Review first appeared at the New York Journal of Books on February 28, 2017 – http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/illusion

Buy the book through Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Illusion-Justice-Inside-Murderer-Americas/dp/0062569317/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488301738&sr=8-1&keywords=illusions+of+justice

“Yes, I believe [Steven] Avery is innocent. This is my opinion, which I know is not worth very much, but my opinion is based on an assessment of the evidence.”
—Jerome F. Buting

In 1985, Steven Avery was convicted of sexual assault and attempted murder and served 18 years in prison before being exonerated by DNA evidence. After his release, he filed a multimillion dollar civil lawsuit against Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. In November 2005, while this suit was pending, he was charged and later convicted of the murder of Teresa Halbach and sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.

The handling of the Halbach murder case was highly controversial and his defense lawyers, Jerome Buting and Dean Strang, argued that their client had been set up by his judicial rivals. Avery’s 2007 murder trial and its related issues were the focus of the wildly popular and provocative Netflix original documentary series, Making a Murderer, which was released in December 2015.
In Illusions of Justice: Inside making a Murderer and America’s Broken System, Jerome F. Buting links his version of the Avery murder trial with other cases from his 35-year career as a criminal defense attorney. From his early career as a public defender to his success overturning wrongful convictions working with the Innocence Project, Buting’s first foray into memoir delivers an insightful look at the rampant bias and shocking realities of criminal defense law.

“. . . with greater regularity than people outside the system might expect, the American criminal justice system leads to results that are unreliable, unjust, and sometimes both.”

Buting states that his purpose in writing this book was not to “retry the Avery case day by day” but to highlight what he saw as the central issues in the case. He states that his perspectives were shaped not only by the facts of the case but also by his previous experiences as a criminal defense attorney.

In this easy to read narrative, Buting explores his personal life, which includes a deeply personal and emotional account of his battle with cancer, while explaining and outlining his career-defining cases. He also sheds light on the imperfections of America’s justice system and provides a thought provoking and credible outline for its improvement.

“I have always looked at the career of a criminal defense lawyer as more of a vocation than a job. But cancer was a wake-up call. It helped me understand how people must feel when they find themselves wrongly accused as a defendant in court, totally dependent on an expert . . . to guide them through the labyrinthine criminal justice system.”

He goes on to write, “The saga of Steven Avery, which unfolded in a sweeping narrative studded with intricate detail, stunned many as a portrayal of a badly warped American justice system.” When he agreed to team-up with fellow defense attorney Dean Strang in the Avery case, he instinctively knew that they were involved in a tragic case that bordered on Shakespearean proportions.
“This was the kind of profound challenge that a good attorney in the prime of his career should not shy away from. The Avery case would test our faith in this system like few others. It had all the elements of the awesome power of the government juggernaut arrayed against one man, who had been an outcast his whole life.”

Buting’s Illusion of Justice is thought provoking and delivers critical interpretations and powerful commentary on the problems that are plaguing our criminal justice system. Through painstaking analysis and evidence, the author provides an unyielding and persuasive argument both for Steven Avery’s innocence and the need for change within our criminal justice system. His unwavering advocacy for justice in the face of overwhelming obstacles is commendable and must be applauded. This book is a must read for legal scholars, true crime enthusiasts, or anyone interested in the complexities of America’s criminal justice system.

Michael Thomas Barry’s most recent book is In the Company of Evil: Thirty Years of California Crime, 1950–1980. He is the author of six other nonfiction books and is a columnist for CrimeMagazine.com.

It’s often said that the police are the “thin blue line,” the fragile wall standing between the public and unrestrained anarchy and crime. But within the realm of policing there is no more despised or guarded assignment then Internal Affairs.

“Their work is often misunderstood, by the public and by others cops. It is racked with uncertainties and ambiguities, not simple black and white but varying shades of grey.”

The domain of Internal Affairs is filled with lies and betrayal, a world of squealers and snitches, wires and wiretaps, shadowy surveillance and covert operations. By necessity officers of Internal Affairs have to operate in the shadows, in secret, separated from their fellow officers. Good cops who recognize that the work they do is essential, are happy they don’t have to do the job themselves. But without these brave, honest, and faithful officers, the thin blue line would most certainly collapse from within.

In Blue on Blue: An Insider’s Story of Good Cops Catching Bad Cops, author Charles Campisi, a recently retired chief of the Internal Affairs Bureau for the NYPD recounts his 40-year career of flushing out crooked cops and combating police corruption. With assistance from veteran reporter and journalist Gordon Dillow, Campisi offers a fascinating and illuminating description of his career within the NYPD from a lowly rank and file officer in some of New York City’s most crime ridden precincts to his reluctant acceptance of head of the Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB).

Campisi is honest but cautious about his assessment of his new job post: “as I leave Ray Kelly’s office . . . All I know is that our mission now is to transform Internal Affairs and I know that’s not going to be easy. Because anybody who thinks he’s going to change the way the NYPD handles corruption and misconduct within its ranks has a lot of history to overcome first.”

With aggressive support from superiors, Campisi sought ways to alter the IAB’s bad reputation.

“As far as most cops are concerned, other cops go into IAB for only three reasons: one, they’re cowards or shirkers who are too afraid or lazy to work on the streets; two, they’re rats who jammed up by their own corruption or misconduct and agreed to work for IAB and rat out other cops to save their own skins; or three, they’re zealots who simply get a sick and twisted pleasure out of persecuting cops.”

During Campisi’s 18-year tenure (1996 to 2014) at the IAB the number of people shot, wounded, or killed by cops declined by almost 90 percent, and the number of cops failing integrity tests shrank to an equally startling low. But to achieve these results wasn’t easy, and Campisi had to triple IAB’s staff, hire the very best detectives, and put the word out that bad apples wouldn’t be tolerated. Although he concedes that eliminating all significant police misconduct is virtually impossible, he emphasizes that the majority of cops do their work professionally and honorably.

Campisi’s narrative is thought provoking, and as an ultimate insider he offers the reading public a rare glimpse inside one of the most secretive branches of policing. Within its pages, he recounts the most critical cases that put the IAB to the test and which ultimately helped clean up the department.

Charles Campisi’s Blue on Blue is a compelling behind the scenes account of what it takes to investigate police officers who cross the line between guardians of the public to criminals. It’s a mesmerizing exposé on the harsh realities and complexities of being a cop on the mean streets of New York City and the challenges of enforcing the law while at the same time obeying it. The breadth and depth of experience of the author and his unwavering commitment to justice makes this a refreshing read that will most certainly enthrall true crime enthusiasts and those interested in the history of modern law enforcement and particularly how police misconduct is handled.

This week (January 30 – February 5) in crime history – Mohandas Gandhi was assassinated (January 30, 1948); Andrew Jackson narrowly escaped assassination (January 30, 1835); Prosecutors announce intention to retry Ray Buckey in the McMartin Preschool molestation case (January 31, 1990); Guy Fawkes kills himself moments before his execution (January 31, 1606); Ted Bundy murdered University of Washington student (February 1, 1974); King Carlos I of Portugal and his heir were assassinated (February 1, 1908); Murder of Hollywood director William Desmond Taylor February 2, 1922); Barnett Davenport committed mass murder in rural Connecticut (February 3, 1780); Patty Hearst was kidnapped (February 4, 1974); Medger Evers assassin was convicted (February 5, 1994)

Highlighted Crime Story of the Week –

On February 4, 1974, Patricia Hearst, granddaughter daughter of publisher William Randolph Hearst, was kidnapped from her Berkeley, California, apartment. Stephen Weed, Hearst’s fiancé, was beaten unconscious by the two abductors. Soon, a ransom demand came from the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a radical activist group led by Donald DeFreeze.

DeFreeze had formed the SLA in 1973 after he escaped from prison. About two years before Hearst’s kidnapping, an SLA bomb-making factory had been discovered by the police. On November 6, 1973, the SLA shot and killed Marcus Foster, Oakland’s superintendent of schools, with bullets laced with cyanide.

The SLA instructed Hearst’s father to distribute $70 in food for ever poor person from Santa Rosa to Los Angeles. Hearst agreed to give away $2 million to the poor in Oakland. The Black Muslims, Malcolm X’s former organization, were chosen to manage the food distribution, which turned into a riot when more than 10,000 people showed up and fought for the food. Afterwards, the SLA demanded an additional $6 million giveaway. Hearst refused and they did not release Patty.

The Hearst story took a strange and unexpected turn two months after the abduction, when the SLA robbed the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco. The surveillance cameras clearly showed that Patty Hearst was one of the machine gun-toting robbers. Soon after followed a taped message from the SLA in which Hearst claimed that she had voluntarily joined the SLA and was now to be known as “Tania.”

On May 17, 1974, police were tipped that the SLA leaders were at a Los Angeles home. With 400 police and FBI agents outside the house, a tremendous gun battle broke out. The police threw gas canisters into the house and then shot at them, sparking a fire in which DeFreeze and five other SLA members died. However, Hearst was not inside the house. She was not found until September 1975.

Patty Hearst was put on trial for armed robbery and convicted, despite her claim that she had been coerced, through repeated rape, isolation, and brainwashing, into joining the SLA. Prosecutors believed that she actually orchestrated her own kidnapping because of her prior involvement with one of the SLA members. Despite any real proof of this theory, she was convicted and sent to prison. President Carter commuted Hearst’s sentence after she had served almost two years. Hearst was pardoned by President Clinton in January 2001.

Check back every Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the award winning author of seven nonfiction books that includes In the Company of Evil: Thirty Years of California Crime, 1950-1980.

This week (January 23-29) in crime history – Emmett Till’s murderers publish confessions on Look magazine (January 24, 1956); BTK Killer sends message to Wichita television station (January 25, 2005); Charles Manson and three of his followers were convicted of multiple murders (January 25, 1971); The Mad Butcher of Cleveland claimed third victim (January 26, 1936); The Vampire of Sacramento murdered three victims (January 27, 1978); Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate began their murderous crime spree (January 28, 1958); Brenda Spencer shot and killed two and wounded eight children at a San Diego area school (January 29, 1979)

Highlighted Crime Story of the Week –

On January 29, 1979, teenager Brenda Spencer shot and killed two school employees as they enter the Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego. Eight children and a police officer were wounded in the attack. Spencer blazed away with rifle shots from her home directly across the street from the school. After twenty minutes of shooting, police surrounded Spencer’s home for six hours before she surrendered. Asked for some explanation for the attack, Spencer allegedly said, “I just don’t like Mondays. I did this because it’s a way to cheer up the day. Nobody likes Mondays.”

Spencer was only sixteen-years-old at the time of her murderous attack and suffered with anger issues. In the weeks leading up to the mass shooting, Spencer had repeatedly shot out windows at the Cleveland school with a BB gun. Still, her father gave her a .22 semi-automatic rifle and ammunition as a Christmas gift at the end of 1978.

This seemed to inspire the young girl into more grandiose plans, and she started telling her classmates that she was going to do something big to get on television. When Monday morning rolled around, Burton Wragg, the principal of Cleveland Elementary, was opening the gates of the school when Spencer began firing her rifle from across the street. Wragg and custodian Michael Suchar were killed. When asked why she had committed the shooting Spencer stated, “I just did it for the fun of it, I don’t like Mondays.”

Spencer’s statements were later memorialized by Bob Geldof, the leader of the rock group The Boomtown Rats, in the song, “I Don’t Like Mondays.”

Spencer eventually pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to twenty-five years to life at the California Institution for Women in Corona, California and has been dined parole multiple times.

Check back every Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for http://www.crimemagazine.com and is the award winning author of seven nonfiction books that includes In the Company of Evil Thirty Years of California Crime, 1950-1980.

***News Flash***

December 29, 2016 – Author Michael Thomas Barry was named one of the top 20 authors for 2016 by Amy’s Bookshelf Reviews. His book In the Company of Evil Thirty Years of California Crime, 1950-1980 was also named one of the best books of 2016 with an honorable mention.

http://writeramyshannon.wixsite.com/bookshelfreviews/top-twenty-authors

This week (December 5 – 11) in crime history – Boston belfry murderer claimed first victim (December 5, 1873); The bank robbing Reno brothers were hanged (December 6, 1868); Colin Ferguson shot and killed six and wounded 19 on Long Island commuter train (December 7, 1993); John Lennon was murdered (December 8, 1980); Frank Sinatra Jr., was kidnapped (December 8, 1963); Civil rights activist Mumia Abu-Jamal murdered a Philadelphia police officer (December 9, 1981); Bernie Madoff was arrested and charged with masterminding Ponzi scheme (December 11, 2008)

Highlighted crime story of the week –

On December 5, 1873, Bridget Landregan was found beaten and strangled to death in the Boston suburb of Dorchester. According to witnesses, a man dressed in black with a flowing cape was seen running away from the scene. In 1874, a man fitting the same description attacked and clubbed to death another young girl, Mary Sullivan. The killer’s third victim, Mary Tynan, was bludgeoned in her own bed in 1875. Although she survived the attack for nearly a year, she was never able to identify her attacker.

Residents of Boston were stunned to learn that the serial murderer had been among them all along. Thomas Piper, the sexton at the Warren Avenue Baptist Church, was friendly with parishioners and nobody suspected his involvement. But when five-year-old Mabel Young, who was last seen with the sexton, was found dead in the church’s belfry in the summer of 1876, Piper became the prime suspect. Young’s skull had been crushed with a wooden club. Piper, who was dubbed “The Boston Belfry Murderer,” confessed to the four killings after his arrest. He was convicted and sentenced to die, and he was hanged in 1876.

Check back every Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is the award winning author of seven nonfiction books that includes In the Company of Evil Thirty Years of California Crime, 1950-1980.

Review first appeared at the New York Journal of Books on December 1, 2016 http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/women-possessed

Purchase the book at Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Women-Possessed-Life-Eugene-ONeill/dp/0399159118/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480628076&sr=8-1&keywords=by+women+possessed

Nobel Prize winning playwright Eugene O’Neill was a pioneer of the American theater and led the way for other literary legends such as Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, and Edward Albee. His true legacy is found in his ability to fearlessly tackle social and political values that today continue to inspire countless generations of authors and productions.

Since his death in 1953, O’Neill’s treasure trove of works such as Long Day’s Journey into Night and others have been in constant production around the world. Although he was a very talented writer, O’Neill was a deeply flawed human being, who struggled his entire life with depression and alcohol abuse, which presented challenges in all of his personal relationships.

“But, whatever O’Neill’s personal failings, there is no denying that, as an artist, he stood tall. An idealist and visionary, he bravely endured his years of struggle, demanding to be accepted on his own terms as a dramatist.”

The celebrated and award winning husband and wife team of Arthur and Barbara Gelb have spent 50+ years studying and examining the life of Eugene O’Neill, and their previous works include O’Neill (1962) and O’Neill: Life with Monte Cristo (2000). Arthur Gelb died on May 20, 2014 and Barbara “wearily polished” the final few pages of their final collaboration, a book they had been grappling with for nearly a decade. Their third and final collaboration in the O’Neill saga, By Women Possessed: A Life of Eugene O’Neill, is an 869 page epic, in which the Gelbs examine the last 25 years of the playwright’s life through his stormy relationships with the most important women in his life, primarily his third wife, actress Carlotta Monterey.

The word comprehensive is often used to define thoroughly researched biographies and other works, but this definition doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface in the amount of excruciating detail the Gelbs have provided in this volume.

The majority of the book is spent discussing his emotionally tempestuous marriage to Monterey, which was dominated by years of alcoholic setbacks, mental and physical decline, and hostile resentment. Within this volume are also discussed some of the longstanding misconceptions of O’Neill’s life such as his battle with alcoholism and depression, as well as his views on feminism and racism.

“He also had a violent and destructive temper, especially when he was on a drinking binge. At those times, he didn’t hesitate to manhandle his lovers.”

Unfortunately, there are only brief discussions of O’Neill’s early marriages and his complicated relationship with his mother.

“When, as an adolescent, Eugene O’Neill realized that his mother, Ella Quinlan O’Neill, blamed her morphine addiction on his birth and confessed she wished him unborn, she betrayed him in a way he could never forgive or forget.”

In this work the authors rely primarily of the previously unpublished diaries and interviews of Monterey as well as material from friends and associates. Monterey gave the authors a melancholy version of O’Neill’s final years as a sick and forgotten man who isolated himself from his family and fans.

“O’Neill hated hotels, she told us, because he had been born in one and had spent the first seven years of life traveling from hotel to hotel while his father toured the country with his acting company. . . .” She repeated what are commonly claimed to be O’Neill’s final words, spoken on November 21, 1953, “Born in a hotel room and God damn it, died in a hotel room.”

By Women Possessed is a captivating and in-depth study of one of America’s most revered literary giants. This volume is a superb example of a skillful, thorough, and cynically examined editorial biography that draws from an exhaustive treasure strove of previously unexploited source material. It offers the reader an extraordinary and thought provoking view on the playwright’s life and works. By Women Possessed is heartily recommend to anyone interested in the American theater, Eugene O’Neill, or biography in general.

Review First appeared at the New York Journal of Books on November 8, 2016 http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/jekyll-revelation

Buy the book – https://www.amazon.com/Jekyll-Revelation-Robert-Masello/dp/1503951197/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478622320&sr=8-1&keywords=robert+masello

What if the terrifying legacy of Jack the Ripper and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were connected and somehow transported across space and time from Victorian England to present day California? The consequences would be terrifying. Robert Masello, an award-winning journalist, television writer, and the bestselling author of numerous supernatural and historical thrillers that includes The Einstein Prophecy tackles this innovative and thought provoking historical whodunit in his new book The Jekyll Revelation.

Protagonist Rafael Salazar, an environmental scientist on routine patrol in Topanga Canyon, California, expects to find animal poachers but instead discovers a mysterious antique steamer trunk filled with a treasure trove of artifacts that includes a puzzling journal, written by none other than legendary author Robert Louis Stevenson. The journal cryptically reveals chilling details regarding the creation of his classic horror novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and an even more disturbing link to one of the most notorious serial killers of all-time. Within the pages of this mysterious journal is disclosed the true identity of Jack the Ripper.

“I begin this journal in high, if somewhat desperate, hopes. I mean to make it a record of my deliverance. If it becomes something other than that, it shall have served as my epitaph. A bookmark . . . or a bookend.”

The journal, unfortunately, wasn’t the only artifact in the trunk, and isn’t the only memento that has been pilfered. A bottle that purportedly contains the last drops of the potion that inspired Jekyll and Hyde and also created London’s most infamous killer has disappeared and fallen into the wrong hands. With parallel story lines set in present day California and 1880s London, The Jekyll Revelation masterfully alternates between reluctant hero’s Salazar and Stevenson as both attempt to stop the terror that has been unleased within their respective time periods.

Masello has done an admirable job of creating recognizable characters, although they tend to be somewhat formulaic. He sticks with the standard literary storyline of man playing God and its catastrophic fallout. The Jekyll Revelation is a fast-paced tour de force through history and contemporary California. It is a heart-pounding page turner filled with loads of action and intrigue.

“The brilliantly executed crime of Jack the Ripper have been laid at a dozen doorsteps, but none of them mine. Nor will they be, not so long as I am alive to be called to account for them. No, I mean to keep this journal, and my souvenirs, intact and unknown. They shall travel with me wherever I go (at this moment, my native California is again striking my fancy), and when, many years from now, my end draws near, I shall consign them to some appropriate grave. An unmarked spot where, in the fullness of time posterity shall rediscover, and perhaps reassess them. I leave that to fate.”

Masello has crafted an exceptional murder mystery with a literary twist that will not disappoint. This novel will most certainly captivate anyone who loves true crime, suspense thrillers, literary history, Robert Louis Stevenson, or Jack the Ripper. A must read and highly recommended.