True Crime Books

I'll Do My Own Damn Killin'GREAT BOOK! MOST FUN I HAVE EVER HAD READING A BOOK.

THIS STORY IS SO WELL WRITTEN AND SO INTERESTING THAT NICK CASSAVETES, MOVIE PRODUCER AND POKER PLAYER, HAS PURCHASED THE RIGHTS TO MAKE IT INTO A MOVIE. WHILE KICKING THIS AROUND A POKER GAME THE OTHER DAY THE PLAYERS AND I AGREED JOSH BROLIN SHOULD PLAY THE YOUNG BENNY BINION.

I expected to be somewhat entertained and learn a small bit about the history of Dallas gambling. I didn't expect to be so thoroughly consumed with the stories, the history and the characters. Excellent!

This is a great book. I knew Benny Binion. My new novel, Texas Poker Wisdom, has several stories about Benny, including the day I met him in 1960. When Binion moved to Vegas, he took a giant step down being a casino owner considering the many things he controlled in Dallas and Ft. Worth and elsewhere. The gambling wars in Dallas and Ft. Worth are hard to believe. Mr. Sleeper has written a book any Texan, gambler, or curious reader will love. I loved this book.
Johnny HughesTexas Poker Wisdom

If you have found yourself in Soprano-withdrawal, this book is for you. "I'll Do My Own Damn Killin'" is a raucous gangland tale of a long and bitter feud between two former partners for control of the Dallas gambling scene of the 1930s and 40s.

Most people know Lester Ben Binion as the Las Vegas icon who
owned some of the early casinos there, with the downtown Horseshoe Club being the most famous and longest-lived. But before his Las Vegas days he was known as the Dallas "boss gambler." He had most of Dallas law enforcement "fixed" so he could run his numbers, his policy wheels, and his poker games at the Southland Hotel without fear of arrest. He was temperamental, braggadocios, but also jovial in a sinister sort of way. The title of the book comes from a reply he gave when asked if he had ever hired a hit man.

Herbert Noble ran crap games in downtown Dallas and soon came to resent the 25-percent protection money he had to pay to Binion. He had dreams of being the Dallas gambling kingpin himself, and formed a partnership with a like-minded underworld financier. Soon the gambling wars had begun, with one Noble partner after another turning up dead, and back and forth contracts put out on various hardcases from both sides. Noble himself had no less than thirteen assassination attempts made on him. As the author says, "By the early Fall of 1950, planning to kill Herbert Noble had practically become a cottage industry in Dallas and Fort Worth."

Tragedy finally struck when Noble's 36-year-old wife made the fatal mistake of borrowing her husband's booby-trapped car. The explosion was heard eight miles away and the blast shattered windows for blocks. Her mangled body was laid to rest in a solid copper casket said to be the most expensive one ever sold in Dallas.

After this incident, the hatred that consumed Noble escalated the war and led to a hellish confusion of such grisly murders and maiming that it's hard to believe that this actually happened in Texas and not in some 12-hour Francis Ford Coppola trilogy. Notorious people move in and out of the pages, people like Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, Bugsy Siegal, Meyer Lansky, Estes Kefauver, and even one Jacob Rubenstein, aka Jack Ruby.

Finally by the end of the book, the good guys have arrived on the scene, the Texas Rangers, who put a stop to the violence. Thus ended the bloodiest two decades in Dallas history. The appendix contains testimonies, transcripts of recorded conversations, and progress reports on some of the still-unsolved murders from this shocking, full-scale gangland war that happened in Texas.

I have to say that I read McGinnis' book, Cruel Doubt, first and I have to write here saying that this is the better book of the two events. I found McGinnis' writing to be slow, evolving, but still an excellent book overall. Bledsoe establishes a better understanding the Upchurch family and the Von Steins as well. Although both books do cover the events in Washington, North Carolina with great detail and information, McGinnis' writing is slower than Bledsoe who manages a faster pace and plenty of detailed information as to what the authorities handling the case. It also helps that the author lives in Ashboro, North Carolina. Bledsoe understands the life of living in the South. I have tremendous respect for both authors here. The story is sad but true. A family is forever destroyed over a battle with money since that was the main motive behind the killing of Leith Von Stein and the attempted murder of his wife, Bonnie. Fortunately, Bonnie survived the attack but barely. Her children, Angela and Christopher were suspected. While Angela who slept through the whole incident unawakened raised eyebrows and suspicion, it was nothing more than insult to injury. She would have been attacked as well in the house. Her brother, Chris, who was obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons, drugs, girls who wouldn't give him the time of day, and trying not to disappoint his mother and stepfather. Christopher's crimes are unspeakable and unforgivable but not unbelievable. Who is to say that the video games today wouldn't spark the same motives for murdering your relatives with the hopes of living on a nice inheritance? Sadly, Bonnie who is against the death penalty pleaded for the young men not to receive the death penalty. If the jurors were allowed to hear her victim's statement, maybe the outcome would have been different. I believe that the victim and the family have every right to protest that sentence as well.

Bledsoe does a much more thorough and even-handed job of telling the story of the murder of Leith Von Stein. By the time you are done with this book you will have not be at all certain that the right people have been convicted for this horrendous crime.

I vastly enjoyed this book and thought Mr. Bledsoe did a marvelous job of reporting this horrible crime. What a bunch of sick kids! And the parents - gave the children everything but morality and a sense of responsibility. One mother just ups and abandons the entire family 'cause she had to be alone to "think" (i.e. or move into an apartment with another man.) Each and everyone dropped the parenting ball big time. Christopher's mother really amazes me. To think that she dotes on the "child" responsible for arranging to have her entire family wiped out so he can get some cash. She should be a sympathetic character but to me she just comes across as over-indulgent and insipid. Hello! Your son wanted to kill you, your husband and your daughter! What are you thinking? What were they ALL thinking?

Bledsoe should take a bow for this chilling description of the murder of Lieth Von Stein and near murder of Bonnie Von Stein, with her 19-year-old son, Chris Pritchard, the one who planned it all to inherit millions. That's not giving away the book, as he's mentioned as the killer on the back cover! I was ecstatic that this book was out after I read Cruel Doubt by Joe McGinniss, another awesome depiction of this bloody crime. Joe apparently couldn't get the defendants' families to cooperate, and Bledsoe did. It was great to see into the minds of the killers and to learn about what their family lives were like growing up that might have affected their choices as young men.

Through the literary trick of imagery, Bledsoe makes the reader see the crime occur and understand the feelings of the defendants and their family members. Bledsoe gets to the very heart of the American family and how even the best and most doting parents can have children who become criminals. Of course, no parent is perfect, as Neal's and Bart's were not, but these young men had the background that many people have who later become doctors, lawyers and successful businessmen. If only these men hadn't chosen drugs, they could be among the successful. They had so much promise. Bledsoe brings home, through interviews with these teens and their parents, the reality of evil, as it can strike anyone, and how one rash decision has such dire, final consequences.

Also worth mention was the care and concern of the teacher who discovered Neal's genius and Bart's exceptional talents. Even to the end, he was defending them, making it clear he didn't agree with and couldn't condone their actions. A truly caring person this teacher must be!

As a true crime author myself, I can only say I hope I can someday climb into the caliber of Mr. Bledsoe, and I thank him for a terrific edition to America's true crime genre!

This was a typical Jerry Bledsoe book -- I could not put it down. I searched for months for this book after having read his other three true-crime novels. I finally had to buy one used. This book tells the story of three young men whose lives came together in horror and tragedy. Chris Pritchard arranged to have his friend, Bart Upchurch, murder Chris's stepfather and mother (and possibly his sister) in order to collect a $2 million inheritance. Bart had Neal Henderson drive him to the house and then help him dispose of the evidence after the murder. The stepfather died in a brutal attack with a baseball bat and knife. The mother miraculously lived. Neal spilled first, but not until almost a year after the crimes. He pled guilty and got 40 years. He was paroled after a little over 10 years on 12/11/00. Chris decided, within days of his trial, to plead guilty. His mother and sister learned of his plan to have them murdered, but surprisingly stuck by him. He was sentenced to life plus 20 years and would have to serve 19 years before being eligible for parole. Bart was sentenced to death, but his death sentence was vacated in October 1992 and he was resentenced to life. He apparently maintains his innocence, and despite looking like an all-American college boy during his trial, he has been transformed into a typical prisoner. He has a web site, www.freejbupchurch.com, which has a recent picture -- matted hair, nasty facial hair, and absolutely no trace of the good-looking boy he was at the time of the crime and trial. This book will make parents afraid to send their kids off to college, it will open your eyes to the availability and dangers of alcohol and drugs to teenagers, and it will make you beg Mr. Bledsoe to write another true-crime book! If you can get ahold of a copy, new or used, it will be well worth your effort and money.

My 4 year old son originally checked out this book from the local library. Every day he would request that we learn a new game. The book is filled with games for different ages and numbers of players so we are able to play games alone or as a family ( I also have a 7 year old son). We love to play games as a family and this has some great games for introducing your kids to cards and then it expands to more strategic games. I will note, however, that most of the instructions are listed in a page or two so it does not take long to learn a new game. This is a must for camping and also makes a great birthday gift.

Solo, family, and party games quickly and easily learned. Explanations and illustrations are clear and simple. Anticipates problems for new learners, recommends playing strategies. I cracked this open with my son (age 7) and we ended up playing "Eights" for two hours. Can't get any better than that! Looking forward to playing many of the other 50 in the book.

How can we have a book about an unsolved murder? Easy since unsolved murders like JonBenet Ramsay have our country and even the world hooked on this tragic murder case of a young beauty queen. Sadly, the Schiller book doesn't go far enough but he does discuss the politics around the Boulder Police Department, the tabloids, friends, relatives, neighbors, acquaintances, of the Ramseys. Lou Smit, I believe, has the right idea that this was an outside job. I don't when police homicide detectives had the right to accuse the family immediately. It was clear from the parents' that they were distraught, frantic, and terrified. They weren't thinking clearly but clearly the blame should go on the police department for not taking immediate action in searching and preserving the area. The case lost clues such as fingerprints, DNA, etc. that might have helped solve the case. I don't know who did it neither does the author, the police department or even the Ramseys. The sad part is that it's still unsolved and Patsy Ramsey who was long suspected of having a part in her daughter's brutal murder has since died. John Ramsey has lost two daughters tragically. Maybe JonBenet had an unwelcome admirer who knew her too well and it gone too far. Maybe she resisted and he killed her. We'll never know why or who right now. There is enough of blame to go around for years to come. The sad part is that everybody wanted to do the right thing. It's easy when the crime happens and we know who did it. When it's an outsider or stranger, it's always the hardest to solve because there is no reasonable motive for this crime. I wish it was solved. I wish Boulder and the Ramseys can move on with their lives but until JonBenet's killer is brought to justice, it can't be.

What a pig's breakfast--not the book, but the investigation of the JonBenet Ramsey murder. This book is a well-researched, unbiased examination of the case from the murder itself to the grand jury's consideration of the evidence, but for some reason, the author stops short of telling the grand jury's decision--not enough evidence to indict anybody, I know, but one still might have said that, even if it took another few pages to do so. If possible, I'd rate this book 4.5 stars, docking it half a star for that final omission.

I thought this book was really interesting in that it presented a lot of facts that were never reported in the media and also pointed out just how badly this case was handled by everyone involved in the investigation. It was explicit on the evidence that was bungled by the police and how that led to no evidence to go on, which was essential to finding this poor child's killer. It was truly hard for me to believe how so many departments could mess up so many things in this investigation, but it did clearify many issues that the media kept going over and over; some of which made no sense to me at the time and now it does. Overall, this book is good reading for anyone interested in all aspects of this case.

Coming for England, the Jonbenet Ramsey murder was'nt as big as it is in America (I didnt even know there was a place called Boulder in America or that little children dress up and go parading themselves on stage!!), I read a small piece in an English paper and decided to see what the big hoopla was all about and I must say I was hooked, Jonbenet was a beautiful little girl and had a lot to live for. Lawrence Schiller writes a full indepth account of everything thats happened, he doesnt point the finger at anyone like all the other Jonbenet books I've read (what happened to that American saying "Innocent until proven Guilty).

You can tell he has really researched this tragic case and I think this is one of the best crime books I've ever read. What are these strange pageants all about? But like every other book it still leaves the question: WHO DID KILL THE LITTLE BEAUTY QUEEN?

I hope one day Jonbenet Ramsey gets the Justice she truly deserves.

The first book I had ever purchased about the JonBenet Ramsey murder was written by one of the detectives on the case, Steve Thomas. The book was simply titled, JonBenet. Thomas' book was, by far, one of the best true crime books I have ever read. It was extremely well written - one of those "can't put down" books. In his book, he implicated Patsy Ramsey as the probable, but accidental, killer of JB. And, as a 20-year veteran of the force, one would have to say that his police instincts were probably correct.

Then, I saw Lawrence Schiller's book at a garage sale and bought it. I was not sure if Schiller's book could top Thomas' book, but I like to read two books on the same subject to get different perspectives. However, it turned out I was not too impressed with Schiller's book.

Initially, the first chapter or two was quite fascinating regarding the death of JB, the contamination of the death scene, and the facts surrounding the case. I kept playing in my mind what I read in Thomas' book and what evidence Schiller was presenting.

Unfortunately, this book began to focus TOO much on the politics behind the scenes: the infighting between the Boulder police, the DA's office, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the private investigators, the detectives, the FBI, the attorneys...all versus the Ramseys. It became a monumental bore. I was hoping to read how the author pieces together the evidence to find the killer.

No! Just a big cat fight between all the parties I just described and not enough focus on the evidence. However, Schiller would throw in just enought tidbits about the crime scene to keep me motivated, then would write several more chapters about the politics. It was simply too much focus on the political fighting.

I recommend reading Thomas' book and forget Schiller's book.

The Susan Polk has garnered a lot more attention simply because the defendant and convicted murderer, Susan Polk, is quite a complicated human being. She is definitely troubled and her relationship with a man who was first a father figure and later her lover turned husband and father of their three sons would be his victim. He was as obsessed and in love with Susan first as a patient and later as a wife. This book really explores their complicated relationship under the circumstances. Until now, I never thought much about the Polk case and as to why it got so much interest. Unfortunately, the great Dr. Felix Polk and his relationship with young Susan was doomed from the start. It was destined for failure. It was not that easy to end the relationship. Clearly, Susan is delusional and suffers from mental illness. Her behavior was never properly treated and she believed that everybody especially Felix was against her. What was the driving point might have been that Felix was supposedly taking over the dominant parental role in the family and pushing Susan aside. Of course, that was never the case but in Susan's delusional and obviously sick mind, she believed that Felix was setting the world against her especially by reaching to their sons. Unfortunately, the family has suffered a tragedy and this book is excellent in explaining in details about the case. While Carol Pogash is not a well-known true crime writer, she has done far more than the other author that I read about this case.

Author Carol Pogash does something miraculous: she reinvents the true crime genre to such a degree that other authors will find it difficult to match her! From the first page to the last, you're riveted to this real life drama of a psychotic and dangerous woman--Susan Polk--who butchered her husband--and then tried to blame it on that favorite alibi of many female killers: the battered wife syndrome. We first find Susan Polk puttering around her kitchen while the body of her psychologist husband rests in a river of blood in the nearby pool house where she forced him to live. She waits for one of her sons, Gabe, to find the corpse and then shows no emotion when her son tells her the news. With this introduction, you're led through their lives in fascinating detail--from Susan's mentally disturbed childhood up to the reasons she finally decided to murder her husband. Pogash creates each of the leading characters in colorful detail--and you're taken through the various psychological fads--such as the satanic child abuse craze of the 70s and then through the repressed memory cycle. Susan threw herself into each of these crazes--first, convinced that somehow that one of her sons was abused in satanic rituals. Then she was convinced through repressed memory that her husband, Felix, had hynoptized her and used drugs to seduce her as a teenager aganst her will. She became convinced he was a Mossad agent of death and that he knew 9/11 was going to happen. Yet, she's shown as being aggressively involved in the seduction of Felix. Pogash then goes into an even more fascinating part of this saga by covering the murder trial of Susan Polk. You're introduced to the attorneys, the witnesses and the courtroom junkies. Susan ends up representing herself and her madness is now seen by the public and jurors. Her bizarre courtroom antics--laughing, crying and shrieking at the prosecutor and judge--turned her case into a circus sideshow. While she claims to have been severely abused as a wife, you realize that her poor husband was forced to live in the pool house and was terrified of this woman. Yet, until the end, Felix told people how much he still loved her-even after she warned him that she was returning from a vacation in Montana with a shotgun and that she was going to kill him. This is what is so mystifying about this man. Even after continual threats against his life by his wife, he refused to move out and proclaimed his great love for this woman who now hated him. During the trial, one son, Eli, never wavered in defending his killer Mother. Two other sons depicted her as evil, psychotic and a relentless trouble-maker both in their home and to the neighbors and school staffs. I dreaded coming to the end of this book because it was so brilliantly written. Bravo to the author for breathing new life into the true crime genre which, unfortuntately, consists of too many books that are badly written and consist of nothing more than a cut-and-paste job by hack writers.

Every so often in the true crime genre author and subject come together in an almost fated way to produce a book that illuminates not only the crime but the times that produced it. McGinniss's Blind Faith, Stumbo's Until the Twelfth of Never, Alexander's Very Much a Lady and Rule's The Stranger Beside Me are among the select few and now they are joined by Carol Pogash's Seduced by Madness. This is a fine, almost ridiculously readable book by any standard.

The Polk murder case was true crime fodder even before the lead defense attorney's wife was murdered just before trial. Susan Polk was accused of murdering her husband, Felix, during a drawn out divorce and custody battle. Susan claimed she killed him in self-defense and revealed that Felix had been her therapist from the time she was 16. With those ingredients it's no wonder that everyone from Court TV to People were hot on this case. Then add the fact that Susan Polk clearly attended the Betty Broderick School of Tell Your Side of the Story to Any Journalist Who Will Listen. Susan is a stranger to both modesty and discretion - she's also undeniably brilliant and, sadly, delusional.

And there lies the brilliance of Pogash's book: instead of simply recording the salacious details (and there are plenty), she digs deeper, delving into the many fads and nuances of therapy-happy California in the 1970s and 1980s. From Est to the Satanic Ritual Abuse hysteria and everything else along the way, the Polks seem to have been part of it all. Certainly Felix Polk's sense of therapeutic boundaries were a little lax, marriage to one former patient, long-term friendships with current patients. All this would be merely odd (and almost a parody of what an East Coaster thinks goes on in California) except for the fact that Susan Polk needed psychiatric help. Maybe Felix saw himself living out Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night with him heroically saving his Nicole (Susan) by marrying her. Maybe Felix didn't realize how ill Susan really was. More often than not Felix either humored or fed Susan's minor delusions until the day Susan, inevitably, turned on him. Pogash does a fine job of showing the reader Susan Polk's charisma, we get glimpses that help us understand her incredible influence over her husband and children.

The trial coverage here is nothing short of spectacular. These are the looniest court proceedings since a Florida serial killer sang to his journalist groupie girlfriend on the stand. That was 5 minutes, this went on for weeks. Expert witnesses who appear guiltier than the defendant, a defendant more concerned with being "right" than being found not guilty and the unbearable tragedy of a mother cross-examining her son who is testifying against her all add up to trial you'll never forget.

This is a fantastic book. For the True Crime genre fan, this is pure ambrosia. For general readers this is an absorbing read. For all, this is a book that will deepen your understanding of the way we live now.

Carol Pogash's SEDUCED BY MADNESS chronicles the relatively well known case of the murder of psychologist Felix Polk by his wife Susan. Pogash's book begins with the childhoods of Felix and Susan, the twisted beginning of their relationship, the births of their three sons, and the dysfunctional life of the family up to and including Felix's murder.
The family breadwinner was an emotionally flawed Felix, who, while he appears to have been a good and loving father and husband, fatally poisoned the marriage, which took place when Susan was around 20 and Felix around 45, by initiating a sexual relationship with Susan when she was a teenager and his patient.
Their three sons were the victims of an upbringing which consisted of basically Susan, who - for example - encouraged her children not to attend school as, in her own mind, no one was really competent to care for or teach her children except herself.
And then there was Susan. Susan is shown to be a cultured, literate, and extremely intelligent woman who was also manipulative, vindictive, socially strange, in many ways unpleasant, and increasingly paranoid and delusional. If Felix provided the financial support - Susan never worked -Susan was, in an interesting role reversal, the family's psychological leader - the one who set the tone of the family's life - while Felix pretty much went along with whatever her agenda was at any given time and while the boys, whom Susan totally loved, were raised in an environment which was, like Susan, askew like a mildly distorting fun house mirror.

The last half of the book recounts the most bizarre trial you will ever read about, pitting DA Paul Sequeira against Susan Polk who was not a lawyer but chose, since she was convinced no one was smarter than she was, to defend herself. I generally feel that, with occasional exceptions, trial segments of true crime books are among the most boring. However the trial is one of the major components in the Susan Polk saga. Many of the true crime writing mediocrity, the rush to printers, would write this section by, for all intents and purposes, copying the trial transcript. I am happy to report that Pogash does not do this. It is in this case mandatory to provide the reader with a detailed account of the trial while being a writer rather than a copier, and Pogash handles it beautifully.

Carol Pogash clearly set out to write an outstanding book, and she has succeeded. The research is exhaustive and impeccable, the writing is crisp and intelligent, and the tone and feel of the book are adult and literate. There are no false steps, no insertion of the author's asides and comments (an increasingly unfortunate occurence among the hacks who litter the true crime landscape) and no filler.

You won't find true crime better than SEDUCED BY MADNESS. I recommend it unreservedly.

This story illustrates the old axiom that truth is stranger than fiction. The fascinating tale has so many bizarre twists and turns that one cannot help but be transfixed. Susan Polk begins seeing her therapist at age 15, marries the much older man a few years later, and a quarter of a century later stabs him 27 times, leaving him in a pool of blood in the pool house of the family's luxurious estate.

In between these bookends, journalist Carol Pogash tells the story of Susan Polk's deepening personal madness embedded in the cultural madness of the psychotherapy world of the 1960s and 1970s in Berkeley, where therapist-patient sex was tolerated, psychodrama and EST were treatments du jour, and cocaine use was rampant. The Polks even crusaded against mythical Satanic ritual abusers, claiming that their eldest son Adam had been kidnapped, raped, and made into a multiple personality. And if all that isn't enough, we've got exorcisms, psychics, and repressed memory claims.

Pogash's rendition of the four-month trial is a riveting page-turner. Susan Polk fired attorney after attorney and ended up representing herself. On center stage, the intelligent but delusional defendant demonstrated a stunning ability to "take any set of facts and mold a story where she was both victim and hero." It is painful to read about her brutal cross-examination of two of her three sons. Pogash chronicles the Freudian slips that give glimpses into her pathology, as she called her dead husband her father and her favored middle son her husband.

I am intrigued to ponder how Ms. Polk's trial outcome might have been different if it came after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling of June 19, 2008, in Illinois v. Edwards. Now, a mentally ill defendant may be barred from representing herself if she is delusional to the point that she is unable to effectively represent her best interests. (For my report on the Edwards case, type shurl.org/insane into your browser's address bar.) Perhaps that will be grounds for appeal of her second-degree murder conviction?

From the point of view of a forensic psychologist, I especially appreciated the depictions of the expert testimony. We had the cagey forensic pathologist who disappeared in the middle of the trial when the judge insisted he produce his files, and the seasoned psychologist who testified for the defense, based mainly on what Ms. Polk had told her and without benefit of any formal psychological testing, that the defendant was a battered woman who suffered from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

I thought Pogash remained remarkably balanced and fair in her reporting, especially as compared to many pundits who flock to the true-crime genre. Being personally acquainted with upwards of a dozen of the participants whom she included in her account, I can say that by and large she portrayed them accurately and fairly.

Seduced by Madness is a riveting page-turner, a fascinating history, and a balanced portrayal of a high-profile trial that shined a spotlight on one family's dark pathos. I recommend it.

Hi, this is my first review on amazon. I enjoyed the book and found troubles putting it down. As others have pointed out, its about skinheads, rape, murder, and some seriously whacked out people. This mother of Justin Merriman shows absolutely the worst parenting skills possible. She enabled her son to live a life of crime. It seemed like ANYTHING her son wanted she did it for him. I don't believe the young Merriman fellow ever knew of the consequences of any bad decisions he had ever made. There really were not many "likeable" characters in this story. There were a lot of "interesting" characters though. I felt bad for the Montgomery family. They seemed like a typical suburban family, who's daughter made bad decisions as to the friends she made.

I picked this book up in the local used bookstore. I knew nothing about any of the characters in this book prior to reading it. If you enjoyed the movie American History X, you would probably enjoy this movie.

This was written more like a newspaper article than a book. Didn't get to know the victims very well-just here they are - they killed them. I can't believe these girls had such low self esteem to let these immature losers treat them like they did. And the mother! Such a loser- hanging on to these weirdos as if she had no life of her own.

How far will a mother go to protect her adult son from a murder charge? Sometimes, pretty far, as is revealed in the book Dangerous Attraction, by Robert Scott.

Twenty year old Katrina Montgomery was a lovely and warm young woman who was also a very beloved member of her family. None of her family is sure why she began to hang out with the lethal street gang in Ventura, CA. called the Skin Head Dogs. It appears that Katrina felt some sort of thrill involved with "taking a walk on the wild side."

Katrina befriended a member of the gang, the tattooed and drug abusing Justin Merriman, who himself was also twenty years of age and was doing time for the assault of a correction's officer. Katrina and Justin spent much time writing letters back and forth to each other until the day that Justin's time had been served and he was released.

Justin came out of prison with the impression that Katrina was his girlfriend, but that is not the way that she saw it. At a gang party on Thanksgiving of 1992, Katrina proceeded to get herself quite intoxicated and ended up at Justin's family home along with two other of the gang members. In Justin's bedroom, she was taken and raped by Justin right in front of his buddies. He then stabbed her in the neck with a knife, beat her over the head with a heavy wrench, then finally cut her throat. Her body was never found.

It was not until six years later, when he was stopped for a bike riding violation by police and ran, that he was caught.....and even that was after a wild chase and a harrowing seven hour standoff.

So, where does Justin's mother fit in?

Beverlee Sue Merriman had her own ways. She did everything within her powers to protect her son, no matter what the consequences were to her. She made sure to keep in close contact with Justin's other skinhead gang buddies, to ensure that no one would "talk." She ended up doing her son more harm than she would ever imagine.

This case had grown cold by the time the police had finally gathered enough evidence to bring Justin to trial, where the jury concluded that he was to die by lethal injection at San Quentin Prison in California.

This is a very well written true crime book. Robert Scott, also the author of Rope Burns and Like Father, Like Son, has done an excellent job of laying out this story which occurs over an eight year time span. Fans of true crime will find this story of murder, along with all of the terrorizing used to keep the gang members silent, to be a very interesting read.

This is an unusual true crime story -- it takes the reader inside of gangs, including prison gangs. This story is about a young woman who was raised in a decent home with a good family, but for some reason decided to get involved with a guy in prison who was also a gang member. After he got out, she tried to cut ties with him. She wound up dead, and the killing was so senseless. The loser who killed her still lived with his mother, who covered up the crime and wound up going to jail herself as a result. This book is very easy to read, it's not that long, and it is a good story that I wish every high school kid would read. It does not put "the wild side" in a very good light.

I thought this book was great so good that I will be looking up more books from this author.I have read alot of these kinds of books and at a certain point in the story they start saying the same thing over and over but in different words,not this author.I found it so interesting and was pulled in that I re-read some pages over a couple of times because I found this guy to be a true monster, it's also the way this guy Robert Scott writes,I'm scared to know that there are people out there in the world like this ,your put in the story into the pages with these people into there life.How sad for this girl's family,if you like books like true crime & murder than you will really like this one.I have never been interested in the neo nazi gangs before, if not for the writing being so good I would of put it down on the first page, instead I stayed up and read it and couldn't put it down until I new the ending, if justice was going to be served or not.I recommend this book and will be getting more books by Robert Scott and hope they are just as good.

Frazer takes a new look at the hero-bandit and related characters of myth and reality, especially around the turn of the 20th century. He uses a suitable range of sources and shows how these fascinating characters played their part in pre-revolutionary Mexico,and just touches on their lingering legacy today. Essentially this is a good read recommended for general as well as academic audiences, although some general knowledge of Mexican history helps. I would have given it five stars instead of four if the author had not burdened his prose with academic buzzwords and repeated references to various social-science theories, especially in the Marxist camp. Still, no one will be bored. I look forward to Mr. Frazer's next contribution.

Chances are if you're reading the reviews for this book then you've read at least one Capone biography and walked away, like me, thinking, "Great story, wish I knew more about the Northsiders." Well Rose Keefe has heard our collective wail and has provided us with one of the best books on both Chicago gangland and one of its most interesting characters. There is much more to the O'Banion/Northside story than just being fodder for Capone's gunmen. If you're into Chicago's gangland past then this volume is a must.

A great bio on the Chicago gangster gunned down in his flower shop during the "Roaring Twenties". The book focuses on the rivalry between the Northside Chicago mob and the Southside Torrio-Capone mob.Obanion and his cohorts are literally devoured by the inter-city "big time" mobs with connections to New York city.From reading this book I don't believe Obanion knew what he was up against,he was a small town boy who moved to the city of Chicago, yet he tried to run his crime empire like a small business. Cavorting around a flower shop by day,shaking hands,(without an enemy in the world?),with little to no protection,meanwhile engaging in criminal activity that would include murder.That's just asking for it,and Torrio's mob,later inherited by Capone,was only too happy to oblige. It seems Torrio's mob when they arrived in Chicago was already an experienced hard core criminal transplant from NYC and cites thereof.How could Obanion honestly think that when the control of rackets,gambling,bottlegging,and the millions of dollars at stake, there was a "moral" line that shouldn't be crossed?Especially when dealing with the mob and seeing as the mob eliminated its own so what could a rival gang expect.Capone listed his profession as furniture dealer but I doubt you would see him lifting furniture into trucks.His furniture business was a fort.The short baby faced Obanion never had a chance in dealing with the NYC mob. this book really brought this out as I read it.An excellent work on crime history but it sort of makes Obanion look like a "farmer".

This is a must have book for anyone interested in Chicago's beer wars. Mrs. Keefe has written a brilliantly told acurate story that helps us understand how Capone became the legend that he is, for without Dean O'Banion on the north Capone may not have been as big on the south.

This is about the people who nearly beat the Capone Mob for control of the Chicago boot-legging business. They were led by a florist and included a war hero, a cowboy, a bigamist and a practical joker who starred in an early stag film in the middle of a gang war. The wild Northside Gang is today best remembered for being the victims in the St Valentine's Massacre but in the twenties they were household names. This and Rose Keefe's book about Bugs Moran are both fascinating. A must read!

This is the most comprehensive and thoroughly researched biography of Dean O'Banion and it has been justly recognized as definitive. Rose Keefe's greatest accomplishment is that her meticulous research has refuted dozens of journalistic half truths, embellishments and canards that have become commonly accepted as the truth simply because of constant repetition over eight decades. The actual Dean O'Banion is a far more complex and interesting character than his newspaper stereotype.

Many sources have characterized the Prohibition battles between the Northside Gang and the Capone/Torrio mob as simply a territorial battle between the Irish and those damned Dagoes. Keefe correctly points out that the Northsiders were, in fact, an exceedingly diverse group comprised of Irish, Italian, German, Jewish and Polish hoodlums. The reality was more complicated than the widely accepted conventional wisdom.

Although O'Banion could act in an utterly ruthless manner if circumstances warranted, more often than not he relied upon his quick wits. He possessed superior intelligence and had an engaging personality that inspired great loyalty from his comrades even long after his death.

Despite his humble origins, O'Banion had the ability to put people from various walks of life at perfect ease and to form lasting friendships that allowed him to move easily in political and social circles despite his criminal background. O'Banion was a contradiction: he was a devoted son and husband. One could envision the industrious O'Banion succeeding in almost any field of endeavor that he tried. The loss of his beloved mother to tuberculosis and a childhood accident that left O'Banion partially crippled with a permanent limp were traumatic episodes, but rather than contenting himself to be sidelined by his handicap or to endure a life of economic hardship and privation, O'Banion chose not to be pushed around as he hit back hard with both fists in order to survive in the rough and tumble, dog eat dog environment that was Chicago in the early years of the past century.

If you are living from hand to mouth, it always pays to be ambidextrous and O'Banion was, figuratively and literally: his custom tailored suits contained multiple pistol pockets which allowed O'Banion to draw concealed revolvers using either his right or left hand or both hands simultaneously. The same hands that O'Banion could and did use to fire pistols, crack safes, stuff ballot boxes or slug out rival newspaper hawkers would also cut flowers into lovely arrangements for weddings and funerals. As a bootlegger, O'Banion prided himself on selling quality products as opposed to the rot gut handled by his rivals.

Keefe relates the many occasions on which O'Banion performed acts of charity. Some of these kindly acts were calculated, however, since O'Banion was also interested in reaping votes come election time. By performing good deeds, he could call in favors when ballots were being cast by his neighbors. Unlike Al Capone who coupled brutality and with openly lewd and lecherous behavior (Scarface allegedly gained his trademark after making crude remarks about a woman's shapely posterior in the presence of her protective and knife wielding older brother), O'Banion was noted for behaving in a courteous and oftentimes chivalrous manner.

Keefe's writing is factual and entertaining. The O'Banion who she describes in such great depth proves to be such a charming and larger than life personality that it is entirely possible to imagine his immortal soul awaiting forgiveness and redemption in Purgatory. I was reminded of the Warner Brothers crime melodrama "Angels with Dirty Faces" in which a priest played by Pat O'Brien called upon a group of juvenile delinquents to "pray for a boy that who couldn't run as fast as I could" after his childhood friend who failed to escape the corrupting influence of the mean streets died at an early age as a result of embarking upon a criminal career. If this sounds like a mere Hollywood screenwriting cliche, consider the fact that a Roman Catholic priest was disciplined and transferred for leading graveside prayers for Dean O'Banion despite orders from the Cardinal to deny Christian burial rites to known gangsters.

The only serious fault that I found with "Guns and Roses" is that the book lacks proper footnotes. There is a bibliography, but Keefe ought to have provided footnote attributions to the excerpted materials that were previously published elsewhere. There are also some minor geographical, historical and typographical errors that Chicagoans may catch in the text, usually on minor details, but the book is otherwise solid. Despite these shortcomings, this book is nevertheless a significant addition to the true crime history of Chicago during the Prohibition Era.