5 comments about Agent 146: The True Story of a Nazi Spy in America.

1. A casual read of this book reveals its many inconsistencies. A careful read and a knowledge of US history reveals that this text is full of lies.
   
   Gimpel states that he has been referred to as The World's Most Dangerous Spy. A spy who appears to have never fired a shot at anyone and who claims to have never killed anyone is the world's most dangerous spy? Ha! Gimpel is merely trying to convince readers (and perhaps himself as well?)that he was an excellent spy, a lady's man, a master of several languages, and on and on. At the same time, his book details how he told his girlfriend in Berlin that he was leaving with an American to travel to the US. (The three of them go out drinking the night before his departure, and his girlfriend begs him to stay in Berlin with her, instead of going to America.) Why would a professional spy (and the world's most dangerous one at that) tell his girlfriend details of his upcoming trip to spy on a foreign nation? [Answer: either he didn't really tell her and is just lying to readers, or he did, indicating that he wasn't a very good spy.]
   
   The author reports that he spent several years in Alcatraz. He speaks highly of the dining hall, stating that "you could easily imagine yourself in a hotel." Ha! I have visited Alcatraz as a tourist, and can hardly imagine the dining hall being mistaken for a dining room in hotel. He mentions that Al Capone spent the last years of his life in Alcatraz. On the next page, he quotes someone on a tour boat traveling the waters off of The Rock as saying (over the loudspeaker) that Al Capone died of a brain tumor in Alcatraz. News flash: Capone was released from prison in 1939, spent some time in a hospital, then lived his last years at his estate in Florida, where he died in 1947. Even if Gimpel himself was unaware of this, his editor(s) should have caught this error.
   
   Alcatraz visitors could only be family members, and they were not allowed physical contact with prisoners. At one point (pp. 256-7) Gimpel says that he was visited by two men (neither of whom was related to him), and that they spoke to him in German. All visits in Alcatraz were monitored, and the prisoners instructed concerning topics which were not allowed to be discussed. Would the guards at the prison allow a prisoner and two visitors to carry on a conversation in a foreign language? Gimpel then goes on to say that during a second visit with these non-family members, he was allowed to visit with them in an ordinary room (no glass between them, no phones used for communication, etc.).
   
   The author talks about his former partner at one point being alone in New York and without money. A couple of pages later he speculates that the former partner "still had some money" (from the $5,000 that Gimpel gave him). Later in the text, he talks about how, after the two of them separated, his former partner went on a two-day drinking binge (difficult to do without money). So which is it: did he or did he not have money?
   
   I could go on and on detailing the problems and inconsistencies in Agent 146. In the end, once you start to see that the author is contradicting himself and in some cases outright lying to the reader, it is very difficult to believe anything that he has to say. Even the book jacket--printed in 2003--contains lies. To wit: that Gimpel was given a last-minute pardon, that he returned to Germany in 1947, and that he and his partner were the only Nazi spies to reach American soil.
   
   Save your time and money, and read one of the other books on WWII espionage such as Between Silk and Cyanide by Leo Marks or Behind the Lines by Russell Miller.



2. Erich Gimpel did not die in 1956 in Germany as the official review at top states. He was living in South America as of 2002, with photographic proof if one simply searches the web carefully enough. I don't know where that death date comes from, but as far as I know he was still living in his '90's even as of 2004.



3. I "read" this book as a book on tape. I found this book enjoyable to "read". If you want to read something interesting about clandestine spying in The US during WWII, read this! I think reading this book was "time well spent". Email:boland7214@aol.



4. Sure there are things in this book that question the credibility of the author, but isn't all history written looking back when memories, sometimes are not the best? Rose colored glasses are used when recalling impossible situations? I don't know. But what I am sure about is Agent 146 was impossible to put down. From start to finish I was captivated in the life of danger, the inside look at Nazi Germany and the hair raising cat and mouse chase through New York City. Maybe some of it is hyped up, maybe not, but I couldn't put this book down and I encourage anyone with any interest in World War II to read it!



5. Erich Gimpel narrates Walter Mitty-like escapad-es, with absolutely no corroboration Characters are imply initials or phoney names. Some incidentsreported simply did not happen, such as a "JoanKenneth" knocking at the Military Commissionhearing room, asking to testify in favor of Gimpel. The record of trial and witness list show no such appearance. Also, it would have been impossible tobreach the security at Governors Island. So beware! There are many more fictions presented as fact. Hisaccount of his escape attempt at Leavenworth doesnot jive with the Bureau of Prisons account, whichled to his transfer to Alcatraz.The "true" story of a spy in America? Not in my book. There is no record that he sent a single message (transmitter was never assembled---FBI found the parts in a box after his capture).His performance for the Abwehr was consistent with the failure of German intelligence throughout WW II.

4 comments about Contract Killer.

1. Alot of storys in this book are hard to belive. I read alot of other mob books and they all Have different versions to the same story. A good gangster book is WISEGUY or read the UNDERBOSS . it seems to me as if this guy just wants to be important. But overall its a good book.



2. This book is totally lacking in credibility. It has been discredited by other more trustworthy sources. Frankos story on the Hoffa murder, for one, is a total fabrication. Please, do some research (read "The Westies," for instance, a much more jouranlistically credible source) and you will find that this book is FICTION disguised as fact. That is, if you care.



3. Great account of a real-life tough guy and hitman. This book provides an insider's look into the mob and various prisons. Also, detailed accounts of murders and the planning that goes into them.



4. I love non-fiction books. Especially crime stories. I have read a lot of books about La Cosa Nostra and I can honestly admit that this is the best one I have ever read. I would like to thank "Tony The Greek" personally for the entertainment! The best point that this author made was to forget about writing a story and to just write the truth. If I am to read non-fiction, I want it to be 100% non-fiction. This is it!!! Great book.

4 comments about Verne Sankey: America's First Public Enemy.

1. "Verne Sankey: America's First Public Enemy" is an exciting and interesting look at the Depression-era Midwest complete with bootleggers, gangsters and kidnappers. Judge Bjorkman does an excellent job of unraveling the story of Verne Sankey, an ordinary kid who wanted to make it big, and finally does so by becoming "America's Public Enemy # 1". The book provides excellent insight into the twisted logic of the criminal mind.
   
   Sandy Murphy



2. I enjoyed every page of this biography that reads like a novel with clever foreshadowing and unique character development that is accomplished by giving the reader a thorough understanding of the setting in which Verne Sankey became Public Enemy No. 1. Mr. Bjorkman takes us on a bumpy ride through rural South Dakota in the early days of the Great Depression as well as a look into J. Edgar Hoover's early years in the Bureau. It's a good read.



3. Author Timothy Bjorkman has written what appears to be a commendable biography of "America's First Public Enemy", Verne Sankey. With the demise of prohibition law-breakers turned to kidnapping and bank robbery to acquire their ill-gotten gains. Sankey chose Charles Boettcher II as his kidnapping victim, and the book focuses on this incident, his release, Sankey's trial, and eventual imprisonment. Sankey chose to end his life by hanging himself while in jail. Author Bjorkman has done a good job in writing about his subject, but I was not able to really get into this book. I don't believe that is the fault of the author, however. I never heard of Sankey until I read the book, and I base my low rating on my lack of interest in this depression-era incident and not on the author's effort.



4. Timothy Bjorkman captured the mood of both impoverished South Dakota and the wealthy of Denver in the 30s. It is a great read that is well documented and gives the reader an understanding of the players as well as the times.

5 comments about Serpico.

1. The late Peter Maas was a master of investigative reporting. Nowhere are his skills more evident than in this story about Frank Serpico, a police officer who tried to rid the New York City Police Department of the corruption that was rampant amongst its rank and file. Eventually, Serpico's efforts led to the establishment of the Knapp Commission, which would do a large scale investigation of police corruption and the policies and procedures within the Police Department itself that would allow such to flourish. Unfortunately, his efforts initially fell, for the most part, upon deaf ears. Nothing of any real import was really done until Serpico was grievously wounded in a gun battle with a drug dealer in 1971 that left all of New York, including Serpico, wondering as to what really happened?
   
   Serpico was a Brooklyn boy who had always looked up to law enforcement and grew up wanting to preserve and protect. Little did he know, until he actually joined the police department, that preserve and protect seemed to pertain to the bribery, graft, and extortion in which many police officers, at the time, engaged. Serpico's initial shock gave way to disillusionment, and he refused to accept the money that other officers took as part of their due. His naiveté was soon replaced by disgust at finding out how rife was the corruption within the New York City Police Department. That soon turned to anger, however, as no one seemed interested in cleaning up the cesspool of corruption in which he worked. Although he tried, all he got was the runaround, until his near fatal shooting.
   
   This is a riveting account of Serpico's travails, and time has not diminished the author's riveting account of how Serpico took the system on. The author paints an interesting portrait of a man who was truly one of New York's finest cops. Although somewhat of a maverick and a loner, Serpico was a dedicated police officer, who only desired that his fellow officers follow the very same laws that they were to enforce. Serpico defied the system, and the system nearly defeated him. This book is simply a page-turner, and one that those who like the true crime genre will really enjoy.



2. This IS A TRUE STORY!!! This is the story of ONE honest cop/detective that actually tried to clean up crime in the "Big Apple" and got a bullet in his head thanks to his fellow officers due to his bringing in the FBI to clean up the NYPD itself....full of corruption!!!!!
   
   This man deserves to be awarded the MEDAL OF HONOR.......strong words, yet few people in the history of our country have sacrificed as much as him and very unfortnately, only lip service is given in support by the Congress of the United States.
   
   Frank Serpico is a modern AMERICAN HERO of the HIGHEST ORDER!!!!!!!
   
   By the way, Mr. Serpico has to live in a foreign country to protect himself from taking a finalizing "hit" from friends of the corrupt officers of the NYPD.....I'm not saying ALL the officers are corrupt but far too many are!



3. Co-workers, supervisors - and even the people he served - mobbed and bullied Frank Serpico so severely, he never
   got over it. Even though mobbing has been around since the beginning of time, it is frightening
   to know that - in America - mobbing is encouraged - even though it can be avoided (thus saving someone's life).
   
   Bottom line: mobbing is a management pathology and a management failure. And worse, in all cases, it can be
   partially 'cured' through prevention policies. Back in Serpico's day, corruption was the rule and the mob was
   to be feared. Even though this may be partially true today, what employees need to fear the most is management
   participation in bullying and mobbing. Worse still, human resources takes the bullying and mobbing to
   a new level. In some cases, they become goons on behalf of an organization. But this should never happen.
   
   To understand mobbing fully, a researcher should read this book and highlight scenes that correspond with
   the points Dr. Heinz Leymann made about mobbing: i.e. attacks on social relations, isolation, etc...
   
   Only then, when we fully understand the magnitude of mobbing, can we work on solutions. Solutions we discover
   today will save someone's life tomorrow.



4. Peter Maas (who sadly died in 2001) was best known for his career as the historian of the Mafia, corruption, and whistleblowing. His first book, The Valachi Papers, was an instant best-seller and kicked off the craze for all things Mafia that swept the seventies after its publication.
   
   Serpico tells the story of Frank Serpico, the whistleblower cop who was determined to clean up corruption in the police force that he loved so much. It is as much about the policeman code of silence in the face of wrongdoing in the department as it is about Serpico himself. The book was also an instant best-seller at the time of publication and was the seed for an award-winning film by Stanley Lumet and a television series.
   
   As a book, Serpico is a fascinating look at the issue of police corruption during the 1970s. Frank Serpico is really a hero of his time, embodying much of the confusion and changing priorities of the era. The prose is quite readable, but suffers a bit from hyperbole and some poor editing which meant that sections were occasionally repeated as the story progresses.
   
   Recommended for true crime fans who would rather read about corruption than serial killers. It should also appeal to readers interested in the attitude towards police in the late 1960s/early 1970s. Three and a half stars.



5. The truth is often unpleasant. This verity is the highlight of the society surrounding Frank Serpico.
   It's remarkable how anyone could sustain the mental pressure that was brought upon this person. We're just reading about it. Serpico was living through this very real tension.
   Maas does a good job of setting up Serpico as the oddball in the group from his unconventional dress sense to his unwillingness to comrpomise his integrity and partake of the pervadiong corruption.
   His journalistic streak does creep in from time to time and the narrative can occasionaly drag while he is setting up some sequences. This would put it at 4 stars
   The purpose of the protagonist is an example that is well brought out by the book and that's why I think most people interested in some civic or public office should read it as a source of inspiring personal integrity - this gets it 5 stars.

1 comments about The First Detective: The Life and Revolutionary Times of Vidocq.

1. Although this topic is by nature interesting--the story of the world's first detective--the book is so poorly written that the writing style frequently detracts from the interest and confuses. Vidocq was a criminal turned crook-catcher ala England's Jonathan Wilde, with the possible difference that he may have been more honest (although this is by no means sure). Certainly an interesting subject. The writer's assumptions pose a problem, however. Perhaps, Vidocq is well known in the U.K., but as an American, I had never heard of him before. I HAD heard of Jonathan Wilde, but it is conceivable that others hadn't. Yet Morton frequently assumes the reader has knowledge that he or she may not have. His chapters scramble all over the place in time, so that you are continually mentally shuttling back and forth in your attempts to make sense of everything he mentions. His paragraphs are particulary ill-formed. One time I spent 10 minutes or so trying to figure out the identity of a person whose name he just threw into the middle of a paragraph about something else entirely. I never did figure out who the person was. Sometimes his footnotes had no discernable connection to the information they footnoted. And there were plenty of grammatical errors, the most notable, one in which he turned Napoleon into a woman by means of a misplaced modifier.

No comments about Vida y aventuras del más célebre bandido sonorense, Joaquín Murrieta: sus grandes proezas en California.

4 comments about Words for the Taking: The Hunt for a Plagiarist.

1. Neal Bowers made an interesting discovery one day - one of his poems was published under someone else's name.

   With this minor irritation (one never gets rich from poetry, one's own or others), Bowers began the trek down a bizarre path to try to find out who was plagiarising his work, and why. Bowers discovered a man going by the name of David Sumner, aka David Jones, who had a habit of copying the poetry from others (not only Bowers), changing the title and a first line or two, and submitting these to poetry journals, magazines and other media outlets as his own. Exactly why was unclear - any pieces of note would undoubtedly be discovered, and few publishing successes came with any kind of monetary compensation attached.

   Bowers never intended to become a detective, but the trail just kept on going. Bowers actually made contact with the person, threatened legal action, abandoned because, after all, there was no money in it beyond Sumner/Jones sent to Bowers (some $600 or so that he managed to make from the poems), copies of journals from which he'd lifted poems, a marked book that showed his submission patterns - each step of the way, Sumner/Jones claimed to be operating in good faith, but there was inevitably more to be found.

   What was going on?

   The more Bowers dug, the more surreal the situation became. Sumner/Jones had been a teacher in Illinois and Oregon, dismissed under terrible circumstances (molestation of children from his second-grade classrooms), jailed for the actions, and strangely, focussed his plagiarism on poetry that dealt with family issues and loss. Bowers was not the only poet plagiarised - as it turned out, Sumner/Jones was successful enough to have many publishing successes, and even had poetry readings arranged.

   Perhaps the most interesting part of this is near the end, the attitudes of various persons towards Bowers and his quest for some sort of justice. Journalists by and large were sympathetic, not liking the idea of someone stealing the words (the stock-in-trade of their profession) and getting away with it. But there were those in the media, including poetry journal editors, who seemed to think that Bowers was the 'bad guy' for making such a fuss. Because of the attentions of journalists, others who felt they'd been wronged (not only in plagiarism, but in other realms, too) assumed Bowers would be a kindred spirit and naturally willing to help them - Bowers' mail quadrupled, with all manner of bizarre requests.

   Bowers even discovered plagiarism from his friends - one friend, a calligrapher, set some of Bowers' poems in her art, and even produced her own hand-drawn book of his poems (offered at a very high price) without permission, and perhaps more surprisingly, without any recognition that what she was doing was in any way wrong - words were hers for the taking.

   In the end, the story ends the way it began - Jones/Sumner still sending out plagiarised work, now having 'graduated' to short stories. But one assumes that Bowers will let others continue the pursuit. Sumner/Jones, in finding Bowers to be a reasonable, even nice, person generally, may have focussed upon him more directly because of this. No good deed goes unpunished!

   A fascinating and unexpected tale.




2. I was fascinated by this book, especially since I worked with Bowers in his quest to catch up with his plagiarist, a quest detailed by this book. Although the editor before me published the poem, I was the editor of a small poetry magazine which had printed a plagiarized version of one of Bowers' poems. Both in our brief correspondence and in this book, Bowers' impressed me as a brave soul. Plagiarists, on the other hand, are not the pranksters they imagine themselves to be; they are the cowards of the literary world. "Words for the Taking" is a tale of courage, both in the story it tells of the tracking of a criminal, and in the example it sets of one man believing in his writing. There are many lazy, slack-off writers out there. "Words for the Taking" shows us more than any writing course could that putting effort into and believing in your writing is one of the bravest acts possible.



3. I think this book was good and interersting and to me It was a good book.This author is my only uncle and I think he is a great poet/author!!!!!!



4. This is a fascinating and scary book.

   WORDS FOR THE TAKING is by the poet Neal Bowers, who stumbled on one of his poems that appeared under another writer's name. After some detective work, he found out that the plagiarist, David Sumner/David Jones, had ripped off several other of his poems, and had also stolen from poets as well known as Mark Strand and Sharon Olds. Further investigation located the man, and it turned out he was also guilty of child molestation -- a second-grade teacher who was convicted of molesting 7-year-old girls left in his care.

   I wonder if you have to be a writer yourself, to understand how violated the author felt. (And how terrifying it must have been to find out how completely bereft of morals the violator turned out to be).

   The first instance Bowers found was "Tenth -Year Elegy," a very personal remembrance of his father. Most of the other poems stolen were about family relations, which in context is sinister.

   (One must quote, for fun, the response that he got from the editor of _Poetry Forum_, with an unlikely name, Gunvor Skogsholm, the burden of which seems to have driven him to reinvent the history of poetry in his own eloquent terms: "It's my strongly felt opinion that a good poet by nature ought to possess humbleness and that he or she ought not to think to [sic] highly of him- or herself. Throughout history, those have always been the personal traits associated with a POET. If you have read any of the literary histories associated with the great names in the art of poetry, you will know this is so.")

   It's a very well written book on a fascinating subject. Bowers understands that merely ordinary people might see his concern and the steps he was driven to as being excessive, and I think in that light, both he and the publisher, W.W. Norton, are to be commended for keeping a proper perspective.

2 comments about Living By Russian Roulette (Bound for the Promised Land).

1. This book is captivating. Once you start reading it is very hard to put down. I would recommend this book to anyone. The reader gets a first hand description of the ups and downs of Moe's life and how the drug trade invaded a small Indiana town. From living life with the high rollers to going to jail, this book takes you to all points in between. AAA+++ book!!!



2. I read this book in one day because I could not put it down. It's that good. I can usually tell if a book is going to be worth reading by the first few pages, and I was totally hooked by then.
   
   The author puts true and actual events that have happened in his life into an unbelievable story. Most writers spend years conjuring up fictional material like this, but THIS is the real thing. All true and very captivating.
   
   I enthusiastically recommend this book. BUY IT! Just don't plan on getting anything done but reading for a while.....

4 comments about Long Dark Road: Bill King and Murder in Jasper, Texas.

1. I have to admit that the only reason I initially read this book was my curiosity at how the town of Jasper and the events which took place in said town would be portrayed. Jasper is my hometown, and I was 12 years old during that dreadful summer of 1998.
   
   Ultimately, when I found out that a professor at the very university I attend current day had written a book about my hometown and Bill King, I wanted to see if he, like nearly all others who had written or spoken of the topic, had made my town and fellow townspeople out to be some sort of ignorant, backwoods armpit in East Texas. Almost immediately, my attentions were diverted elsewhere...Ainslie does a terrific job of showing that this crime could have happened to any person in any town...ANYWHERE in the world.
   
   Although I may or may not agree with his diagnosis of Bill King, since I did not know him personally, I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book, if enjoyed is even an appropriate word. Coming from the mouth of a Jasper resident who has to deal with the horrid looks and comments from people who learn where she is from...that's saying a lot. This topic is quite sensitive to me, and that degree of sensitivity has not lessened in any way since July 1998. If any changes have happened, it's only gotten stronger.
   
   I strongly suggest reading this book for a better and less bias view of Jasper and James Byrd, Jr's murder.



2. I thought the author did an outstanding job of writng about the humanity of a person who did what we call a "inhunman" crime. It is all the more chilling that these acts were not done by some sort of monster, but a person, who is to some extent a result of his environment. The best part of the book, however is the description of the community of jasper and the very real people who tried to do the right thing in the midst of lots of media hype.



3. I was so looking forward to reading this book, LONG DARK ROAD,(Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004) when I purchased it. I was very disappointed after the first two chapters. The 44 pages of the second chapter read almost word for word like a rehash of what Joyce King wrote with freshness and eloquence in her book, HATE CRIME, which was first published by Random House in 2002 and then by Anchor Books in 2003. On several pages, it looks like Ainslie simply rearranged some of Joyce King's wording. So I found myself desperately looking for originality in Ainslie's text, because he never acknowledges Joyce King's all-too obvious influence on his writing. Ainslie introduces some interesting psychoanalytic theories re: King in the middle of the book, including some, but not entirely new info on family history. Missing, however, is attention to the fact that most prisoners suffer from some form of mental illness, are usually poor, often come from dysfunctional families and have fallen through the cracks of the mental health care system in this country. Clear recommendations for early mental health care intervention for juvenile delinquents would have made Ainslie's efforts here more compelling and plausible. It is not clear why Ainslie interviewed King at all without clear recommendations in place for what could have been done to prevent Bill King's violent, criminal behavior. Instead of researching the failures of a system that places mentally ill juvenile delinquents in penal institutions with violent offenders, Ainslie focusses on the point that Joyce King already made clear in HATE CRIME--that there is a need for prison reform. We already read that in HATE CRIME. Moreover, Ainslie does not offer any comparative analysis of Bill King with other poor, bi-polar, traumatized young men or women who are housed in U.S. prisons or on death row. It is not at all clear where Bill King, then, stands in the broader analysis of the type of psychological study Ainslie is engaged in. The reader learns little that is new here. Moreover, they learn nothing new about Bill King's psychological condition that can not already be easily gleaned from news reports on the case, Joyce King's HATE CRIME, or other previously published materials on the dragging of James Byrd, Jr. I found this book lacking in depth and breadth of analysis.



4. Authors and psychologists can spend lifetimes trying to know what shadows know. They prowl the obscure corners of human behavior, seeking to drag something back out to the light. But sometimes, the path only leads them deeper, darker.
   
   Dr. Ricardo Ainslie -- both an author and a psychologist -- has been chasing shadows along Huff Creek Road in Jasper, where James Byrd Jr. was dragged to death in one of the past century's grisliest hate crimes. And each step has taken him deeper into the darkest recesses of a decayed mind.
   
   Countless articles, books and films have documented how King and two white friends -- fellow ex-con Russell Brewer and Shawn Berry -- offered the drunken Byrd a ride in the wee hours of June 7, 1998. But they didn't take him home. Instead, they chained him by the ankles to the rear bumper of Berry's truck and literally dragged him to pieces on a hard-pan logging road. They purposely left his dismembered corpse in the front yard of a small African-American church and cemetery.
   
   And King -- whose body was almost completely swathed in racist and Satanic tattoos, whose apartment concealed a stash of racist literature and clothing splattered by Byrd's blood, and whose distinctive cigarette lighter was found at the scene -- was the first of the three to stand trial. Widely seen as the ringleader of the butchery, he was convicted and sentenced to die. Unrepentant and his appeals all but exhausted, the 29-year-old King now awaits execution.
   
   But those trials didn't answer a central question: What made Bill King a monster?
   
   Partly at the request of King's father, the 55-year-old University of Texas psychology professor was drawn deep into the sometime savage, sometimes frighteningly ordinary world of a small-town killer.
   
   "Bill King, the man, is much more human than we would care to think," Ainslie writes. "When the global media descended ... in a relentless hunt for sensational material, they constructed a perhaps comforting, but ultimately obscuring, myth about King's monstrous nature. ... The truth is that King is all too close, in kind and in temperament, to me or to you."
   
   In King, we see a dim and distant reflection of ourselves, Ainslie suggests. Author Hannah Arendt coined the phrase "banality of evil" to portray the Nazis who perpetrated the Holocaust, and Ainslie invokes it for other acts of evil.
   
   "To attempt to understand the motives at work in Bill King's life, to understand that there were reasons for his behavior, is not to exonerate him," Ainslie explains. "If we avoid examining King's life for fear that such an effort might appear to excuse him, then we risk missing precisely what we most need to know about this story."
   
   One of the most unsettling elements of the 254-page "Long Dark Road" is its hypothesis that "given the right alchemy, perhaps anyone might become capable of monstrous cruelty."
   
   "The transgressions involved may not be as momentously horrifying as the dragging death of an innocent man," Ainslie says, "but I believe that human beings, by nature and perhaps by wiring, struggle with our dark sides. This is one of the key premises of Christianity."

1 comments about Running With Dillinger: The Story of Red Hamilton and Other Forgotten Canadian Outlaws.

1. No one thinks of Canada and thinks of Outlaws - it may be a testament to the country, but it would be wrong to say they are without them. "Running with Dillinger: The Story of Red Hamilton and Other Forgotten Canadian Outlaws" is the follow up to "The Desperate Ones: Forgotten Canadian Outlaws" - a look at the darker side of Canada, those who made their living opposing the law enforcement and through nefarious means. Of particular note to those who must have a link to American crime in their Canadian crime book is Red Hamilton - a long time member of the Dillinger gang, and notorious gangster in his own right. "Running with Dillinger: The Story of Red Hamilton and Other Forgotten Canadian Outlaws" is a must for any Canadian history collection who wants a look at Canada's famous lawbreakers and hoodlums - and for anyone who wants to see the Maple Leaf in a different light.