Hard Time (39 page)

Killing Time

An 18-year Odyssey from Death Row to Freedom by John Hollway and Ronald M. Gauthier

In 1984, John Thompson was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a prominent white man in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was sent to Angola Prison and confined to his cell for twenty-three hours a day. However, Thompson adamantly proclaimed his innocence and just needed lawyers who believed that his trial had been mishandled and would step up to the plate against the powerful DA’s office. But who would fight for Thompson’s innocence when he didn’t have an alibi for the night of the murder and there were two key witnesses to confirm his guilt?

Killing Time
is about the eighteen-year quest for Thompson’s freedom from a wrongful murder conviction. After Philadelphia lawyers Michael Banks and Gordon Cooney take on his case, they struggle to find areas of misconduct in his previous trials while grappling with their questions about Thompson’s innocence. John Hollway and Ronald M. Gauthier have interviewed Thompson and the lawyers and paint a realistic and compelling portrait of life on death row and the corruption in the Louisiana police and DA’s office. When it is found that evidence was mishandled in a previous trial that led to his death sentence in the murder case, Thompson is finally on his road to freedom—a journey that continues with his suit against Harry Connick, Sr., and the New Orleans DA’s office to this day.

Young Al Capone

The Untold Story of Scarface in New York, 1899-1925

byWilliam Balsamo and John Balsamo

Many people are familiar with the story of Al Capone, the “untouchable” Chicago gangster best known for orchestrating the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. But few are aware that Capone’s remarkable story began in the Navy Yard section of Brooklyn, New York. Tutored by the likes of infamous mobsters Johnny Torrio and Frankie Yale, young Capone’s disquieting demeanor, combined with the “technical advice” he received from these insidious pedagogues, contributed to the molding of a brutal criminal whose pseudonym, “Scarface,” evoked fascination throughout the world.

Despite the best efforts of previous biographers lacking true insider’s access, details about Capone’s early years have, until now, mostly been shrouded in mystery. With access gained through invaluable familial connections, the authors were able to open the previously sealed mouths of Capone’s known living associates. By compiling information through these interviews and never-before-published documents, the life of young Al Capone at last comes into focus.

The King of Sting

The Amazing True Story of a Modern American Outlaw

by Craig Glazer with Sal Manna

Jesse Craig Glazer was an ordinary college student when he planned and successfully executed his first fake sting to get back at some drug dealers who had robbed him. The rush he got from the experience led him and a crew of eleven accomplices to mastermind a two-year, thirty-three – sting spree that stretched coast to coast, posing as everything from local police to IRS agents and hotel managers.

Glazer and Donald Woodbeck, his partner in crime, sniffed out some of the most sought-after drug lords in the country for the FBI and DEA like bloodhounds. For a while, the plan worked—until Craig’s world came crashing down.

A Secret Life

The Sex, Lies, and Scandal of Grover Cleveland’s Presidency

by Charles Lachman

The child was born on September 14, 1874, at the only hospital in Buffalo, New York, that offered maternity services for unwed mothers. It was a boy, and though he entered the world in a state of illegitimacy, a distinguished name was given to this newborn: Oscar Folsom Cleveland. He was the son of the future president of the United States—Grover Cleveland. The story of how the man who held the nation’s highest office eventually came to take responsibility for his son is a thrilling one that reads like a sordid romance novel—including allegations of rape, physical violence, and prostitution. The stunning lengths that Cleveland undertook to conceal what really happened the evening of his son’s conception are truly astonishing—including forcing the unwed mother, Maria Halpin, into an insane asylum.

A Secret Life
also finally reveals what happened to Grover Cleveland’s son. Some historians have suggested that he became an alcoholic and died a young man—but Lachman definitively establishes his fate here for the first time. In this gripping historical narrative, Charles Lachman sets the scandal – plagued record straight with a tightly – coiled plot that provides for narrative history at its best.

Betrayal in Dallas

LBJ, the Pearl Street Mafia, and the Murder of President Kennedy

by Mark North

Author Mark North demystifies the most infamous crime of the twentieth century, arguing that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas by Mafia contract killers hired by Louisiana mob boss Carlos Marcello. Why Dallas? Because it was the only location in the country where one could commit a crime of such magnitude without fear of apprehension. Critical characters emerge in the plot to murder JFK: Henry Wade, the long-time district attorney destined for corruption; Lyndon B. Johnson himself, who, while a senator in the 1950s, accepted bribes from the mob; corrupt FBI director J. Edgar Hoover; and more.

North’s conclusions are based on classified federal documents unknown to the public and research community. It is inevitable that, at some point, any great historical truth becomes known.
Betrayal in Dallas
is nothing less than the vehicle for that moment. It is what the American people have been waiting for since November 22, 1963.

A Cold-Blooded Business

Adultery, Murder, and a Killer’s Path from the Bible Belt to the Boardroom

by Marek Fuchs

Olathe, Kansas, was made famous by Truman Capote in his nonfiction novel
In Cold Blood
, in which he told the story of the Clutter family’s murder in 1959. But few people know that Olathe achieved notoriety again in 1982, when a member of Olathe’s growing Evangelical Christian population, a gentle man named David Harmon, was murdered in his bed, beaten so badly with a club that his face caved in beyond recognition. Suspicion quickly fell on David’s wife, Melinda, and her boyfriend, Mark, student body president of the local Bible College. But Melinda and Mark were never officially charged with murder, and they went on to lead successful and law-abiding lives.
A Cold-Blooded Business
documents the shockingly amateurish police investigation, which was resumed in 2002 and provides fascinating character studies of Melinda and Mark, cold-blooded murderers who seemingly returned to normalcy after one blood-chilling night of violence. At once a fast-moving true detective story and an exploration into the darkest depths of the human psyche,
A Cold-Blooded Business
rightfully deserves a place on the bookshelf next to the best kind of writing on true crime.