Editorial Review

For more than two decades, Vanity Fair has published Dominick Dunne’s brilliant, revelatory chronicles of the most famous crimes, trials, and punishments of our time. Here, in one volume, are Dominick Dunne’s mesmerizing tales of justice denied and justice affirmed. Whether writing of Claus von Bülow’s romp through two trials; the Los Angeles media frenzy surrounding O.J. Simpson; the death by fire of multibillionaire banker Edmond Safra; or the Greenwich, Connecticut, murder of Martha Moxley and the indictment—decades later—of Michael Skakel, Dominick Dunne tells it honestly and tells it from his unique perspective. His search for the truth is relentless.

With new essay, “Mourning In New York,” about September 11, 2001. ... Read more

Editorial Review

On the evening of May 5, 1993, in the small town of West Memphis, Arkansas, three eight-year-old boys disappeared. The next afternoon, the naked bodies of Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore were found submerged in a nearby stream. The boys had been bound from ankle to wrist with their own shoelaces and severely beaten. Christopher had been castrated.

The crime scene had yielded few clues, and despite Christopher's castration, there was a remarkable absence of blood. The police were stymied, and citizens' alarm mounted as weeks passed without an arrest. Finally, a month after the murders, detectives announced three arrests -- and a startling theory of the crime: that the children had been killed by members of a satanic cult.

Detectives attributed their break in the case to a former special education student, seventeen-year-old Jessie Misskelley Jr. Although Jessie insisted he knew nothing of the crime, after eight hours of questioning, police announced that he had implicated himself and accused two other teenagers, eighteen-year-old Damien Echols and sixteen-year-old Jason Baldwin. Damien and Jason both denied Jessie's account, and Jessie himself recanted it within hours, but by then all three had been charged with the murders.

With no physical evidence connecting anyone to the crime, prosecutors contended that the murders bore signs of "the occult" and that the three accused teenagers possessed a "state of mind" that pointed to them as the killers. As proof of the defendants' mental states, they introduced items taken from their rooms -- such as books by Anne Rice and album posters for the rock group Metallica. Jurors found all three teenagers guilty. Jessie and Jason were sentenced to life in prison. Damien was sentenced to death.

While the verdicts were popular in Arkansas, an HBO documentary raised questions about the lack of evidence in the case, and a Web site was formed to support the inmates, now known as "The West Memphis Three." When the Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed the verdicts, state officials insisted that anyone who questioned the trials simply did not know "the facts."

Now, for the first time, an award-winning investigative reporter examines that official stand. In riveting narrative, Devil's Knot draws readers into the drama of a modern-day courtroom dominated by references to Satan. In laying out "the facts" of this still-unfolding case, it offers a frightening look into America's system of justice. ... Read more

Editorial Review

GIFTED WITH A BRILLIANT MIND, BLESSED WITH A BEAUTIFUL FAMILY -- AND CURSED WITH A DESTRUCTIVE MADNESS

In this harrowing New York Times bestseller, Ann Rule is at her masterful best as she winnows horrific truths from the ashes of what seemed like paradise in Prairie Village, Kansas. Rule probes the case of Debora Green, a doctor and a loving mother who seemed to epitomize the dreams of the American heartland. A small-town girl with a genius IQ, she achieved an enviable life: her own medical practice, a handsome physician husband, three perfect children, and an opulent home in an exclusive Kansas City suburb. But when a raging fire destroyed that home and took two lives, the trail of clues led investigators to a stunning conclusion. Piece by piece, Ann Rule digs beneath this placid Midwestern facade to unveil a disturbing portrait of strangely troubled marriages, infidelity, desperation, suicide, and escalating acts of revenge that forever changed dozens of lives. ... Read more

Reviews

I couldn't put it down!, August 25, 1999
This was a deeply disturbing and at the same time a fascinating story. Ann Rule is an expert at building the supense without giving away the "truth" about what actually happened and who did what until late in the book. She manages to portray the characters in a way that makes you think you know them, and even as you begin to realize that the guilty party has done the unspeakable, she paints a picture of the whole person, and you find yourself feeling if not true empathy, at the least a grudging amount of sympathy for the characters involved. This was an emotional roller coaster and difficult to deal with at times, but it is well worth the read, and perhaps may at some point in time come to be a vehicle that could help prevent such a tragedy to again occur. Although I find it so hard to believe, that this particular situation could ever happen again, I just as surely thought this could never happen. I am sobered by the fact that it indeed can happen, and I will never again look at the warning signs of a dysfunctional family in quite the same way. Thanks Ann for your wonderful, insightfull book.

A modern Medea, October 21, 2005
Most of Ann Rule's true crime books are located in the Pacific Northwest, but for "Bitter Harvest" she travels to Kansas to tell the story of a modern Medea who murders her children and poisons her straying husband. I saw the presentation of this case on Court TV, but this book goes into much more detail about the people who were involved in the marriage-from-hell that led to murder.

Ann Rule, a former policewoman writes about victims with a compassion that sometimes ventures over the border into cliché, but in this case, it is almost impossible to exaggerate the pathos and innocence of twelve-year-old Tim Farrar and his six-year-old sister, Kelly, or the ten-year-old Lissa who managed to survive the burning house by jumping from the garage roof.

On the other hand, it is almost impossible to feel any sympathy for the murderess, Dr. Debora Green. I really hate it when highly intelligent people turn to murder, especially those who use such horrible weapons as fire and poison. Really, Dr. Green should have been setting a good example for the majority of us who aren't geniuses. However, according to the author, this physician and mother of three had the emotional I.Q. of a two-year-old. When she didn't get her own way, she took to drinking, swearing, and beating herself with her fists. Highly intelligent or not, the arson investigators soon found the trail of accelerant that pointed directly to Debora's bedroom.

This is a thoroughly depressing story, but one of Ann Rule's best reporting jobs. For a change, the victims aren't beautiful but clueless young women who fall for the wrong man, and the killer isn't a sex-crazed sociopath. Dr. Green's case forced this author out of her usual writing rut, and the result is a fascinating look at a crime that is darker than most of us can imagine.

Some doubts about who dunnit, May 1, 2006
Ann Rule is THE best true crime author. This is a good, very interesting book, but not one of her great ones. The element of Ann Rule's writing which I admire most, the reason I seek out her books, is the in-depth psychological understanding she brings to her descriptions of the perpetrators. She goes into great detail about their upbringing and the personality disorders that affect them. Although it seems clear that Doctor Debora Green, the subject of this book, has Borderline Personality Disorder, there is much less content than usual about Dr. Green's childhood, first marriage, etc. I also agree with other reviewers who felt uncomfortable accepting Ms Rule's perception of Dr. Green's husband, Dr. Mike Farrar, as an innocent victim. Dr. Farrar was at least irresponsible in having three children with a woman whose behavior was spinning out of control and who was abusing drugs and alcohol. After finding that Dr. Green had apparently poisoned him, and only shortly after attempting to have her committed, why did Dr. Farrar leave the children unprotected with his wife? What about Celeste, the unhappily married woman Mike was having an affair with? Her husband's suicide, and the casual way she and Mike handled it, seemed truly alarming to me. Could this case be much less straightforward than it seems? Was Dr. Green "gaslighted" by her husband and his mistress? Although Ann Rule seems quite taken with Mike and Celeste, it seems clear that this reviewer is not the only one with doubts. A very interesting book.

fascinating book about an exceptionally troubled woman, June 23, 2001
The true-crime story explored in Bitter Harvest is gripping and disturbing on many levels, underscoring the often imperceptible line between genius and madness, the curious combination of enviable professional achievement with a total disconnection from reality within an individual. Makes you wonder just how the human brain works. This was a fast read, very intriguing. Admittedly, the story is more interesting to me because I'm familiar with the setting and I've heard first-hand accounts of Debora Green's odd and somewhat antisocial behavior while she was in medical school and residency. I didn't notice any glaring flaws in the writing, but the story is so intriguing I'm not sure that I would have noticed. Rule does seem to be mighty sympathetic to Green's husband (an achiever who seemed to surpass his wife professionally, and who fooled around with a very attractive other woman while "chaperoning" a child's international field trip), but hey, it wasn't the husband who poisoned Green with castor beans, necessitating brain surgery. It wasn't the husband who set fire to the family manse. Though he's no saint, she certainly surpasses him in the hierarchy of bad behavior. This book left me concerned that mental illness is often overlooked, or at least minimized, in "accomplished" and professionally successful individuals -- a tragedy in itself that can lead to tragic results.

Like every ann rule book I read I found this one fascinating, July 18, 1998
Both doctors were an interesting study.. Debra was an amazingly intellegent woman who never developed into a productive person.. Mike was a man who had problems with divorce even tho he was desperately unhappy.. I think my question is the same as many who have written.. being a doctor.. it was hard to understand why he didn't insist on getting help for her.. the poisoning aspect was interesting.. who ever heard of castor bean seeds.. I marveled at how he suspected she was poisoning him and continued to stay with her so long.. of course the real tragedy was the death of the children.. Im convinced she loved them but killed them purely for revenge.. Ann is a wonderful writer.. I read everything she writes, tho her attept at fiction was awful.. she really invests a lot in her projects.. I think Ann has the need to understand the criminal mind..

This book proves that truth is stranger than fiction, August 10, 1998
Another great book by Ann Rule, who is one of the best at delving into the motivation and mind-set of criminals with her unique perspective. Unlike some of the other reviews, I did not find that Ms. Rule was biased at all--actually I felt that she appeared to present this unfortunate story in a more balanced way than most authors would be able handle. Certainly both parties in this marriage were less than perfect, and quite obviously entered into this marriage for all the wrong reasons. But the 'average' person either learns to cope with what life has given them, or finds another way out, namely divorce. But this mother, which is impossible for me to understand her motivation as I am also a mother, decides to take matters into her own hands--deciding that no one would "have the children." She obviously felt her children were possessions of the marriage rather than the fact that they were human beings in their own right. Dr. Farrar does share in the blame ! for the sad state of their marriage and for entering an adulterous relationship. It certainly sounds like he has had time to ponder his actions and hopefully to improve upon them in the future. I also find it interesting that other reviewers of this book expect Ms. Rule to delve into Dr. Green's childhood in order to determine her motives behind this great tragedy. For many things in life, there is simply no explanation in existence that would satify the mind of a 'sane' individual. My children are the most precious people in my mind, there is nothing Ms. Rule could discover that would make me understand this sordid story. Nor do I necessarily want to. It would also seem difficult for an author to determine motive when the motive is obviously buried so deep into Dr. Green's mind that she herself can no longer find it. I highly recommend this book to all those other true crime buffs like me, who just can't put down a good book!

Not up to Ann Rule's standards, April 1, 2002
I love Ann Rule's books, but this book is so biased. I like FACTS simply presented. Especially since I had never even heard of this case, I don't like a writer presenting facts trying to sway the reader one way or the other. There is an underlying tone of bias that becomes more prevalent as the book goes on. I thought of another Ann Rule book that I read that was a little biased, but not like this. She describes Mike Farrar as handsome. Personally, if he is (which he must have something for women to be drawn to him)he must not be very photogenic because the photos in the book show him as rather homely. As the book goes on, I found myself really distrusting and disliking Mike Farrar and and to an extent, his girlfriend, Mrs. David Hacker (Celeste in the book)
Mike says he's a loving father and wouldn't leave his kids alone. But, he sure didn't mind leaving his 6 year old virtually alone while he went to the next village to put the moves on another man's wife. He says he was afraid for his kids because his wife was a crazy alcoholic, but he sure didn't mind leaving them with her when he moved out. He obviously didn't care much about Celeste, because after her husband's suspicious suicide, he couldn't even remember if he had her kids' names right and forgot that she wasn't divorced, but that she was a widow. Celeste left her family photos up to show her kids that "their family mattered." Yet, she used her husband's funeral as her coming out party, coming public with her affair with a married man, laughing and carrying on. Then, she has her boyfriend coming to dinner before he was cold in his grave! I was 12 years old when my father died suddenly from a heart attack. I can't imagine how hard it would have been if my mother had introduced a new man and had him staying over a month later! My gosh, had the woman no compassion? I was immediately suspicious of Mike in ref. to the fire. His first thoughts when he saw the house fire was of how he'd replace the material possessions -- he didn't even know if his family was dead or alive at that time. And, instead of comforting his distraught wife, he screamed at her "What have you done?" Okay, that made me think he may have set her up. I wouldn't be surprised if he was doing things to make her go nuts or make people think she was. I thought Celeste was innocent until the fire. Oh, and then, he and his girlfriend go to the charred house not long after his children's bodies were removed to rescue his precious wine collection. Obviously, Dr. Farrar used his charms on Ann Rule, because with Debora's emotions, she uses rough language and criticizes her behavior after her children die. However, I thought her behavior was much more reasonable than Mike's was. While his children were burning to death, he phoned his girlfriend rather than trying to comfort his wife or save the kids. He tells everyone his wife was nuts and wouldn't even let her stay with him. What a jerk! But, everything Mike does is explained in gentle terms. I love Ann Rule, but she really flunked with this book. Did Debora do it? Maybe. Was Mike involved? Quite Possibly. Was Celeste? Perhaps. Will the full truth ever come out? Probably not. However, I do believe Debora did have some major problems. But, Mike Farrar is an adulterous womanizer who seems to love being the center of attention. There is NO excuse for adultery. None. He wasted no time going after Debora, Celeste, Carolyn, or anyone else and when he had his fill, he dropped them just as quickly. He seems to have a pattern of going after other men's wives. Debora and Celeste were both married when he put the moves on them. Debora needed help, but I believe Mike needs psychologic help even worse. He's got some major issues. Mike seems to care about one person only -- himself. The one person that I feel the most sorry for is Kate Farrar who is called "Lissa" in the book. The poor kid went through a lot. I hope she can make some sort of sense of it all when she is an adult.

I'd like to find another book on this -- maybe it would be more factual and less biased.

Debora Green is a guilty nut-case, August 27, 2006
"Bitter Harvest" is a well-written and absorbing book about a very dysfunctional and cruel woman.Debora Green is a doctor,wife,and mother who is a miserable failure at all three roles.She can't stay employed anywhere for long,terrorizes her husband and manipulates her kids until they are as messed-up as she is.When her husband (finally)decides to leave her she attempts to poison him to death and then burns down her home with her children trapped inside.She kills two of her three kids and then in a final act of cruelty and selfishness she tries to blame her deceased 14-year old son for her actions.This book is interesting if somewhat depressing.It's worth a read if you are a true crime fan.A note to people who read all the other reviews on this book:I suspect a lot of the negative reviews on this book that are supposed to be from a "friend of Debora's"are actually being written by Debora her-self.This is a tactic she employed often-writing notes that praised her to the skies and criticized her husband that were always signed"a friend of Debora".Prisoners in medium security prisons (and some maximum security prisons as well) almost always enjoy internet access through the prison library and some even have computers in their cells.Plus, it would be her personality type to want to know what people were saying about her and try to control what people think.That's my two cents anyway.

Bitter Harvest leaves a bitter taste, May 3, 2000
I read true crime basically, to try and understand what makes people do what they do. I still don't know if I will ever understand this Mother/Doctor. I suppose what makes this story all the more horrifying is that she had been a practicing physician. Ann Rule is at her best with this shocking, horrifying tale. Each time I remebered that this was fact not fiction, I was filled to revulsion, at times, totally anguished. The book is riveting. My heart bled for those poor, innocent children. All I can say is that their Mother was truly a mad woman. Obviously, Dr. Green should be buried underneath the prison which she sits in--alive! The sad thing about it, is that I don't even know if this woman was actually "sick." I don't think she deserves that much benefit of a doubt. Anne does a great job depicting this nightmare.

A tantalizing disappointment, July 20, 2001
After hearing so much over the years about the quality of Ann Rule's books, I finally picked up this one and was prepared to be enthralled. Indeed, the story is fascinating, but Rule's treatment leaves something to be desired. She does provide meticulous detail, and the book certainly kept me reading. However, I found it finally unsatifying for several reasons.

Rule telegraphs too much too soon about who is going to be the "villain" of the story, and her presentation of the Farrars' marriage is far too black-and-white. For a relationship to have deteriorated to such horrific depths, both partners were surely more to blame than Rule seems willing to suggest. The spouse whom Rule paints as the complete victim strikes me as having been, at the very least, a fool to the point of criminal negligence. Yet, at every turn, the author inserts an excuse for that individual's actions.

Most frustrating to me was that hinted-at revelations about the guilty party's character never materialize. Rule drops teasers into her text that she never follows up on. For example, on page 27 of the hardcover edition, the supposed good spouse is "the last to know why" the partner behaves in a certain way, but that is the last we ever hear about it. Similarly, on page 322, a psychologist comments on "life experiences that happened...as a preadolescent" that contributed to the guilty party's mental state, and one is led to expect some explanation. It never comes. Ultimately we understand very little about who this person is--or why.

Because I gather that other books by Rule are considered better than this one, I may give her work another try. This book seemed lazy to me--substituting repetition, regurgitation of data, simplistic moralizing, and purple prose for any true insight. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The legal rights of Americans are threatened as never before. In No Contest, Ralph Nader and Wesley J. Smith reveal how power lawyers--Kenneth Starr perhaps the most notorious among them--misuse and manipulate the law at the expense of fairness and equity. Nader and Smith document how corporate lawyers

Editorial Review

Read free excerpts from the book at http://www.theguantanamolawyers.com and explore the complete archive of narratives at http://dlib.nyu.edu/guantanamo

Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the United States imprisoned more than seven hundred and fifty men at its naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. These men, ranging from teenage boys to men in their eighties from over forty different countries, were detained for years without charges, trial, and a fair hearing. Without any legal status or protection, they were truly outside the law: imprisoned in secret, denied communication with their families, and subjected to extreme isolation, physical and mental abuse, and, in some instances, torture.

These are the detainees’ stories, told by their lawyers because the prisoners themselves were silenced. It took habeas counsel more than two years—and a ruling from the United States Supreme Court—to finally gain the right to visit and talk to their clients at Guantánamo. Even then, lawyers were forced to operate under severe restrictions designed to inhibit communication and envelop the prison in secrecy. In time, however, lawyers were able to meet with their clients and bring the truth about Guantánamo to the world.

The Guantánamo Lawyers contains over one hundred personal narratives from attorneys who have represented detainees held at “GTMO” as well as at other overseas prisons, from Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan to secret CIA jails or “black sites.” Mark Denbeaux and Jonathan Hafetz—themselves lawyers for detainees—collected stories that cover virtually every facet of Guantánamo, and the litigation it sparked. Together, these moving, powerful voices create a historical record of Guantánamo’s legal, human, and moral failings, and provide a window into America's catastrophic effort to create a prison beyond the law.

An online archive, hosted by New York University Libraries, will be available at the time of publication and will contain the complete texts as well as other accounts contributed by Guantánamo lawyers. The documents will be freely available on the Internet for research, teaching, and non-commercial uses, and will be preserved indefinitely as a historical collection.

Editorial Review

The Cyanide Canary is the riveting true story of a horrific crime -- of a brave young man left for dead, an unscrupulous business mogul, and the relentless EPA investigator who fought to overcome injustice.

On a crisp summer morning in Soda Springs, Idaho, twenty-year-old Scott Dominguez kissed his fianc�e goodbye and went to work for Allan Elias, the owner of Evergreen Resources, an enterprise Dominguez thought was in the business of producing fertilizer from mining waste. A former high school wrestler blessed with Tom Cruise-like good looks, Dominguez seemed to have unlimited potential, but by eleven o'clock that morning he was fighting for his life, pulled unconscious from a cyanide-laced storage tank and not expected to live through the night.

In Seattle, Special Agent Joseph Hilldorfer of the Environmental Protection Agency was given the job of finding out what happened to Dominguez and why. Initially Hilldorfer did not want the case, still frustrated by an intense two-year investigation that concluded with corporate polluters walking out of a federal courthouse free. But as he learned more, Hilldorfer, the son of a Pittsburgh cop with a blue-collar work ethic, was touched by Scott's suffering and outraged at Elias's callous disregard for his employees' well-being.

Hilldorfer and his partner, Special Agent Bob Wojnicz, joined forces with seasoned Boise Assistant U.S. Attorney George Breitsameter and an indefatigable, brilliant young attorney from the Department of Justice's Environmental Crimes Section named David Uhlmann. Together they would uncover the horrifying truths and build the criminal case against Elias.

A former New York whiz kid and Arizona realestate and business mogul, Elias owned businesses that had polluted Idaho with hazardous waste for nearly a decade. Yet Elias never spent a single day in jail, openly boasted of beating the environmental quality regulations, and avoided any significant fines. Would this case be any different?

Hilldorfer, Uhlmann, and the government trial team embarked on an epic courtroom battle that would stretch them to the limits. What began as a struggle for justice for one young man became a fight by the EPA for its very ability to enforce the nation's environmental laws and to bring environmental polluters to justice. In the balance was whether Allan Elias would ever spend a day in jail.

Gripping, powerful, and compulsively readable, The Cyanide Canary is a major achievement in the classic tradition of A Civil Action, a book that unfolds like fiction yet is alarmingly true. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Since he was seven, Cary Stayner had dreamed of capturing women . . . and killing them

They were crimes that grabbed headlines around the world and stunned America. Four women dead, their bodies charred and horribly mutilated. Now Dennis McDougal, acclaimed author of the spellbinding true crime tour de force Mother's Day, brings his considerable investigative and narrative skills to the Yosemite murders to give you the most complete account of what really happened. Drawing on several personal conversations with the confessed killer and interviews with the victims' families, McDougal presents the definitive story, and answers many lingering questions. What demons drove this quiet handyman and nudist colony habitue to burn, mutilate, and murder four women he didn't even know?How did he overpower a woman and two teenaged girls?And most disturbing, did the glory-seeking FBI actually hinder the investigation, leaving the killer free to kill once more before he was caught?

THE YOSEMITE MURDERS offers valuable insight into these savage and senseless murders in the heart of America's most beautiful wilderness.
... Read more

Reviews

Excellent book on a tragic case, February 3, 2000
McDougal once again goes beyond the headlines of a tragic California crime and offers up more information on the Sund/Pelosso/Armstrong murders of Yosemite in 1999 that you will find anywhere else. "The Yosemite Murders" paints the horrifc picture of Cary Stayner, a 37-year-old good-looking slacker who confessed to the killings of four beautiful, meaningful women. This book details the 1972 kidnapping and seven year debacle of Cary's younger brother Steven. Also, McDougal digs into the Stayner background to deliver more information than we have ever read about this poor family. And whether Steven's disappearance and reemergence into a media darling had any impact on Cary's future. He also brings to issue whether or not the FBI may have committed heinous errors and led to the death of an innocent Yosemite employee. McDougal lays the case out in an easy-to-understand order that never panders to the lowest common denominator. This book is FAR from boring. It brings a very complex case into focus and is the necessary text for the federal trial against Stayner later this year. I have read approximately 3,000 true crime books, and without a doubt, "The Yosemite Murders" ranks near the very top.

Well done, August 13, 2000
This book covers a lot of detail, HOWEVER it is tastefully done. No voyeuristic and tasteless details of the victims murders and allows them their dignity. I dislike true crime books which gleefully share all the grisly details, I think it violates the victims, again, when this sort of thing is done. The author has done well on this aspect by relating only the necessary facts. It does delve into Cary's childhood which includes Steven Stayner,of course.

Yosemite Murders Portrays an Egotistical FBI, January 20, 2000
MCDOUGAL'S chronicle of the Yosemite Murders of Carole and Juli Sund, Silvina Pelosso and Joie Armstrong is a well-researched piece that includes conversations with local law enforcement and residents. The book draws the conclusion without explicity explaining the egotism of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and how that attitude of machismo prevented investigators from locating the alleged killer before he killed again and subsequently confessed to the crimes. McDougal thoughtfully covers the accused killer, Cary Anthony Stayner's, turbulent and well-publicized family, without offending or exploiting its members. Because of the deadline for publication of the book, the trial (which has not yet begun) is not included. People interested in an objective view of the events from February to October of 1999, will find an accurate account in the book.

Outstanding!, February 26, 2001
McDougal wrote a high speed page turner alright!I couldn't put this book down! i recomend this book to people who want to know the details of this tradgic murder case. Vivid detail, and what really happend.McDougal stabs at the how,who,what,when,were,how questions and delievers answers to every question you still have, I can almost guarentee that.Not only does it focus on the 4 murders in the beautiful park, but also of Steven Stayner's child hood and what was believed what happenend.Full of facts and even colored pictures of;the 4 victims, Joie Armstrongs cabin, the hotel room the 3 were taken from, and a few more you can't find anywhere else.

True Crime Author Strikes Big, February 20, 2007
I find this book an incredible model of premier investigative reporting. How Dennis can write so well without personally knowing his subject I'll never know. I enjoy a well-written novel also, but combining these existing facts with well-crafted writing is genius. This book informs whatever the reader may have heard or read before, bringing to life an individual's aberrent world. The author's comprehension of the antisocial mind is brilliant.

Detailed, May 14, 2001
McDougal digs deep into the heart with his descriptions of the gruesome murders. The beginning of the book fools you into thinking that McDougal will keep descriptions light, while covering all the necessities. However, as you read farther you find insignificant details. While some may find it helpful to know the full background of Cary Stayner's childhood, I failed to make a connection between what the kidnapping of his younger brother had to do with the murders the elder Stayner child committed. It seems as though each time McDougal introduced a new character, an in depth background was required. I feel as though the writer was merely trying to make his book appear longer by adding pointless details. The details did come in handy, however, when he described the murders. Over all I enjoyed the book, but found it tedious. I found myself skipping parts of each characters background in an effort to find the "good" part of the book. I doubt I will choose to read another True Crime book by Mr. McDougal.

Close to home!, July 20, 2002
I used to live 2 doors down from the Stayner family when they lived in Atwater, California. WOW. Del and Kay were very nice people, pretty much kept to themselves. I lived there when Steven was killed, it was SO SAD.
I found the book to be quite interesting since I lived in that area. It is just too crazy to me that someone could commit such horrific crimes. My heart goes out to the victims, their families, and Cary's family. Senseless murder is just something I will never understand. I don't normally read crime stories, but read this one because of who it was about...... I will be following the trial in the newspaper.

Worthless..., April 2, 2001
Ugh. As a seasoned reader of true crime novels this one is pointless. The writing is egotistical, vindictive with regard to fellow authors, and full of "fifty cent" words that are obviously plucked directly and pointlessly from the thesaurus. Loaded with useless and unconvincing personal commentary. Sixteen pages on the boring details of a funeral - including quoted poetry! I estimate one fifth of the text have anything interesting to do with the murderer...the rest is fodder. I am honest enough to admit that I don't read these books because I expect superior writing or because I am obsessed with the plight of the victims...I read these books to gather facts and formulate my own opinions on the psychology and intrigue of the mind of a killer. Nothing of interest along those lines here. I will avoid McDougal's books now and forever.

Too soon, March 27, 2005
Dennis McDougal has not done his homework on this one. This book came out too soon, and all the facts were not known at that time. ... Read more

Editorial Review

JOURNEY TO THE KILLING GROUND

It was an age of innocence -- an era of carhops, poodle skirts, and hula hoops. It was also a time of terror. In 1958, a man named Harvey Glatman sped along the Santa Ana freeway out of L.A., headed to the desert with his "date" huddled in the passenger seat beside him. In his pockets Harvey had a gun and a length of rope. Drunk on power, arousal, and rage, Harvey also had a plan. And beneath the desert stars, by the light of the moon, he carried out his ordeal of unimaginable cruelty -- using his body, a camera, and his rope....

Months later, after one of his inhuman attacks went awry, Harvey's torture killings were described to a shocked and silent California courtroom. For decades, these infamous deeds would inspire television and movie plots. But until now, there has been no definitive account of the forces that drove one of America's most legendary serial killers. And never before has it been explained why, for Harvey Glatman, his crimes weren't about killing, raping, and torturing at all -- they were all about the rope. ... Read more

Editorial Review

David Boies, the star trial lawyer in a country obsessed with legal drama, proves endlessly fascinating in this compulsively readable account of his extraordinary career.A man of almost superhuman accomplishment, Boies argued a string of headline-making cases before being catapulted to international prominence when he represented Al Gore before the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore. Brash, reckless, and prideful, he is also charming, charismatic, unerringly articulate in the courtroom, and supremely comfortable in the public eye. Legal journalist Karen Donovan, herself a lawyer, had unprecedented access to Boies for nearly two years. In v. Goliath she gives us a scintillating chronicle of the legal dramas in which Boies has played a crucial role and a riveting, up-close portrait of a singularly gifted lawyer.


From the Trade Paperback edition. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The Lost Art of Drawing the Line will appall and irritate — and entertain — readers every bit as much as Philip Howard’s first book.Why is it that no one can fix the schools?Why do ordinary judgements fill doctors with fear?Why are seesaws disappearing from playgrounds?Why has a wave of selfish people overtaken America?

In our effort to protect the individual against unfair decisions, we have created a society where no one’s in charge of anything.Silly lawsuits strike fear in our hearts because judges don’t think they have the authority to dismiss them.Inner-city schools are filthy and mired in a cycle of incompetence because no one has the authority to decide who’s doing the job and who’s not.

When no one’s in charge, we all lose our link to the common good.When principals lack authority over schools, of what use are the parents’ views?When no one can judge right and wrong, why not be as selfish as you can be?Philip Howard traces our well-meaning effort to protect individuals through the twentieth century, with the unintended result that we have lost much of our individual freedom.

Buttressed with scores of stories that make you want to collar the next self-centered jerk or hapless bureaucrat, The Lost Art of Drawing the Line demonstrates once again that Philip Howard is “trying to drive us all sane.”
... Read more

Editorial Review

The Supreme Court of the United States is the most powerful court in the world.It is also the branch of our government most shrouded in mystery, misunderstanding, and myth..Isolated in a marble temple, supposedly insulated from the pressures of politics, nine unelected Justices are charged with protecting our most cherished rights and shaping our fundamental laws.They are assisted by roughly thirty-six law clerks each year, the best and brightestof the nation's young lawyers, who routinelygo on to fill the highest ranks of our government, courts, law schools, and law firms.

Never before has one of these clerks stepped forward to reveal how the Court really works--and why it often fails the country and the cause of justice. In this groundbreaking book, award-winning historian Edward Lazarus, a former clerk to Justice Harry A. Blackmun, guides the reader through the Court's inner sanctum, explaining as only an eyewitness can the collisions of law, politics, and personality as the Justices wrestle with the most fiercely disputed issues of our time.Part memoir, past history, and all spellbinding narrative, Closed Chambers provides an intimate portrait and devastatingcritique--Justice by Justice--of a court at war with itself and in neglect of its constitutionalduties.

From the conservative Chief Justice Rehnquist's apparent attempt to influence the 1992 election by delaying a crucial abortion case to liberal champion Justice William Brennan's ill-conceived and ultimately self-defeating campaign to sabotage the death penalty, Lazarus's riveting account shows us a Court broken into scheming factions whose members resort to crass political calculations and transparently hypocritical arguments as they discard legal principles for bottomline results.The Justices further compound this cliquish antagonism by granting excessive power to immature, ideologically driven clerks, who then use that power to manipulate their bosses and the institution they ostensibly serve.

Edward Lazarus took part in the Court's internal battles over the death penalty, affirmative action, abortion, and other momentous issues.Here, he weaves together past and present to show us in astonishing detail not only the tragic failings of the modern Court, but also what led to them, and why they are so devastating for the nation.Unprecedented in its revelations and unparalleled in the brilliance of its analysis, Closed Chambers is the most important book on the Supreme Court in a generation. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Why do some men, women and even children assault, batter,rape, mutilate and murder? In his stunning new book, the PulitzerPrize-winner Richard Rhodes provides a startling and persuasiveanswer.

Why They Killexplores the discoveries of a maverickAmerican criminologist, Dr. Lonnie Athens -- himself the child of aviolent family -- which challenge conventional theories about violentbehavior. By interviewing violent criminals in prison, Dr. Athens hasidentified a pattern of social development common to all seriouslyviolent people -- a four-stage process he calls "violentization":

-- First, brutalization: A young person is forced by violence orthe threat of violence to submit to an aggressive authority figure; hewitnesses the violent subjugation of intimates, and the authorityfigure coaches him to use violence to settle disputes.
-- Second,belligerency: The dispirited subject, determined to prevent hisfurther violent subjugation, heeds his coach and resolves to resort toviolence.
-- Third, violent performances: His violent response toprovocation succeeds, and he reads respect and fear in the eyes ofothers.
-- Fourth, virulency: Exultant, he determines from now onto utilize serious violence as a means of dealing with people -- andhe bonds with others who believe as he does.

Since all four stagesmust be fully experienced in sequence and completed to produce aviolent individual, we see how intervening to interrupt the processcan prevent a tragic outcome.

Rhodes supports Athens's theory withhistorical evidence and shows how it explains such violent careers asthose of Perry Smith (the killer central to Truman Capote's narrativeIn Cold Blood), Mike Tyson, "preppy rapist" Alex Kelly, and LeeHarvey Oswald.

Why They Kill challenges with devastatingevidence the theory that violent behavior is impulsive, unconsciouslymotivated and predetermined. It offers compelling insights into theterrible, ongoing dilemma of criminal violence that plagues families,neighborhoods, cities and schools. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The Holocaust was not only the greatest murder in history; it was also the greatest theft. Historians estimate that the Nazis stole roughly $230 billion to $320 billion in assets (figured in today’s dollars), from the Jews of Europe. Since the revelations concerning the wartime activities of the Swiss banks first broke in the late 1990s, an ever-widening circle of complicity and wrongdoing against Jews and other victims has emerged in the course of lawsuits waged by American lawyers. These suits involved German corporations, French and Austrian banks, European insurance companies, and double thefts of art--first by the Nazis, and then by museums and private collectors refusing to give them up. All of these injustices have come to light thanks to the American legal system.

Holocaust Justice is the first book to tell the complete story of the legal campaign, conducted mainly on American soil, to address these injustices. Michael Bazyler, a legal scholar specializing in human rights and international law, takes an in-depth look at the series of lawsuits that gave rise to a coherent campaign to right historical wrongs. Diplomacy, individual pleas for justice by Holocaust survivors and various Jewish organizations for the last fifty years, and even suits in foreign courts, had not worked. It was only with the intervention of the American courts that elderly Holocaust survivors and millions of other wartime victims throughout the world were awarded compensation, and equally important, acknowledgment of the crimes committed against them.

The unique features of the American system of justice--which allowed it to handle claims that originated over fifty years ago and in another part of the world--made it the only forum in the world where Holocaust claims could be heard. Without the lawsuits brought by American lawyers, Bazyler asserts, the claims of the elderly survivors and their heirs would continue to be ignored.

For the first time in history, European and even American corporations are now being forced to pay restitution for war crimes totaling billions of dollars to Holocaust survivors and other victims. Bazyler deftly tells the unfolding stories: the Swiss banks’ attempt to hide dormant bank accounts belonging to Holocaust survivors or heirs of those who perished in the war; German private companies that used slave laborers during World War II--including American subsidiaries in Germany; Italian, Swiss and German insurance companies that refused to pay on prewar policies; and the legal wrangle going on today in American courts over art looted by the Nazis in wartime Europe. He describes both the human and legal dramas involved in the struggle for restitution, bringing the often-forgotten voices of Holocaust survivors to the forefront. He also addresses the controversial legal and moral issues over Holocaust restitution and the ethical debates over the distribution of funds.

With an eye to the future, Bazyler discusses the enduring legacy of Holocaust restitution litigation, which is already being used as a model for obtaining justice for historical wrongs on both the domestic and international stage. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Much of the innovative programming that powers the Internet, creates operating systems, and produces software is the result of "open source" code, that is, code that is freely distributed--as opposed to being kept secret--by those who write it. Leaving source code open has generated some of the most sophisticated developments in computer technology, including, most notably, Linux and Apache, which pose a significant challenge to Microsoft in the marketplace. As Steven Weber discusses, open source's success in a highly competitive industry has subverted many assumptions about how businesses are run, and how intellectual products are created and protected.

Traditionally, intellectual property law has allowed companies to control knowledge and has guarded the rights of the innovator, at the expense of industry-wide cooperation. In turn, engineers of new software code are richly rewarded; but, as Weber shows, in spite of the conventional wisdom that innovation is driven by the promise of individual and corporate wealth, ensuring the free distribution of code among computer programmers can empower a more effective process for building intellectual products. In the case of Open Source, independent programmers--sometimes hundreds or thousands of them--make unpaid contributions to software that develops organically, through trial and error.

Weber argues that the success of open source is not a freakish exception to economic principles. The open source community is guided by standards, rules, decisionmaking procedures, and sanctioning mechanisms. Weber explains the political and economic dynamics of this mysterious but important market development.

Editorial Review

This is the complete, official, unabridged edition of The Starr Report, the culmination of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's investigation of President Clinton. Containing allegations of perjury, obstruction of justice, and abuse of power, the report will have a profound effect on the Clinton presidency as well as on the country and the world as a whole.

Here, for the first time, you will have the opportunity to review, for yourself, all of the evidence against the president and make your own determination about the moral and legal ramifications of his actions. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The boisterous��freedom promised by the First Amendment is both the heart of American experiment and the fissure along which it divides itself.��Those who would fight freedom's enemies, from political correctness to corporate intimidation to outright censorship, face powerful adversaries.��But they also have a potent weapon at their disposal: good, old-fashioned talk--tough talk.��And as one of America's leading First Amendment attorneys, Martin Garbus is one of the toughest talkers there is.

Starting with his work on the tam that defended the legendary satirist Lenny Bruce against obscenity charges, Garbus has been a fearless advocate for some of the most important voices of our time, among them union organizer Cesar Chavez, actor Robert Redford, director Spike Lee, writer Samuel Beckett, Russian dissident Andrei Sakharov, and Czech playwright Vaclav Havel, who, as president of his country's revolutionary government, invited Garbus to help write the nation's constitution.

But Garbus is not an ivory-tower theoretician.��He is a highly effective defense lawyer who takes on cases with the full intent of winning.��In Tough Talk, Garbus goes behind the scenes to show us how our system really works and what he does to make it work for his clients.��How does an attorney get controversial cases?��What does he do to gain control of a hostile courtroom?��How does he work with a defendant whose beliefs are the opposite of his own?

Tough Talk is both the story of one man's battle for freedom and a clear-eyed account of every major First Amendment issue this nation has faced in the last three decades, for the battles Garbus has fought have become the touchstones of America's debate about the limits of freedom.��In showing us how he has harnessed his personal idealism to the gritty reality of the courtroom, Garbus gives brilliant testimony to the power of tough talk.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Deliberate Intent is the riveting account of the landmark Hit Man case, by noted First Amendment attorney Rod Smolla, who risked reputation and career when he took on a cause that seemed to oppose his strongest beliefs.
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Early in 1992, Lawrence Horn hired a contract killer to execute his ex-wife and his severely brain-damaged son. On March 3, 1992, the man he hired, James Perry, traveled to Silver Spring, Maryland, and murdered Horn's ex-wife and child and the boy's nurse. Perry used a book called Hit Man as an instruction manual for the murders. The subsequent criminal trial became known as the Hit Man case, and after Horn and Perry were convicted of murder, the victims' families surprised the nation by filing an unprecedented wrongful death suit against Paladin Press, publisher of Hit Man. In a controversial turn of events, Paladin was being blamed for the murders.
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Distinguished attorney Rod Smolla, First Amendment expert and vigorous advocate of free speech, was approached to represent the victims' families in the civil suit against Paladin. Smolla initially declined, but after reading Hit Man and likening it to "a loaded pistol or a vial of poison," he decided to take on the case, even though it seemed to go against his abiding belief in the First Amendment. Smolla argued that if Paladin Press knew and intended that its murder manual Hit Man would be used in the actual planning and execution of contract killings, Paladin was not entitled to immunity under the First Amendment. In an appeal that stunned the legal world, Smolla's argument prevailed and was affirmed by the Supreme Court. Deliberate Intent is the dramatic story of the events behind this landmark case--a story that includes murder, trials, and appeals and, most important, raises fascinating and difficult questions about our most cherished freedom. ... Read more

Editorial Review

This book demonstrates how to use Access, Excel, Word and PowerPoint to become more effective and efficient in law enforcement applications.The examples presented in this book concentrate on crime analysis, community policing and investigative data.The exercises solve real world problems in law enforcement, using fictional data.The book has been designed for a 40 hour seminar or a semester long college course.College or university faculty are encouraged to review the book for use in a crime analysis and community policing applications courses. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Here at last is the account of the O.J. Simpson case that no one else has dared to write, that no one else could write. In Outrage, the famed prosecutor of Charles Manson and bestselling author of Helter Skelter goes to the heart of the trial that divided the country and made a mockery of justice.Vincent Bugliosi, who never lost a murder case, brilliantly outlines the five reasons why O.J. Simpson got away with murder: the worst possible jury, a sloppy and incomplete prosecution, a fatal change of venue, judicial error that allowed the defense to play the race card, and a weak summation and rebuttal that barely addressed the defense's frame-up and conspiracy theories. He reveals:

--The offer Marcia Clark and Bill Hodgman should never have refused.
--The bluff that saved the defense's cardboard case.
--What Deputy Sheriff Jeff Stuart overheard when Rosey Grier visited Simpson in jail.
--The 17 words Johnnie Cochran used to cover his argument that could have been his undoing if caught.
--Why the jurors never heard Simpson's first police interview-- filled with self-incriminating statements that alone could have convicted him of murder.

1.What mistake in jury selection could have cost Marcia Clark the trial--even before she argued the case?

2. What did Simpson do to make sure the gloves wouldn't fit?

3. How did Judge Ito's behavior towards Marcia Clark prejudice the jury?

4. Why did the prosecutors suppress Simpson's "smoking gun"?

5. How did Johnnie Cochran con the jury?

6. Who might really have suggested that Simpson try on the evidence gloves? ... Read more

Editorial Review

An intimate and heartwrenching investigation into the lives of children of imprisoned parents, by an award-winning journalist.

"I think they shouldn't have took my mama to jail….Give her the opportunity to make up for what she did. Using drugs, she's hurting herself. You take her away from me, now you're hurting me."—Terrence, a fifteen-year-old boy left to fend for himself after his mother was imprisoned for nonviolent drug possession

One in ten American children has a parent under criminal justice supervision—incarcerated, on probation, or on parole. One in thirty-three American children—and one in eight African American children—goes to sleep without access to a parent because that parent is in jail. Despite these staggering numbers, the children of prisoners remain largely invisible to society.

Following in the tradition of the bestseller Random Family, journalist Nell Bernstein shows, through the deeply moving stories of real families, how the children of the incarcerated are routinely punished for their parents' status: ignored, neglected, stigmatized, and endangered, with minimal effort made to help them cope.

Topics range from children's experiences at the time of their parent's arrest, to laws and policies that force even low-level offenders to forfeit their parental rights, to alternative sanctions that take into account prisoners' status as mothers and fathers.
All Alone in the World defines a crucial aspect of criminal justice and, in doing so, illuminates a critical new realm of human rights. ... Read more