“A Garden of Earthly Delights†by Joyce Carol Oates is an engrossing novel by one of America’s most esteemed authors. The story centers on Clara Walpole who is born into a family of dispossessed farm workers during the era of America’s Great Depression and follows her from her insecure and deprived childhood to her...
While the likes of the New York Times, Washington Post, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and other news organizations have their reporters digging for dirt on Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin, John McCain’s choice for vice president, their savior-in-waiting Barack Obama is getting a free ride at the expense of truth. It’s no secret that the...
In this novel,”Sherlock Holmes and the Fall River Tragedy,” Owen Haskell has set out on a challenging set of tasks: he must remain true to the well-known and complicated facts of the real-life Borden case, write a Sherlock Holmes who is worthy of Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary creation, and–last but hardly least–engage the reader....
The campaign offices for 2008 United States presidential candidate John McCain in Centennial, Colorado and Manchester, New Hampshire have been evacuated after receiving letter threats in the U.S. mail. Office staff state that the Centennial envelope contained an unknown white powder. “We immediately notified local and federal law enforcement agencies and are looking to...
On Thursday, an as of now unidentified individual, shot at and killed 16 year old student, Ryan McDonald. The shooting occurred at just after 8:00am, at Central High School, in Knoxville, Tennessee. According to Deputy Chief of Police of the Knoxville police department, William C. Roehl stated that the shooting was not “random” and...
“Manson Behind The Scenes†by Bill Nelson, who has previously written a book about Charles “Tex” Watson called “Tex Watson The Man The Madness The Manipulation,†gives updates on all the major players in this tragedy and points out many loose ends in the quarter-century old case. William Garretson, the groundskeeper who was inexplicably...
A 40-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly stabbing and decapitating a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus near Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, Canada on Wednesday night. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have issued a statement confirming that a homicide took place aboard the bus. A suspect is in custody. Canadian Public Safety Minister...
Watching a program about humanity’s furry friends and the multitude of ways people and other animals interact, I learned about an incident that stuck heavily in my mind long after the program was over. The show talked about a dog that had long been known for appropriating items and taking them to his own...
Some, but by no means all, contributors to this website have a pronounced nostalgia for earlier historical periods. The 1950s in particular are an era many recall fondly. Some would like to see us return to prevailing mores and ideals of that period. I myself have a special liking for some TV shows that...
Prisoners have claimed that they have been routinely beaten by guards. One prisoner said that, "they shackled our hands behind us, confiscated our clothes and possessions, and beat us. And they insulted the Koran, they trod on the Koran."
Susan Atkins is a murderer notorious for her participation in the cruel slayings committed at the Sharon Tate residence on August 6, 1969. She has been in prison almost four decades. Her name is Susan Atkins-Whitehouse because she is married to attorney James Whitehouse. Atkins-Whitehouse is dying from an inoperable brain tumor. She is...
Suppose someone says, “There’s a bunch of winos on that street corner.†You approach the indicated area. You expect to see a group of women in ragged dresses passing around a bottle of wine that is perhaps still in its brown paper bag. Or at least that is what you expected to see prior...
To give this book a fair review, it is necessary to discuss some history because a generation has been born and reached middle age since the events that catapulted the subject of “The Manson File†into worldwide infamy. On the evening of August 9, 1969, five people were murdered at the Bel Air, California...
Author’s Note: I want to encourage my readers to go to http://www.epinions.com/content_432280931972 if they have an opinion about this review and rate it there. I’d like comments both here on the blog and at epinions.com The Museum of Dr. Moses This volume of short stories by the extraordinarily gifted Joyce Carol Oates is subtitled...
Note: This review was originally written for a library service called Tele-book in which people could call a special number to hear reviews read. I also used this book extensively in the article I wrote about the Jean Harris-Herman Tarnower case that appears at http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/women/harris/1.html. Very Much A Lady by Shana Alexander, author of...
On February 14, a man staying at the Valley View Extended Stay America hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada was hospitalized after experiencing respiratory distress. The man lapsed into unconsciousness and has been at the hospital ever since. Since the bills at the hotel were going unpaid, Extended Stay America began to evict the man...
A school located in Edinburgh, Scotland has been sealed off after reports say that three packages containing radioactive materials were found on the school grounds. Reports say that the packages, in one box, were marked as plutonium, radium and strontium. According to police and fire officials, areas surrounding the Regent Language Training School have...
Frank Walker, the chief minister of Jersey, a United Kingdom Crown dependency off the coast of Normandy, France, has been forced to deny claims of a cover up after a child’s remains were found. Police are currently investigating twenty-seven cases of child abuse on the island and recently discovered the body of one child...
The third book written by Eugene Linden about the ape-language experiments, Silent Partners tells the rather depressing story of a scientific era that began with the highest of hopes and ended in a dismal snarl of ambiguity and recrimination. The book takes a special look at the fluctuating fates of the simian “partners” and...
I’ve written two blogs on why people should write to the Michigan Parole Board urging long overdue mercy for William J. Hetherington who has been imprisoned for over two decades for a rape conviction that many observers believe was based on weak evidence. My first essay on this case was entitled Tentative thoughts on...
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Amy Alkon
