Crime & Criminals Books - Page 2

On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society

Dave Grossman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 162 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The twentieth century, with its bloody world wars, revolutions, and genocides accounting for hundreds of millions dead, would seem to prove that human beings are incredibly vicious predators and that killing is as natural as eating. But Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman, a psychologist and U.S. Army Ranger, demonstrates this is not the case. The good news, according to Grossman - drawing on dozens of interviews, first-person reports, and historic studies of combat, ranging from Frederick the Great's battles in the eighteenth century through Vietnam - is that the vast majority of soldiers are loath to kill. In World War II, for instance, only 15 to 25 percent of combat infantry were willing to fire their rifles. The provocative news is that modern armies, using Pavlovian and operant conditioning, have learned how to overcome this reluctance. In Korea about 50 percent of combat infantry were willing to shoot, and in Vietnam the figure rose to over 90 percent. The bad news is that by conditioning soldiers to overcome their instinctive loathing of killing, we have drastically increased post-combat stress - witness the devastated psychological state of our Vietnam vets as compared with those from earlier wars. And the truly terrible news is that contemporary civilian society, particularly the media, replicates the army's conditioning techniques and - according to Grossman's controversial thesis - is responsible for our rising rates of murder and violence, particularly among the young. In the explosive last section of the book, he argues that high-body-count movies, television violence (both news and entertainment), and interactive point-and-shoot video games are dangerously similar to thetraining programs that dehumanize the enemy, desensitize soldiers to the psychological ramifications of killing, and make pulling the trigger an automatic response.

If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer

The Goldman Family

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 206 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In 1994, Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson were brutally murdered at her home in Brentwood, California. O.J. Simpson was tried for the crime in a case that captured the attention of the American people, but was ultimately acquitted of criminal charges. The victims' families brought a civil case against Simpson, which found him liable for willfully and wrongfully causing the deaths of Ron and Nicole committing battery with malice and oppression.In 2006, HarperCollins announced the publication of a book in which O.J. Simpson told how he hypothetically would have committed the murders. In response to public outrage that Simpson stood to profit from these crimes, HarperCollins canceled the book. A Florida bankruptcy court awarded the rights to the Goldmans in August 2007 to satisfy the civil judgment in part. The Goldman family views the book as his confession, and has worked hard to ensure that the public will read this book and learn the truth. This is O.J. Simpson's original manuscript, approved by him, with up to 14,000 words of additional key commentary.

Electric Kool - Aid Acid Test

Tom Wolfe

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 135 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Interesting and well-written 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Tom Wolfe takes us through part of the acid-movement of the 60's with Ken Kesey (author of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest") and company as they embark on their journey across America to popularize acid. Wolfe writes in a way that sort of makes you feel that you are on acid too. His writing style in this book is very unique and he has an incredible way of describing things which is one thing I really enjoyed. Now I can finally understand what many of those baby-boomers went through!

Fascinating to contemplate 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

"The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" is the second totally drug inspired documentary I have read. The first was Hunter Thompson's autobiographical "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." That book, to me, was the scariest ever. Wolfe's, however, fascinated me. The difference I think is clear. Thompson was totally under the influence and control of drugs while covering a law-enforcement convention in Sin City. Wolfe is just an observer, not a user, as he follows Ken Kesey (respected author of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "Sometimes a Great Notion," and other books) and his band of Merry Pranksters on their cross-country drug-soaked bus journey, to their settlement in the hills of California, their deep association with the Hell's Angel's and Jerry Garcia's Grateful Dead, and concluding with their Electric Kool Aid Acid tests before Kesey's escape to Mexico and eventual return to the states and imprisonment. Where as Albert and Leary were interested in the scientific aspects of LSD, Kesey and his bunch were more involved with the fun of it. It's a long book covering over three years of the mid-1960s and is filled with repeated drug episodes. Yet, Wolfe's almost poetic style keeps the book from being repetitious and moving along with the speed of speed. Almost as fascinating as the story he tells is the style in which he tells it. It is filled with hundreds of various adjectives, most of which I had never seen or heard before, but the sounds of the words alone make their meanings clear. On top of language, Wolfe piles unusual punctuation and capitalization to add to the color and sense of his descriptions. And he thankfully adds an Epilogue at the end of his book to tell how he was able to get into the heads of the Pranksters to give a true accounting of what happened. The epilogue turns what could be construed as fiction into non-fiction. I'm glad I read the book. I'm glad I wasn't along on the trips.

Editorial Review:

"An American classic" (Newsweek) that defined a generation. “An astonishing book” (The New York Times Book Review) and an unflinching portrait of Ken Kesey, his Merry Pranksters, and the 1960s.

A Family Cursed: The Kissell Dynasty, a Gilded Fortune, and Two Brutal Murders (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

Kevin McMurray

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Too much Money 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Wife with too much money kills husbund. Brother who wants more money is killed. Was it worth it? She now sits in a jail in China.No money,kids,or boyfriend.

Intriguing Insight into Two devastating murders and the lives of Greed 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I have been reading Kevin's works as they come out and this is his best effort to date. A must read !! Kevin puts you right into the lives of this family and shows all the scars.

Editorial Review:

As boys, Robert and Andrew Kissel competed and excelled. As men, they made millions—Robert in the Asian markets and Andrew in real estate. But a darkness was chasing the brothers down. In November 2003, Robert was murdered in his posh Hong Kong apartment. Two-and-a-half years later, Andrew was found stabbed to death in his Greenwich Connecticut mansion.
 
Nancy Kissel was charged with murdering her husband Robert, after serving him a milkshake laced with sedatives and then beating him to death with a blunt object. But what happened to Andrew? His marriage was failing, and he faced prison for real estate fraud. Was his death a murder—or suicide? This riveting true story follows the different paths the Kissel brothers took toward the same fate and became

In Cold Blood

Truman Capote

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Total reviews: 429 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Commentary on our 21st Century Culture 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I was a child when In Cold Blood was first published but remember the adults in my life talking about this controversial novel. After watching the two recent Truman Capote biopics (Capote and Infamous), I thought I should read it. I was surprised how much this 40+ year old book had to say about the anger, polarization and general lack of civility in today's society. A family is senselessly murdered in a small town in Kansas. Everyone in the town of 6,000 knew this family. After the murderers are apprehended, each minister in this community of 21 churches stood at his pulpit and spokeout AGAINST the capital punishment. Relatives of the slain family wrote a letter published in the local newspaper asking that prosecutors not pursue the death penalty. And when the murderers are returned to Kansas and are walked into the jail for booking, the audience who has gathered for this spectacle stands nearly silent. The town's citizens are relieved that it was strangers who commited this attrocity and they no longer have to eye their neighbors suspiciously. There is little talk of revenge or a sense of closure via the death penalty. What a fascinating view of our society on the cusp of the revolution of the 1960's and 1970's. READ THIS BOOK!

Editorial Review:

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.

Five years, four months and twenty-nine days later, on April 14, 1965, Richard Eugene Hickock, aged thirty-three, and Perry Edward Smith, aged thirty-six, were hanged from the crime on a gallows in a warehouse in the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing, Kansa.

In Cold Blood is the story of the lives and deaths of these six people. It has already been hailed as a masterpiece.

The Sociopath Next Door

Martha Stout

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 218 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

i see the light 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

great book-married one i got out alive but not unscathed. I would advise many people to read however I worry that those that are will read and continue to use our goodness against us .Remember to believe a person's actions not their words if they are inconsistent more than 3 times get out-read this book

Essential Reading 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

In the world of today, especially in the so-called "first world" societies, conscience ranks as one of the most important, yet undervalued qualities of humanity. The idea that all people possess some natural quality of inner morality that restrains their behaviour towards others is taken as a de facto understanding by most. This naturalistic world view suffices for most relationships but can cause serious problems when dealing with those whose personalities formed with either inherited or acquired pathology. Sociopaths (the subject of Martha Stout's excellent book), exist within the spectrum of psychopathology that includes many other types of disorders (narcissism, BPD, psychopathy etc), and thus the book will interest anyone who has questions about relationships with egotistical, manipulative and vindictive people.

Ex-Harvard psychologist Martha Stout writes in a style pleasing and accessible to the layperson. One may feel a sense of her years of hard-won experience and understanding having structured the book in a way that anticipates unformed questions and provides answers in an easily-readable flow. Never dry, overly academic or condescending, Stout examines the philosophical and societal implications of the conscienceless with a sense of gentle yet serious gravity, and invites the reader to do the same.

The composite case studies convey effectively a range of traits and characteristics that a pathological personality can express. The reader may recognise many of these traits in others (and also oneself) - some might even appear as an "exact match" for a friend or partner! Most importantly, the composite cases provide a good example of how subtly sinister a sociopath can act. Much sociopathic and antisocial behaviour takes place "under the radar" of general social and legal conventions, with the consequences chiefly felt as some undefined sense of emotional or psychological violation by the victim.

As well as providing some warning signs and techniques for use in dealing with sociopaths, Stout devotes a good part of the book to an examination of conscience, morality and reasoning, concluding that following one's conscience shows the path to human happiness - a way that many religions and spiritual cultures have in common. Her synthesis and depth of thought in this area makes for refreshing reading.

In short - VERY highly recommended.

Those interested in further reading on the subject should also check out Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us, Political Ponerology (A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes) and Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work. These books provide excellent further reading on a subject that people really need to know more about - for their own protection.

Editorial Review:

We are accustomed to think of sociopaths as violent criminals, but in The Sociopath Next Door, Harvard psychologist Martha Stout reveals that a shocking 4 percent of ordinary peoplea "one in twenty-fivea "has an often undetected mental disorder, the chief symptom of which is that that person possesses no conscience. He or she has no ability whatsoever to feel shame, guilt, or remorse. One in twenty-five everyday Americans, therefore, is secretly a sociopath. They could be your colleague, your neighbor, even family. And they can do literally anything at all and feel absolutely no guilt.

Couldn't Keep It to Myself: Wally Lamb and the Women of York Correctional Institution (Testimonies from our Imprisoned Sisters)

Wally Lamb

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Total reviews: 62 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In a stunning work of insight and hope, New York Times bestselling author Wally Lamb once again reveals his unmatched talent for finding humanity in the lost and lonely and celebrates the transforming power of the written word.

For several years, Lamb has taught writing to a group of women prisoners at York Correctional Institution in Connecticut. In this unforgettable collection, the women of York describe in their own words how they were imprisoned by abuse, rejection, and their own self-destructive impulses long before they entered the criminal justice system. Yet these are powerful stories of hope and healing, told by writers who have left victimhood behind.

In his moving introduction, Lamb describes the incredible journey of expression and self-awareness the women took through their writing and shares how they challenged him as a teacher and as a fellow author. Couldn't Keep It to Myself is a true testament to the process of finding oneself and working toward a better day.

Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer

James L. Swanson

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Total reviews: 230 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The murder of Abraham Lincoln set off the greatest manhunt in American history -- the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth. From April 14 to April 26, 1865, the assassin led Union cavalry and detectives on a wild twelve-day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia, while the nation, still reeling from the just-ended Civil War, watched in horror and sadness.

At the very center of this story is John Wilkes Booth, America's notorious villain. A Confederate sympathizer and a member of a celebrated acting family, Booth threw away his fame and wealth for a chance to avenge the South's defeat. For almost two weeks, he confounded the manhunters, slipping away from their every move and denying them the justice they sought.

Based on rare archival materials, obscure trial transcripts, and Lincoln's own blood relics, Manhunt is a fully documented work, but it is also a fascinating tale of murder, intrigue, and betrayal. A gripping hour-by-hour account told through the eyes of the hunted and the hunters, this is history as you've never read it before.

Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (Modern Library)

Hunter S. Thompson

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Total reviews: 116 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"California, Labor Day weekend . . . early, with ocean fog still in the streets, outlaw motorcyclists wearing chains, shades and greasy Levis roll out from damp garages, all-night diners and cast-off one-night pads in Frisco, Hollywood, Berdoo and East Oakland, heading for the Monterey peninsula, north of Big Sur. . . The Menace is loose again."  Thus begins Hunter S. Thompson's vivid account of his experiences with California's most no-torious motorcycle gang, the Hell's Angels.   In the mid-1960s, Thompson spent almost two years living with the controversial An-gels, cycling up and down the coast, reveling in the anarchic spirit of their clan, and, as befits their name, raising hell. His book successfully captures a singular moment in American history, when the biker lifestyle was first defined, and when such countercultural movements were electrifying and horrifying America. Thompson, the creator of Gonzo journalism, writes with his usual bravado, energy, and brutal honesty, and with a nuanced and incisive eye; as The New Yorker pointed out, "For all its uninhibited and sardonic humor, Thompson's book is a thoughtful piece of work." As illuminating now as when originally published in 1967, Hell's Angels is a gripping portrait, and the best account we have of the truth behind an American legend.

Monster

Sanyika Shakur

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Total reviews: 181 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Chase von's review of Monster.... 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

There are so many things that can be said about this book, because it makes you think on so many different levels. It's brutally honest, and no holds barred, violent and as ruthless as things can get but... Then there is more... And I to date haven't read a book to surpass this in actually putting one "There" in the life of a Gang Banger. It made me think about the loss of innocence, it also made me think about what would have happened if this same man had of been raised else where in a different environment? I'll leave that one to the philosophers and all but the conclusion I came up with is he would have survived no matter where he was planted. When I first read Eldridge Cleavers "Soul On Ice" I was shocked at the intelligence pouring from the pages. I had the same feeling reading "Monster" by Sanyika Shakur. Highly intelligent! This book reads like a birds eye view of his life! It even inspired me to write on the subject so I give credit where credit is due. If you want to know what is really happening in the streets and neighborhoods of America then read this book!!!!

Raw? Without a doubt, but as shocking as all it is, there is also compassion revealed and revelations and for the man to live to write about it is a miracle to begin with.

I think this book deserves far more than what Amazon has in levels to rate.

To understand the real picture you have to see the underside...

And this book reveals it as few have and is an important part of American Literature and a testimony of how it really is with no holds barred!

And in addition to all the other things this man has been, one that he has certainly proven himself to be, without a doubt is an exceptional author and one who knows how to truly write something you won't have to worry about forgetting...

Because you won't...

Your Chance to Hear The Last Panther Speak

Editorial Review:

Writing from solitary confinement, a former member of Los Angeles's notorious gang, The Crips, recounts his baptism by violence into the gang at age eleven and his evolution behind bars into a militant black nationalist. Reprint.