AnyBook4Less.com	Find the Best Price on the Web Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Home  |  Store List  |  FAQ  |  Contact Us  |
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money Keyword AuthorISBN

Title: On the rock : twenty-five years in Alcatraz : the prison story of Alvin Karpis as told to Robert Livesey by Alvin Karpis ISBN: 0-7737-0047-1 Publisher: Musson Book Pub. Date: 1980 Format: Hardcover

Your Country USA Canada United Kingdom Australia Austria Belgium France Germany Italy Netherlands Switzerland Currency AutoUSD CAD GBP EUR AUD CHF Delivery Only cheapest delivery All delivery options Include Used Books Are you a club member of: Barnes and Noble Books A Million Chapters.Indigo.ca

Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (3 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: Life on the Rock
Comment: Ever wonder what it would be like to do time in Alcatraz? To live behind bars with some of the most notorious gangsters that ever lived? If so, then "On the Rock" is definitely your book.

Alvin "Creepy" Karpis, a former Public Enemy Number One who spent 26 years at Alcatraz, tells us firsthand what it was like. The reader is given an insider's perspective on every prison fight, strike and attempted breakout that occurred at Alcatraz between 1936 and 1962. Karpis had strong opinions about his fellow inmates, like "Machine Gun" Kelly ("a bullsh*tter"), Robert "The Birdman" Stroud ("a b*stard") and Al "Scarface" Capone ("completely insane"). It's a gritty story told with a fair share of gangster lingo and foul language. Karpis was quite a character, very intelligent and completely remorseless, and his personality comes through - raw and unfiltered - in "On the Rock". If you have even a passing interest in gangsters or prison life, you won't be disappointed.

Rating: 5
Summary: The best Alcatraz book
Comment: Karpis was the inmate who spent most time on the rock: almost 26 years out of the prison's 29 years. He tells his story candidly and doesn't try to gloss things over or sound macho. The best book I've read on Alcatraz, and I've read close to 20.

Rating: 4
Summary: Super Star at the Super-Prison
Comment: Alvin Karpis is the only man to survive earning the sobriquet "public enemy #1". After a whirlwind time as one of the most infamous outlaws in the lawless days of the1930s, Karpis was captured alive and sent to Alcatraz. His twenty-five years in America's first super-prison is the subject of this memoir.

Built as the government's answer to the 1930's wave of kidnappings and bank-robberies, Alcatraz was to be an escape-proof prison housing only the elite of the criminal world. It was certainly proof that 'crime doesn't pay' especially for the American taxpayers.

Karpis' memoires of his life on the rock showcase his amazing memory and are full of his experieces with the infamous residents of the super-prision. He either has a photograpich memory or his ghost-writer did a great deal of research.

While this is an interesting and informative book, rest assured that Karpis spends a great deal of time making sure that he always presents himself in the most favorable light even if the truth has to suffer.

Similar Books:

Title: Alcatraz from Inside: The Hard Years 1942-1952 by Jim Quillen ISBN: 0962520616 Publisher: Golden Gate Natl Park Assn Pub. Date: 01 February, 1992 List Price(USD): $11.95