True Crime Books

Encyclopedia of crime scene forensic fetes and forensic scientists. As the second in a series (following A Question of Evidence: The Casebook of Great Forensic Controversies, from Napoleon to O.J.), many of the cases are lesser known, but no less fascinating for the detective work involved in solving them.

Also included are capsule definitions of forensic terms and biographies of famous forensic scientists. And what does it say about the book or the reader that the detectors are far less interesting than the detected?

A great book with many stories, as well as explinations of meanings and how they work (blood spatter.) It's a very fast and easy read, it kept me very interested because I didn't feel like I was ever "stuck" on one story. I can't wait to get the first book now!

I'm turning into quite a fan of Leo Katz. I was so impressed by his _Bad Acts and Guilty Minds_ that I picked this one up almost at once. And it's just as good.

This time around, Katz's plan is to deal with what he calls "three related mysteries": the moral problem of "avoision" (i.e., what counts as morally bad evasion and what merely as legitimate avoidance); the moral nature of e.g. blackmail and insider trading (i.e., what, if anything, justifies our all but universal moral intuitions that these and other similar acts are genuinely wrong); and the problem of "undeserved glory" (and what's wrong with appropriating someone else's fame).

I won't try to spell out Katz's examples and arguments under each of these headings, for I could not do so if I tried: his discussions are very well organized, but they pass from one subtopic to another with such rapidity and ease that I would have a hard time deciding just what to select. In general I shall say only that even where I disagree with him (as I sometimes do), his lively and provocative analysis is a sheer joy to read.

His most prominent theme is also one of which I heartily approve. There are some lawyers, philosophers, and especially economists who think it is possible to be both a libertarian and a utilitarian. Katz forcefully disagrees (as do I). And one purpose of this volume is to hammer that point home.

Himself apparently a libertarian, Katz argues repeatedly and at length that libertarianism requires a deontological foundation; utilitarianism is simply inadequate in every respect. Along the way he also mounts a striking _deontological_ defense of the role of the attorney (in helping clients to avoid malignant moral outrages by "capitalizing on the deontological properties of legal rules," p. 131; you'll have to read the book to find out just what this means). And in one brief passage that one could wish were longer, he follows Amartya Sen to a striking conclusion: libertarianism is _also_ incompatible with complete freedom of contract. As in his earlier book, Katz's own outlook seems to be a sort of self-critical intuitionism along the lines of Judith Jarvis Thomson (whose "trolley problem" also gets a further workout here).

I wrote in my review of Katz's previous book that it was all but unique. I am happy to say that isn't entirely so; this book is a lot like it. Highly recommended.

Dying For Daddy: A True Story of Family Killer Jack Barron (St. Martin's True Crime Library) I HAD NOT HEARD ABOUT THIS CRIME, AND TO BE HONEST, IT CAUGHT MY EYE BECAUSE MY MAIDEN NAME IS BARRON. I THOUGHT THE STORY WAS WELL WRITTEN AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING. IT IS FASCINATING THAT A PERSON'S MIND COULD BE SO WARPED THAT HE COULD KILL THOSE PEOPLE WHO LOVED AND CARED FOR HIM SO EASILY. THE PSYCOLOGY IS WHAT INTRIGUES ME.

This is the son of Starla. This book contains many lies. I lived in the house with Jack Barron. Jack and my mother did not have sex. There are also many other false facts and disgusting lies. I find it offensive that my mothers name has been drug into the dirt by this book. Also, just to let everybody know, my parents never finaled the divorce and are still very hapily married. I just thought everybody should know this. To the author, you're an ill informed sad example of a man and you should have got your facts straight before you wrote this terrible book. This is something I thought every reader should know. I lived with the psycho Jack Barron the author didn't.

This is a pretty straightforward telling of a true crime story that involved Jack Barron, a man whose wife, son, and daughter all seemed to have died in that order in their sleep in Sacramento California within two years of each other. Thanks to a bumbling, seemingly incompetent, Coroner's Office and a fairly uninterested Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, what should have been obvious after his wife's death, went unnoticed by those who should have known. One cannot help but speculate what might have been had the authorities acted with some semblance of competence. Perhaps, there might not have been three more needless deaths.

Consequently, Jack Barron went on to ensure that his little son and young daughter met the same fate as their mother. Still, no one in Sacramento law enforcement made a move to stop Jack Barron after each death, and the Coroner's Office still dithered in terms of its medical findings and conclusions. It was not until Barron moved to another jurisdiction, Benicia, California, and his own mother met the same fate as her daughter-in-law and grandchildren, did the Sacramento authorities really sit up and take notice, as law enforcement in Benicia was immediately suspicious of the circumstances surrounding his mother's death, especially when they discovered what had happened to the rest of Barron's family in Sacramento. The Coroner's Office for Benicia had no problem determining the cause of death for Barron's mother, given the medical findings. They were the same findings that had existed for Barron's wife. The only difference in the determination of the cause of death was the competence of the Coroner for the corresponding jurisdiction.

While the story is told in a fairly straightforward fashion, it is a story that is somewhat premature in the telling, as the book ends with Jack Barron awaiting trial for murder in Sacramento, California for the deaths of his wife, son, and daughter. His trial for his mother's murder would follow the one in Sacramento. So, there is no trial information or resolution in this book. One has to go on the internet to discover the eventual result of the trial. The lack of this information in the book is disappointing, as it leaves the reader hanging. Those readers who enjoy the true crime genre will still get a modicum of enjoyment from reading this book but will be brought up short by the obvious drawback in the story.

I am always annoyed when I read a book that lacks grammatical correctness. It is a sign of poor writing skills and/or sloppy editing. For me, it detracts from the story line and interferes with the smooth flow of the book.
I found the plot line to this book to be hapharard. At times it's difficult to determine who is narrating the story. The author is very repetitive. Also, don't look for a conclusion to the story.
This book was written prematurely. My guess is the author couldn't wait to write the book so he could start raking in the bucks.
Consequently, we're not informed of the outcome. Isn't that 99.99% of the reason for reading true crime books?
This one's a rip off!

Often with true crime, you know up front who the murderer is, so the interesting part is what mistakes did he make, what circumstances or character development led to the crime(s), how the police solved it and how the trial played out.
In this book, the motive is vague (insurance money, anger at father's desertion) and the character description doesn't really unfold enough for the reader to make an assessment.
The police part is pretty ho-hum, without many breakthroughs, mostly bumbling along. The final trial isn't included in the book.
I'm sure if I were a friend or family member, it would be riveting despite these drawbacks, but for me it was not a very satisfying example of true crime writing.

This is a great book that proves the value of a determined citizen. Had Mrs. Ives just backed off and believed what she was told much of this information may have remained buried. Although this book speaks about "long ago" events it is still relevent today. Pick it up and read through, I bet you find more than one recongnizable political figure within the story.

This is an investigative report that reads like a thriller, though it is frustrating in that the corruption it exposes is never cleaned up. Any parent's worst nightmare is the loss of a child; in this case, the child was murdered and the killers were never asked to take responsibility for the crime. The courageous mother who pursues justice is continually stonewalled and dismissed. It is infuriating to read about what she went through.

Arkansas, where all this took place, was then under the leadership of a governor who has been shown to be as crooked as a country road--his involvement, and the involvement of his familial/political clique--is sickening.

I have yet to find anything that convincingly refutes the facts gathered by Leveritt. This is not a crackpot-conspiracy-theory book; it isn't a propogandist smear. I tend to think that, in the not-so-distant future, a LOT of interesting information regarding some of these high-ranking individuals will come to light. At this point, nothing will surprise me.

The death of the boys serves as a focal point. We need a focal point, for this story eventually leads us to what is undoubtedly the greatest challenge to our democratic system of government most of us will know in this century. The essence of Ms. Leveritt's story is the solvency of our system of justice, rule by the people vs. rule by a central government. In a democracy where justice is withheld by abusive political elities and the perversion of our national organizations of justice and law ... we have to suspect democracy has withered on the vine. This should be a call to action for our national media who have behaved scandalously in shunning and obstructing the details of this sordid tale of the decline of American Justice.

My hat is off to Linda Ives and Jean Duffey who have thus far proven that brave women are more effective crusaders than men.

Jim

This report of a mother's quest to solve the mystery of her son's death takes us into a sewage pit of corruption in 1980s Arkansas -- corruption not really resulting from any sort of organized conspiracy, but corruption resulting from dishonesty, incompetence and/or both at various levels of state government operations. Thanks to drug money, the police were corrupt. Thanks to politics, state agents (such as medical examiners and prosecutors) were incompetent, and the elected leadership was both incompetent and highly corrupt. Thank goodness this pustule of government/administrative cancer was confined to Arkansas -- it would have been complete disaster for these shabby people ever to have obtained the reins of national-level power, either in the White House or the Senate.

A mother's determination to learn the truth about the deaths of her teenage son and his friend, who were hit by a train late at night in Arkansas after being laid side-by-side on the tracks. Local authorities offer absurd explanations and try to brush it off as an accident, but in time it becomes clear that a cover-up is in the works, and that the deaths were possibly related to a large-scale, international drug-smuggling operation of the 1980's, which was condoned and covered up by authorities because of its links to Iran-Contra. Don't let this sound too confusing or far-fetched. Mara Leveritt is a respected reporter with the Arkansas Times, and the entire story is carefully explained and well-documented. This is a must read for anyone interested in American government policies in relation to the drug war, Iran-Contra, and covert activities, or Arkansas state politics in the Clinton era.

This book took me thru every emotion possible, I was exhauseted after each chapter. I have given this to my daughter to read and have recommended it to everyone I know. I feel it is important to know what is out there and the good people who fight against this everyday. It is truly an important book. Thank you Sarena, I look forward to hearing from you in the future.

If you're a CSI die-hard or a fan of other pulled-from-the-headlines shows, you still will not be prepared for the real-life drama that occurs in the Bronx. Sarena Straus has captured the life of a prosecutor and tells vivid stories that capture and haunt. I couldn't put the book down. My only question is: when's the next book?

This true crime memoir of author Sarena Straus, a young assistant D.A. working in the Bronx, isn't just another collection of vignettes but tackles the overall struggle against violence, considering the experiences of those living with violence on the streets and those who work against it fellow attorneys, physicians, social workers and others. From homicides to police actions and her own disturbing caseload of rapists, murderers, and batterers, Straus manages to find the human element and hope in each case, ultimately surveying the camaraderie and connections which arise from struggle and adversity.

As a prosecutor, I was very interested in reading this book. I had seen an interview with the author and read several customer reviews. I am disappointed. I understand that the author apparently lived a fairly priveleged life prior to working as an Assistant D.A., and says as much early in the book. I would assume, however, that her $100,000 education would have helped develop a more grammatically correct writing style. The errors in grammar and spelling were distracting at times and made for a less than smooth read. Additionally, though I do not prosecute in the Bronx, and am sure there is a steep learning curve, five years as an Assistant D.A. hardly creates an expertise in any area. The "cop speak" throughout the book, and the drama with which the stories are told suggest a motive more in line with personal promotion than delivery of insight. This may explain the numerous T.V. appearances, etc. The author may be a good lawyer and may have been a good Assistant D.A., but the book does not convey that. Finally, the stories told are important ones to tell, and all should have some exposure to what man is willing to do to one another, especially the most vulnerable. I just wish the book's focus was more on them and less on the author's gallant fight for those unable to fight for themselves, at least for five years.

Don't laugh. That's exactly what Sarena Straus embodies in her unvarneshed war against the "mean streets" of the Bronx, one of the most crime-laden urban battlegrounds in this increasingly violent country of ours. We're "flys on the wall" witnessing the lives of battered women and children as Ms. Straus weaves through her complicated world as an assistant D.A. From gruesome homicides to child molesters and serial rapists. The stories are first-hand accounts, always real, never exagerated. And what does one come away with? The light at the end of the tunnel, reminding us there is always hope when people care. This graphic yet compassionate account is a must read for anyone who wants an insiders view of how violent crimes affect victims and, ultimately, how dealing with the victims transformed prosecutor, Sarena Straus, forever.

I do think criminal profiling is a valid service, and this book has some interesting moments detailing the author's career in that field, what his childhood and young adulthood were like that might have led him to such a career. I also thought his late-life foray into priesthood was fascinating. Basically, he's a good writer, however, the book is spotty. There are parts that drag and don't mesh with the rest of the book. And though I have no experience whatsoever, personally, with satanic cults, I have met a few credible, tragically damaged people who claim, with complete sincerity, the things that the author says are "impossible," because the FBI has looked into them for years and has never substantiated a case of, for example, child sacrifice/homicide. I, too, was skeptical at one time, and never gave it a second thought, but I must say - again - that a few people who seek no media attention for their stories, have confided some hair-raising stories that are quite similar in nature, though the parties telling them had no knowledge of each other, and were from different parts of the country. In a way, it reminds me a little of alien abduction stories - I'm sure the author would negate these, too, but there are just so many of them that have uniqely similar aspects, and credible witnesses. Still out on this subject...

I am sure I have read the 'life story' type books of most of the well known profilers. I have to admit Roger L Depue was not a name I had come accross in any like books written in the same era. In fact I discovered only one well know book where his name appeared, then only a brief mention.
That aside if you have an interest in this type of book this one is worth the read.
The book essentially follows the life of Roger Depue from his childhood through his career as a rural police officer to the FBI. As most peoples' lives have there interesting aspects certainly anyone with the live experience of the author could not miss out in this area. Therefore I would see this book as esentially a biography. Certainly, in the book, there are many interesting examples of how profiling works and written in a style that is very easy to understand. The book also delves off into how his career and life events produced many 'turnings in the road'.
One of the more interesting parts of the book I found was the author's brief summation of a number of the 'big name' profilers of that era. I found it interesting some get mentioned by their christian names and others by surname only. I guess we can form our own opinions as to why.
Overall, yes 'Another Profiler's Life Story', but if you have an interest in that area, and don't mind a good dose of his personal life, go ahead and have a read. Might not be the best of these books but I found it interesting enough to go cover to cover in three 'sittings'.

I enjoy profiling books and recommend John Douglas' Mindhunters and Obsession . This book has very little for the reader to learn except minor tidbits like how to tell (via "overkill") that the unsub was known to the victim. The book has a long backstory on the authors childhood, dating, marines, etc. and he seems like a bully. The last 1/3 of the book is his religion taking over which is boring. None of the life story or seminary time relate to criminal investigations, which is probably why you are interested in this type of book. The John Douglas books cover fascinating, yet horrible crimes while giving insights into clues to the traits of the criminal - thus are far more interesting than this book by Depue.

I just can't say enough GOOD about this book!!!!! It was a great page turner and hard to put down once started. I thought it would be primarily about profiling, but the added twist of how that affected his life and faith is phenomenal....

He gives the insights of a profiler fine and good. But he is sickeningly boastful the whole book, not just in his description of profiler work, but before he even gets to that point. Its nothing but obvious delusion. Of course you have to try to make the book interesting, but you're NOT Charles Bronson, you're NOT Mike Tyson. I had to stop reading and skip forward in the book because I got tired of reading about how he won a fist fight in high school and then he said Claire Michigan was the closest thing the state had to the wild west, how he got beat up by two guys but should have paid attention because he could have taken them. That aspect of the book is nauseating. You would think he knocked out Muhammed Ali. I would skip this book if I had it to do over.

Anyone living in the Chicago area in the 1950s frightfully remembers the disappearance of these young girls, and the horror on the day their bodies were found. Tamara Shaffer has produced an excellent work covering all aspects of the story, including many details never revealed to the press. She takes you back to the neighborhoods and the people of that day as if these many years never passed. There is a chilling and eerie feeling as you read this book, and view the never before seen photos. Knowing that this crime was never solved leaves one pondering all the facts presented by Shaffer's thorough investigation.

Rarely can a writer combine a baffling who-done-it with such a vivid restoration of time and place, which qualifies Tamara Shaffer's Murder Gone Cold as nothing less than a masterpiece. In the absence of CNN or Fox or even an effective network of television news, the killing of Barbara and Patricia Grimes in 1956 attracted only fleeting attention outside Chicago, as had the previous Schuessler-Peterson murders or that of Judith Mae Anderson a few months later. All were young, none were solved, and the city escaped what today would have made it a minor "murder capital" during an era otherwise deemed peaceful. The author, then also in her teens and living in a quiet middleclass neighborhood only ten blocks from the Grimes Sisters, rode the same buses and street cars and frequented the same stores and theaters. After years of research she now takes us back to the scene of that crime and into an age hardly remembered by many and not known to most.

Three days after the 1956 Christmas celebration, fifteen year old Barbara Grimes and her twelve year old sister, Patricia, left their Chicago home to see an Elvis Presley movie. They never returned. Barely a month later, after a nationwide manhunt and appeals from Presley himself, their frozen corpses were found near Willow Springs. Both girls had been sexually assaulted. Parents who were already living under a cloud of fear brought on by the recent murders of the Schuessler brothers and their friend Bobby Peterson were thrown into new depths of anxiety and terror by the Grimes slaying.

Author Tamara Shaffer was sixteen years old when Barbara and Patricia Grimes were killed, and her own memories of the dread that pervaded Chicago in the aftermath make "Murder Gone Cold" a memoir as well as a murder story. She offers a solid documentation of the unsolved case from the moment the girls leave their home on South Damen Avenue right up until the present time, when she discusses the fate of the key players in the tragedy and mentions that Kenneth Hansen, currently serving 300 years for the Schuessler-Peterson murders, was questioned about the Grimes case during the 1990s. She even injects a paranormal perspective by describing how people near the area where the bodies were discovered report hearing car doors slam and tires squeal during a hasty retreat... only no car can be seen. It's not often that a True Crime manuscript can mention hauntings and get away with it, but these supernatural undertones don't detract from this book's credibility. After all, the Grimes murders haunted Chicagoans for years.

This is a very overdue book about the most mysterious disappearance of these two girls back in 1956. Tamara Shaffer has done her research in her book and it clearly shows it. The author takes us back to the years when Chicago's children freely walked their neighborhood and neighbors looked out for one another.
Barbara and Patricia went out to the movies one evening like all the other children. Except, this time they didn't return home. Numerous sightings of the girls were reported to the police. Elvis, the girls icon during those times, even released a public statement asking the girls to go home to ease their mothers worries.
Then one cold January day, their lifeless nude bodies were found in a ditch, along German Churuch Road. Since, jurisdiction was an issue and politics played a role, could this case have slipped through the cracks?
Tamara Shaffer takes us through the events and brings to light on information that could possibly play a role on solving this case.

I was fortunate enough to find the virtual bible of the Sylvia Likens case, John Dean's "The Indiana Torture Slaying", last year. However, if you are unable to locate it, this book is a suitable substitute. The only real difference is that Ms. Millett uses deliberate speculation in the form of prose, as well as the facts of the case. (much of which she got from Mr. Dean's original book) Still, I think that Kate Millett did quite well in retelling a most horrific crime. This is one of those special true crime books that you'll have to put down to make your head stop spinning. Not only do we get the sickening facts of the case, (including a few new things that I hadn't read in any other retelling) but also the mindset of Gertrude Baniszewski and Sylvia Likens during the four-month long torture period. The possible thoughts of both women (the evil Gertrude and the ever-passive Sylvia) are realistic enough to make even the most stoic person's stomach churn. Take caution when reading this one; it will stay with you for a long time.

I read this book years ago, and although I still have it, I haven't read it again, not because it wasn't worth reading but because Millet did her job too well. Her reconstruction of the events in that Indianapolis house is searing and unforgettable. No other book that I've read as an adult has given me the nightmares that this one did. (I don't have the stomach to read another book about Sylvia Likens, so can't compare Millet's book to Dean's.) I didn't see any strong feminist agenda in Millet's description of the torture, sexual abuse and eventual killing of a teenage girl by people who knew her (at least two of whom were women). Millet seems to be trying to make sense of the collective evil that allowed this to happen. She doesn't quite get there, but perhaps no one could. The questions that she asks need to be thought about, even if they can't be answered.

Millet's 1979 true crime case study bills itself honestly--the book consists of medications on a situation, and the reader is left to sort through the meditations for the structure. The topic at hand is the brutal slaying of teenaged Sylvia Likens by her foster mother and a gang of her foster mom's children and neighborhood boys. Sylvia was tortured for months in the basement of her foster home before one incident went too far and led to her demise (after defecating on herself, suffering burns, and being crudely branded on the abdomen with the words "I am a prostitute and proud of it.") Depraved matriarch Gertrude convinced her gang of torturers to cover up the crime, but after Sylvia's blood sister confessed, the truth spilled out from the other children.

Part One consists of meditations on the crime, on the motivations of the abusers, and on the motivations of Sylvia in not seeking help. The section meanders and circles around to the same events, reading like an unedited magazine piece. The book really takes off in Part Two, when Gertrude and her one loyal child commit glaringly obvious perjury on the stand. The third and final section is a first person account of the abuse from the perspectives of Gertrude and Sylvia. Of course, neither told their story, but author Kate Millet constructs it from the testimony of the numerous eye-witnesses to the crimes.

I read The Basement many years ago in hardcover and passed it along to all my friends, who were all equally hooked by Millett's masterful style. She doesn't simply tell the story, she goes into the mind of victim and perpetrators, taking you with her for a haunting, unforgettable ride.

Having lived just a mile south of Miss Likens' parents and 5 minutes away from the home where she was killed, I was stunned at the attempt made to tell Sylvia's story. I lived it, read it in the news and still know members of the family.
While this is a perfect feminist attempt at explaining things that went on in the house on New York Street, I feel most of Sylvia's story was used to propegate a soap box issue and it made some of the book a difficult read.
Tiny bits and pieces of fact (find foot notes and need to look them up elsewhere)are tossed in with commentary so often that the story is not well told beyond the opinions of the author.
Still, since John Dean's book is hard to find, I think anyone who wishes to explore one of Indiana's most horrible crimes against humanity, should read "Meditations..."

Not much info you wouldn't have learned from an old spy movie. Not worth buying. My subject line calls it a novel because that's what the anecdotes seem to be. Might have a kernel of truth in them, but no more. Great for a Walter Mitty-type, but didn't see anything I couldn't figure out on my own.

This book does contain the real secrets beind how the spy trade works. On the news you often hear that a piece of information can't be declassified because it would give away the ways & means used to collect intellgence by the agency. This book contains those ways & means. Fear, lust and greed, exploiting human nature. How to find someones thumb screws and force him or her to become a spy for you. Spying is a dirty, dirty business; someone you've known for 20 years can turn out to be your worst enemy. As the old saying goes "Your worst enemy is always a friend."The author of this book also has another one titled HOW TO RUN A SAFE HOUSE. Again, packed with great information.These books do contain dangerous information if looked at from the right perspective. The 911 hijackers used the exact information contained in these books to set up shop, plan the job, operate safe houses, etc. all right under the noses of the FBI.Remember, a terrorist doesn't see himself as a terrorist. He sees himself as a secret agent. I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn the spy-craft tricks-of-the-trade.

It is sad to say that many of the techniques in this book REALLY do help out when dealing with evil co-workers and in-laws and such. If you want people to leave you alone, but can't figure out how...try blackmail! It may not be the Christian thing to do, but it works. Just remember to keep your own nose clean, and try to disengage yourself from circumstances that require the use of such tactics.
Remember: Use this information for defensive purposes only! (or else you'll be the evil one who needs to be blackmailed)

If you are realy believes that intelligence done by brave covert agents this book is for You . It's will break many of those myths you are believing in, You will discover that spys are recruited (!) from the target organization or even blackmailed for turning to spys AND NOT "inserted" into target organization by sophisticated covert operations. You will learn how CASE OFFICERS works, how they turn someone into spying, the tricks they use to work and cover they tracks and more more other usefull information. You will still have to find by youself a lot of other sorts of information (like surveillance and avoiding it) after you finish this book .BUT AS YOU WILL SEE YOUR POINT OF VIEW ON INTELLIGENCE GATHERING WILL BE COMPLETLY CHANGED-NOW YOU WILL SEE THING THROW ALMOST PROFFESIONAL EYES. I didn't mean that this book will replace 3 years of training in intelligence agency (like CIA or the Mosad), I mean that after You will finish this book You will discover how those agiences really works , and real word is differnt from the movies. It's good point to start , to open Your eyes after many years watching catoons abouts brave covert agents that spying the bad guys ...

This is a good book for learning how to recruit, run and handle spies. It's wise, but in my case it just summarized what I already knew.

This book is not unlike a buffet at a small office party. A few morsels here and there... most everything is pretty tasty, nothing's too filling, and there's one "mystery dish" that looks okay...... until you bite into it.

Clint Willis has compiled a baker's dozen of mob-stories, from the infamous, to the you-never-heard-of-em. Some are great, some are good, and some might have been better to have been left on the table.

On the infamous side is an excerpt from Mario Puzo's classic, THE GODFATHER. I've never read the book, but like any other self-respecting adult American male, I've seen the movie enough times to have lost count. After reading the excerpt in MOB, (regarding the memorable scene where Michael Corleone retrieves the gun from the restaurant bathroom and shoots the crooked cop in the head), I've discovered that I've GOT to read Puzo's book!

Another interesting story comes from David Fisher. It comes from a book by "JOEY," a long-time mob hit-man (though not a "made" man in the mob, because, as "Joey" tells it, as a member of the Jewish faith, he is ineligible to attain that level within the organization.) Still, he considers himself really good--and quite enjoys what he does for a living. And, it would appear that he's very much a psychopath. Whether one can believe everything that is written about JOEY is questionable, as there seemed to be a number of "facts" that contradicted other "facts," but I guess that's for each reader to decide.

I did actually SKIP one story: Bruce McCall's "GANGLAND STYLE: THE TRANSCRIPT." Written in the format of a play, I became disinterested after about a page and a half of reading accented-goombah-speak spelled out phonetically.

Jeffrey Goldberg's piece, THE DON IS DONE, is the final chapter in the book, and is the fascinating true story of the last days--along with some of the personal insights of mob boss, Paul Castellano... whacked, so the story goes, under the orders of the notorious John Gotti, Sr.

All in all, MOB was a pretty enjoyable read. And because each of the stories stands completely by itself, you could theoretically finish a chapter, and pick the book up a year later without having to start over.

- Jonathan Sabin

You're much better off going to the original books this compilation rips off. There are editing mistakes galore in this volume, and the editor adds nothing new (except some typos). I'd sell mine as a used book but I don't want to rip off someone else with this trash.

Only the most ardent organized crime reader probably won't find something new in this collection of short stories dealing with reader fascination with dangerous lifestyles. This sampler of mob-lore covers stories allegedly by the folks who lived and died it, and some history to add dessert to your meal.

For those who like the relative safety of their reading chair, we get a step-by-step process of the so-called "hit men" of the mob. They are so-called because most members who have reached any decent level of leadership have all done at least one hit, so the true full-time professional is not that common. For this profession though, we do get an evolution of the man, and his general techniques.

The stories here are excerpts from other works, so if your a mob junkie, you might have read a lot of it already. I previously had read the Sammy Gravano book that contributed this excerpt. You not only get a sample of the self-admitted bad man, but also a taste of what I didn't like in the full-length book, which was a constant jabbering of what a decent, honorable guy Sammy really is. This book, was, of course, before the guy got busted out West for running meth labs while in witness protection.

My favorite of the "true life" stories was the one that inspired the movie "Donnie Brasco". Here we have the story of how a guy had to sacrifice a lot of family time over a period of years to do his undercover work, even once having to spend Christmas with mobsters when he promised his own family some quality Holiday time. The book I'm reviewing is good because now I want to read the whole "Brasco" saga.

In the history part, we do get a brief glimpse of how this whole type of society came about. True, the people of Italy were extremely oppressed at the time of it's formation, but it also tells how the local culture first establishes male "honor", then expects him to prove it via competition, and if you won by using your own rules, that made you that much more of a worthy opponent. To his credit, the editor of this compilation does not glorify this behavior, and makes it clear to the audience that any honorable "codes" only last as long as is convenient for anyone involved.

Overall, I think that this book was exceptional. The stories contained are, for the most part, gripping and real. I couldn't put the book down when I read the story by "Joey", the anonymous hitman. The most exciting thing about this book is the reality of it. The mojority of stories contained are about real people and real things. I recommend this book to everyone

This book is great,it is what got me hooked on stories about the mob and mafia. I would recomend it to any one who is intrested in organized crime.