Criminologist Speriglio's third book on the Marilyn Monroe question (Marilyn Monroe: Murder Cover-up, 1982; The Marilyn Conspiracy, 1986—neither reviewed), rounding up what's new since 1986. Speriglio makes the hardest case yet that Marilyn was the victim of foul play carried out by a Mafia hit team from Chicago, masterminded by mobster Sam Giancana at the behest of Joseph Kennedy, Sr., and JFK but unbeknownst to Bobby Kennedy. If you find it hard to believe that a President and his father could be behind the murder of a film star, Speriglio presents the means and motive to make your disbelief waver strongly. But first he offers a dull biography with barely a new word anywhere, aside from an interview with the actress's close friend and makeup artist Whitey Snyder, who was her first cosmetician at Fox and did the grisly, postautopsy face-and-wig prep for her funeral. The bio—apparently by coauthor Gregory—also is deaf, dumb, and blind about Laurence Olivier, indicating that he was a humorless bumbler of no comedic talent when he directed Marilyn in The Prince and the Showgirl—in which, arguably, she gives her best performance outside of Bus Stop. Moreover, the bio calls Olivier's supporting cast of accomplished British stage players ``insecure'' and ``easily threatened'' by Marilyn's proven comedic talents. The book comes into bloom only with the alleged murder and cover-up. The two hit men are said here to have chloroformed the actress and then, with a bulb syringe, squirted a chloral hydrate/Nembutal solution into her bowel are named—and their subsequent history is followed closely: One discussed the hit with his lover, Eugenia Pappas, who, upset by the knowledge, was soon shot through the chest and dumped into the Chicago River. Pappas's brother came forward in 1986 to reveal what his sister had told him about her ``killer fiancÇ''- -leading to this book. Brainless bio followed by riveting murder investigation. (Sixteen pages of photographs—not seen) (Film rights sold to Adona Productions)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1993
ISBN: 1-55972-125-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Birch Lane Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1993
Partly a biography of ``the most influential media baron of our time,'' more a critique of that baron's stewardship of the public interest, an ambitious assemblage that falls short of a strong narrative or full indictment. Newsday reporter Maier never received access to his little- known subject—S.I. ``Si'' Newhouse Jr., ruler of a chain of newspapers, of CondÇ Nast Publications (publisher of Vogue and Vanity Fair, among other magazines), and of the Random House book publishing empire—so his portrait is understandably sketchy. After tracing Newhouse's youthful unhappiness and professional meanderings, the author gets sidetracked with more interesting characters, such as Si's ``surrogate father,'' Alexander Liberman, longtime editorial director of CondÇ Nast. There, Newhouse blurred ``the distinction between editorial and advertising,'' Maier writes, sins later magnified at the reborn Vanity Fair and the newly acquired New Yorker. The narrative then turns to Si's friendship with the notorious Roy Cohn, who set in motion what seems to be Newhouse's most glaring ethical lapse: the Newhouse- owned Cleveland Plain Dealer succumbed to Mafia pressure to retract an investigative story on Teamster boss Jackie Presser. (Like most controversies in the book, this has been reported on in depth before.) Maier moves on to the complex tax maneuvering that saved oodles for Newhouse's Advance Publications, allowing him to acquire Random House in 1980. The author recounts how Newhouse's bottom- line mentality led to the controversial firings of veteran editors and sullied the company's reputation. Profiling editor Tina Brown (who agreed to interviews), he reveals that Si had planned to pull the plug on Brown's Vanity Fair until the famous Reagan cover turned the magazine's fortunes around. Si often drops out of the narrative when it veers into lengthy but not probing reports on the personalities and internal politics of Newhouse's empire, but Maier makes the worthy point that pundits have rarely examined the way ``the nation's largest private media company'' affects journalism and culture. In the public interest, surely. But will the public, outside the media world, be interested in this mediocre effort? (16 pages of photos, not seen) (First printing of 60,000)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-312-11481-8
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
A majestic biography of the man who shed his Ku Klux Klan robes to become one of the most influential and liberal justices in Supreme Court history. Newman (Law/New York Univ.) spent 26 years researching Black's life, and the result is a massive work of uncommon depth and grace. In subtle, luminous prose, he describes Black's merchant-class childhood in Clay County, Ala., haunted by his drunkard father; his prosperous years as ``Ego'' Black, the personal-injury lawyer whose courtroom oratory and theatrical cross-examination style brought him statewide fame and a position in the Klan; his two terms as Alabama's senator, during which he transformed himself from an intolerant populist into a power-brokering New Dealer, well-versed in ancient classics and modern politics; and his 34 years on the Supreme Court, championing the Bill of Rights and judicial restraint. Newman plainly reveres his subject, but he is clear-eyed and sometimes critical: He presents Black's various self- contradictory rationalizations for having served as KKK ``Kladd'' (whose job it is to induct new members into the Invisible Empire), then notes that Black ``never really grasped, or could admit, the genuine outrage that the Klan caused, and not only among Catholics, Jews and Negroes.'' Newman also criticizes Black's failure to grasp ``the profound meaning gathered within the Fourth Amendment's words'' (forbidding unreasonable searches and seizures). But he celebrates and illuminates the rest of the enormous body of Black's jurisprudence, which includes the ideas that the Bill of Rights applies in its entirety to the states and that the First Amendment right of free speech is ``absolute.'' The author is equally astute in analyzing Black's complex relationships with his depressive first wife, Josephine, the brilliant but libertine Justice William O. Douglas, and the devious and divisive Justice Felix Frankfurter. More than just a major contribution to Supreme Court history: a master's finely etched portrait of an American hero. (Author tour)
Pub Date: Oct. 10, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-43180-2
Page Count: 944
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
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