True Crime Books

Steve Jackson writes this book for the family of the victim of a heinous crime. He stomps his foot up and down and bemoans the injustice of the justice system, unfortunately, his foot is stomping on the US Constitution. The book slanders defense attorneys and Judges that Jackson doesn't even interview or, it seems, attempt to contact. Jackson admits that it was written with cooperation only from the prosecutors and the victims family presenting a completely one sided, liablous,travesty that does not even attempt to explain the justice system and does not mention the Constitution, the foundation of the justice system; once.

This book is not very compelling. The story could have been told in half the pages. Since the crime and the arrest of the suspects took place within a couple of hours, along with written confessions from both players, there really wasn't much to this story. The book is packed with filler, giving way too much background on the history of the death penalty in Colorado.

I don't understand the negative reviews of this book at all. I've been a voracious true crime reader for over a decade and I am as certain to enjoy a Steve Jackson book as I am Ann Rule. I consider him the crime writer for Colorado as Ann Rule is for the Pacific Northwest. This book does a great job of detailing the characters involved and is sensitive to the victim. Yes, the crime was solved right away, but that doesn't make understanding why they did it and the events leading up to it and afterwards any less interesting. I enjoyed every page of it and look forward to everything else Steve Jackson writes in the future. Definately worth it for true crime lovers!

First, I must say that I am saddened by the horrifying experience that Jacine Gielinski went through in April of 1997. This reveiw, however, focuses on Partners in Evil, Steve Jackson's book regarding that horrendous incident.

As evident by the subtitle (The Shocking True Story of a Fantasy Turned Deadly), as well as the material appearing on the back cover, which is replete with emotionally charged adjectives and adverbs, it is more than obvious that the intent of Jackson and his publisher is to intice readers to purchase and read what promises to be a titillating account of a "gruesome" crime and its "twisted" perpetrators who are filled with "sexual bloodlust."

Apart from the obvious sensationalism, it seem as if Jackson is confused as to what type of book he wants to write. Partners in Evil tries to be at times a "true crime" novel, at other times a diary of the thoughts and feelings of Jacine's family, and at still other times a nonfiction account of the history and righteousness of the death penalty in Colorado. It's possible that if Jackson had chosen just one of these premises, his book would have seemed a bit less disjointed. Even so, I believe that the book would still display its large number of typographical errors and its strong one-sidedness, as well as its questionable accuracy.

The one-sidedness (Jackson uses the book as a pulpit from which to extol the virtues of capital punishment) and typographical errors (indicative of a lack of attention to detail by both Jackson and his editor) will be obvious to any reader. But how, you may ask, can I accuse the book of being less than accurate? I can do this because I am one of the crime scene investigators who was involved in the case, as well as in several other cases touched upon in the book. In fact, a number of the photographs appearing in the book and credited to the Colorado Springs Police Department were taken by me and the captions under at least two of the book's photographs are obviously not correct. The inaccuracies, however, are not confined to Salmon and Woldt's case, but extend into other cases mentioned in the book as well.

A reviewer before me says that Jackson has "done his homework." If that's true, then it appears to be the type of homework that a student does when he prepares for a book report by purchasing and skimming through a copy of Cliff's Notes instead of reading the assigned book. I have no doubt that lovers of "crime fiction" and of "true crime" will enjoy this book. It is, in fact entertaining, as I am sure that it is intended to be. But a mild word of caution as you turn the pages: don't believe everything you read.

Please do not assume by this review that I feel that what happened to Jacine Gielinski is either trivial or excusable. It isn't. I feel badly for Jacine and for all that knew her, especially her parents, Bob and Peggy Luiszer. I understand that Steve Jackson may have felt that this story needed to be told. But maybe for Jackson's next "true" crime book, he will decide to look at all sides of the issue and to be a little more thorough when doing his "homework."

The author not only grabs the reader's attention from the very first page, he places this horrific crime in historical context with other death penalty cases. Steve Jackson has done his homework! The reader gets to know Jacine and her family and whether one agrees with the death penalty or not, you cannot help but feel the pain of Jacine's parents. I will never forget her smiling face. This book is a must read for readers of true crime.

A unbiased book that offers both sides of the JFK debate and the supporting evidence for each, sounds great right? And things are rolling along pretty smoothly until Kurtz can't resist wedging in his nonsensical viewpoint in a chapter hilariously "consensus", which is filled with misleading statements("There's no proof whatsoever the rifle was fired that day". No such test exists), ridiculous standards of proof("Nobody photographed the bullet on the governor's stretcher"), supposed scientific findings with no no citations, and outright omissions of fact(Kennedy's head snapping forward). Kurtz'z allegations are seemingly devoid of the recognition that basic extension of logic entailing them leads invariably to oblivion. Hilariously, although Kurtz is disturbed by the lack of proof of CE 399 actually being found on Governor Connally's stretcher, he seems untroubled by his own assertion that it is "unknown" what happened to the bullets that were "undoubtedly" fired at President Kennedy from the front.

Do not swallow the disingenuous "detached and unbiased" hook. This book is simply another in a large stack of conspiracy nonsense.

Professor Kurtz complied a book of essays in which he compared and contrasted conspiracy theories and the official mythology. What was missing was the scholarship that one would expect from a professor of his standing.

I was expecting an analytical critique of conspiracy theories' and the offical mythology's critical themes. It was not there. The assassination debate was the equivalent dialogue between bar patrons. Both sides remained basically unchallenged because neither could cite the documntary basis for their positions, the documentary basis being the foundation for academic scholarship. What a pity that I was duped into buying a book based on the author's credentials that were not in evidence.

Michael Kurtz is to be commended for delivering a fantastic overview of the JFK assassination case at this late juncture (2006). Of most value are Kurtz's personal interviews with sundry medical personnel and even three former Secret Service agents: Roy Kellerman (deceased 1984; I spoke/ corresponded with his widow June), William Greer (deceased 1985; I spoke to his son Richard), and Robert Bouck (deceased 2004; I spoke to Bouck 9/27/92). I am on 3 pages of this book. Get it!!!

The assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 was a monumentally important event in American history. The question of who did it...and why...still reverberates today. This book attempts to present a balanced view of the lone gunman theory vs the conspiracy theory by stating the basics of the case for each point of view. It then states the 'consensus...Facts' and issues a weak tilt towards 'conspiracy' by pointing to a lack of evidence implicating Oswald and the problems with the single bullet theory. This would have been a fine scholarly effort 20 years ago but in 2006 there is a lot of new factual information that the book does not mention.

The evidence in the Kennedy killing primarily consists of eyewitness accounts, photographic evidence, medical evidence from the autopsy, and a small amount of physical evidence gathered at the crime scene. Michael Kurtz accepts all of the photographic evidence as genuine, most particularly the Zapruder film, even though much credible work by David Lifton, James Fetzer, David Mantik, and others have amassed convincing proof that the film was carefully altered. Even if Kurtz ignores the compelling line-of-sight geometric analyses that have established the film's alteration, he does not address the fact that the Zapruder film does not show the appearance of the gaping wound on the rear of Kennedy's skull, the movements by Moorman and Hill, nor the huge blood spatter that covered motorcycle officers riding behind and to the LEFT of the limousine. He also does not consider that the Zapruder film shows a gruesome wound to the right side of the president's head that was not observed by any of the doctors at Parkland Hospital only minutes later. He does acknowledge, however, that some of the autopsy photos showing such a head wound were obviously fraudulent which leaves an unresolved conflict in his position.

In 2006, the 'autopsy' has been so thoroughly discredited that no serious effort would give it any weight. No one can even agree any longer as to who took the pictures at the autopsy, what was photographed, and what is shown in the photographs. The wounds in Kennedy's back and neck were never dissected to establish the path of the bullets. For all intents and purposes, a real autopsy, such as would be performed on any derelict body found on a city street today, never took place. The only thing that the autopsy establishes today is that Kennedy had a lot of brain damage and that was probably what killed him. Kurtz misses all of this and instead confines himself to a brief discussion about problems with the autopsy photos, which is where researchers of the autopsy began 20 years ago but have since traveled a great distance, a journey that Kurtz has missed.

Finally, Kurtz gets through the evidence, determines that a conspiracy occurred, attempts to analyze who the conpirators might have been, and runs through the usual vague list of suspects: cubans, organized crime, and the CIA. Kurtz completely ignores, however, the one person who had the power to implement a subsequent federal cover-up, who had an overwhelming motive, and who had the opportunity presented by the visit of the President to his native Texas: Vice-president Lyndon B. Johnson. This is the single most glaring omission in a book with many omissions. A lot of information has been published on Johnson in the last few years that points the finger of suspicion directly at him but Kurtz never mentions it. Finally, Kurtz never mentions the potential complicity of some members of the Secret Service in the killing. The facts are that the Secret Service detail removed the body from the hospital at gunpoint, began washing the blood off of the presidential limousine while it was still parked at the hospital ER (there's a photo of this being done), and flew the limousine (which was the crime scene) back to the White House Garage in Washington DC within a few hours of the assassination and then had Ford Motor Company personnel clean the upholstery, replace the windshield, and replace the carpet a few days later. It is also a fact that many eye witnesses reported that the limousine drastically slowed or stopped at the time of the shooting, which was contrary to their training. Kurtz never mentions any of this other than to claim that it was Jacqueline Kennedy who insisted that the Secret Service abscond with the body back to Washington DC before an autopsy could be performed in Dallas, although he offers no evidence for this assertion. Kurtz also makes an odd claim on p116 that Oswald had time to fire more than three shots. This is something that no one else has claimed and, again, Kurtz offers no evidence for this.

In the end, this book presents an old, incomplete view of the Kennedy asassination that tends to obsure the real progress that has been made by dozens of independent researchers in the last few years towards a resolution of the case.

The chapter on the intelligence community does not go into the CIA but Castro. This is a trick lawyers use. Everyone did it but my client. The CIA is out there looking for the real killers along with O.J.

Header pretty much tells it.

Ness comes across as a fairly dull individual.
Could have done without quite a bit of the info on Cleveland.

Book is gripping and a real pager-turner when the author stays with the slasher and his victims...alas, there isn't enough of it here. Also, what compounds the problem is that the butcher was never caught.

So, what do you got? A John Gilmore SEVERED type of tale? Not quite, because John Gilmore is the superior writer and his book is a compelling read every step of the way (even though John Gilmore was not certain of who did Elizabeth Short in, either.)

But hey, some scribes are born true-crime writers, some are not.

I did say when the author of Torso stays with the bodycount and the ensuing manhunt the book is a scream--by that I mean it just might make your lunch back up.

The Kingsbury Run murders were gruesome and the killer seemingly mocked Cleveland, Ohio, Public Safety Director Eliot Ness in executing the perfect crime.

The crimes - still unsolved - were committed in the mid- to late-1930s with the victims surgically butchered; the heads, arms, legs and torsos cut by someone who seemingly had a medical expertise in removing body parts. Only three of the fourteen victims were ever identified.

Ness - who took center-stage in the investigation - was criticized for the inability in finding the killer. Police detective Peter Merylo actually believed that there were at least 40 murders in Cleveland, Youngstown and Pittsburgh, Pa., spanning three decades that were perpetrated by the individual.

Torso captures the frustration of Ness and the concerns of the public and city leaders while discussing the various theories and suspects. In as much a political as safety decision, Ness ended up raiding & burning several shantytowns in The Flats to clear out an area where it was felt the murderer could feast on any number of "nameless" victims.

According to The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, a film on the murders could be released in 2008. While that may bring new focus - and books - on the crime, Torso will surely remain an outstanding resource for those seeking an understanding of those frightening years.

In the 1930s over a dozen murders were attributed to the "Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run", a ravine that runs through Cleveland Ohio and contains this stream and railroad yards. Most of these bodies were unidentified: headless, the arms, legs, and torso were cut up by someone who knew anatomy or butchering. It was never solved, altho one suspect was made to confess, repudiated this confession, and then found a suicide in jail. Such serial murders were rare in America; earlier serial murderers did it for money and left this trail. No motive was ever established for these murders. Most sex murderers are the product of large cities, which have anonymous victims or perpetrators. Chapter Eleven summarizes these cases.

This book is about the later career of Eliot Ness. After Chicago, he was put in charge of the Alcoholic Tax Unit of norther Ohio. He cleaned out bootleggers, hitting a still every day. Organized crime made Cleveland a safe haven for criminals on the run. Corruption had spread everywhere; neighborhood crime had greatly increased. Harold Burton became mayor, and chose Eliot Ness as Director of Public Safety to oversee the police and firemen. (Burton later became a Senator, a friend of Truman, and was appointed to the Supreme Court.) The ineffectiveness of the police was due to widespread corruption and complacency. With Prohibition gone, Ness prosecuted gambling and union racketeering. Ness cultivated a good relationship with reporters, and got favorable publicity. He tried to purge corrupt policemen but was met with silence. Then a police captain was caught in a cemetery lot racket. Another owned a restaurant which fronted for a gambling room. The bodies found in Kingsbury Run highlighted the corruption.

Cleveland had been the worst city (after Los Angeles) for traffic deaths and injuries. Ness purged the traffic division, began arresting drunk drivers, prosecuted ticket fixing, gave harsher penalties for unpaid fines, and started tougher automobile inspections. Ness promoted traffic safety with a public awareness campaign. He began an Emergency Patrol with first aid training to reach any accident within two minutes. This cut traffic deaths by half, and he received national recognition. Some of the increased traffic fines were put back into the police budget. Squad cars now had two-way radios. A single phone call brought police assistance within 60 seconds. Ness was criticized for wasting tax dollars, but in one year overall crime dropped 38%, robberies by 50%! Public success was followed by private problems: divorce, late night socializing, stories of drinking.

Ness later resigned to join the Federal Social Protection Program during WW 2. Afterwards, he became a businessman but was not successful. His campaign for Mayor of Cleveland flopped. He later met Oscar Fraley and began to write his book. Just before its publication, Ness died of a heart attack; he never knew of its success.

Not long after his "Untouchables" days, Eliot Ness experienced many successes as Public Safety Director of Cleveland (OH). Unfortunately, capturing the 'Torso Murderer' was not among them. A relatively little known crime, this serial killer haunted Ness' time in Cleveland. This book is both a look at Ness himself after his Chicago accomplishments, and an examination of one of America's greatest unsolved serial killings. If you are interested in either subject, this is an excellent purchase.

The book's title is somewhat misleading us into believing that the 1930s `The Untouchables' character of Elliot Ness ran a serial killer investigation. Half this book is the life and times of Ness who happened to be Director of Public Safety in Cleveland while his skid row turned up mostly unidentifiable dismembered remains of vagrants, it was Ness who gained the most attention throughout the investigation by eventually burning down the homeless slums of the Kingsbury Run district in an attempt to clean out, tag, and fingerprint potential victims in the making, probably destroying the killer's Cleveland homeless hunting grounds, also a turning point event in Ness's career, a prohibitionist alcohol distillery buster, who once put away the national crime lord Al Capone, sadly failed systematically to progress his ratings with the city, eventually becoming involved in a hit and run accident that cost him an election run as Mayor, the over-hyped but none-the-less interesting account of Ness is all here, but maybe a little bit more than a seasoned non-crime fiction reader would care to expect, means you get only about 100 pages of the Torso investigation, where we concentrate on the city coroner Dr. Samuel Gerber and Detective Peter Merylo.

Ness comes into play now and again, obviously as a propaganda figurehead designed to play to the media, backfires most of the time he does appear by getting involved in the wrong thing at the wrong time, still had a very high success rate in exposing corruption, and did work on a number of highly constructive policies like getting kids off the streets and stressing the fight against disease, obviously behind the scenes worked with the ""good guy"" force heavies getting all the important political prohibition work done (alcohol prohibition was a failure not because alcohol is safe to use but because prohibition itself actually increases the prohibited drugs risks, usage rates and overall crime goes up because of it, a statistical fact). It is reading the situation of these same propaganda violent cops becoming cold case serial killer squads, even before the term serial killer was used, makes it an absurd situation of bad police management for the 21st century reader to contend with, and was the reason Ness went bust in the end and even more importantly, why the killer got away with so much in the first place.

Thus the investigation in Torso is not like any other, the cops are a different breed (just like out of a comic book meaning useless in real life) and the concept of `stranger killing' was not even present then. The classic book "The Complete History of Jack the Ripper by Philip Sugden" is based on the police records at Scotland Yard of the investigation at the end of the 19th century, news paper clippings and various memorandums that followed with surprising valid detail (all 500 pages of it). Torso reads like trying to find anything factual as if anyone except the leads could read, write or file reports, pounded and smashed their way across Cleveland in the hopes of stumbling across a sexual sadist who would suddenly admit to picking up homeless people, decapitating them with a large blade while they where asleep and or tying them up beforehand so they could not escape, a paraphiliac, expertly removed all the appendages after death with `knowledge of surgery' and bisected the body, sometimes used chemicals or freezers to keep his victims, would then wrap the pieces and begin his very strange dumping process which ranged from never-found victims, to victim's body parts appearing in the middle of the city for everyone to see, going to great lengths to leave two incomplete victims from different time periods together in the same spot, it stands to reason that Dr. Samuel Gerber and Detective Peter Merylo would give us a much better angle, and it is with the medical evidence that Gerber comes off as a sort of new-wave criminology serial killer expert, knowingly prevented other coroners from going near the victim's body parts, rightly asserts himself as a scientist in among all the investigative despair, leading some to suspect and challenge Gerber himself, after his conclusions that a recent severed leg was the work of the same hand, this statement exonerated various numbers of peoples who where obviously rotting in jail on suspicion of being the killer.

Merylo correctly guessed that the killer was somewhat mobile in the area and probably moved on after the killings that did not stop at #12, Merylo at the end of his career guessed that it was probably above forty. Dr. Francis E. Sweeney is the mystery Ness suspect not named in this book but the evidence is circumstantial at best. Gerber may have given the investigators a better idea of who there man was if he did not also subscribe himself to propaganda theories (druggie maniac). It is almost a certainty that if the investigators conducted better searches of abandoned train carts that they would have discovered the killer's `laboratory', a series of abandoned carts containing three different bodies that came from Youngstown after being there for almost a year, was almost certainly that unacknowledged lab of his, but Gerber did not examine these bodies. From the victims that could be identified all where prostitutes or homosexuals. The killer probably killed them away from his home, suggesting that he lived homelessly or with a family, certainly hung around the lower classes of society, befriended vagrants and some other loiterers who where happy enough to sleep with him in train carts (if this fact you are reading now had have been known at the start it would have probably prevented more death), resided in the general area and probably killed and mutilated several times before the first official Torso was found, meaning he learned his `surgical skill' that way.

He should have been caught earlier. Torso is a shallow account of the subject matter but still essential non-fiction crime literature.

I enjoyed this book for the most part. Part of the strength of the book is also its weakness. Thomas Reppetto is a former detective, and brings in a law enforcement perspective to the history that a jounalist or historian probably couldn't achieve. The result is more insiders view of the various investigations into mob activity, and also the surprisingly strong relationship the American mafia had with local police departments and politicians. The downside is that the writing loses its focus for me at times, and I found it hard to keep track of the rather large cast of characters in the book from the way Reppetto tells his various storys.

Reppetto is a pretty engaging story teller, and the history is more a series of tales woven together over several decades. That may not qualify this book as a definitive history, but it is an enjoyable read.

Readers interested in this genre should have this book in their collection. Rita Schiano, author "Painting The Invisible Man" Painting the Invisible Man

Thomas Reppetto's American Mafia traces the rise of the Mob from the late 19th century to the 1950's Kefauver Hearings. According to Reppetto, the American Mafia didn't invent organized crime, but dominated because it was "tougher, smarter, and more daring" than rival gangs and the police.

At the dawn of 20th century the mob was nothing more than a few scattered Sicilian gangs in isolated city neighborhoods. When prohibition came along new opportunities arose. Bootlegging, with its huge profits, made the mob. By the time of the Depression, these once small gangs had consilidated their power, controlling cities and entire states. In the post-war years the mob emerged as a powerful national organization.

It's a familiar story with the standard rogue's gallery: Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, and many others. Reppetto covers all the milestones, from the free-wheeling days of prohibition, to the penetration of labor unions and Hollywood in the 1930's, and on to the creation of modern Las Vegas in the 1940's.

Reppeto argues that the Mafia was a product of American society, "Particularly corrupt local politics." He points out that the mob was neither ethnically exclusive, consisting of Jews like Arnold Rothstein and Meyer Lansky, and not as tightly controlled as some would believe. There was no top man in the mob. Instead, the Mafia is a loose association of regional organizations.

Men of Italian descent did dominate the syndicate, however. This is because they generally had a more business-like outlook, displaying exceptional organizational skills, and ruthless business instincts. They "built the mob along corporate lines," writes Reppetto.

He is also quick to note that the secret to the rise of the Mafia was its alliances with corrupt politicians. Starting with control of local ward officals, the mob eventually created a network of political influence that stretched all the way into the Truman White House.

American Mafia is an excellent introduction to the history of organized crime. It is well written and well paced. Reppetto has a light touch and easily jumps from one era to another with colorful portraits of the major players. Those familiar with the subject will find nothing new here. But, I highly recoommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about organized crime in America.

This book is a very good introduction to the history of the Mafia in America. The bibliography and notes are extensive and impressive and the reader can be assured that the author knows his subject extremely well. A large chunk of the book is devoted to New York City but there is pages devoted to New Orleans, the Mafia in Hollywood, Chicago, and Detroit etc. A lot of material is covered in this book and some areas are only briefly explored but there are plenty of other books out there for the readers to delve further into areas that interest them.

The early years of the Italian Gangs in New York around 1899-1920 is covered well if it is brief, the ruthless, violent activities of Morello and Lupo the wolf and their sinister stable are explored and how the Police tried to crack down on these gangs. Lupo ends up spending plenty of years in jail (poor Lupo!).

The early years of the rise to power of the Mob in Chicago and New York is explained well, we are introduced to criminals like Johnny Torrio, who brilliantly exploited prohibition and set up the Mob in Chicago. The genesis of the New York Mob is also explained although the book tends to jump around at times as it tries to link people and events. Readers need to be patient as the author has sound logic for these jumps and it makes sense in the finish.

The book also deals with the mob fighters and racket breakers such as the competent and honest Chicago detective William Shoemaker, of course Eliot Ness and a special mention to the fearless and very able Elmer Irey the Dept of Treasury Intelligence Chief.

The mobs golden years from the 1920's to the 1970's are unrolled before the reader as the Mob seems to defy any effort to weaken it or shut it down. The criminal careers of Luciano, Costello, Genovese, Anastasia, Adonis and co along with many lesser players all get a mention. This book is by no means an extensive account more a brief overview, but it is a good start for any true crime buff and provides plenty of information and sources for the reader to explore further.

For anybody who wishes to explore deeper l suggest the excellent book "The Mob, 200 years of Organized Crime in New York' by Virgil Petersen, it is very dry but of full information about the Five point Gangs, Tammany Hall, Boss Tweed and of course the Mafia.

In this day and age, after all the books that have been written on the mafia, if you're going to attempt one you should at least have an interesting perspective. This book is flimsy, superficial and dull. Rarely has criminal activity seemed so boring. Try to read it along with "Five Families" by Selwynn Raab and you'll outsleep Rip Van Winkle.

This is a quick read. Typical true-crime pulp style. Nothing spectacular about the writing, but the story is indeed unique.

There are a lot of problems with the morals the book is trying to sell though.

Not a bad beach book, but don't expect to learn a whole lot from it.

Jason Moss did indeed turn into Gacy's "last victim". He eventually shot himself. Sad ending.
~RIP Jason Moss~6/06/06~

but why did he choose that date? 6 6 6.
Strange man, yet still tragic.

The author apparently had alot of spare time to mess with serial killers. All poor Jeff Dahmer needed was to be loved.

Too bad John Wayne Gacy didn't make soup out of the author.

The worst of all the books on serial killers I've read.

I wanted to use no stars, but, I had to choose one :(

This book is certainly not the worst True Crime book I have ever read. However, it presents with some obvious problems. It is NOT a journey into the mind of serial killer as much as a journey into the mind of the author. Much of the book is about the author himself and his own thoughts. While the book is organized and understandable, the style of writing is rather juvenile and lacking in depth. That said, the prison visits Mr. Moss had with Gacy were interesting and somewhat frightening; it is difficult to believe that prison guards were willing to leave the author alone with Gacy for periods of time long enough to constitue danger for the author. However, this is what happened. The last scheduled visit with Gacy truly scared the author and he never returned.

I knew the author of this book, having met him when he applied to be a Big Brother in Las Vegas, Nevada. As a True Crime fan, I did not find his interest in serial killers disturbing or exceptional. However, it is a bit odd that he found it necessary to correspond with so many of the high profile serial killers. During a routine "home visit" to his apartment as part of the Big Brother screening and application process, Mr. Moss showed me his album of response letters from many other serial killers, includig Charles Manson and Richard Ramirez. (I enjoy True Crime, but this was a bit too close for comfort for me.) If my recollections are correct, he did serve as a good Big Brother to a little boy who needed a male mentor. He did not present as narcissistic... although the tone of his book is self aggrandizing. However, perhaps Mr. Moss was less stable than he appeared at times. Another reviewer states the author took his own life. Somehow, this does not completely surprise me.

Don't waste your time. This book is more about Jason Moss and his egomania then it is about serial killers. It did not offer any new insight or information at all.

A real page turner. Ken Englade did an excellent job organizing and presenting all of the people, facts, and situations involved...not an easy task.

Excellent reading and an amazing and startling story of the greed and determination of some of high society within the equestrian industry.

I would recommend this book to anyone involved in the Equestrian industry.

Jack Fort Lauderdale, Florida

The FBI could not solve the Helen Brach murder because I think an FBI agent found the truth and was payed alot of money.

When the FBI screws up or gives up on a case they give it over to possibly the most corrupt organization in the world! (The ATF)

The ATF mainly special agent John Rotunno pays informants to lie for them. Joe Plemmons and Cathy Olsen have lied over and over again then 10 years later totally change their stories to make money and lie for the ATF!

Michael and Donna Hunter have been paid lots of money and let off crimes to say exacltly what the ATF wants to set people up.

Alot of what you read in these Helen Brach murder books are ATF lies to help set people up. Joe Plemmons and Cathy Olsen have just proved that by lieing for the ATF. Joe Plemmons, ATF John Rotunno and Chuck Goudie have just been caught in a big scandel!

Look on the internet and see the truth of the Helen Brach murder investigation. This will go down as one of the biggest blunders by the ATF. Please take note of ATF agent Bob Hauffmans remarks on Jan 10, 2005 on CBS 60 minutes saying that he can substantiate one of the three ATF woman agents saying they have been sexually harrassed by ATF agents. He went on to say that in all of his years as an ATF agent, (all of the criminals he has put away have more HONOR than the TOP OFFICIALS OF THE ATF!) He said I know this is sad commentary but this is my experience working with the ATF!

this expose of the otherwise ignored goings on in the world of Hunters and Jumpers is shocking to those not on the "inside". To others, it is business as usual. Unfortunately. Truly appalling is that these people who KILLED their horses for money are STILL involved in the business. AND there are others who didn't get caught...

This book is a MUST READ for anyone involved in the horse world.

Anyone involved in the showing of hunter/jumper horses on the
A-Circuit should read this book. It is well researched and I could not put it down. Although it came out in 1996..the same thing is going on in 2004.
I show horses & what I have seen during the past few years in the name of "sport" is disgusting. This book accurately portrays the greed, lack of character & criminality of some so-called horse people. It is such a shame for the honest,good horse professionals out there. They usually get drummed out of the A'Circuit if they won't play ball w/ the crooks that have control
In the Virginia, Maryland area, it is business as usual. Drugging horses & ponies, showing lame animals, ruining them & "having to put them down"...because, "oh well, they can't do the job anymore" & collecting insurance to buy another expensive horse & pay more commmissions to the trainers & middlemen.
I've seen a well- known broker/dealer of ponies becoming rich by lying & conning unsuspecting parents who are listening to the "advice" of their trainers...not realizing that they are all tied in on the "con". Kickbacks, pay-offs, drugging,not claiming sales/commissions on tax returns, falsifying the true ages of horses & ponies, as well as, falsifying vet records. You name it, it's happening right now.
AHSA (now called USEF) the governing body of show horses has been completely ineffectual in rectifying this criminal behavior. When trainers are caught using illegal drugs on their ponies & horses, they get a mere slap on the hand. The type of customer that stays w/ them is just as bad...the win at all cost attitude w/ no regard for the harm it does the horse or risk for the rider...many who are children.
I applaud the DA in Illinois who went after these scum (some who are currently still involved in the horse business)
I think a criminal investigation should be opened up on this entire racket. It is a huge fraud.
THis book accurately depicts the horse show world right now.

The great Carlos wasn't really all that great we discover, but was largely a myth of the US Intel community. An interesting mystery that obviously cannot be confirmed on many points, but since my interest is largely Middle East terrorism, etc. I find their first-hand views of Carlos and terrorism interesting enough to buy the book again just to get their take on the whole affair. Haven't read anything else by Yallop but he does a splendid job here. The tough rating shouldn't indicate whether the book is worth buying (It is), but my tough stand on books that are truly significant in their fields. I read about a book every two days to one week so make tough evaluations!

If you like the world of espionage, I recommend this book. It is definitely not boring, a well written book. Author also gives readers a very informative look, not just into Carlos the Jackal, but also into the whole Mid-East conflict without the one-sided view we're used to seeing in the West. I learned more about the Israel-Palestine conflict reading this book than in a decade of reading newspapers and school text-books. I would recommend this book.

Author David Yallop chronicles what initially must have seemed to be an impossibility; locating & interviewing Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, the international terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal.

From the 1970s to the 1980s, Sanchez conducted an international terrorist spree that included assassinations, kidnappings and hijackings. He helped facilitate the 1972 Munich Olympics plot that ultimately killed Israeli Olympic athletes & coaches and the 1975 kidnappings of OPEC oil ministers.

But it seemed as if every high-profile terrorist plot during this time had the fingerprints of Sanchez all over them. Through interviews with Abu Nidal, Yasir Arafat and others, travels that had false starts, dead ends and twists that have to be read to be believed - including an "interview" with a Sanchez double - Yallop is finally able to meet Carlos the Jackal in the most public of places. And the conclusions Yallop draws again shows how myth & realty can blur the truth in the political arena.

Soon after the book was published in the U.S., Sanchez was captured by French agents during medical treatment in the Sudan and found guilty in a 1997 trial for the murder of two French policemen and an Israeli agent - a crime dating back to the 1970s - and sentenced to life in prison.

Yallop does a masterful job making the reader part of his pursuit and it is not until the closing pages where Sanchez - in real life - appears. But the wealth of material compiled by Yallop almost makes that meeting anti-climatic.

This book is still as valid today as it was when it was first published. Extremely well researched and blows all other accounts away. A must read for anyone interested in Israel/Palestine issue and terrorism in general.

A very fascinating book, this is one of the most interesting documentary work i have ever read. It is filled with suspense and tension during the author's journeys to find the jackal. However, what makes this book really interesting is not tracking down Carlos, but the reality behind the politics and chaos of the middle east discovered by the author during his voyage. Also, the book shows different interviews made to important political figures such as Moammar Gaddafi, Yasser Arafat, George Habash as well as various diplomats and intelligence agents from Israel and europe, just to name few. In addition, the author visits some of the wildest places in the middle east, such as Lebanon, where his aide died on a bomb explosion while he tried to arrange a meeting with Carlos. It is without a doubt, a very thrilling work. I would highly recommend this book especially to those interested on learning about the reality and roots of the Arab-israeli conflict.

This was the very first book on the mob I read. 44 books later, it's safe to say that it helped pique my interest. Jerry Capeci breaks it down in Layman terms. Before this book, I had no idea that the mob was even structured. It begins from the very start of Cosa Nostra up until the present day mob.

This book give a decent somewhat detailed history of the start of the mafia in the US and overseas. There are references as you read directing to other chapters about a particular subject in the chapter currently being read. It is by no means a story of the day to day lives of members of the mafia. You don't get to read about their homes, family lives and what they like to eat and drink. It is all facts about power, how to get it and lose it; murder mostly and some kinder moments when the unwanted are just dismissed.
Try to keep up with the names because if you think you knew the key players in the mafia, you will find out you do not know a fraction of the families names.
The book does not allow you to paint pictures in your mind of the players. It is; here he is, here is what he did, why and then either murder and\or jail.
You will want to read more because some answers are not found in this book, but I am sure you will not find what you are looking for anywhere else and I don't think much has changed since this book was released. It does let you know though that some of these groups do still exist and I get the feeling they are just waiting for an oppportunity to get back in to full blown business.

This book could be a college guide to the Mafia and is well researched. I recommend skipping around to the chapter's you are interested in, rather than a cover to cover read. In the beginning the book tries to summarize what happened from the 1900's up to the 90's and it is far too confusing to follow all of the names, this may slow down the reader but later the book concentrates on family names, and then individuals which is far easier to follow. There are many good "bullets" of information, by far a good reference for the mafia intrigued.

I bought this book for my wife who has become a belated Sopranos fan, and has now watched everything from The Godfather to Donnie Brasco. The CIG to the Mafia is a fantastic resource for looking up unframilier words and terms such as RICO, and learning the difference between Associates and Made Men. Written in plain and easy to use language the book is very straightforward and easy to locate specific things you want to look up. if you want a simple crash course in the American Mafia then I highly reccomend this read.

This is probably one of the worst books on the Mafia I've ever come accross. Tons of information are thrown together without any kind of order, either conceptual or historical. The writer jumps from one topic to the other, failing to provide even a modestly organized picture of the phenomenon he's trying to explain. Deeply disappointing and a waste of time (and money).

I loved reading this book! I felt it was very detailed and informative on expressing the activities and mentalities of females who are involved in the gang lifestyle. I highly recommend this book!!

There is nothing insightful in this book.Gini Sikes basically tells the stories of a few women who made bad choices and then blamed everyone but themselves for the outcomes of those choices.The book bogs down only a quarter of the way through it and never recovers.It is monotonous and tough to get to the end.I would probably rather listen to a scratched Wham CD or eat a huge bowl of brussel sprouts than have to read this again.Save your money.

eight ball chicks, was a great book. it tells you how it really is out there. in the places where there is no other choice, where you don't have time to be a kid, and where there's nothing but bad around you. gini sikes does what she set out to do. to study, learn, and let the world know about these girls and what they're all about in these gangs. although there was much more that could have been said, and many more gangs to see it was nicely written no doubt. these were just a few of the girls, but there are many more, with different stories, all leading them down the same path. it's showing you, where these women come from, why they do what they do. in most cases there's no other way. if they could all have that nice house, with both parents, and a nice safe community, i'm sure they would take it, but when all you have is a barrio full of drugs, and guns, with nobody who gives a damn, there really isn't much hope. you got to be strong, emotionally to survive these places. no doubt there's some who do it for the thrill and what not, but they all end up the same. another banger behind bars or shot down somewhere. all my respect to this book and to those people who really have no choice. there's a whole lot more trouble out there that some turn a blind eye to and wish not to see, but this book is an "in your face" kind of book and i love it for that.

I agree with Amazon's review of 8 Ball Chicks. I don't think Gini Sikes had anything particularly insightful to say, but I give it the max rating because these women's stories are CRAZY (i.e. really entertaining to read, especially for people who love to read about how messed up the world is). Whoever you are, this book is worth reading.

When I first heard of the book I heard it on TV and said to myself that the title meant the name of a girl gang and the whole book would be about that gang. I was wrong and do wonder why it has this title if it has nothing to do with "8ball Chicks".

Gini is very insightful on the research she made on these different race gang ladies and their gang life. I like the book but think she needed to include more on the gang culture of women out here and there.

All these writers write about gangs in California, Texas, Illinois. Yet, there are few compared to these states but there are more of us gangbangers out here in the other states. Such as the east coast; Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland. Some writers are careful in not stereotyping their novels but I personally dont judge them because most of them time it is about stereotypical stories.

I wish I can write my own books and let people know what more there is out there. The behind the scenes of behind the scenes of what people already know. The ganglife of us women, culture, pride, heritage, family, and mi vida loka.

Good book anyways.

Paul Williams writes about the life of Martin "the General" Cahill in a way that almost makes Cahill lovable, a late-20th century Robin Hood almost, yet is able to balance this image (that Cahill himself tried to propagate) with the fact that he was a career criminal, even to the point that he would report regularly to receive the dole while making millions illegally. Williams writes of what is known that Cahill did, what Cahill was accused of doing, what Cahill said that he did and was, and what Dubliners said that he did and was. Williams was a reporter throughout the career of the General, and so presents a journalistic tale of Martin Cahill's life that is really a captivating read.

i highly recommend the book.the author gives us a rare insight into not only his most succesful hiests($-wise).he describes cahill lesser known crimes also which provides the motive & method,being that the most enjoyable aspect is not the climax of a hiest but it's the PROCESS from start(PLANNING)to the finish (GETTING AWAY & UNPENATRABLE ALIBI).cahill is unconventualable in all aspects of his life,marriage,lifestyle,work(M.O.),etc. which keeps the law from anticipating his next move.the police incomptency is what made cahill a CRIMINAL MASTERMIND.funny,intriuing,inciteful are just a few descriptions that make the book enjoyable.

The General was a great read. It did Martin Cahill justice which is the only time he probably got any. Williams showed us the Cahill that only those close to him saw. A real eye opener. Thank you, Mr. Williams.

Martin Cahill, a/k/a "The General," was perhaps Ireland's most notorious gangster, a genius criminal who stole millions (in artwork, jewelry and cash) right out from under the noses of the Garda S?och?na(Irish Police.)

Paul Williams, quite adeptly, tells the humorous but ultimately tragic tale of a remorseless thief with a penchant for rather unorthodox sexual activity (he lived and fathered children with both his wife and her sister.) Like the best (or worst) gangsters and criminals memorialized in books and movies, The General's daring, outrageous behavior and wit made him a charming and sometimes even sympathetic subject. But, Williams walks the line between glorifying Cahill and showing him for what he really was, a thief whose sins caught up with him.

I have seen the movie and i think it's great but reading the book was totally different. In the book you get to see the two sides of the notorious Martin Cahill. Some people thought he was the modern robbinhood, and others a dangerous criminal. Paul Williams brilliantly gives you the inside story in it's true form, excellent book.