This exceptionally captivating narrative, tracing the glittering rise and bloody fall of the Billionaire Boys Club, lives up to its subtitle's lofty, lurid promise. Joe Gamsky, a latter-day Jay Gatsby, grew up poor but smart enough to win a scholarship to L.A.'s posh Harvard School. Joe became friendly with schoolmate Dean Karny, and the two remained close after Joe (who changed his last name to Hunt) began a stint as a trader in Chicago. After losing millions on speculative trades and being expelled from the Mercantile Exchange, he rebounded, starting a new venture in Los Angeles, the Billionaire Boys Club, with Karny. The two attracted their richest friends from the Harvard School, and soon money was pouring into the BBC coffers for the stated purposes of technological research and investment. Sullivan (whose 1986 Esquire article on Hunt was the origin of this book) expertly details the grand ambitions of the BBC, which seemed achievable for a time. But the boys were greedy, as they candidly admitted to Sullivan; and Hunt's ability to manipulate their parents, along with his Ponzi and pyramid schemes, relied on a constant influx of cash. When Hunt matched wits with Ron Levin, a far superior con artist, the BBC was doomed. Karny provides fascinating details about the BBC's slide into a total amorality, rooted in avarice and almost cultlike devotion to the emotionally contained but charismatic Hunt. The result was the murder of Levin and two others. This archetypal L.A. story, set against the waning '80s, takes a further twist when Karny enters the Witness Protection Program, sending Hunt and other BBC members to jail for life. But Hunt has already gained what amounts to an acquittal on one murder charge, and he is fighting for a new trial on his outstanding convictions. Thoroughly researched and compulsively readable, an essential entry in the true-crime canon. (First printing of 50,000; $50,000 ad/promo; author tour)
Pub Date: April 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-87113-512-4
Page Count: 736
Publisher: Grove
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1996
A thorough, chilling and absorbing true-crime chronicle.
The notorious identical twins whose crime organization terrorized mid-20th-century London were “the most wicked gangsters Britain has ever seen,” assert former jewel thief Hamilton and author Cabell.
Both men published books about Reginald and Ronald Kray in 2002, but Hamilton (Branded by Ronnie Kray, not reviewed) and Cabell (The Kray Brothers—The Image Shattered, not reviewed) declare that there’s more to tell. Here they team up to focus on murders committed by the brothers—many more than the two for which the Krays got life sentences in 1969. Interviews with major players like former gangster Eric Mason and key prosecuting attorney Leonard Read, coupled with documentation from the National Archive, paint a scary picture of “The Kray Firm,” a criminal organization based on racketeering, fraud and vicious bloodshed. The real psychopath, it’s generally conceded, was Ronnie: schizophrenic, violent and addicted to pills. But Reggie helped him wreak increasing havoc as their cutthroat association’s influence spread. In 1969, attorney Leonard Read prosecuted both men for the murders of rival gangster George Cornell and Kray Firm member Jack McVitie, whose body was never recovered. Armed with an arsenal of painstakingly procured evidence, Read got life sentences for the twins, who had to serve 30 years without the possibility of parole. (Ronnie died in confinement in 1995; Reggie was released on compassionate grounds in 2000 and died of cancer weeks later.) There didn’t seem to be much point in incurring the expense of further prosecutions, but the authors believe “the full truth” must be told to counteract the glamorized image the Krays cultivated by hobnobbing with celebrities and politicians. Written mostly in the first-person voice of 76-year-old Hamilton, the text meticulously dissects and scrutinizes come half-dozen other murders for which the Krays were never charged.
A thorough, chilling and absorbing true-crime chronicle.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-84454-259-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: John Blake/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2007
Fraught, shivery fun that will paint you to your chair.
Tough-as-boots ex–Special Forces federal agent Queen teams again with Century, co-author of his bestselling Under and Alone: The True Story of the Undercover Agent Who Infiltrated America’s Most Violent Outlaw Motorcycle Gang (2005), to replay the hunt for a gun-crazy renegade holed up in a mountaintop hideaway.
The first-person narrative describes Queen’s quarry, Mark Stephens, as “a dopehead with an attitude and a machine gun.” By all accounts, Stephens was righteously bad, an accident waiting to turn lethal. He lived in a remote San Bernardino aerie, where he tended his marijuana gardens (“he had an impressive, if highly illegal, green thumb”) and made forays into town to peddle his harvest. While in civilization, Stephens enjoyed terrorizing his company of petty dealers—spraying their houses with automatic-weapon fire, for instance, or sticking the barrel of a gun down one dealer’s sister’s throat, then disappearing back into the mountains. Queen, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, strongly reacted to Stephens’ attention-seeking behavior. “I want this guy; I want this guy bad,” he muttered as he cruised the California freeways. But the suits at the Bureau dithered. So Queen kept tabs on Stephens while performing other undercover assignments, many involving outlaw motorcycle gangs and skinheads. The stories about these fearful gigs suggest bravery just this side of a death wish: “going deep undercover or running and gunning in the streets always fueled me.” Queen is a thorny, ambivalent character, both scary and comforting. He’s the ideal protagonist for zesty tales featuring vile miscreants and the cool thrill of operational specs. Soon it’s back to priority one as Queen gets the green light to go after Stephens. Century helps keep the narrative rolling toward a finale sure to ratchet up readers’ anxiety levels.
Fraught, shivery fun that will paint you to your chair.Pub Date: July 10, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6577-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
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