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Title: Famous Crimes Revisited: From Sacco-Vanzetti to Oj Simpson by Henry C. Lee, Henry, Dr Lee, Jerry Labriola ISBN: 1-928782-14-0 Publisher: Strong Books Pub. Date: 05 January, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.13 (38 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Good forensics, with a twist...
Comment: A good, quick read if you are interested in forensics. Be aware there is a very different approach to this book then any other forensic book I have ever read, and I have read alot of them. Dr. Lee gives you the dynamics of each case in point. The cases are Sacco-Vanzetti (from the 1920's), the Lindbergh baby, Sam Sheppard (the story that spawned the movie "the Fugitive" and the TV series by the same name), President Kennedy, Vincent Foster, Jon Bennet Ramsey, and OJ Simpson. Here is the twist. He travels back in time to sit through these trials, not to decide if the verdict is correct, but to see how immature our justice system was (or is... Simpson trial). He shows how prejudices, crime scenes and evidence flawed the cases. He talks about conspiracies, planting incriminating evidence, bumbling crimes scenes, and more. It gets better. Not only does he travel back in time, even back just 8 years (1994 OJ Simpson), but even to trials he was present at(Again, OJ Simpson where he was hired by the defence). Which is not to say is a bad thing.. BUT, he has a buddy that he runs into when he goes back in time. This is where I was ambivilent. I could not decide if it was clever or unnecessary. This 'buddy' was Sam Constant. And although Dr. Lee was always unseen, Sam Constant could be seen to people at will. Sam represented public opinion of the times. He showed prejudices and followed medias. Whatever was the publics main thought, such was his.
The largest sections of this book was of Sacco-Vanzetti and OJ Simpson. Very small sections on the others, which was the main reson for me to get this book in the first place. It certainly was not a poor read, and Dr. Lee, who just sticks to his science and does not judge, is a very intelligent man. His insights are very interesting, which thankfully were present and made the book worth the read for me. I suppose you will have to decide for yourself.
Rating: 1
Summary: The old shell game
Comment: Ironically, the book itself is a crime scene. The crime is grift or hustle or bunco or scam. The criminal is the authors themselves whose only idea in writing this "book" seemed to be, "I guess we ought to try and make some money again."
What's wrong with it? Apart from the things that other reviewers have noted? The crime scene analysis of Dr Lee is extremely shallow. For example, in treating the Jon-Benet Ramsey murder, Lee sees fit to limit his contribution to an outline of incicators, this after a lengthy and baffling encounter with "Sam Constant." In the outline, under the heading of indicators that the offender was a family member he lists the evidence that the lengthy and elaborate ransom note was written on note paper found in the house and that a rough draft of the note was found in a trash can in the house.
It seems to me this is enough to call into question Dr Lee's competence to make any judgements of forensic psychology. WHat he is implying is that some family member is going to go to the trouble of crafting a long and very elaborate phony kidnapping/ransom note, involving detailed phony instructions, and even the fabricated nerdy/macho persona of the writer, and then top all this effort off by selecting their own stationery to write the note and furthermore tossing off a rough draft that they throw into their own trash can. What's wrong with this premise? Some family member meticulous enough to write this phony note is also going to be meticulous enough to write it on something other than what is obviously their own paper. Of course one can then argue, "Well, maybe they deliberately wrote the phony note on their own paper because that is precisely what some family member writing a phony ransom note would not do." Well, this is extremely subtle thinking; and moreover, this is not what Lee suggests. He merely lists the fact that the note paper was from stock found in the house and adduces this as possible evidence that the note was written by a family member. None of this intricate double negative theory goes into Lee's evaluation. And again, imagine that you are going to stage the murder of a family member to look like a kidnapping. Do you then - knowing the consequences if you are caught - toss off the note on your own paper, hoping the cops fall for your devlish ploy? Do you also then leave the body in the house, after all this ransom business that you go into in loving detail? It would take an extremely sophisticated criminal to come up with this subtle scheme and a criminal of this intelligence and sophistication would not like his chances of the cops and the jury being subtle enough to see things the right way.
Rating: 1
Summary: Famous Crimes Revisited- From Sacco-Vanzetti to Oj Simpson
Comment: Rarely has a book promised so much and delivered so little. Everything contained in it has been rehashed over and over in the popular media. The authors ask questions obvious to the most amateur sleuth and provide scanty or no answers. The fictional device of using the character representing "popular opinion" is annoying and would embarrass a sophomore trying to pad a term paper. The text wanders all over the place. I don't know how either of the authors would have the nerve to present such a mishmash to a publisher or why a reputable publisher would consider printing it. I resent the fact that I wasted time with this flop that should never have seen the light of day.
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Title: Cracking Cases: The Science of Solving Crimes by Henry C. Lee, Thomas W. O'Neil ISBN: 1573929859 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner by Michael Baden ISBN: 0804105995 Publisher: Ivy Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 1992 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Henry Lee's Crime Scene Handbook by Henry C. Lee, Timothy Palmbach, Marilyn T. Miller ISBN: 0124408303 Publisher: Academic Press Pub. Date: July, 2001 List Price(USD): $69.95 |
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Title: Blood Evidence: How DNA is Revolutionizing the Way We Solve Crimes by Henry Lee, Henry C., Ph.D. Lee, Frank Tirnady ISBN: 0738206024 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: 15 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: The Forensic Casebook: The Science of Crime Scene Investigation by Ngaire Genge, Ngaire E. Genge, N. E. Genge ISBN: 0345452038 Publisher: Ballantine Publishing Group Pub. Date: 27 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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