5 comments about Drug Lord: The Life & Death of a Mexican Kingpin - A True Story.

1. It is interesting to me very informative. In candle wax traffic to other illicit products. I like the cover as well as the whole story. This book has the lord of the skies, Mr.Fuentes in his coffin as well. For me it is a very special book.



2. quisiera referirme al epilogo la pagina 357 para ser exactos en esta pagina el escritor le llama a mexico un pais que tiene envidia a EEUU por sus logros.... y que por eso los mexicanos traficamos droga.
   para el escritor:
   By now everyone has accepted that the fact that as long as there's demand,there will always be supply, and that whenever one supplier goes down, another inevitably rises up to fill the void.
   SUPPLY AND DEMAND-the bedrock principle of economics- thus ensures that the endless war on drugs will continue until EEUU stop using drugs...
   si sabes tanto escritor porque ocultas la verdad?????. benjamin(sinaloense)



3. After serving in the Border Patrol in the west Texas area for the last ten years, Poppa's book is the most realistic I have read to date. I get frustrated reading many books, especially when they start blaming the US for Mexico's problems. This books explains clearly corruption in the Mexican system, how it came about, and why it will probably never go away. It also demonstrates how ridiculious our politicians can be in attempting to deal with a government built on and run by corruption.
   
   The story of Pablo is great, but you could just change the name and it would fit many of the other King Pins out there and their lives too. Mexico relishes and charishes Drug Lords as heroes, and that is a fact.
   
   Question? When you have that many millions of people crossing into the United States illegally that have accepted corruption as the way things are done, what will that eventually do to our society?



4. In Drug Lord, Terrence Poppa manages to capture all the elements that a book about America's War on Drugs should have: engrossing, multidimensional heroes and villains, clearly-defined connections between the men and women who move oceans of narcotics across the Rio Grande and the larger governmental interests on both sides of the border that profit, one way or the other, from the trade, and guns, guns, guns. Drug Lord was an engrossing read, which I happened to read while touring the Big Bend area of West Texas. The book had such an impact on me that I made a 100-mile detour to visit Ojinaga, the stage where Pablo Acosta made his rise from dirt-poor campesino to mafia kingpin. Although Ojinaga today does its best to disassociate itself, at least to outsiders, from Acosta's legacy (even this pinche gringo knew better than to walk into a cantina and start asking questions), many of the tangible remnants of the bad old days Poppa describes, such as the smuggler's trucks with questionable propane tanks in the bed and houses surrounded by 12 foot-high cinderblock walls, are still readily visible. Although the book succeeds as narrative and will satisfy anyone interested in the drug war, the conclusion that Poppa comes to can be summed up in one sentence: it is all Mexico's fault. True, the Mexican government is rotten to the core, and six years under Vicente Fox doesn't seem to have changed much. But any honest examination of the War on Drugs must acknowledge the fact that Acosta and those who have come before and after him are only supplying a demand created by Americans; if the Mexicans don't sate that demand, then the Colombians will, and if the Colombians don't sate it, then the Cosa Nostra, or the Russians, and so on and so forth. I found Poppa's willingness to foster the blame for an unwinnable war on the shoulders of a country that has lost so much fighting a conflict whose victory will primarily benefit Americans to be a sad and myopic conclusion to an otherwise great book. Readers wanting an equally-engrossing but more balanced read should try Charles Bowden's Down By The River, about the Amado-Fuentes organization.



5. I've read the book and it is everything my friends told me it was. In the book Comandante Oscar Prieto is one of my friend's dad. The author gives good detail of the story of Pablo because i've heard a lot of true stories which are in the book, and of course a lot that aren't. I have family in Ojinaga and you still have the same business going on, but a lot of people from the town don't worry about it. I've seen pictures where Pablo just looks like a normal rancher from town. He always helped the people in need for food or money. He always remembered where he came from. That's why people don't remember him as a drug lord but as a person who helped the community and the poor. You will be surprised by how Pablo did his deals to cross the drugs over the border. When you read the book you will picture in your mind everything that is going on just like I did. Believe me, you will visualize.

5 comments about Bonnie and Clyde: A Twenty-First-Century Update.

1. I was a bit disappointed in this book, I have to admit. I was hoping to learn more about Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, who they were, what circumstances led them to life of crime, and so forth... I was expecting maybe some new never-before-seen photographs in this book, but I guess that's a lot to ask for people who lived 80 years ago. I am very interested in the Bonnie and Clyde story, and I have to rate this book good, but not great.



2. This is a nice condenced overview of Bonnie and Clyde. If you want a crash course or are just interested in the true story- start here.



3. This book has a lot of interesting information and tons of pictures. If you want to know anything about Bonnie and Clyde, it's all in this book.



4. I first became aware of Bonnie and Clyde after a frigid night's motorcycle ride to see Arthur Penn's 1967 movie. Except for buying a DVD thirty years later, I seldom thought of them. Then, last November, my wife and I visited Dexter and Stuart, Iowa. In April of 1934, a month before their deaths, Bonnie and Clyde, along with Henry Methvin, robbed the bank in Stuart. Ten months before, the Barrows had shot it out with a posse at Dexfield Park, north of Dexter. The site of an abandoned amusement park, Dexfield offered Bonnie and Clyde, along with the severely wounded Buck Barrow and his wife Blanche, temporary sanctuary following a shootout in Platte City, Missouri. Penn's movie placed the shootout in Platte City, Iowa, which doesn't exist, ignoring the long ride from the Kansas City area to western Iowa. It also ignored the fact that Buck lived several days after his head wound and actually died of pneumonia. Penn's characterization of Blanche as a screaming ninny isn't accurate, either, and it got him sued.
   
   Penn wasn't after history, but sensationalism. James R. Knight is after history. He is one of those wonderful people who recognize that everything is coming together and seizes the moment. Penn's movie was only the latest in a thirty-year sequence of stylized and mostly inaccurate portrayals of the lovers and their companions. It perhaps began with Jan Fortune's Fugitives, published a scant few months after the fatal ambush in Louisiana. It continued through books by several members of the posse who killed Bonnie and Clyde, and by former criminal companions. As many of the principals, including members of the Barrow and Parker families, aged, other writers began to interview them before it was too late. Given the opportunity to pull together their work with original research, James Knight acted.
   
   This book is the result.
   
   Perhaps only a person who doesn't depend on writing for his income could have done it. Knight, after all, is a pilot for Federal Express who just happens to be an excellent historian. His book shows meticulous patience, coupled with a desire to be what Fox news isn't, fair and balanced. For instance, he gives Fortune's oft-maligned piece credit for what it got right. Though he depends heavily (for the first few chapters) on the recollections of Marie Barrow Scoma, a teenager at the time of her brother's death, Knight sometimes argues, appropriately, with her recollections. After all, she could not have known all that her adult brother was up to. Knight understands that the Barrow and Parker families were far more complex, and far more involved in supporting their wayward kin, than has heretofore been obvious. The evidence has always been there, but Knight uses it broadly and well.
   
   The author is so careful to remain balanced, and to avoid the hysterical tone of previous books, that his prose sometimes seems bloodless. Nowhere is this more evident than in chapters 36 and 37. There, he recounts events around the May, 1934, ambush that killed Bonnie and Clyde. He is meticulous in describing the location and sequence of the wounds each received, the damage to their stolen Ford, and the behavior of members of the posse. It's important, though, because the ambush has so often been misinterpreted. I hope that in a future work Knight will greatly expand these chapters, taking a closer look at everything and everyone who contributed to the ambush and at the questions that still remain. Still, Knight corrects several misconceptions and downright errors fostered by the movie and by previous books. You won't know it, though, unless you read the extensive footnotes.
   
   Which brings me to the subject of how most to benefit from reading this 2003 work. I read it twice. The first time, I had a bookmark in the footnotes and flipped back and forth frequently. The second time, the bookmark was located in the first appendix. This allowed me to review a full history of each character as s/he surfaced in the text. As a result, I have a far better idea of "the story of Bonnie and Clyde" (to borrow the popular title of Bonnie's second poem) than I received on that winter night in 1967.
   
   For all of that, Knight neither whitewashes nor condemns Bonnie and Clyde. Rather, he recognizes the essential tragedy of their story. They lived on their own terms, but everyone paid a price. That they paid with their lives does not obscure the suffering inflicted on their families and on families left fatherless. At the same time, Clyde might have remained a relatively small-time crook (or made changes in his life similar to those accomplished by Ralph Fults) were it not for the brutality he experienced in the Texas prison system. The story of Bonnie and Clyde, then, is in some sense the story of human beings interacting with our surroundings--for good and for ill. I am writing this review two days after a confused and angry teenager murdered people in an Omaha mall. He did it with an assault rifle, at a time when gross inequalities again exist between Americans. Clyde used a 1930's version of that rifle, at a similar time. When will the American people demand gun control? And when will we insist on an end to national policies that lead to the creation of millions of poor people?



5. "Here they come down that dusty road, and muddy bend; Man and woman welded in crime, together they lived and together...they died. Who else could it be?; But good ol' Bonnie and Clyde!"
   
   The book entitled, "Bonnie and Clyde A Twenty-First-Century Update" by James R.Knight (with Jonahtan Davis )is... "A killer of a book!"
   
   This is a superbly written and researched book. James R. Knight is too young to have ridden along with them, at least in this life. However, his knowledge and interest in this gun toting couple makes me wonder, where he may have been in his last life time?
   
   His writing is informative, easy to read and follow, and...extremely descriptive. In addition, the book is a photographic library in itself!
   
   Sometimes, I could almost hear the heavy "barking" of Clyde's "BAR" and watch the black exhaust clouds rise from the tail pipe of his get-away, 1934 Ford sedan.
   
   Frank Hamer does not appear to be as powerful a figure as he was portrayed in the 1967 movie with Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. Although, a central figure in orchestrating the couple's final demise, the initial credit seems to flow toward a little known figure of the ambush group listed as, Officer Prentis Oakley.
   
   Author, James Knight also gives the reader what Paul Harvey used to say on his radio program: "and now you know ... the rest of the story."
   Knight follows through with information on the fate of each actor who ever played any part on the stage of "Bonnie and Clyde."
   
   A great job Mr. Knight(and Mr. Davis)! When can we expect another publication???

1 comments about The First Vice Lord: Big Jim Colosimo and the Ladies of the Levee.

1. Arthur Bilek has truly pulled out all the stops in his coverage of Big Jim Colosimo and his reign as "the first vice lord" of the Chicago Levee. Author Bilek has used a very comprehensive bibliography of books and other types of periodicals to put this book together. Mr. Bilek states on page 65 that Marshall Field Jr. did, indeed, commit suicide in his home, and was not shot in a bordello and moved home as stated in Sex in the Second City by Karen Abbott. Some individuals incorrectly assumed that Colosimo was the head of the mafia in Chicago, but since Big Jim was not Sicilian he was, therefore, excluded. The book provides a vivid description of the goings on inside Colosimo's Cafe at the height of its popularity. Big Jim making the rounds of the tables and mingling with the customers and everything coming to a halt when Dale Winter would step beside the grand piano and begin to sing. Al Jolson, George M. Cohan, and other celebrities could often be found amongst the crowd. A stage occupied the front of the first floor with a dance floor which could be hydraulically raised or lowered. Colosimo brought about his own demise by divorcing his wife to marry Dale Winter. Jim remained oblivious to Torrio's warnings due to his head-over-heels affair with his new love. The book covers such characters as the Mutt and Jeff aldermen "Bathhouse" John Coughlin and Michael "Hinky Dink" Kenna, the Everleigh sisters, Ada and Minna, and crooked mayor Big Bill Thompson. The book goes into great detail regarding the First Ward where the notorious Levee with its brothels was located. Women led the movement against the sale of alcohol due to its negative influence on families. In addition religious leaders conducted prayer services on the streets of the levee. The advent of the automobile brought prostitution to the outskirts of the city in what became known as roadhouses. Author Bilek notes that in 1962 sheriff Richard Oglivie appointed an incorruptible chief of police named Arthur Bilek (yes, the author) who shut down Cook County. I did find one minor error in the book. Mr. Bilek states that Dean O'Banion's flower shop was located on Clark Street across from Holy Name Cathedral (page 270). The correct street, of course, is State Street. I like the "Glossary of Period Terms" in the Appendix which provide definitions of words appropriate to the time period. Also, the Epilogue gives the reader a "what happened" to the people and places in the book after Big Jim's demise. Special photos that were interesting to me were a map of the First Ward and the South Side Levee in addition to photos of the outside and inside of Colosimo's Cafe. Author Arthur Bilek has provided the reader with a first rate biography of Big Jim Colosimo, and if you enjoy reading about American social history, albeit infamous, this book should be in your library.

5 comments about Out in Bad Standings: Inside the Bandidos Motorcycle Club--The Making of a Worldwide Dynasty.

1. I have also read all Outlaw motorcycle club books that are out , So this one gave Me some answers to some of the questions I had about a couple of the other books I have read, it was hard to see where He was going at times , and other times repeating what every one had already read a million times, but all in all its a good book,



2. I enjoyed the book immensely, and while reading the book actually thought about joining the Bandido M.C., but towards the last of the book, I changed my mind. I pre-ordered the next book by Ct. Ed and am looking forward to reading it.
   vincemor



3. I read the book and enjoyed it till the last 1/4 of reading. I was a member and enjoyed hearing about some of my old brothers.
   The (how great I'am) did get to me to. And the BS about the president wants me gone even if someone was to kill him. This was the first book of this nature I have read but I will be reading others The brotherhood is my next one.
   I contacted one of my old brothers and ask him if he had read it he said no. I told him he should till I got 3/4 of the way through it. I called him back and advised against it.
   There are so many of the older members who could of done a better job on this type of book. To bad I didn't keep notes when I was a member. But I was having way to much fun.
   I was a member when Don Chambers was president Ed is just lucky Don is not here anymore. Billy



4. I really can't add much to the reviews already stated, me, me and more of me. All I know that toward the middle of the book I started skipping anything that had to do with his job or kid. Kind of made a proud orginization look bad to say the least. As a member of a club all I know is that I'm surprised that he's still walking around running his mouth. He nothing but a little skinny wanna-be, a hey look at me dude, nothing better then a rat, a thief, a bike thief, he was/is so proud of that fact. On top of all that he mentions the names of the "Brothers" that still talk to him, I don't think he has any friends now! He just couldn't handle club life, punkstyle.



5. I guess this book might be interesting from an intel standpoint to someone who actually is a one-percenter (I'm not ... anymore) or to the legions of weekend warriors, wannabees, and 'overnighters' who populate the average biker bar nowadays. But to someone who has at least a year or two of middle school or who isn't fascinated by old newspaper clippings of the 'biker wars' of the 80s and 90s it is absolute garbage. It really is almost unreadable.
   
   It's not the author's fault, really. Someone paid him to write a book ... a task that is clearly over his head. Hey ... I'd take the money, too. I blame the folks who should have told him the truth and saved him from embrarrassment. And speaking of those poor, misguided souls at the publisher, I must ask again ...
   
   Did he whack his editors? Good. After reading the first two chapters of this crap I'd say they deserved it.

No comments about How to Make a Serial Killer: The Twisted Development of Innocent Children into the World's Most Sadistic Murderers.

5 comments about Entering Hades: The Double Life of a Serial Killer.

1. As good as anything Ann Rule ever wrote--and maybe even better.
   
   About the only complaint: author could have delved deeper into Unterweger's mother's life, as well as what exactly the killer's life was like as a young child, as he was raised by a grandfather who evidently was a mean drunk, etc.
   
   Other than that, a fine job of writing as well as research.
   Author John Leake definitely has a career in this field.



2. I bought this book based on the glowing reviews. I love true crime stories and was excited when this arrived. I tore into it, and it was off to a pretty good start. Then it started to drag...and drag....There were so many little details and names and places that I was bored stiff. I found myself daydreaming and having to reread passages on numerous occasions. I ended up skimming the final few chapters and then picking up at the end. I could not relate at all to the main character, Jack, and I had zero sympathy or empathy for him. He was purely evil and narcissistic and unlikeable, which, according to the author was the opposite of how many people in Vienna's society would have described him. I just didn't get it. Maybe the timing was wrong for me and this really was as great a book as the other reviewers claim. For me it was a borderline painful reading experience.



3. Congratualations to John Leake on this outstanding work! Having been directly involved with Unterweger's extradition to Austria, I can report that women lawyers, law enforcement officers, and diplomats were instrumental in every aspect of this fugitive's return to Austria to answer for his hideous crimes against women. This gives new meaning to the words "poetic justice."



4. A murderer gains celebrity and has the intelligentsia spring him. Only in America? Apparently not. This horror story is a wonderfully written account of an Austrian serial killer who used and abused the system and all its bureaucrats to do what came naturally for him. Author John Leake knows how to piece together a jigsaw puzzle of incompetence, luck (good and bad). This is a early page turner that will keep you shaking your head for a long time to come. Bravo.



5. Reading this horrifying account of the life of mass murderer Jack Unterweger, reminded me of the parole and subsequent incarceration of Jack Henry Abbott. You may recall that author Norman Mailer championed Abbott's cause and was instrumental in helping the convict gain freedom. The day before his book, In the Belly of the Beast, was reviewed in the NY Times, Abbott stabbed a waiter to death in a Manhattan restaurant. Unterweger had been jailed for the brutal rape and murder of a young girl. After writing a book, his cause for parole was taken up by the Austrian literati. He then proceeded to murder seven Austrian prostitutes, one in Prague and three in LA, all the while, making friends with the police, writing books and producing plays. Unterweger was incredibly narcissistic, sadistic and a sexual predator. The author painstakingly reconstructs the investigation from Austria, Prague and LA often jumping back and forth in time. It was not easy to bring all these threads together to form a cohesive whole, but I believe he did a fine job. This book is not for the squeamish, but should prove impossible to put down for readers of serial killers and also crime buffs.

5 comments about But He Was Good to His Mother : The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters.

1. The author's writing style successfully avoids smooth flow and continuity. He skips around, and maintains superficiality throughout. No interest was generated, and it was hard to keep track of the individuals chronicled in the book.Definitely not a good read. There was no eagerness to find out what was next, rather eagerness to finish. I honestly could not remember one fact from it. Even the photos were not anywhere in the book near where the subjects were discussed.



2. The title of this book comes from the fact that Jewish gangsters took a very protective attitude towards their mothers, and did everything they could to keep them and other family members in the dark regarding their unsavory behavior. Gangsters may have led immoral lives regarding their so-called profession, but would turn weepy when the subject of their mother came up. Perhaps this was due in part to the fact they knew their mother would be disappointed in them. Unlike those in the mafia the offspring of Jewish gangsters did not intermarry with others so their profession did not extend beyond one generation. I found the book to be well written, and what I especially liked was the number of photos of gangsters I have read about in previous books, but of which photos have been scanty. Gyp the Blood (square name Harry Horowitz), Irving Wexler (Waxey Gordon), Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro, Abe Reles, Harry Strauss (Pittsburgh Phil), and a family photo of the Purple Gang were all included in addition to photos of Dutch Schultz (square name Arthur Flegenheimer), Jack Guzik, Lepke Buchalter, and numerous others. This book is a worthy addition to my gangster library, and you can purloin this book for only $10.00.



3. Robert Rockaway provides an engaging portrait of the warm, loving relationships many of the most notorious Jewish mobsters in the history of U.S. crime enjoyed with their girl friends, wives, children, and other family members, especially mothers. The emotions the wicked ways of these boys provoked from their loved ones ranged from devastation and shame to pride, arrogance, and defensiveness. While a lot of this material is old hat, an equal amount is not, and I generally found this book to be light and enjoyable.



4. A good book for casual crime readers who don't need heavy details, but amazingly inaccurate in several areas. Seems to repeat old myths told in other books rather than do research.
   
   ie Joe the Boss's hit team did not include Anastasia, Adonis or even Siegel
   
   or
   
   Dutch Schultz was not shot in the bathroom or even shot by Charlie Workman. The caliber of the bullet found in Dutch matched those used by his men, not those who had shot his men down. The more accurate tale is that he was mistaken;y shot by his own men while trading fire with Lepke's boys. (The bathroom was directly behind the doorway where Workman had to be shooting from)



5. Prompt delivery of my order. Would recommend this seller. Book as advertised.

5 comments about The Runner: A True Account of the Amazing Lies and Fantastical Adventures of the Ivy League Impostor James Hogue.

1. Samuels has taken an admirable stab at dissecting this enigmatic Gatsbyesque con man's psyche for motive, astutely tabulating the paltry gain from the years of petty crime. In a funny aside that Samuels to his credit puts in the book, Hogue responds to one of Samuels's elaborate and quirky questionnaires by closing with this jibe: "What's with the janitor garb? Are you trying to show your solidarity with the lumpen?"
   
   The book is an elaboration of a New Yorker article and probably should have stayed as such (much like Barry Werth's Scarlet Professor), as it feels stretched and padded. Although not a great writer, Samuels rightly senses that he holds compelling subject matter. One fault is that the chronology would have been much better as a simple linear progression; it confusingly yoyos between past and future. Also, instead of just letting the story tell itself, Samuels often intrudes with exaggerated veneration of the privilege of a Princeton (or his own Harvard) education, with admissions committees' self deluding liberal smugness, and with largely irrelevant autobiographical items.
   
   Hogue ultimately proves uncooperative and Samuels is left to speculate on his quarry, but perhaps there is no very profound mechanism at work here. Although I have to admit I'm looking forward to seeing the documentary Con Man. One wonders what a Truman Capote or a Norman Mailer might have done with this material.



2. Just finished reading Samuels The Runner, and literally could not put it down. Wow! What a crazy fascinating story. It's amazing that people like Hogue exist and that people like Samuels can tell their tale so well. I really felt like I was there, meeting Hogue in person. Not sure what the other reviewers problems are... I thought it was great, and so did every other members of my book group (expect Andy, but he hates everything!) Really, this is a five star winner!



3. Some writers can craft a sentence and story; some reporters unearth great detail. David Samuels is that rare talent who can do both, and the result is The Runner, a terrific literary page turner.



4. The Runner is a engaging read about a fascinating character. The original article was the tip of the iceberg and I appreciated the expanded treatment. David's writing is insightful and funny. The books leaves me wanting more but in a way that keeps the fascination alive. Like a movie with an open ending I am left to wonder about specific events and ponder what it really means to reinvent yourself in a world that is so clearly driven by unfair rules. No one likes to be lied to but sometimes lies can be inspiring.



5. This book seems particularly relevant right now, with the literary world increasingly falling victim -- practically once a month -- to frauds, plagiarists and con artists. It's the true life story of a particularly colorful specimen. In his late 20's, basically a drifter living in Colorado, James Hogue decided to recreate himself as a charismatic genius and sports hero -- and he used his new identity to hustle his way into Princeton University as an undergrad. He was a complete fake, but as Samuels shows, that doesn't make him any less accomplished. His insane story tells you as much about our times, and about our elite institutions, as it does about the peculiar twists and turns of one individual's particular psyche. In America, the land of self-invention, the con man is often king, and this small book -- just about the same length as The Great Gatsby, one of Hogue's inspirations -- is a wonderful and strangely moving portrait of a true American original. David Samuels is well-known as an award-winning magazine journalist, and this, his first book, shows him at the top of his form. I recommend it highly.

5 comments about Justice: Crimes, Trials, and Punishments.

1. Yes, he is gossipy but in many ways that raises him above others. Any one who likes true crime will love his work. I think that he has experienced such things he speaks with the a personal insight that only the person who has experienced the pain knows ho to convey that in written form



2. Briefly interesting, but after awhile it begins to read like a syrupy tabloid. Also, as the narrative went through the murder account and trial of Dominick Dunne's daughter, I couldn't help but think, why didn't the author do more to keep his daughter away from this convicted criminal? Maybe I missed something, but he was in the know that his daughter was involved with a convicted abuser: why didn't he do everything in his power to bring his daughter back away from this creep?
   Anyhow, as for the rest of the book, I really couldn't care less about individuals like Claus von Bülow, so the text tended to drag.



3. The man cannot string two words together without name dropping. It is disgusting and so is he.



4. A fascinating book into how high priced lawyers can convince any jury your Mother is worse than a serial killer. Essentially that is the conclusion I got from the book.
   
   Some of the stories are too long and complicated with lots of names, so that is why I am giving it 4 instead of 5 stars. It also was not clear to me what exactly happened in some of the murders, particularly the last one on Safre.



5. Most of these pieces appeared in Vanity Fair, and the overlap in some of them about the O.J. Simpson trial is left in. About 10 minutes worth of editing could have solved that problem. Otherwise, this is a passionate account of Dunne's view of several of the high profile cases he's made a career of covering since exiting the movie business. The most interesting is the case of his own daughter's murderer, but the Menendez stories and the Michael Skakel case make fascinating prose. Definitely worth reading, even now, long after these trials ended.

5 comments about My Life With Bonnie And Clyde.

1. I often wondered what had become of Blanch Barrow as the movie did not tell us much of anything. At the end of the book I found myself with tears in my eyes. I am not saying she was totally innocent in everything that transpired, but she paid dearly for the mistake of loving her husband and I being a woman can synpathize with her greatly. I can just picture her sitting in a chair, an old woman, forgotten, left with nothing but her cats and memories of days gone by...nothing is sadder than what might have been. What really made me realize how human these characters were was when Blanche tells us about bringing her dog Snowball on the run when she and Buck took off with Bonnie and Clyde and then loosing her dog during the shootout in Platte City, as the dog was spooked by the gun battle, he ran out of the house and this was the last she ever saw of her beloved pet. These were very much people like us that I firmly believe were victims of the times they lived and the desolation that surrounded them. I often wonder what would have became of those four people if they would have grown up in New England perhaps or New York where even though the depression was going on, there were more opportunities for work or perhaps they were born at the wrong time in history. Maybe if Bonnie and Clyde would have been born and came of age in the 80's or 90's, they would have been different people....but we will never know. This book is a must read for anyone, not just fans of Bonnie and Clyde, but its just a damned good book to read.



2. This is about the best book I've read on Bonnie and Clyde so far. Although as Mr. Phillips states it is slanted in the favor of Blanche, it still is very well written and I think more historically correct than other books I have read on this subject. It was interesting to read how these people really lived on the run and how human they were. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Bonnie and Clyde.



3. I really enjoyed reading this book. However, you must keep in mind that it was told by one of the participants and that self image and self preservation were apparent in telling her side of the story. I would advise doing what I did. I read the Knight book, "Bonnie & Clyde, a Twenty-First Century Update" and the John Neal Phillips book "Running with Bonnie and Clyde" at the same time as this one. I think by combining and sifting through the information in all three, you can come away with a pretty clear picture of these peoples lives.



4. For anyone looking for new surprises and a new angle on the story of Bonnie and Clyde, this book is a must. Blanche Barrow bears the facts of her life with the Barrow Gang right down to the bone. You can almost smell, see and hear this story as it plays out before your eyes.
   It was also great to see what happened to those who survived past 1934, following Blanche through her prison sentence and into her later years, with Billie Moon (Bonnie Parker's sister)beside her. A must for all Bonnie and Clyde researchers.



5. Blanche Barrow gives a first hand account of life on the run. As she says it was pure hell which ended with the death of her huband; prison for her and a loss of an eye. It was very intresting.