Résultats de recherche de titre
Articles 1 à 20 sur 83
Blood Trail
Par Steven Walker, Rick Reed. 2005
&“Every page crackles with authenticity and truth. This is the kind of true crime that grabs you by the throat…
and never lets go.&” —Gregg Olsen, #1 New York Times bestselling author In this classic true crime book, veteran journalist Steven Walker and decorated police detective Rick Reed delve into the disturbed mind of a sadistic serial killer. The murderous crimes of serial killer Joseph W. Brown first came to light in October 29, 1997, when Andrea "Slick" Hendrix's beaten and strangled naked body was discovered in a roadside ditch near Stewartsville, Indiana. With no leads for police to follow, the case went cold, but it wouldn't stay that way. In 1999 Brown, an ex-con with a brutal history, met Ginger Gasaway, 53, at a Gambler's Anonymous meeting. She didn't know that when she took up with him, she was gambling with her life. On August 30, 2000, Brown murdered and dismembered Gasaway and scattered her remains across three Indiana counties. Detective Rick Reed of the Evansville Police Department was on the scene when Brown led investigators to his ex-lover&’s body parts. Reed was again present when Brown later confessed that during the past five years, he had indulged in a seven-state rampage of torture and murder, including Andrea Hendrix among more than a dozen victims. For Gasaway&’s grisly death, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. But being behind bars did not end his murder spree. On June 19, 2011 Brown strangled his cellmate, Charles Miller, to death, then called to the desk sergeant to come and get the body. Blood Trail tells the twisting, fascinating true story of a monster who killed at whim—and the dedicated law enforcement professionals who brought him to justice. Includes 16 pages of photosUntil Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case
Par Stuart Taylor Jr., Kc Johnson. 2008
What began that night shocked Duke Universityand Durham, North Carolina. And it continues to captivate the nation: the Duke lacrosse…
team members‘ alleged rape of an African-American stripper and the unraveling of the case against them. In this ever-deepening American tragedy, Stuart Taylor Jr. and KC Johnson argue, law enforcement, a campaigning prosecutor, biased journalists, and left-leaning academics repeatedly refused to pursue the truth while scapegoats were made of these young men, recklessly tarnishing their lives. The story harbors multiple dramas, including the actions of a DA running for office; the inappropriate charges that should have been apparent to academics at Duke many months ago; the local and national media, who were so slow to take account of the publicly available evidence; and the appalling reactions of law enforcement, academia, and many black leaders.Until Proven Innocent is the only book that covers all five aspects of the case (personal, legal, academic, political, and media) in a comprehensive fashion. Based on interviews with key members of the defense team, many of the unindicted lacrosse players, and Duke officials, it is also the only book to include interviews with all three of the defendants, their families, and their legal teams. Taylor and Johnson‘s coverage of the Duke case was the earliest, most honest, and most comprehensive in the country, and here they take the idiocies and dishonesty of right- and left-wingers alike head on, shedding new light on the dangers of rogue prosecutors and police and a cultural tendency toward media-fueled travesties of justice. The context of the Duke case has vast import and contains likable heroes, unfortunate victims, and memorable villains—and in its full telling, it is captivating nonfiction with broad political, racial, and cultural relevance to our times.In American Roulette, Richard Marcus tells his never-before-heard story, of ripping off casinos. The book follows Marcus, along with several…
of the world's great professional casino cheaters, as he travels from Las Vegas to London and Monte Carlo, pilfering large sums of money from casinos by performing sleight of hand magic tricks with gaming chips. As skilled cheaters, they back up their moves with psychological setups to convince pit bosses that they're watching legitimate high rollers getting lucky, while in fact they're being ripped off blind. With the exploding growth of casino gambling, heightened by Indian reservation and riverboat expansion, more and more elaborate casino cheaters are illegally assaulting the green-felt, getting rich off of novice casino personnel. Richard Marcus's insider story is a window into the hidden world of intriguing personalities and tense situations he encounters as a member of expert casino-cheating teams who use their wits to turn the odds upside down and "earn" millions. American Roulette is a fascinating story not only for those who occasionally casino-gamble, but for everyone with a little larceny in their heart.A Lawyer's Life
Par Johnnie Cochran, David Fisher. 2002
The most famous lawyer in America talks about the law, his life, and how he has won.Johnnie Cochran has been…
a lawyer for almost forty years. In that time, he has taken on dozens of groundbreaking cases and emerged as a pivotal figure in race relations in America. Cochran gained international recognition as one of America's best - and most controversial lawyers - for leading 'the Dream Team' defense of accused killer O.J. Simpson in the Trial of the Century. Many people formed their perception of Cochran based on his work in that trial. But long before the Simpson trial and since then Johnnie Cochran has been a leader in the fight for justice for all Americans. This is his story.Cochran emerged from the trial as one of the nation's leading African-American spokespersons - and he has done most of his talking through the courtroom. Abner Louima. Amadou Diallo. The racially-profiled New Jersey Turnpike Four. Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. Patrick Dorismond. Cynthia Wiggins. These are the names that have dominated legal headlines - and Cochran was involved with each of them. No one who first encountered him during the Simpson trial can appreciate his impact on our world until they've read his whole story.Drawing on Cochran's most intriguing and difficult cases, A Lawyer's Life shows how he's fought his critics, won for his clients, and affected real change within the system. This is an intimate and compelling memoir of one lawyer's attempt to make us all truly equal in the eyes of the law.Undercover Cop: How I Brought Down the Real-Life Sopranos
Par Mike Russell, Patrick W. Picciarelli. 2013
One moment, New Jersey state trooper Mike Russell was working undercover, playing the role of an up-and-coming mobster hoping to…
infiltrate a Mafia family crew. The next, he was lying facedown in an alley after being ambushed and shot in the back of the head by a mobster over a dispute.Russell miraculously healed, and rather than press charges, he maintained his cover. Soon he had a stroke of good luck when he saved a man from an attack by two street thugs. The man he saved turned out to be Andy Gerardo, one of the ranking captains of the Genovese crime family. Quickly earning the trust of his new friend, Russell would orchestrate one of the biggest Mafia takedowns of all time.Urged by his police handlers, Russell used his cover story---an ex-cop fired for excessive force who now made his living from an oil-delivery business---and street skills to assimilate into the Genovese crime family in New Jersey, ultimately leading to more than fifty arrests of mobsters, corrupt prison officials, and even a state senator. Straddling the thin line between collecting evidence and participating in the very crimes he was leaking to the cops, Russell consistently placed himself at risk—especially when his police handlers disregarded his wishes and his well-being, conducting premature raids on the gangsters. With his marriage suffering and his family in danger, Russell took extraordinary steps to ensure his financial security and safety, demanding better terms from the police and allowing a film crew to document the final moments of the epic bust for a documentary that was later sold to HBO.A real-life version of The Sopranos, Undercover Cop immerses readers in the colorful yet harrowing trials of a standout cop who faced the mob on his own terms, crippled organized crime in New Jersey, and forever redefined undercover law enforcement.Alphaville: 1988, Crime, Punishment, and the Battle for New York City's Lower East Side
Par Michael Codella, Bruce Bennett. 2010
A raw, gritty memoir—part true-life cop thriller, part unputdownable history of a storied time and place—that will grip you by…
the throat until the explosive endAlphabet City in 1988 burned with heroin, radicalism, and anti-police sentiment. Working as a plainclothes narcotics cop in the most high-voltage neighborhood in Manhattan, Detective Sergeant Mike Codella earned the nickname "Rambo" from the local dealers, as well as a $50,000 bounty on his head. The son of a cop who grew up in a mob neighborhood in Brooklyn, Codella understood the unwritten laws of the shadowy businesses that ruled the streets. He knew that the further east you got from the relative safety of 5th Avenue, Washington Square Park and NYU, the deeper you entered the sea of human misery, greed, addiction, violence and all the things that come with an illegal retail drug trade run wild. With his partner, Gio, Codella made it his personal mission to put away Davie Blue Eyes—a stone cold murderer and the head of Alphabet City's heroin supply chain. Despite the hell they endured—all the beatings and gunshots, the footchases and close calls—Codella and Gio always saw Alphabet City the same way: worth saving. Alphaville, Codella's riveting, no-holds-barred memoir, resurrects the vicious streets that Davie Blue Eyes owned, and tells the story of how Codella bagged the so-called Forty Thieves that surrounded Davie, slowly working his way to the head of the snake one scale at a time. With the blistering narrative spirit of The French Connection, the insights of a seasoned insider, and a relentless voice that reads like the city's own, Alphaville is at once the story of a dedicated New York cop, and of New York City itself.A Good Month for Murder: The Inside Story of a Homicide Squad
Par Del Quentin Wilber. 2016
Bestselling author Del Quentin Wilber tells the inside story of how a homicide squad---a dedicated, colorful team of detectives—does its…
almost impossible jobTwelve homicides, three police-involved shootings and the furious hunt for an especially brutal killer--February 2013 was a good month for murder in suburban Washington, D.C.After gaining unparalleled access to the homicide unit in Prince George's County, which borders the nation's capital, Del Quentin Wilber begins shadowing the talented, often quirky detectives who get the call when a body falls. After a quiet couple of months, all hell breaks loose: suddenly every detective in the squad is scrambling to solve one shooting and stabbing after another. Meanwhile, the entire unit is obsessed with a stone-cold "red ball," a high-profile case involving a seventeen-year-old honor student attacked by a gunman who kicked down the door to her house and shot her in her bed.Murder is the police investigator's ultimate crucible: to solve a killing, a detective must speak for the dead. More than any recent book, A Good Month for Murder shows what it takes to succeed when the stakes couldn't possibly be higher.ConBody: The Revolutionary Bodyweight Prison Boot Camp—Born from an Extraordinary Story of Hope
Par Coss Marte, Brandon Sneed. 2018
“When Coss Marte went to prison 10 years ago, he was faced with not one, but two big challenges: lose…
weight and discover a legitimate career upon release. Luckily for him, overcoming the first obstacle helped him find the answer to the other.”—NPRAs a teenager, Coss Marte was flying high on New York’s Lower East Side as a drug dealer, making money hand over fist. But after watching his life and those of his loved ones fall apart, he realized things had to change. That change occurred when he was sentenced to prison.Within the space of his own cell and without workout equipment, Coss took the initiative to improve his circumstances and created ConBody, a bodyweight-only approach to fitness. This plan helped him drop 70 pounds from his dangerously obese frame, reversing a negative health prognosis of surviving the next five years. Once he saw that his workout plan was not only effective, but accessible, he knew he’d found a pathway to health and ultimately to a new life—and designed a regimen to train his fellow inmates.When he left prison, he returned to the Lower East Side, but not to his criminal career. Instead he worked out in his old hangouts and gained a small following that turned into an acclaimed business, winning entrepreneurial awards and the support of Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran.Coss’s method works. These exercises are for anyone, anywhere. All you need is yourself and the space of a jail cell to get started. It’s perfect for busy lifestyles on the go and can be done in hotel rooms, small apartments, and in your backyard.With fun, engaging exercises, ConBody: The Revolutionary Bodyweight Boot Camp will help give you the extraordinary hope and resilience to improve your health and life.Vice: One Cop's Story of Patrolling America's Most Dangerous City
Par John R. Baker, Stephen J. Rivele. 2011
9 square miles. 10,000 criminals. 130 cops. A riveting memoir by Baker, California's most-decorated police officer Compton: the most violent…
and crime-ridden city in America. What had been a semi-rural suburb of Los Angeles in the 1950s became a battleground for the Black Panthers and Malcolm X Foundation, the home of the Crips and Bloods and the first Hispanic gangs, and the cradle of gangster rap. At the center of it, trying to maintain order was the Compton Police Department, never more than 130-strong, and facing an army of criminals that numbered over 10,000. At any given time, fully one-tenth of Compton's population was in prison, yet this tidal wave of crime was held back by the thinnest line of the law—the Compton Police. John R. Baker was raised in Compton, eventually becoming the city's most decorated officer involved in some of its most notorious, horrifying and scandalous criminal cases. Baker's account of Compton from 1950 to 2001 is one of the most powerful and compelling cop memoirs ever written—an intensely human account of sacrifice and public service, and the price the men and women of the Compton Police Department paid to preserve their city.Convictions is a spellbinding story from the front lines of the fight against crime. Most Americans know little about the…
work of assistant United States attorneys, the federal prosecutors who possess sweeping authority to investigate and prosecute the nation's most dangerous criminals. John Kroger pursued high-profile cases against Mafia killers, drug kingpins, and Enron executives. Starting from his time as a green recruit and ending at the peak of his career, he steers us through the complexities of life as a prosecutor, where the battle in the courtroom is only the culmination of long and intricate investigative work. He reveals how to flip a perp, how to conduct a cross, how to work an informant, how to placate a hostile judge. Kroger relates it all with a novelist's eye for detail and a powerful sense of the ethical conflicts he faces. Often dissatisfied with the system, he explains why our law enforcement policies frequently fail in critical areas like drug enforcement and white-collar crime. He proposes new ways in which we can fight crime more effectively, empowering citizens to pressure their lawmakers to adopt more productive policies. This is an unflinching portrait of a crucial but little-understood part of our justice system, and Kroger is an eloquent guide.Plains Vizcachas: Biology and Evolution of a Peculiar Neotropical Caviomorph Rodent
Par Luciano Luis Rasia, Claudio Gustavo Barbeito, Francisco Acuña. 2024
The plains vizcacha (Lagostomus maximus) is a remarkable rodent of the Neotropic given several peculiar aspects of its biology, some…
of them quite unique among rodents or even among mammals. This book gathers specialists studying plains vizcachas from very different approaches, including paleontology, systematics, morphology, physiology, development and conservation. It is divided in two Parts, 1) Evolutionary History, and 2) Morphology, Development and Physiology. It will surely be a required reading for any researcher working with caviomorph rodents, mastozoology of the Neotropics or internal anatomy and physiology of mammals.Kill the Ones You Love
Par Robert Scott. 2013
Experience the true crime story of a married father and ex-cop with a dark side in this &“fast-paced, unforgettable real-life…
thriller&” (Sue Russell).Family On The RunA handsome, married young father and former deputy sheriff, Gabriel Morris looked like the picture of respectability. When his mother and her boyfriend were found brutally murdered in their pleasant Oregon seaside home, authorities were shocked to find a trail leading to him. Soon, police in several states were caught up in a riveting chase as Gabriel, with family in tow, went on a cross-country crime spree. No one knew if his wife, Jessica, was a victim or accomplice; or if his four-year-old daughter was in jeopardy. In a gracious Virginia suburb, a SWAT team swooped down on the renegade family and ended their wild, dangerous ride. What followed was even more shocking, as the story of how Gabriel Morris ended up on the wrong side of the law took investigators on a dark journey into the heart of a killer . . .Includes sixteen pages of dramatic photos.&“Unsettling. . . . While Scott paints a horrifying murder scene, he also efficiently shows how such monsters are made. . . . Unexpected shocks and disturbing surprises.&” —Publishers WeeklyPut your dinosaur knowledge to the test with this brilliant quiz book for kids!Introducing Dinosaur Knowledge Genius! - a brilliant…
quiz book packed with over 80 topics on the fascinating prehistoric world of dinosaurs. Which were the most fearsome predators? How big were the most gigantic plant-eaters? Why did so many dinosaurs have frills, crests, or spikes? Did dinosaurs really lay eggs? Which ones had feathers? If you want to know the answers, then this may be the book for you! Take on this brain-busting challenge about prehistoric life.This dinosaur quiz book for children aged 9-12 offers: - Plenty of quiz questions throughout the book to put your knowledge to the test.- Interactive &“Test Yourself&” panel lists with three levels of difficulty - starter, challenger, and genius.- Impressive dinosaur graphics that jump out at you on every page.- A variety of fun facts, picture puzzles, and quiz questions to keep kids entertained and engaged.As you hop from one dinosaur species to the next, you will learn all about the fascinating prehistoric world in this entertaining quiz book for kids and the whole family to enjoy. The pages are packed with eye-popping pictures and the "Test Yourself" panels list the type of dinosaur you&’re looking for on the page. With three levels of difficulty, the challenge gets harder from Starter to Challenger and the truly tricky Genius category. There's a fun fact with every picture to give a helpful clue.At DK, we believe in the power of discovery. So why stop here? Why not put your general knowledge to the test with other books in the Knowledge Genius series? Try General Knowledge Genius! to learn about everything, explore the animal world with Animal Knowledge Genius! or explore our planet with Earth Knowledge Genius!The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins
Par Stefanos Geroulanos. 2024
“[A]n incisive and captivating reassessment of prehistory . . . In lucid prose, Geroulanos unspools an enthralling and detailed history…
of the development of modern natural science. It’s a must-read.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “An astute, powerfully rendered history of humanity.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review An eminent historian tells the story of how we came to obsess over the origins of humanity—and how, for three centuries, ideas of prehistory have been used to justify devastating violence against others. Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundred years. In this coruscating work, acclaimed historian Stefanos Geroulanos demonstrates how claims about the earliest humans not only shaped Western intellectual culture, but gave rise to our modern world. The very idea that there was a human past before recorded history only emerged with the Enlightenment, when European thinkers began to reject faith-based notions of humanity and history in favor of supposedly more empirical ideas about the world. From the “state of nature” and Romantic notions of virtuous German barbarians to theories about Neanderthals, killer apes, and a matriarchal paradise where women ruled, Geroulanos captures the sheer variety and strangeness of the ideas that animated many of the major thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx. Yet as Geroulanos shows, such ideas became, for the most part, the ideological foundations of repressive regimes and globe-spanning empires. Deeming other peoples “savages” allowed for guilt-free violence against them; notions of “killer apes” who were our evolutionary predecessors made war seem natural. The emergence of modern science only accelerated the West’s imperialism. The Nazi obsession with race was rooted in archaeological claims about prehistoric IndoGermans; the idea that colonialized peoples could be “bombed back to the Stone Age” was made possible by the technology of flight and the anthropological idea that civilization advanced in stages. As Geroulanos argues, accounts of prehistory tell us more about the moment when they are proposed than about the deep past—and if we hope to start improving our future, we would be better off setting aside the search for how it all started. A necessary, timely, indelible account of how the quest for understanding the origins of humanity became the handmaiden of war and empire, The Invention of Prehistory will forever change how we think about the deep past.Killer Colt: Murder, Disgrace, and the Making of an American Legend
Par Harold Schechter. 2010
An in-the-room account of John Colt&’s scandalous nineteenth-century murder trial from &“America&’s principal chronicler of its greatest psychopathic killers&” (Boston…
Review). In this masterful account, renowned true-crime historian Harold Schechter takes you into the life and crimes of convicted murderer John Caldwell Colt, drawing parallels between John&’s rise to notoriety and his brother Samuel Colt&’s rise to fame as the inventor of the legendary revolver. With a killing that made headlines around the nation, John Colt became a cultural touchstone whose shocking villainy inspired and provoked such writers as Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, and Herman Melville. Unlike his brother, John lived a nomadic existence, bouncing from one job to another. His one distinction, writing a reference accounting book, would play a part in his fall from grace. For in New York City, on September 17, 1841, John murdered printer Samuel Adams with a hatchet during a heated argument over proceeds from book sales. A media circus ensued, galvanizing the penny press, which printed lurid headlines and gruesome woodcut illustrations. The standing-room-only trial created unforgettable moments in legal history, including such dramatic evidence as Samuel Adams&’s decomposed head. The verdict and its aftermath would reverberate throughout the country and beyond, giving John Colt lasting infamy. &“[Schechter] leads us through Colt&’s trial with such precision that you can smell the cigar smoke in the courtroom. . . . Killer Colt succeeds in making us care about this story now by showing why it mattered to so many people then.&” —HistoryNetThe Trunk Murderess: Winnie Ruth Judd
Par Jana Bommersbach. 1992
"Trophy Widow is a must read for anyone who likes a top-rate thriller." —Midwest Book ReviewSavvy attorney Rachel Gold has…
represented a few celebrity clients in her career, but none anywhere close to Angela Green, the most famous abused housewife in America. She is surely the only former housewife to receive an award from the NAACP and an interview with Oprah while serving time for killing her husband. Her recently announced book and motion picture deal has her enmeshed in a new legal controversy—a Son of Sam lawsuit over the proceeds from that deal.To defend her in that lawsuit, Angela retains Rachel Gold, who already has her hands full with a wacky ostrich sexual abuse case, compliments of a referral from her best friend, Benny Goldberg.As Rachel digs into the underlying facts of the murder case, she comes across issues that were never pursued at trial—loose ends no one bothered tying up because of the dramatic nature of the incriminating evidence. Is it possible, Rachel wonders, that Angela is innocent, that she was framed by someone with an entirely different motive for killing her husband? But if Angela is really innocent, the killer is still out there—and, as Rachel soon discovers, prepared to kill again.Legally Red: With a foreword by Sir Alex Ferguson
Par Maurice Watkins. 2023
At Old Trafford, in the corridors of power, Maurice Watkins was the guiding force. As the club solicitor, and later…
a director, for thirty-six years he was the man to whom Manchester United turned to negotiate the legal minefields. In his autobiography, written before his passing in 2021, the layers of secrecy are peeled back to expose the brilliance of a character who shaped the club's destiny.From the sacking of Tommy Docherty, through the late-night drive to Scotland to lure Alex Ferguson to the hot seat, to the courtroom defence of Eric Cantona for his 'kung-fu kick' on an abusive fan, Maurice Watkins was the key figure behind the scenes at United. Yet he was also front and centre for the triumphs under Ferguson and the rise of players such as David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo. Later, a lifelong love of sports made him a natural for leadership roles throughout the sporting world.Legally Red takes you into the boardroom of one of the greatest football clubs in the world in one of its most successful eras. But, ultimately, it's a story that goes beyond the legal battles of Manchester United. It reveals the human stories, heroics and heartaches that shaped Watkins's remarkable journey.Legally Red: With a foreword by Sir Alex Ferguson
Par Maurice Watkins. 2023
At Old Trafford, in the corridors of power, Maurice Watkins was the guiding force. As the club solicitor, and later…
a director, for thirty-six years he was the man to whom Manchester United turned to negotiate the legal minefields. In his autobiography, written before his passing in 2021, the layers of secrecy are peeled back to expose the brilliance of a character who shaped the club's destiny.From the sacking of Tommy Docherty, through the late-night drive to Scotland to lure Alex Ferguson to the hot seat, to the courtroom defence of Eric Cantona for his 'kung-fu kick' on an abusive fan, Maurice Watkins was the key figure behind the scenes at United. Yet he was also front and centre for the triumphs under Ferguson and the rise of players such as David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo. Later, a lifelong love of sports made him a natural for leadership roles throughout the sporting world.Legally Red takes you into the boardroom of one of the greatest football clubs in the world in one of its most successful eras. But, ultimately, it's a story that goes beyond the legal battles of Manchester United. It reveals the human stories, heroics and heartaches that shaped Watkins's remarkable journey.Demand the Impossible: One Lawyer's Pursuit Of Equal Justice For All
Par Robert L. Tsai. 2024
How four Supreme Court cases in recent years—all argued and won by one indomitable lawyer—are central to the pursuit of…
equal justice in America. Stephen Bright emerged on the scene as a cause lawyer in the early decades of mass incarceration, when inflammatory politics and harsh changes to criminal justice policy were crashing down on the most vulnerable members of society. He dedicated his career to unleashing social change by representing clients that society had long ago discarded, and advocated for all to receive a fair trial. In Demand the Impossible, Robert L. Tsai traces Bright’s remarkable career to explore the legal ideas that were central to his relentless pursuit of equal justice. For nearly forty years, Bright led the Southern Center for Human Rights, a nonprofit that provided legal aid to incarcerated people and worked to improve conditions within the justice system. He argued four capital cases before the US Supreme Court—and won each one, despite facing an increasingly hostile bench. With each victory, he brought to light how the law itself had become corrupted by the country’s thirst for severe punishment, exposing prosecutorial misconduct, continuing racial inequality, inadequate safeguards for people with intellectual disabilities, and the shameful quality of legal representation for the poor. Organized around these four major Supreme Court cases, each narrated in vivid and dramatic detail, Tsai’s essential account explores the racism built into the criminal justice system and the incredible advancements one lawyer and his committed allies made for equal rights. An electrifying work of legal history, Demand the Impossible reveals how change can be won in even the most challenging times and how seemingly small victories can go on to have outsized effects.Crafty Crooks & Conmen
Par Nigel Blundell, Sue Blackhall. 2009
From Clifford Irving and his Howard Hughes hoax to the great imposter Frank &“Catch Me if You Can&” Abagnale—a fascinating…
history of the art of the con. They&’re shrewd, cunning, devious—and charmingly trustworthy. While the criminal exploits of these tricksters, frauds, and swindlers can&’t be condoned, it&’s near-impossible not to be awed by their audacity and ingenuity. Take Victor Lustig, the &“Bouncing Czech&” who sold the Eiffel Tower—twice; John Stonehouse, a philandering politician who faked his own death to escape his sins; the impotence cure of the bizarre Dr. John Brinkley who transplanted goat testicles on gullible men; embarrassingly successful Goldman Sachs embezzler Joyti De-Laurey; or Robert Hendy-Freegard, a car salesman and serial seducer who convinced scores of women he was an MI5 agent. Here, too, are the exploits of a &“friend of the stars&” who infiltrated a royal castle; a fake Scots &“laird&” who operated from the heart of Scotland Yard; evangelists who fell from grace; and other pilferers, parasites, artful dodgers, charming bastards, femme fatales, big fat liars, and grand masters of dishonorable mention.