5 comments about The Dragonhead: The Godfather of Chinese Crime--His Rise and Fall.

1. Sack here bit off way more than he could chew. He had all the resources needed for writing a great story except talent. "Bland" comes to mind; so does "contrived." Moreover he shows neither sensitivity nor genuine understanding of Asian culture and the traditions of the hei sh'e hui (Chinese triads).
   
   I regret buying this book. The true story of Jonny Kon would have been much mroe brilliantly handled by a veteran writer. Sack's interview and contacts with Kon turned out to be a pathetic waste of an incredible opportunity.



2. First of all, I strongly encourage anyone to read an excerpt of this book before purchasing it. Sack (for better or worse) is one of the pioneers of "literary journalism", which means his writing style is more akin to storytelling, with recreated conversations and whatnot, than many people will be used to. This is especially disconcerting because he explains his methodology in assembling this biography of Chinese gang lord Johnny Kon at the end of the book, instead of the beginning. If this doesn't put you off, it's still hard to ignore some of his other stylistic flaws. Foremost of these is an excess of detail-throughout the book the reader is kept up to date on every dish consumed during gang meetings, the cost, style, and provenance of every item of footwear Johnny Kon is wearing, and the precise decor of every hotel lobby and room he passes through. These details, marginally interesting the first or second appearance, rapidly grow annoying and intrusive, ballooning what might have been a 250 page book to it's final 400 pages. Another stylistic flaw is the lack of dates throughout. Once the early part of Johnny's life is past, and the Vietnam War is over, it's very hard to get a sense of what time frame is under discussion.

   The life and times of Johnny Kon is certainly an interesting tale, and not one many people could have even attempted, much less completed. From a life of poverty in Maoist China, Kon escaped to Shanghai and then Hong Kong, building a semi-legitimate fur empire. Much of his fur fortune was linked to the huge US Army presence in Southeast Asia during the 1960s, and the sections which detail his interactions with the US Army are very compelling. However, in this period also lies Kon's alleged motive for becoming the leading importer of heroin to the US. I say alleged because the basis for the book is Sack's relationship with Kon and interviews with him conducted in jail, and so it's hard not to view Kon's "motive" as an after-the-fact self-justification. In any event, whether one believes it or not, the event that pushed Kon into drug dealing was the death of two of his children in the chaos of the Khmer Rouge coup in Cambodia. He lays the ultimate blame for this at the feet of the US and its meddling in other countries and spread of indiscriminate death and destruction. The book posits the dubious notion that heroin was "popularized" by all the US soldiers who became addicted during their tour of duty, and thus created the demand for Kon's operations ten years later.

   So, Kon builds himself a gang comprised of a tough circle of ex-Red Guard soldiers and embarks on an effective smuggling operation that massive quantities of heroin into the US in the '80s. While the logistics of his operation make for interesting reader, the dynamics of the gang do not. There are so many members of his gang, it gets hard to keep them, their nicknames, and their allegiances straight (here, a diagram or simple list at the beginning of the book would have been a useful editorial addiction). Similarly, the Byzantine feuds of the various gangs and how they all relate to each other gets a bit tedious and hard to follow. Ultimately, Kon's downfall was predictably the result of some rather amazing bungling, silly escalations of petty rivalries over "respect" between gang members, and that ultimate foe of the gangster-betrayal.

   One of the more disturbing aspects of the book are the descriptions of how the US government strong-armed a number of countries into extraditing members of Kon's family who had nothing to do with his heroin operations. They were used as leverage against Kon, forcing him to plead guilty-and while there's no denying he was a very bad drug lord, those kinds of tactics are bad precedent setters. Ultimately, the book is moderately interesting, but far too long. It suffers greatly from its more or less detached recounting of Kon's life story-especially odious are Kon's attempts to be a good Bhuddist amidst it all. The same kind of hypocrisy that infested the Irish-Catholic gangs and Italian mafia. Ultimately, unless one is really really interested in the heroin trade, or in Chinese gangs, I'd probably advise skipping this overladen book.




3. June 10, 2002

   For good or ill, the author of `The Dragonhead', John
   Sack, is the book's real `star'. He spends an inordinate
   number of words wowing or attempting to wow his readers.
   His style is a marriage of Tom Wolfe's observational
   acuity and novelist James Ellroy's cynical descriptive
   overkill.

   As may be expected, Sack's writing occasionally gets
   away from him, particularly during his frequent head-
   hopping. Once inside the brains of a subject, Sack
   doesn't illustrate so much as wallow. I'd guess he's
   fairly on the money, but this impression may stem from
   the fact that the book's main character, Johnny Kon,
   has a noggin that's been turned around more times than
   the wind-up propeller on a child's toy airplane ("Crank
   `em up and watch `em go!").

   I'm not a hundred percent on the reportage here, but
   I'm more than impressed enough to believe that if not
   everything in "The Dragonhead' is true, it could easily
   well be. Still, it's an imperfect and not particularly
   well-detailed book, and Sack and occasionally tiring
   writer.




4. This book is about the life of a Chinese gangster leader Johnny Kon and his associates. John Jack spent 12 years talking with Kon and his criminals before he wrote this book. The operation of Johnny Kon's drug business is located in Hong Kong, my hometown. I like this book because it depicts the real life of a gangster leader and shows how he gets away from the authorities and how he runs his "business." The book unfolds like an action movie. For instance, in one scene Kon is attempting to smuggle a large amount of heroin around his waist at the airport. When he is about to be body-searched, he drops his expensive Minolta. The camera smashes on the ground, distracting all the security guards. They apologized as Kon walks away with the drugs. It is pure drama. I enjoy this book, however, I hope that readers who read this book do not have an impression that Hong Kong is highest crime cities in the world.



5. Before buying this book, read the first few pages. If you like the style, then you'll like the book. If not, you'll find that this is a great story that was ruined by an annoying style.

1 comments about The Desperate Ones: Forgotten Canadian Outlaws.

1. The Desperate Ones by Edward Butts is truly a fascinating book, well-written with an exceptional account of Canadian history at its best. In this new work, Canadian outlaws are researched to an insight never before reached. This ground-breaking insight is a refreshing look at the infamous criminals across the U.S. borders.
   This is recommended reading, bringing new light to many forgotten criminals including America's largest public enemy John Dillinger. The Desperate Ones brings forth a legendary, yet blazing ride through America's golden age of bank robbers. A must to read! Review by 7ony Stewart, author of Dillinger, The Hidden Truth

4 comments about Vesco: From Wall Street to Castro's Cuba </br>The Rise, Fall, and Exile of the King of White Collar Crime.

1. Beyond the obvious research the author has done on the subject; he has painted a picture of one of those men in history who lived a colorful life at possibly the wong time. In today's world Robert Vesco would probably be a hero.



2. The book is about as good as any book could be, given the secrecy in which its main subject operated. It never gives the reader any clarity about why Vesco committed the crimes that made him famous (he could have made just about as much money legally, and would not have ended up in jail in Cuba as a result.) But in a case where little is known about what precisely happened, it is unfair to expect Herzog to explain why it happened. Anyway, this is the only book on Mr. Vesco that discusses his later career, and it sorely deserves an update. Required reading for any scholars of 1970s finance or Wall Street scandals.



3. VESCO:FROM WALL STREET TO CASTRO'S CUBA by Arthur Herzog is a riveting study of while-collar criminal, Robert Vesco, accused by the Securities Exchange Commission of looting Bernard Cornfeld's Investor's Overseas Service (IOS) of 425 million in 1986. Vesco fled the USA before he was brought to trial, presumably, taking the money with him. The ingredients of "game playing", secretiveness, manipulation, bravado, and a "slippery streak" mixed with a more than usual dose of greed and chutzpah is the foundation of the Vesco legend.
   Herzog looks at his ambitious childhood in Detroit, his early marriage at seventeen, and his knack of losing jobs. After awhile Vesco decides to start his own businesses, ultimately creating wealthy conglomerates. But Vesco did not work alone; he sought out and persuaded powerful, wealthy men to join him in his various get-rich schemes. After he left the country, he still had a line to the best attorneys to represent him and to powerful politicians to protect him, as he hop-scotched around the Caribbean--Costa Rica, the Bahamas, Nicaragua, Antigua, and eventually Castro's Cuba. It is here that Herzog catches up with the fugitive financier and gets the first interview ever with him. Ironically, Herzog's last question, "Bob, was it all worth it?" is left unanswered as Vesco scurries away.
   * * *



4. I would love to meet and greet the person the book is about. It is as if he has left no stone unturned. Mr. Vesco if you can read this please call me @ 1-313-577-6951. Thanks Carole McCormick.

5 comments about Committing Journalism: The Prison Writings of Red Hog.

1. Dannie Martin was an old-time con -- he robbed banks, he didn't rat on his partners and he did his time by minding his own business. Until a stint in the federal prison system led him to send a story to the San Francisco Chronicle, where Peter Sussman, editor of the Datebook section of the paper, published it. And that's when the trouble started. Dannie's clear-eyed unapologetic but fearless snapshots of prison life exposed the outrages committed by guards and administrators. This led the federal Bureau of Prisons to crack down on him and in turn led the Chronicle to sue the prison system on the behalf of Dannie and the paper's First Amendment rights. His book, a collection of the stories he wrote for the Chronicle, gives the reader an eye-opening look behind prison walls - at prisoners coping with AIDS, with drug addiction, and with a heartless and sometimes brainless system.



2. Well, what every time happens when one read a good book is, that lots of question are leaved unansvered, and that is the good thing, reader should use brain of his own in some matters. As some other reviewer said, this indeed is an insightful book. for those of you out there who think that democracy is the just system and that everybody in it receives justice ot whatever interpretation of the word you have in mind, this is the book for you. You'll learn that line beetween just and unjust is often so thin that one could say it does not exist. Stretching the concepts of right, and humane, of liberality, justice, crime and punishment, this is the book that should be read by every person who thinks the worls is set in order. Don't take me wrong, this is not some kind of anarchistic manifesto, or political pamfleth, this is the book that was written by a man who had an "inside information in system" and inside iformation being the criminal, prisoner even. Read the book and you will not regret it.



3. In this book, Dannie Martin and Peter Sussman have done more to shed light on the idiocy of our prison system than any other book I have read on the subject.

   Dannie Martin is a convicted criminal, and I expected the usual whining about the system and how he got a poor trial, etc. Instead, what I found was a series of insightful articles written about the prison system by someone who has the ultimate in first hand knowledge. Interwoven with that was the story of the Federal Bureau of Prisons attempts to quiet the man who was exposing their dirty laundry.

   Dannie Martin is a natural writer with a wonderful sense of humor. Far from being dry, this book was extremely readable and enjoyable. I think anyone who is helping to foot the bill for the Federal Prison system needs to read this book!!




4. This book should be required for all politicians who vote against prison reform. Seldom have I experienced the range of emotions that this book instilled-rage, indignation,joy,sadness and shame. The authors should be encouraged to give us more of the truth about our "correctional (?) system.



5. Committing Journalism:The Prison Writings of Red Hog written by Dannie M. Martin and Peter Y. Sussman tells the story of an essential First Amendment struggle. This collection of over fifty essays and the narrative of the struggles that they are born from, is a gripping survey of the brutal existence inside our prisons. Martin blossomed as a writer while behind bars. He left jail in 1995 with a profession and a chance to create positive energy in a world that he had previously only rebelled against. If only for the surreal drama of his suppression after touching a raw nerve in both the penal system and readers of his regular column in the San Fransisco Chronicle, the book is a must read. Yet, the eloquence and poignance of his reports demonstrate the power of finding the heart of any matter and communicating it with the skills of an accomplished journalist.

2 comments about Ted Bundy: The FBI Files.

1. it appears that these are in fact... official FBI files, but all the interesting information has been blacked out... and so i say
   ...................WHAT IS THE POINT?



2. This book contains very little info and is not what you may think with tons of interesting documents. There is much blacked out on every page. Don't waste your money.

5 comments about Breaking the Mob.

1. Some books about criminal mobs by lawmen can fall into the trap of being too judgmental, self righteous and poorly written. This book though strikes the right balance and delivers relevant details of the rackets, history and personalities of the Philadelphia mafia and its mobsters. The book flows well and does not burden the reader with irrelevant comments and long winded sermons.
   
   The success of police tactics in putting pressure on mafia members to turn informer and agree to testify against the mob in court is the link that enables Frank Friel and his fellow officers to build up cases against Scarfo and associates that eventually leads to convictions with long jail sentences and brings down the mob.
   
   Scarfo's bloodthirsty and unstable leadership plays a large part in turning some mafia members (who realize that they also are in unmistakable danger of being bumped off by Scarfo) to become government witness's against the mob.
   
   Friel provides a great deal of information about his conversations and dealings with criminals, the local police and FBI agents. He also does a sidetrack to provide relevant details of corruption in local government and areas of the Philadelphia police force, and this helps the reader to understand how severe the problem of organized crime became for this city. Happily in the end the good guys eventually win and drive the crooks out of town and straight to jail with long sentences.



2. A detailed look at the multiple Mafia murders in Philedelphia during the Nicky Scarfo era. Friel gives us a great story about the lives and details of Scarfo's gang, but the book can be hard to follow as many cases he mentions were not solved with certainty. We see that the war between Scarfo and the Riccobene gang ended with many bodies on both sides piled up. Treachery was Scarfo's style, and he had his soldiers kill most of his own gang due to his paranoia. This book should be a reason for anyone to realize that the mob life is full of treachery and murder, and that whether you are a capable and loyal soldier or not, your future is either ending up with an early death or a prison term.



3. are the strong points of this docudrama about the collapse of the mob in Philadelphia in the 1980s, when corruption was rampant in city government, its judiciary, unions and police force. Friel gives us strategy and tactics he used, including interview techniques and psychological gambits. He admits that his method would have failed if trust hadn't broken down in the mob because of actions by a godfather who was thought irrational and vicious by his mobsters. Friel shows how bureaucratic methods are couterproductive--everything from time wasted in report writing to conviction of the innocent. His suggestions for change are consistent with management theory about large-scale organizations. As an investigator, he's thorough and competent; but these very qualities sometimes make it difficult to read this book, as it suffers from heavy prose. There's an irony or two, but never a laugh. Investigating organized crime is serious stuff. "Breaking the Mob" is more penetrating than other first person books about true crime, but less penetrable. Worth reading, as a legacy of how the good guys got the bad guys & what it took to bring them down.



4. The Mafia family in Philadelphia during the 1980s under Nicky Scarfo was by far the most violent group of killers, extortionists, drug dealers, and swindlers in the recent history of the Mafia. Scarfo was a sociopathic killer, ordering killings as a way of doing business, many of his victims were killed on a whim. As the bodies began to pile up, Lt. Friel, a homicide detective, was directed by the Philadelphia Police Department, his employer, to join forces with the FBI's Organized Crime squad.

   Friel and the FBI worked well together, a cooperation that resulted in breaking the Mafia's code of silence, and Nicky Scarfo is now serving life plus 40 years. The entire top echelon of the Philadelphia LCN family went to jail with him -- those who he hadn't had murdered during his reign.

   Friel is not only a dedicated and very smart cop, he is also a good story-teller. This is an excellent book from start to finish.




5. I enjoyed reading this book. It was informative, just as good as a book written by George Anastasia titled "The Goddfella Tapes", In both books, they talk about Philadelphia "La Cosa Nostra" and how law enforcement try to defeat them...Wiretaps, Stake outs, asking questions and getting informants...These books are essentailly "Good VS Bad". Go and get them, you'll enjoy them.

4 comments about The Prisoner: An Invitation To Hope.

1. An excellent book and a keeper. I have bought it for several of my friends.



2. A very compelling true story...It's very hard to put the book down. I read the book in 3 days, at work, at home and where ever I could get 10 minutes of spare time.



3. This book is very good. I was skeptical at first, but I realized that the change in the man happened over a long period of time.



4. This book is a special and important story of redemption and forgiveness. It follows the life of Jim Townsend, from his troubled youth, to his commission of a horrible crime, to decades spent in jail, and finally to a life of promise and hope. The lessons that Jim learns throughout his life help him finally to see his self-worth and prompt him to work on behalf of youth and inmates in this country. I found the story harrowing - and the take-away incredibly meaningful. While Jim's life is dramatic, its messages resonated with me (and, I wager, with all of us): forgiveness, freedom, love, self-worth. I highly recommend this book.

3 comments about Steven McDonald Story.

1. The story of Steven McDonald and his family is simultaneous heartbreaking and exhilarating. His capacity for forgiveness stretches the boundaries of human imagination and puts many of us to shame.

   In the book, the McDonalds discuss their friendship with actress Maureen O'Hara who states that her dream is to one day march with Officer McDonald the entire length of New York City's St. Patrick's Day Parade. Let's hope and pray its not too long before modern medicine works the miracle that will make her dream a reality.




2. I first read this book as an elementary student when it was first published, and now again as a student at Harvard University. It remains a powerful testament to man's forgiveness and courage.



3. This book inspired me so much that after reading it I resolved never to be ungrateful again and live life with a sense of value for it. The faith of Mr Steven and his wife is amazing. They are indeed remarkable people. The book is written in a very simple manner and touches the heart because of the truthfulness in it. I hope God keeps giving these two people strength to keep going on. This book has made me realize how lucky I am to have so much.

2 comments about The Pena Files: One Man's War Against Federal Corruption and the Abuse of Power.

1. Octavio Pena is convincingly the best in the business of private investigations and business security. Much of the book reads better than a movie. For those who are unfamiliar with the corruption in government agencies, this book will be a real eye-opener. Most compelling are several chapters describing coverups within the IRS the author encountered while working on specific cases. Although the book was fascinating, I felt Mr. Pena had limited the focus and perspective of his commentary too much to the specific cases he was working on. I was hoping to see some more opinion by the author on how our government could be improved, either by better legislative oversight, or other legal reforms. Nevertheless well worth reading.



2. Stories such as are in this book used to be more common, but are getting harder to find. One person fighting to uphold morality and values can make a difference. Entertaining and inspiring.

5 comments about Pat F. Garrett's the Authentic Life of Billy the Kid.

1. This book was written by a ghost writer for Pat Garrett and set the stage for future Billy the Kid authors. The book is fictionalized in many places in an attempt to make the book flow better and to make the book more interesting. But, since the book was co-authored by Garrett, succeeding authors used it as a reference thinking he knew the kid well. But, Garrett did not know Billy as well as he led people to believe. The really good things about the book are the areas talking about Garrett's own experiences. But, the reader needs to be careful and not believe everything they read in this book. It could hurt them when reading more factual accounts of Billy's life in the future.



2. The story of Billy the kid is always good. Here it is in the form the sheriff, who shot him, wants us to belive.
   The book is a mix of dime-novel fantasies and fackts of the capture and killing of the kid.
   It is funny to read how the kid apperes in to forms: the form of a boyish dime-novel hero and in a (more authentic) blurry form of af kid-warrior-criminal who is in over his head and with no real purpose in life.
   Throughout the pages of the story the historican, Frederic Nolan, hints us in note-form any time the writers of the book forgets importen facts, exaggerates, is inaccurate or makes up events of pure fantasi. He also supply us with background knowledge on importens events that needs bigger understanding than the writers supply us with - thus putting the fackts wright and making the reader see, what details in the story the writers perhaps did'nt know, had misunderstood or wanted to conceal.
   "The authentic life of Billy, the Kid" is not at all authentic, but it is written by a person who knew the kid first hand and had a big influence on his story. It is funny to read how he describes his own role - a role that right from the start has been surrounded with controversy.
   Good entertaining reading. But not the most trustworthy biografy, if you want to know what really happend in the life of Billy the kid.



3. The simple fact that there are so many other facts about the killing of Billy The Kid besides Garrett's story makes me wonder if he really killed The Kid at all. I really think that Garrett simply wanted the reward money for himself (which he was denied) and to use this event to help him further his political career. Seems to me it did not work since everything he did afterwards seemed to fail for him. Truthfully, I think we will never find out the truth except that Garrett will be remembered as the man who killed The kid by those who believe Garrett's story. I for one as with many other Historians think that Garrett's story is not totally truthful.



4. I would like to begin by telling you that this was a great action packed book. It was very exciting. What I enjoyed most about this book is how Billy is always getting into truble. When he isn't robbing a bank he is getting chased by indians. The only critism I have about the book is it makes Billy seem like a hero. Billy wasn't really a hero he was an outlaw.



5. Frederick Nolan's annonations to Pat Garrett's famous book do an excellent job of debunking many of the oft-repeated myths about Billy the Kid. I especially like the fact that Nolan occasionally ranges beyond Garrett's book itself to discuss how these Billy the Kid myths have been portrayed by later books and films. His commentary also helps fill in some of the background details about the Lincoln County war. You should note that I said "details," however; if you've never read about the Lincoln County war, this work probably isn't the ideal introduction to that messy, complicated affair. Nolan mostly seems to assume his readers are already at least mildly acquainted with the major events, places and people involved in the Lincoln County war. I also sometimes found myself wishing Nolan had annonated a bit more extensively (there are some entire chapters -- albeit very short ones -- through which he offers no commentary). The book's layout, while reasonably clear and clean, sometimes leaves a bit to be desired, with Nolan's notes often falling on different pages than the original text he's commenting upon.