988 title (Serial Murder)by Holmes and DeBurger. That book was received with very positive reviews and was widely recognized as a "first" in the attempt to deal systematically with this particular form of homicide. It appears that Amazon.com is publishing reviews that do not pertain to this first edition, but which are based on evaluation of SERIAL MURDER by Ronald and Stephen Holmes, published in 1998 by Sage. The Holmes'(father-and-son) effort represents a buttressing of the 1988 edition with considerable expansion of specific cases and developments in the intervening decade. While there is a bit of "hurrying to completion" evident here with attendant errors, typos, missing or misplaced names, etc., this book--which builds well on the first edition by Holmes and DeBurger-- does represent the best systematic work available on the topic. Amazon.com should pay closer attention to its listings and get book titles linked correctly with their actual authors.