No comments about Bloodsworth: The True Story of One Man's Triumph over Injustice (Shannon Ravenel Books).

5 comments about LETTERS FROM TEL MOND PRISON: An Israeli Settler Defends His Act of Terror.

1. The four published reviews of this book are rather biased and show that the reviewers did not internalize what the author wrote. They stand in stark contrast to the 7 personal reviews. I couldn't put this book down. In a very personal way the author and his real experiences embody the reality of the co-existence, or lack thereof, in judea and samaria today. Stangely enough, shortly after a friend insisted I read this book I have shared tea with Era in his home and with his neighbors in Turmis Aya that he descibes in the book and to independently hear them tell the same stories he tells in the book.
   This book should be required reading for anyone that wants to offer an opinion about the future of Samaria.



2. this book is intriging. it makes you wonder about the other side of the media. letters from tel mond prison is a book written by a man who lives his life with such pupose, meaning and honesty you wonder some times who you feel bad for - the "terrorist" or the "victim"



3. Era Rapaport effectively communicates the highs and lowes of being a settler in the land of Israel today. He is a modern day Zionist who gave up a life of comfort to face ridicule, persecution and imprisonment to stay true to his faith in the resettlement of Eretz Israel. I highly recommend this book to all who love Zion and believe in the restoration of Israel.



4. This book takes what has become a controvertial impersonal topic and turns it into a tale of the human spirit. Era was an the average American. He had the normal life, but he choose to follow the path G-d choose for him. His acts of desperation would be called terrorism by the media, but it is only after reading this book that one understands he was an everday guy defending his family. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in gaining a true first hand perspective of life in the West Bank.



5. Mr. Rapaport's book is one of the few honest accounts of life in Israel today. Unlike reporters who have very little understanding of the complexities of life in Israel, Mr. Rapaport lives in the heart of Israel, and has a great understanding of the problems his country encounters daily. You can't go wrong reading this book.

5 comments about The Dillinger Days.

1. If this were 1963, I'd advise you to buy this book. However, it's 2007, and while John Toland did an admirable job researching his material and visiting the various sites made notorious by the public enemies whose exploits he depicted, the fact is that much of the book's contents is old news and simply inaccurate. A fantastic read at the time, but, simply, outdated today.



2. This fast-paced narrative looks at underworld life in the USA during the Great Depression of the 1930's, when bank robbers were considered folk heroes by a surprising number of persons. It's primarily the story of John Dillinger and his gang, known for prison breaks and bank holdups. Dillinger was an anti-hero and celebrity (he played the role to the hilt) as were certain other criminals of that era such as Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd. Readers get a feel for the criminals, the top FBI personnel on their trails, and for life during the hard times of the Depression. Alas, many came to a violent end, suffering the same fate as some of their victims.
   
   Author/Historian John Toland (1912-2004) had a way with gripping prose, and this effort is no exception. Some attack this book for glamorizing vicious criminals, while others point to a handful of inaccuracies. Whatever your take, this book still makes very interesting reading.



3. I can't comment on the veracity of Tolands account, so this review deals with the book's impact on someone reading about the 30's American Gangster era for the first time. The book is fast & furious. It has a style & pace that seems totally in sync' with the wild events & full-blooded characters involved. Dillinger & Company come alive here. The accounts were thrilling, detailed & totally enjoyable. Although the author is commendably non-judgemental, not unsurprisingly, Dillinger comes over as the Class-Act of the the mobs. Whilst he certanly had a style, I use the word "class" with some reservation! The rest were just out & out villians! I was pleased to see the lawmen get a fair share of the action. The dedication & bravery of these men is in the most part commendable & a credit to their profession. The thought of facing up to a gang, including such vicious characters as Baby Face Nelson & Homer Van Meter, armed to the teeth with automatic weapons, is chilling indeed. The bank escapes give the reader a good feel of the times. It seemed that a five minute chase from any city centre bank would find the fugitives deep inside a maze of unmade roads. An almost total lack of communication between law enforcers, plus State Line jusridiction restrictions made the already fraught pursuit of these characters difficult indeed. I thoroughly enjoyed the book & recommend it very highly. I also agree that it is a good "appetite whetter" for more books of similar genre.



4. I give "The Dillinger Days" by John Toland 3-Stars for research and photography. Although this book is not the most accurate, it does display information that was available at the time of this publication. Today we have a better factual picture on events of the Dillinger era. Over the years many have bred mythology, speading fictitious imaginary stories creating false beliefs. However, I have to agree with historian and author Rick Mattix, The Dillinger Days is a good starting point for first time Dillinger readers. Good Book!



5. When first published in 1963, Toland's The Dillinger Days seemed to be the definitive work on the public enemy era, as both a biography of John Dillinger and as a sweeping chronicle of the whole Midwest Depression crime wave, also including "Pretty Boy" Floyd, "Baby Face" Nelson, the Barker-Karpis gang, "Machine Gun" Kelly and Clyde Barrow. Indeed, Toland may even be credited with launching a revival of interest in the Barrow gang. The scattered passages on the Barrows, whose fleeting fame was largely forgotten outside Texas by 1963, was largely the inspiration for the later movie Bonnie and Clyde. Toland's main subject here was of course Dillinger and the sections on the other gangs are scantier and often erroneous. Errors also appear in the Dillinger chapters. The "second Dillinger gang" was really "Baby Face" Nelson's, which Dillinger joined after the Crown Point escape, the exact details of which will never be known with full certainty though subsequent research--by Girardin and Helmer, Joe Pinkston and others--indicates that Toland got it wrong. The "Dillinger" letter to Henry Ford was long ago proven a forgery. As a straight Dillinger biography, Toland's book is actually far less detailed and accurate than the slimmer work, nearly contemporary with his own, Dillinger: A Short and Violent Life by Robert Cromie and Joe Pinkston. Still, as a history of the Depression crime wave, it was about the best volume available in 1963. Subsequent research has turned up much new information in recent years. Other authors have corrected Toland's errors. But the fact remains that Toland's work inspired a great deal of this research. Many of us gangster buffs got our start with Toland's book, so a lot of the new information available today probably wouldn't have surfaced without it. And for all its flaws, Toland's book remains a useful starting point for anyone interested in the gangster era--the Dillinger days.

1 comments about Cortina: Defending the Mexican Name in Texas (Fronteras Series,).

1. Masterfully written, narrated, and prodigiously researched for twenty years, Jerry Thompson's Cortina finally provides a balanced and contextualized life of Juan Nepomuceno "Cheno" Cortina. Cortina was a South Texas Mexican ranchero whose fight to "defend the Mexican name" and whose struggle for equality and justice in Texas manifested itself as social banditry that violently culminated in the "Cortina Wars" in the mid-nineteenth century.
   
   Cortina's early social-banditry embodied the frustration and resentment of the countless ethnic Mexicans who for generations had owned and worked the land that would become U.S. territory as a result of the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty, and as a consequence much of it lost to Anglo newcomers via legal, extra-legal and illegal means. Cortina became more than an avenger of perceived and actual wrongs against ethnic Mexicans in Texas, however; he also participated in the major conflicts that convulsed Mexico beginning with the U.S. war on Mexico, through the War of the Reform and the French Intervention. His actions in these conflicts allowed him to ascend to important and powerful Mexican military and political positions from which he emerged as a respected and courageous defender of the Republic prior to the advent of the Pax Porfiriana. His actions often resonated as far away as Washington, Mexico City and even Paris, France. Nonetheless, even in defending the nation, he remained very much a norteño whose allegiance was mostly to his region and ultimately his personal interests.
   
   Thompson rescues Cortina from the one-dimensional "most insolent...bandit" or "red-robber of the Rio Grande" caricature found in earlier histories by authors such as J. Frank Dobie, Walter Prescott Webb and others by providing us with a rich tapestry of a "man of immense nuances, contradictions, paradoxical views, and incredible survival instincts." He presents a fully fleshed-out, warts-and-all man, properly contextualized in the chaotic times of a violent and vivid land. Thompson has assuredly enriched the body of knowledge of both Mexican and Texas history.

5 comments about The I Chong: Meditations from the Joint.

1. I'm not exactly sure what I expected from this book but, whatever it was, the author met those expectations and then exceeded them by a mile.
   
   The I Chong is funny, insightful, and smart. I left it with a great deal of respect for the author, not merely for his humor but also for the keenness of his insight into a surprising wide variety of issues. Wrapped around all of that is some surprisingly candid autobiographical sketches.
   
   I always knew that Tommy Chong was funny. I now realize that his intelligence and insight exceed his wit.



2. Great read. If you want the truth about whats going on then i highly recommend this book.



3. This is an excellent account of what Tommy Chong had to go through after the feds took down his glass pipe buisness and put him in jail. The book flows and you get Tommy's blow by blow of what occured to him. You see his genuine soft heart throughout the book as well as his endless love for his family. He makes great friends in the joint and also has some great stories to share as well. For anyone who thinks the money being paid on the war on drugs is a joke, this is a must read. Strongly liberal in its nature.



4. I recommend this book to anybody who feels like they've been mistreated and need a way to get back on their feet again.
   
   His way of coping while in prison is something that we can all use when we're faced with trying times.
   
   The people who imprisoned Tommy Chong should themselves be thrown in jail for a few weeks. If there were a chance that it would smarten them up enough to change their ways, it would be worth a try. But the anti-drug zealots of the United States will probably never change their minds and never change their ways.
   
   Taking six months of a man's life for making bongs is the real crime.



5. I read this book around the house for a week. When I had nothing to do or just felt like reading in general, I sat down and read this book. The book was amazing to me for such a small writing. It reviewed just some of the most memorable parts of Tommy Chongs life to his most current jail time. I would recommend this book to anyone who just wants a quick good read for a good smile once finishing the book.

5 comments about The Lives and Times of Bonnie & Clyde.

1. Although this book is well written and highly informative,some facts are incorrect.The author states that the gang was driving east on Texas Highway 203 between Quail and Wellington.The truth is,they were driving north on highway 83,8 miles north of Wellington,between Wellington and Shamrock,when their car crashed into the Red River.Also Mrs.Pritchard is Mr.Pritchard`s daughter not wife.She is married to John Cartwright.When Mrs.Cartwright was shot in the hand by W.D.Jones,he fails to mention that she was holding her three month old son in her arms.The baby was not injured,altough window screen from the shotgun blast fired through the window hit the baby in the head.Mrs.Cartwright who is in her ninties is still living in Wellington Texas.When the gang fled they headed north towards Shamrock not east toward Wellington.



2. One thing for sure about this book by E. R. Milner is that he apparently did not visit the actual sites of many B & C gang's activities. He has names of towns, first and surnames of people, misspelled. He continued to use old material that has been done before and is incorrect in family history. However, Milner did publish the first death photo of Bonnie Parker. I believe that the "Lives and Times of Bonnie and Clyde" will be of interest to most people as their appeal continues to grow and millions still love to read more about their lives and crimes. I was fortunate to meet the author in 1999 in Miami, Oklahoma. He was a very gracious man and a good speaker. For all it's flaws, I would still recommend this book for your crime library.
   
   Mike Koch, author of "The Kimes Gang."



3. I was disappointed with this book. The events described are an almost an hour by hour passage of time, during the short lives of these two antagonists. We really don't care what Clyde did at 2am on the morning of the 15th of the month if it really has nothing to do with the outcome of the event! It seems as if this author wrote these pages directly from a courtroom transcript or a witness' testimony. Furthermore, there are entirely too few pictures (we want to see more of Bonnie & Clyde - duh!!). Pass on this book and buy one of the others out there.



4. E.R. Milner has constructed a pretty fair history of the Barrow gang in The Lives and Times of Bonnie & Clyde. Using contemporary newspaper accounts and police records, he provides detailed accounts of even many of the gang's minor crimes, such as early gas station holdups, and we B&C buffs naturally want all the details we can get. There are some previously unpublished photos, which is a must. There is also too much dialogue for historical purposes, much of it taken, unfortunately, from Jan Fortune's error-strewn Fugitives, the ghosted 1934 memoirs of Emma Parker and Nell Barrow Cowan which in turn derived as much from Ed Portley's 1934 True Detective articles as it did from Bonnie's mother and Clyde's sister. There are quite a number of typos, mostly wrong first names and misspellings of surnames and it is equally unfortunate that Milner failed to visit many of the locations prominent in the Bonnie and Clyde story, where key participants in the events still live, such as Dexter, Iowa. Milner told me once he regretted not having gone to Iowa inasmuch as Dexter was the turning point in the gang's history just as surely as Northfield, Minnesota was the Waterloo of the James gang. Having recently reread this book, I also regret he didn't come to Iowa. The three gas stations the gang hit before going to the Platte City, MO motel were in Fort Dodge, Iowa, not Kansas. Speaking of Minnesota, a visit to Okabena would have raised considerable doubts in the author's mind as to the Barrows' guilt in the bank robbery there. No eyewitnesses ever identified the Barrows there but two men and a woman were later convicted of the Okabena bank job. Milner's epilogue leaves much to be desired. Clyde's mother was shot in 1938, as Milner reports, but not by "an unknown attacker." The would-be assassin was a former minor gang member ostracized by the Barrow family as a "rat" and the shooting resulted from a feud with them which also involved a number of bombings. Cumie was also more than "slightly wounded"--like Blanche she lost the sight of one eye. Little or nothing is recorded of the deaths of Bonnie's mother or other principal participants such as B&C ambushers Henderson Jordan, Prentiss Oakley and Manny Gault. Kidnap victim Thomas (wrongly named as Jimmy!) Persell is only recorded as having retired from the Springfield, MO P.D. And the sideshow "career" of the death car should have been traced down to its present whereabouts in a Nevada casino. In view of the errors and omissions, I feel I must drop a star from my previous rating of this work. Still, Milner did Bonnie and Clyde better than many before him and both his book and the recent Running With Bonnie and Clyde by John Neal Phillips deserve a respectable slot in any crime library.



5. I never tire of reading about Bonnie and Clyde and I enjoyed this book. It was very well researched. All quotes and sources are well documented. It was disappointingly short especially since the auther had so much great research to draw from. In a true crime book I also like lots of photographs. It gives me a feel for the period. The photo's in this book are few and of poor quality. This book is good and I recommend it. I can't help but think it could have been great, but falls short.

No comments about Vlad the Impaler - The Real Dracula (Biography).

5 comments about McGoorty: A Pool Room Hustler (Library of Larceny).

1. This is the real life story of an almost great billiards player. It's a look into the past as told by a real person who seems to lay it all out on his deathbed. Robert Byrne, for the most part, simply relays McGoorty's words.
   
   This could be considered a tale of caution, don't be like this guy, don't throw away your life.
   
   My father, who made his own mistakes, loved this book when I lent it to him, and lent it to someone else - I may never see it again, but that's ok. This is the exact kind of book you want to lend out.
   
   I have never read a book like this one, it pulls few punches, you are going to feel sorry for McGoorty, maybe even cry - I don't know. But don't let that stop you from reading it.



2. Danny McGoorty was a gifted pool and billiards player. He was also a lazy, drunk petty thief. He spent his life trying his best to avoid honest work. He took as much as he could get from everyone that crossed his path without ever giving anything back. He died bitter and broke.
   
   There, now you don't need to read the book.



3. This isn't "Rudy" Ruettiger and it's not an "inspirational" sports biography. You're not going to learn much about how to play billiards either. If you read this expecting some moral triumph, you are going to miss the point. McG was a sad, pathetic drunk who told truths, lies, half-truths about his failed career as a billaird player. This said, he had a real wit and a flair for pegging people. More than anything, this is a good Depression-era American period piece. It's also a look inside the mind of one candid, unscrupulous character. McG is a funny guy, a sad guy, a nice guy and a wicked guy. Even when he lies he's sincere. If you ever knew a bum, drunk or poolroom hustler you liked and hated at the same time, give it a shot. But this book doesn't belong on the shelf with Byrne's instruction books, or really even with the other billiards biographies; it belongs next to the other volumes of the Library of Larceny: Ponzi, Liebling and Sutton.



4. I can't imagine anyone wanting to write a book about this man.He was nothing but a vulgar,lazy,lying alcoholic.Half of the things that he says are nothing but B.S.For instance,Chicago police officers murdering suspected gangsters @ black men for 200$ a pop.I could go on @ on but you should get the idea.Save your money.As for me, I am going to line my cats litter box with my copy.



5. This book is one of the few biograghy's i've read that had a true voice of the subject. Gritty, smutty, vulgar and incitful.It tells the tale of the wayward life led by one of this country's greatest pool and billiards players, witten from audiotapes by Robert Byrne, Mcgoorty comes to life.

5 comments about One Time : The Story of a South Central Los Angeles Police Officer.

1. Author Brian Bentley finally gives us insight into the world of a working Police Officer, without sugar coating or picturing us a glitzy world of glasmour of law enforcement. It really took me back as a law enforcement officer for a large public hospital with a Level One Trauma Center, which has to deal with the day to day hardship of what the "streets" brings into the hospital and tries to treat. I too found alot of comaparisons in my job and just changed the names of work colleagues and supervisors with his! His city government was not only like my city government, but add one more variable...an unappreciative hospital administration who should simply be managing medical care and research, and stay out of the business of police work. Many times they, along with the rest of the hospital support staff be it doctor, nurse, psychiatric staff, substance abuse counselors, all want a piece of the police department. And thinking after watching one episode of "Cops" think they know everything about police work! Should a new candidate dare read this book, it may in fact discourage him or her from pursuing law enforcement as a career. Sad that it maybe, at least Officer Bentley forwarned you before you signed on the dotted line! Law enforcement has it's rewards. But as Officer Bentley astutely puts it, it is "dog eat dog" and one has to do what he/she has to do to survive!



2. This is a very well written story of a cops everyday life in LA. Very sad that things have to be the way they are but he tells it like it really is. He is misjudged, mistreated and underrated which causes him to doubt himself and everyone else. He fights to stay true to all he believes and has been taught, but at times he is finding himself thinking and acting as the criminals do. Maybe that is how he survives.



3. Having grown up in S/C LA and also a retired Police Officer, this book give you the real world experience. This book will take you from one extreme to the other. You will laugh, cry and be very afraid. Because it is all so very true. Somebody needs to make this into a movie, Quick. Oprah needs to read this book



4. One Time is a hardcore and realistic look at the police. The author's writing style kept me interested and I am not a big reader. Since reading the book, I now look at police officers differently.



5. I very much enjoyed reading this book. It was very easy reading and went very quickly. While the author had some very interesting stories to tell, however, I think the publisher did him wrong for publishing it as is. There are a lot of editing mistakes and typos within the context that at times can make it somewhat difficult to follow. However, despite these mistakes, I highly recommend the book to anyone who is interested in law enforcement, especially in L.A. I'm sure it would be an eye opener. I never realized how violent a city L.A. could be.

5 comments about Accardo: The Genuine Godfather.

1. This book was much better than i first assumed it would be. Tony Accardo's exploits are well documented from early in his mob career all the way to his death. But Roemer,the author, tends to get in the way a little bit. He is the FBI agent that was after this guy, so he was fully aware of the vicious nature of Accardo and the Outfit as a whole. Yet he talks about Accardo as if he's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Far too much praising of Accardo and self-promotion for my taste. But that aside, there isn't a boring moment in this book. It also clearly shows that Chicago held more power than all the east coast families combined. Overall, a very good read, if you can put up with the author.



2. Retired FBI Agent William Roemer (1926-1996) takes an interesting look at one of Chicago's most infamous mob bosses. Anthony "Big Tuna" Accardo (1906-1992) was a player in the syndicate from the prohibition-era 1920's until his death more than six decades later. Once complimented as "a real Joe Batters" by Al Capone for having killed another mobster with a baseball bat, Accardo had a mix of toughness, brains, and closed-mouthed brawn. As the author shows, these characteristics helped him rise through the syndicate ranks and avoid the downfalls (imprisonment, early death) of many associates. Accardo ran or helped rule the Chicago syndicate as boss, consiglieri, and finally as elder statesman. Readers also get a look at the Chicago mob and its many sources of illegal activities. The author regards his subject with a mix of distaste and respect, as did so many others in and out of law enforcement.
   
   Roemer's books are very readable, but they suffer from a few doubtful claims and flirtations with the facts, not to mention some self-boasting by the author. Still, his easy-reading narratives on the Chicago mob are worth a look.



3. Incredible. Here we have a retired FBI agent writing about a thug who he claims is the best godfather ever. He writes so admiringly about Tony Accardo that I really believe he wanted to give Joe Batters a foot massage, back rub and ticker-tape parade. I had to put the book down before I puked. True, the writer covers a lot of ground in his homage to this killer-thug and parasite, but it's all wasted by his glorification of a criminal.



4. I find it amusing that every gangster biographer wants to elevate his subject to the level of being the most important figure ever in the history or organized crime. But one would expect a certain level of objectivity from a former FBI agent, even one who self-promoted himself for years as Chicago's number one Mob-buster. Roemer's admiration for adversary Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo is understandable in a way. Clearly one of the most untouchable mobsters of all time (though it is not true that he never spent a night in jail), Accardo's seventy year criminal career with no standing convictions shows he was no dumb hood. All the same, Roemer goes out of his way to inject Accardo into everything that ever happened in Chicago. His account of the Prohibition years is so far off the mark it's hilarious. He has Tony Accardo saving Capone from Hymie Weiss in the Hawthorne attack, which contemporary accounts credit to Frank Rio. He places Tony in New York with Jack McGurn, Anselmi and Scalise, and "a guy named Rio Burke" as the hitters of Frankie Yale in that city's first Tommygun killing. Strange, as I met the late Rio Burke and SHE never once mentioned handling a machine gun though she was a friend of Al Capone. Tony, McGurn, Anselmi and Scalise and "possibly Fred Burke" (in whose Michigan hideout the machine guns were found) are claimed to have been the St. Valentine's Day Massacre gunmen, on the basis of some bugged conversations Roemer claims to have heard years later and vaguely alludes to. More credible suspects, such as Gus Winkeler, who later ran Moran's former North Side territory for Capone and was highly publicized in the early Thirties, and Raymond "Crane-Neck" Nugent, who was once arrested at Capone's Miami estate, are dismissed as insignificant nobodies on the bare fringe of the Capone mob. Roemer goes on to have Accardo accompany Capone to the famous Atlantic City Mob convention, again at the expense of number one bodyguard Frank Rio, and conveniently oversteps the Philadelphia arrest and conviction of Capone and RIO by moving the meeting ahead one year to 1930. I find it amazing that a guy like Roemer could spend all that time investigating the Chicago Mob and display such little knowledge of its early years. No wonder the FBI took so long in catching up with organized crime! Roemer should have either stuck with the Fifties/Sixties time-frame he knew firsthand or else done some competent research on the pre-World War II era. As for the claim that Accardo had "more brains before breakfast than Al Capone had all day," well, like I said earlier, Tony's successful life in crime is impressive, and owes much to his low-key style but one doesn't need to distort history to emphasize this. And, when it all comes down to it, Capone was the guy who built the Chicago Mob and the guy who brought Accardo up through the ranks as well. Successful as he was, Tony was only following in Al's footsteps like so many others.



5. Finally there is a book about the man that was the driving force behind the Chicago Outfit.While Sam Giancana has the fame and if often credited as being the Outfit's boss in the 60's, little is there any mention of the man who put him there.This is a great overall book with plenty of history on the man who the law couldn't lay a hand on.If ever there was a "successful gangster" it was Accardo, and this book explains why.This is also a great book to famialize yourself with Chicago's major organized players from Al Capone down to Joe "The Clown" Lombardo.