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Peter Maas (1) (1929–2001)

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Tietoja tekijästä

Peter Maas was born in New York on June 27, 1929. He graduated from Duke University in 1949 and served in the U. S. Navy during the Korean War. After the war, he became a journalist and wrote for such magazines as Collier's, Look, Saturday Evening Post, and New York Magazine. His nonfiction works näytä lisää include Marie, Manhunt, and Underboss. The Valachi Papers and Serpico were adapted into films. He died on August 23, 2001 at the age of 72. (Bowker Author Biography) näytä vähemmän

Tekijän teokset

Associated Works

Serpico [1973 film] (1973) — Original novel — 110 kappaletta
Mob: Stories of Death and Betrayal from Organized Crime (1656) — Avustaja — 29 kappaletta
The Valachi Papers [1972 film] (1972) — Original novel — 10 kappaletta
Marie [1985 film] (1987) — Original book — 3 kappaletta

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Kirja-arvosteluja

Pretty good account of a detective who fought against police corruption. Became a movie.
 
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kslade | 5 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Dec 8, 2022 |
In a Child’s Name by Peter Maas is a 1990 Simon & Schuster publication.

This old true crime case has stuck with me for years. Folks of a certain age might remember a made for TV movie based on this case. The cast was incredible, and while the movie stuck to the facts for the most part, there were some embellishments the book didn’t have, most notably that shocking scene with glowing Luminal.

The book, though, is equally dramatic due to the ghastly details and the riveting courtroom scenes, which detailed Ken’s relationships with his former wives, and the shenanigans he got up to once he was imprisoned.

In some ways, Ken reminded me of Ted Bundy- having some of the same psychopathic tendencies.

For those completely unfamiliar with the case-

Theresa Benigno and Ken Taylor marry, and go off to Acapulco on their honeymoon, where Theresa would be attacked and horribly beaten. The Mexican authorities didn’t buy Ken’s story of intruders in their hotel room. They suspected Ken- and relayed those suspicions to Theresa’s family. Theresa couldn’t remember what happened, but was convinced her new husband would never do such a thing to her.

They returned home, Theresa eventually healed, and soon became pregnant. Five months after the birth of her son, Theresa vanished, although Ken tried to convince people that Theresa had a drug problem and had entered a rehab facility.

Theresa’s sister, Celeste was sure something had happened to Theresa and that Ken knew more than he was telling. When Theresa’s body was found, dumped in a rural area, she has been brutally beaten, with a crushed skull.

Ken, though, had a bombshell of his own- he claimed he caught Theresa sexually abusing their son while high on drugs and confessed to hitting her over the head with a barbell.

The trial was riveting, eventually leading to a thirty- year prison sentence- but what happened next involved the custody of Theresa and Ken’s son. Ken’s parents believed they should get custody, but Celeste, was determined to keep that from happening.

The stunts the grandparents pulled were shocking- but they didn’t count on the spunky, determined, Celeste, a woman Ken dismissed as being scatterbrained, and his intellectual inferior, to hang in there for the long haul, enduring countless disappointments and setbacks before the courts finally made their decision.

The book is hard to read due to the intense, emotional subject matter, but the case is just as riveting and shocking now as it was back in 90s, and when the TV movie aired.

For the record- the Luminol scene in the movie was for dramatic effect only, as Luminol doesn’t really work that way. Still, I remember that scene to this day!!

Overall, I’m glad I found a copy of this book. It is very hard to find. I don’t think it has ever been formatted digitally- so if you happen across it on eBay or at a used bookstore- grab it!!
Also, if interested, YouTube still has some movie clips and actual news footage about this case.

4 stars
… (lisätietoja)
 
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gpangel | 3 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Aug 12, 2021 |
I read it as an audiobook while I was doing some work, so I did not take notes on it for possible review. So here are some quick impressions so I can remember that I read it.

We get a look at not only the Mafia's corruption, but the corruption throughout New York City as well. Gravano makes an effort throughout the book to emphasize how he strove to go by the rules of Cosa Nostra, rules that he saw the family under Gotti was not following. Basically, a lot of the effort in the book is to make Gravano come across as somewhat sympathetic. I will leave it to readers to judge.

On a side note, I read this as an audiobook. However, GR does not seem to have the exact edition, and I am not going to fuss about it, so here goes.

(full review on my blog later)



… (lisätietoja)
 
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bloodravenlib | 3 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Aug 17, 2020 |
The Terrible Hours, by Peter Maas, gets rave reviews from diverse sources, and the subject matter – the rescue of 33 crewmen from the sunken submarine USS Squalus in 1939 – is certainly riveting enough; unfortunately I couldn’t work up the degree of enthusiasm shown by other reviewers. The main problem is this is formula journalistic history; we get the life stories of the submarine crew, with vultures of doom circling over some of them; villains get identified (faceless USN bureaucrats who thwarted development of submarine rescue equipment); and heroes get a panegyric (here the hero is Charles “Swede” Momsen, who proposed the rescue chamber used to extract submarine crewmen from 240 feet down).

The human interest stories are compelling, if predictable (it’s a given that the seaman scheduled to be married won’t make it, for example). The drawback to The Terrible Hours is the complete lack of technical graphics. The book has no illustrations – no map showing the location of the sinking, no diagram of the Squalus or the diving bell, no plan of how the crucial main induction valve worked, not even casual photographs of the rescue and salvage operation – even though all these are in the public domain. It’s pretty obvious what caused the Squalus to sink – the main induction valve, 31 inches in diameter, either was open at submergence or was opened after the submarine reached dive depth. All indications were that the valve was closed when Squalus dived – numerous witnesses in the control room testified that the “Christmas tree” of red and green lights showing the status of hull openings was all green, and the backup test – releasing compressed air into the boat to verify that it would hold pressure – also passed successfully. The “Christmas tree” remained green until power went out – obviously it was the first thing everybody in the control room looked at when the engine room reported flooding. The Navy never did decide what had happened, although the unspoken suggestion was that the valve operator had opened the main induction after the boat was submerged (this was Momsen’s conclusion); however, that would have required a simultaneous failure of the “Christmas tree” warning light system. In any event, the Navy put a shield between the main induction valve handle and other valves in the vicinity, and added a distinctive surface texture to the main induction valve handle on the salvaged Squalus and other boats in her class.

Don’t’ get me wrong; not a bad book for character studies and the life of “Swede” Momsen; just not for technical details of submarines. Ironically, in my pre-teen years I was fascinated by submarines and dimly recall a children’s book about submarine rescues; that book included a diagram of the rescue chamber and drawings of the Squalus.
… (lisätietoja)
½
2 ääni
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setnahkt | 13 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Dec 29, 2017 |

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