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Title: For the People: Inside the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office 1850-2000 by Michael Parrish, Kevin Starr, Gil Garcetti ISBN: 1-883318-15-7 Publisher: Angel City Pr Pub. Date: January, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (2 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Bottom lines
Comment: For the price, this is actually a pretty fascinating "coffee table" book. When you have no idea what to give the "hard-to-buy-for," this would be a great gift. The price is very reasonable, considering the size of the book and the plethora of photos and illustrations. Each crime is covered in only one or two pages, so this would also appeal to those with short attention spans and to "bottomliners" like myself. I have a real aversion to the usual long, drawn out, beat-to-death coverage of these crimes on television and in other media. Consequently, I avoid those sources of information, preferring after-the-fact, summarized, organized information as it is presented in this book. Usually that's plenty enough information to make me sick. If I am interested in additional information, I know how to find it in newspaper archives. I'm also a native Southern Californian and a history fan; so it's not surprising that the book and the format held my attention. "True crime" is so often even more unbelievable than fiction, becoming even more incredible when it happens (literally) in your own backyard. If you are a fan of the Darwin awards, you may also recognize some not-so-clever candidates here, too. The district attorneys are often mentioned only briefly in passing, which is probably a blessing, even though they played pivotal and sometimes heroic roles in catching the bad guys and (some pretty frightening gals). One of the most interesting facts, and one probably not covered very widely in the media at the time, was the heroic method by which Richard Ramirez, the infamous "Night Stalker," was finally apprehended. You'll have to read the book if you don't know.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Candid Look at Prosecuting Crime and Prosecutors
Comment: This book is very unusual in that it covers 150 year history of a prosecutor's office. For the People is even more unusual in being candid about the problems that that office has experienced. You will read about former prosecutors being prosecuted as well as situations where the good citizens of Los Angeles preyed on their fellow citizens using discriminatory impulses. Most people will learn about crimes and criminals that they will find interesting. As a result, the reader can learn to be more appropriately cautious about the motives and actions of strangers and new acquaintances.
Although I was born and raised in southern California, much of the information was new to me. As an attorney, I was interested in the description of the transition from the Mexican justice system to the American one after California became part of the United States. I was also impressed to see how early the L.A. D.A.'s office was hiring women, using investigators, and having public defenders available.
The bulk of the book is about famous prosecutions. These are divided into Thieves and Killers, Crimes of the Heart, Family Violence, For Financial Gain, Celebrities (In the Limelight), Turmoil in the Streets, Public Corruption, In the Line of Duty (police officers who were killed), Notorious Cases, Criminal Cohorts, Driven to Kill, and Gangs. My main complaint about the book is that many of these cases should have been more detailed, and many could have been excluded to make the space for that expanded coverage. For example, one rattlesnake killing case would have been enough for me. I didn't need the second one.
The book contains many interesting photographs that make the stories much more vivid. I liked that aspect of the book very much. It made the history come alive for me.
In addition to hearing about cases I had not known about before, the book also provided me with new details on cases I did know something about.
Human nature never ceases to amaze me. These stories certainly reinforced that poin for me. Ms. Walburga "Dolly" Oesterreich had a lover she kept locked in the attic at night for years, so that her husband would not find him. Ms. Clara "Tiger Woman" Phillips was so enraged by a rival for her husband's affections that she took her rival apart with a claw hammer. Ms. Aimee Semple McPherson's scandals are detailed here involving misalliances as a backdrop to her evangalism.
The cases you've heard about are all here: Ennis Cosby; OJ; the Menendez brothers; Charles Keating; Rodney King and the 1992 riots; Sirhan Sirhan; and John Ehrlichman. If you've lived in the area a long time, you will also remember Caryl Chessman, the Watts riots, Roman Polanski, and the Manson Family. Many of the most interesting cases predate 1950, and few will know about those.
I hope you will take the time to read and appreciate this history of prosecuting crime in Los Angeles. It will remind you of the importance of having good district attorneys in every community. Otherwise, all of our lives will be in more danger, both from criminals and from false prosecution.
After you have finished the book, I suggest that you think about ways that you would be vulnerable to the criminals described here. How can you change what you do to reduce those risks?
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Title: The Prosecutors: A Year in the Life of a District Attorney's Office by Gary Delsohn ISBN: 0525947124 Publisher: E P Dutton Pub. Date: 07 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Southern California in the '50s: Sun, Fun and Fantasy by Charles Phoenix ISBN: 1883318491 Publisher: Angel City Pr Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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