Will interest Mafia aficionados, but too scattered and heavy-handed to find a wider audience.
The account of an Italian-American police officer whose friends included both law enforcement officials and “wise guys” in 1960s-era New York City.
The NYPD was no stranger to corruption in the mid-20th century, but this book places a different spin on that infamous scenario. Growing up in Harlem, Michael Palermo befriended many neighborhood kids who went on to fill a who’s-who list of prominent Mafiosi. Choosing the straight-and-narrow path for himself, he nonetheless retained relationships with his old pals even as he rose through the police ranks to become a narcotics detective. Cagan (The Chrysalis Connection, 2005) details this delicate balancing act by showing how Palermo navigated Mafia-run establishments as well as police hangouts, ultimately welcoming both elements to a christening party for his daughter (a thinly veiled Ray Charles, whom Palermo claims to have helped kick heroin, makes an appearance here to sing a few tunes). Punchy dialogue, visceral scenes of violence and gruesome factoids about the mob’s propensity for burying victims in dumping grounds throughout the Tristate area initially keep the narrative moving. However, the book often reads more like a movie treatment than an examination of its subject, and the haphazard editing makes for some rocky patches, especially in the lengthy opening sections. The Synopsis, Preface, Introduction, Flash Forward and Introspectus (an overwrought account of the Rolling Stones’ concert at Altamont, which has little to do with the rest of the story) ramble on for 36 pages before the first chapter even begins. Court transcripts further bog down the momentum, with verbatim trial jargon replacing action and sentiment often trumping the trickier ramifications of Palermo’s decision to honor his “two families.”
Will interest Mafia aficionados, but too scattered and heavy-handed to find a wider audience.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-61608-857-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2012
Mostly forsaking sensationalism for plodding detail, Fuhrman disappoints: this is only for people interested in the tedious...
The grisly account of a Spokane, Washington, serial killer’s spree, and a critique of the local police department’s investigation of the crimes.
On October 19, 2000, Robert Yates pled guilty to the murder of 13 women. According to detective-turned-journalist Fuhrman (Murder in Greenwich, not reviewed), the killer could have been apprehended two years earlier. The author traces the Yates case as it unfolds through the late 1990s. He may have left police work for journalism and a ranch in Idaho, but he was anything but a disinterested citizen when dead women began appearing at various dumping sites in the Spokane area. In fact, Fuhrman and his colleague, radio co-host Mark Fitzsimmons, began to explore the murders themselves. The author presents a detailed diary of their investigations, laying out a blow-by-blow recounting of each body’s discovery, the atmosphere of the crime scenes, and the possible thoughts of the killer. At the same time, Fuhrman documents the Spokane police department’s reluctant handling of the case, its insularity, and its refusal to release substantive details to the public. Indeed, for a long while, the department refused even to acknowledge the existence of a serial killer. In his unofficial search, the author repeatedly turned up witnesses who were never questioned and leads that were never followed. He concludes with a close analysis of the arrest affidavit, substantiating his allegation that the department could have caught the culprit years earlier if they had relied less on their computer database and DNA testing, and more on investigating phoned-in leads with basic police work. Although he claims that “the last thing [he] wanted to do was second guess them,” Fuhrman has little patience with the Spokane police; his tone is that of an indignant everyman wondering what the clowns in uniform were doing.
Mostly forsaking sensationalism for plodding detail, Fuhrman disappoints: this is only for people interested in the tedious nitty-gritty of apprehending a killer.Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-06-019437-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The most thorough and comprehensive assessment published to date of the extent and seriousness of criminal activity in Russia. Handelman, Moscow bureau chief for the Toronto Star from 1987 to 1992, provides an unprecedented degree of detail to document prevailing charges of the pervasiveness of organized crime, which allegedly accounted for 30 to 40 percent of national turnover in goods and services in 1993, according to Russian law enforcement agencies. Handelman rightly points out the difficulty of arriving at an agreed definition in a country where high taxes and red tape make it hard for business to be conducted honestly. But among the useful points he makes are that smuggling and the black market had become vital to the functioning of the state in the last 20 years of the Soviet Union's existence—which gives, as he says, new meaning to the phrase ``evil empire.'' The KGB and government officials have commandeered the whole process of privatization. And despite repeated declarations of war on crime, the government has failed to deal with the phenomenon. (Some statistics are ambiguous, however. Numbers showing how widespread corruption is—in 1993, 46,000 officials from all levels of government were tried on charges of corruption or abuse of power—could also prove the diligence and incorruptibility of those bringing the charges). Finally, according to Handelman, this wave of criminality has led not only to a disenchantment with capitalism, but to ``an overwhelming sense of defeat.'' While Handelman disclaims pessimism and pays tribute to the ingenuity and grit of many Russians, his last chapter, titled ``Who Lost Russia?,'' is not reassuring. Somewhat journalistic in style, but a careful and serious- minded effort to understand the significance of a pervasive criminality that threatens the structure of the state.
Pub Date: June 14, 1995
ISBN: 0-300-06352-0
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
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