No comments about Mafia Marriage.

5 comments about Mainliner Denver: The Bombing of Flight 629.

1. "Directly beneath the disintegrating plane, Harold and Dorothy Heil thought their farm was under attack."
   
   Probably one of the most chilling sentences I've ever read in a book.
   
   The horrific bombing of United Air Lines Flight 629 in Colorado in 1955 is brought vividly to life in "Mainliner Denver." This is one of those "can't put down" reads that will keep you enthralled and wondering what will develop next.
   
   In addition to following the crime, its aftermath, the search for the cause, the trial and its outcome, various subplots develop: the media rivalry between Denver's two major newspapers, each hoping to top the other in coverage; in-fighting between the defense attorneys; and the investigators' shock in discovering that there was no federal statute on the books (in 1955) that made it a crime to blow up an airplane.
   
   John Gilbert Graham, arrested, tried, convicted and ultimately executed for the crime (he blamed an unhappy childhood on his mother -- a passenger on the plane -- and planned to collect on a significant flight insurance policy purchased at the airport just prior to the fatal flight) comes across as a cold, calculating and unremorseful madman ... unmoved by the scope of the disaster and callous in his comments regarding the 43 additional victims, including a 13-month-old boy, who were killed along with his mother when his suitcase-packed time-bomb blew the United DC-6B airliner ("Mainliner Denver") out of the sky. Truly chilling.
   
   Writer Andrew J. Field gives us a vivid, highly detailed of this terrible crime and its impact in a book that enthrall you with its narrative and impress you with its details. Includes photographs and diagrams.



2. I'll just jump in and counter another review that's posted. This isn't sensational "true crime" genre stuff. "Mainliner Denver" stays close to the bone, to the definite, no-questions-asked facts of one of the most stunning acts of violence in Colorado's history and in aviation history. Andrew Field steers clear of speculation and guesswork. The details are well assembled, and the flow is linear. The reader is left to absorb the story just as it unfolded in 1955. I worked with both Al Nakkula and Gene Amole at The Rocky Mountain News so it was fascinating to think back about their roles in this over-the-top story. And Field lays out the issues sparked by this legendary crime with a reporter's deft eye -- cameras in the court, vending machine air travel insurance, luggage screening, and execution mishaps, among others. While Graham wasn't the best planner in the world and made it fairly easy for detectives to piece things together, Field does a terrific job of detailing their investigation and the hurdles they encountered along the way. If you want to read something that draws out complicated theories for Graham's psychological make-up, go elsewhere. "Mainliner Denver" sticks to what we know for sure and, in that way, leaves an even more powerful chill.



3. This book--about a man who blows up an airplane carrying his mother and forty-three other people in order to collect on her insurance policies--should be deeply affecting. It isn't. Instead, it reads like an extended statement of facts opening the opinion of the court in an appellate case. And I gained but little more insight into bomber Graham from reading this book than I did from reading the opinion of the court in his case or the other information about the 1955 crash that's available on the Internet. I didn't expect to find out whether Graham's mother's indifferent childrearing alone turned him into a monster, or whether he was born without a conscience. I did hope to read more of the sort of details that would have enabled me to draw my own conclusions on these issues. Those details aren't there. Graham remains as much a pale outline from the start to the finish of this book as he is in the Pacific Reporter. Even easily supplied biographic details about the main players are missing; for instance, the brief description of Graham's mother's childhood suggests she was an only child, and then we learn many pages later that she had at least one sister who was involved in Graham's life. But the biggest failure of the book, I think, is the complete lack of insight we're given into Gloria Graham, the killer's wife. Did she have low self-esteem? Was she the sort of easily-controlled woman to whom Graham would have been drawn because of his hatred of his mother? We aren't given enough information about Gloria to draw any conclusions about her personality at all; nothing about her background, virtually nothing about her courtship. Fifty years have passed since the disaster; maybe the sort of human details that would have fleshed this into a story worth reading are no longer available, having died with the principals. In that case, maybe this book shouldn't have been written, because I think it contributes but little to anyone's understanding of this event. Very disappointing.



4. Andrew J. Field has done an outstanding job in detailing the notorious case of John Gilbert Graham. In every respect -- research, presentation, writing, and editing -- there is absolutely nothing lacking about "Mainliner Denver". To be sure, Mr. Field doesn't succeed in explaining (or even determining) Graham's motivation. Money? Hatred? Was he, as William Roughead once famously described Lizzie Borden, "unfilial?" Mr. Field doesn't know, but his "failure" is not the result of want of trying.
   
   This is a fast, easy, entertaining, riveting, and informative read. I highly recommend it. Indeed, I would be delighted if Mr. Field would bring his considerable talents to bear in exploring other neglected criminals -- Barbara Graham or Penny Bjorkland, to mention only a couple. I'll keep my fingers crossed -- and so should you.



5. In the "True Crime" section of your favorite bookstore most of the titles involve crimes of recent vintage; the reason being that most buyers of True Crime books will pay for something that's fresh in their mind due to the impact from newspapers and the nightly cable barrage (a la Nancy Grace et.al.). Books involving classic crimes that that stand the test of time due to their impact, horror, or legacy are few and far between. In my previous review of "The Mosser Massacre" I applauded the fact that William Cook's reign of terror was getting it's own book while Howard Unruh's "Walk Of Death" from 1949 and Jack Gilbert Graham's airplane bombing in 1955 were still waiting. Well, while Unruh's "legacy" is still lacking the "treatment", Graham's 1955 bombing of a commercial aircraft finally gets the documentation needed. Full of pictures, interviews and trial transcripts, Andrew Field has come up with a book that covers a classic American crime that had no counterpart before 9/11. More importantly, Field weaves into the impact the crime had on the victims and their relatives (which, unfortunately is too uncommon in true crime literature). Any interested reader in classic American crime will enjoy this book! (Note: for any perspective true-crime authors; along with the before-mentioned Unruh how about a book on 1948 Ohio rampage killers Murl Daniels and John Coulter West?)

5 comments about Cell 2455, Death Row: A Condemned Man's Own Story.

1. "By the time you read this they will have killed me" is a better read this is pretty much the same info by a different author than Caryl, the man who it is about.



2. I first read this book almost 10 years ago - see post below with same heading...I picked it up again today and still am mezmerized by the ability of someone to recall the specifics and details of crimes committed years earlier. In retrospect I cannot believe that he was innocent at all, having worked in the State Prison System - everyone eventually thinks they are victims of a delapidated system of so called justice. The only one that will ever know what actually happened is Caryl and his maker. Definitely worth a second, third read and more. One of my favorite books of all time. - The Toe



3. In 1948, two-time loser Caryl Chessman was brought to trial on eighteen felony counts, including two kidnapping charges that carried the death penalty. At that time California was big on executions and had a rather arcane standard concerning the definition and punishment for kidnapping (put on the books following the Lindbergh kidnapping).
   
   Chessman stood accused of being the "red-light bandit", who terrorized the lover's lane areas around Los Angeles. The bandit cruised around in a Ford sedan equipped with a red spotlight. Parked couples took it to be a police car and the bandit, armed with a 45, would rob couples and force his female victims to perform sexual favors at gunpoint.
   
   Chessman confessed when he was first apprehended but later recanted. He was tried and received two death sentences. During his twelve years on death row he wrote two best selling books. More importantly, he became an icon for an emerging protest movement; which would grow in many directions and pretty much shape the 1960's.
   
   But while Chessman had a huge influence on the culture of the United States, it had more to do with his case than with the actual content of his 1954 autobiography "Cell 2455 Death Row". Reading the book today your biggest question will not be about Chessman but about how his autobiography ever became a best seller.
   
   "Ding an sich-ultimate reality. Where was it? Where was it to be found? Certainly not at the wild, drunken parties I attended. Nor in the eager arms of young matrons with sophisticated ideas about the institution of marriage. Nor in free-swinging brawls with jokers who, for one reason of another, threw their weight around."
   
   In both style and content this is a fairly typical paragraph in Caryl Chessman's autobiography. Pretentious and disorganized, Chessman tells his life story by recreating many of his "exact" conversations going back to age one. Intelligent and self-educated, much of the material seems to have been inserted simply as a means to demonstrate these qualities to readers. Today's more skeptical reader population will find it difficult to credit much of his unsubstantiated material; your gut feeling that Chessman gleefully fabricated much of his life history will make it difficult to react to it as a work of non-fiction.
   
   While nothing in the book would lead a reader to conclude that Chessman was a raving nutcase, neither is there anything to suggest someone with the desire to provide an authentic expose. By the time he wrote it, he had figured out how to play the media and the opponents of capital punishment; he gave them what he thought they wanted.
   
   That the autobiography is self-serving should not be a surprise, that it (through what is said and what is not said) reveals almost nothing about the actual inner workings of Chessman's mind is disappointing. Chessman certainly had an agenda (a permanent stay of execution) and the brains to exclude anything that worked against that agenda. But Chessman also had a huge ego and the self-destructive tendencies to match it. So you don't really know to what degree he was playing mind games; with himself and with his potential readers.
   
   Most likely he was the "red-light bandit". No one has surfaced to take credit for these crimes during the past sixty years and Chessman goes into considerable detail about lover's lane and brothel incidents early in his life; intentionally or unintentionally (who can tell) establishing a fascination with these spots (including his own wife's ravishment at a lover's lane location).
   
   So if the case itself fascinates you, you would be better served with an objective account of the matter.
   
   Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.



4. Caryl Chessman does an excellent job in this autobiography of an intelligent young man who slips into hate against the system. Beginning in the 1930s, Caryl begins a life of crime that starts with petty theft and grows into shoot-outs with the police and his eventual death sentence. Merle Haggard met him in San Quentin and claims the man was innocent, but Chessman never denies that he was a menace to society. The book presents an indepth and well written look at the criminal mind and the American justice system. This book is well worth reading, but is unfortunately difficult to obtain. I own an old paperback edition, and could not imagine having to pay over $30 to replace it.



5. Caryl Chessman takes you with him in his incredible life,he is not looking for any excuse to his crimes, he explains why he became a criminal and what the "system" should do against crime.For the first time you hear the thoughts, the feelings and the opinions of an inmate and when you finish the book you feel that a conversation with that man is something you want. If you are strongly convinced that a death penalty is right, by reading this book you realize that nobody has the right to take a life.

2 comments about A Hand in the Water: The Many Lies of Albert Walker.

1. Just finished reading this incredible book. Albert Walker is probably one of the most notorious sociopaths of the twentieth century. Some of the things this man did are almost unbelievable, and I am relieved that he is imprisoned. From researching the background of this book, I found articles from a Canadian newspaper (circa 1999-2000) which said that Walker was trying to work a deal with the British Government to return to Canada and finish his life sentence there. I understand that his former family was not thrilled with the prospect of having return to Canada. Thankfully, I believe he is still in Exeter Prison near Devon, England. Mr. Schiller has done a great job with this book, but I would have liked to know more about Albert Walker's interaction with his family before he fled to England in 1990. I also was left with many unanswered questions regarding the daughter who fled with him. She is portrayed in the book as "a victim", but I find that difficult to believe.I am wondering if she testified against her father in exchange for her freedom. I can see a 15 year old child not grasping the criminal behavior of a father, but I find it incredible that at 21 years old, Miss Walker didn't have a clue what "Daddy" was all about. I tend to believe that Miss Walker had a pretty good idea of her father's schemes during the six years they were on the run, and I feel she was a willing participant. I find it difficult to believe,too, that her father controlled her by hypnotism as suggested in the trial and the book. Just a little too far-fetched..... Overall, a very interesting read.



2. I found this book to be a good read about a unbelievable con artist who got caught in his own game, by the flukiest of flukes. What kind of a murderer dumps the body still wearing a Rolex watch? Unbelievable. What a twit.

No comments about Chopper 2: How to Shoot Friends and Influence People.

4 comments about All-American Mafioso: The Johnny Roselli.

1. The most boring Cosa Nostra book I have ever read. Avoid at all costs.



2. ALL-AMERICAN MAFIOSO is a well-researched biography of legendary mobster Filippo Sacco, better known by his alias: John Rosselli. This book gives good insight into his obscure background and career in the underworlds from Boston to Los Angeles, and from Chicago to Havana, Cuba.
   
   It includes a vast "Notes" section with bibliography, which is always a plus when considering the validity of a research book. Obviously, the authors give you a chance to double-check them if you desire to do so. They had access to hundreds of government documents, FBI files, police files, court documents, interviewed countless people on both side of the law, and dug up contemporary newspaper and magazine articles to insert some nastalgic filler into their pie, turning this book into a nice three-course meal in which by the end of it you are full and satisfied.
   
   Very nicely written and well-edited. The majority of books today in the organized-crime genre are filled with typos and grammatical errors. I tend to notice them, and I noticed few, if any, in this book. Those kind of editing errors are always a turn-off for me when I read a book.
   
   The reader will be additionally impressed with all the rare, never-before-seen photos the authors were able to obtain, one of which is a photo of Rosselli at the age of eight, which I assume they obtained when they interviewed members of Rosselli's family, such as his sister.
   
   All in all, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know about John Rosselli and his Hollywood, government, and gangster pals; the glamorous Los Angeles movie scene of yesteryear; and the CIA/Mafia plots to assassination Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in the early 1960s, in which Rosselli played a major part -- and this is not speculation on the part of the authors, this is a documented fact confirmed by various government officials over the years and thoroughly investigated by a congressional committee in the late 1970s.
   
   I don't think anyone who wants to know about Johnny Rosselli, truly a gangster's gangster, will be disappointed when they finish reading this book.



3. This book's advantage over similar titles is the sheer number of historical insights it offers about four American cities (Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Washington, DC) simply by tracing the extraordinary life of one man, racketeer Johnny Rosselli. Want to know how the Chicago mob hijacked the Hollywood union movement in the 1930s? Or how the Kennedy administration reached out to mobsters to assassinate Castro in the 1960s? You'll find the answers, and much more, in a few hundred lucid, well-researched pages. Many of the same stories appear in Gus Russo's *The Outfit* and *Supermob*, for example, but the extra detail there doesn't always pay its own way, and Russo's conclusions frequently stretch the evidence he presents. Like Russo's more exhaustive (and exhausting) work, *All American Mafioso* shows how interdependent the worlds of organized crime, business, and government could be in mid-century America. Rosselli's grisly murder--he was dismembered and stuffed into an oil drum off the Florida coast after his Senate testimony--also shows how ugly the results could be. Highly recommended.



4. 
   
   Essentially a series of newspaper clippings tossed together and called research, most of it wrong or based on speculation. Save your money

No comments about Muscle.

5 comments about Alcatraz from Inside: The Hard Years 1942-1952.

1. I have been involed in criminal justice practice and education for several years. This book is one of the BEST first hand accounts of prison life I have ever read. A plus was that I got to meet the author on Alacatraz during a visit in 1996. We spoke at some length and he signed a copy of the book for me. I was sorry to hear when I went back a few years later for a return visit to the "Rock" that he had died. This book is a keeper for your library!



2. I got this book in San Fransisco and from then on I was hooked!If I could recommend any book to anyone it would be this one. I couldn't put it down. I won't let anyone borrow it because I don't want it to get ruined. Please if you are looking into getting a book on Alcatraz for yourself or anyone else, get this one! You won't regret it!! I know I didn't!!



3. While Alcatraz is the centerpoint of the book, the overall story is about a young man's life and how it changes--how it is forcibly changed, rather, through a prison system that had reached its limit with him. Though he describes other prisons (including San Quinten), it is Alcatraz that breaks him of his youthful attitudes of rebellion and crime. And that's how Alcatraz was to him and others--not a place of rehabilitation nor even pennance, but a place meant to break them and make them harmless, or kill them. The awful sense of frustration and desperation that must accompany prison life comes through vividly in his narrative.

   The story is told with honesty. I felt I had a sense of him as a young man, and later as an older one facing the real, adult world for the first time. Stories of Alcatraz itself, and its escapes, are well-told from an insider's view, with only hints of residual anger.




4. Great book! It was very powerful



5. I bought the book in 1997 on my first visit to the Rock. I loved it and when I returned to Alcatraz a few months later, I was able to meet Jim Quillen and have my picture taken with him. I felt like I knew him because of the book. It was a neat experience.

No comments about Death of a Gunfighter: The Quest for Jack Slade, The West's Most Elusive Legend.

4 comments about American Gangster: And Other Tales of New York.

1. This title can easily be misconstrued, for "American Gangster" is much more than a simple crime story, even though the rise and fall of legendary Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas is chronicled in the first chapter. This book is comprised of a series of articles the author had written over the years for New York magazine and the Village Voice describing life in the city of New York and the people who made it tick. In addition to profiles of such celebrated luminaries as U.S. Congressman Charles Rangel and jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, the reader is introduced to Patty Huston, a one-man crime wave dubbed "the last Irish cowboy of Sunnyside (Queens)"; Jason Itzler, the nice Jewish boy who ran a $25,000-a-night prostitution ring from a Soho loft; the homeboys from Harlem who produced "Dead Roses," the 'hood's version of "Night of the Living Dead," this one taking place in the city's housing projects. The sleaziness of East Fourteenth Street and Third Avenue, where drug dealing and prostitution were rampant, is recalled in the years before the area was virtually taken over by NYU and such stalwart landmarks as the Academy of Music and Julian's Pool Hall were gutted and replaced with dormitories. The diversity of the subject matter ranges from the humble, hard-working hispanic couple who emigrated to the U.S. and opened up a successful cigar store in Manhattan's Flower District, to the gang wars which ripped Chinatown apart in the Seventies and Eighties, to the daily goings-on at the now-defunct Dover Garage on Hudson Street (upon which the sitcom "Taxi" was based). This is one of the few collections in which I found every chapter interesting, due in large part to Mr. Jacobson's gifted writing. I would strongly recommend "American Gangster" to anyone who would like to know what the pre-gentrified city was really like (although there is a chapter on 9/11) or even for those who, such as myself, remember it quite vividly.



2. People who read Pete Hamill will love Mark Jacobson. I purchased the book because I saw the film, American Gangster, and discovered that the book is a collection of Jacobson's writings from New York Magazine and the Village Voice. Like Hamill, he makes the city come alive in all of its splendor, tawdriness, cruelty, and magnificence. The stories are all true, and if the reader didn't know that upfront, credibilty could be an issue. Some of the people who populate these pages are unreal in the extreme but extraordinarily riveting in their portrayal.
   The best essay in the book is not about crime. It is about the author's house.....the house that his mother sold after his father's death. That is, without exception, one of the most insightful memoirs of family and place that I have read in a long time. That esssay alone made me keep the book rather than pass it on to the Friends of the Library resale rack.
   Having read this collection of essays, I now actively search out anything this author has written. He is that good.



3. "American Gangster" is a collection of Mark Jacobson articles depicting off-beat New York City characters. I bought this book because I wanted to know the "facts" about Frank Lucas, the subject of the "American Gangster" movie.
   
   The Frank Lucas article, like many of the articles in this collection, focuses on describing and illustrating the character rather than giving a great number of facts. Frank Lucas from the article is more self-centered, conniving and crude than the slick Hollywood movie version.
   
   The articles cover a wide variety of characters from the clientele of a cigar shop to 9/11 conspiracy theorists to the owner of a high-dollar escort service. Some of the characters are less than savory and some of them were not very interesting to me.
   
   With the broad range of subjects presented in "American Gangster" there is a good chance there will be something of interest to just about any reader. There is also a good chance the reader will come across a few articles they would rather skip.



4. Chapter 1 of the book features the story of legendary gangster Frank Lucas (now made famous by the movie American Gangster), but it delves deeper into the lives and culture of a few select people that help make New York an eclectic and mesmerizing city.
   
   You will walk away from this book satisfied, but longing to learn more.