Jeffrey Toobin

For anyone who saw the first season of FX network's American Crime, 'The People v OJ Simpson", the series was based on this book. The author was involved as a reporter with the case before the trial even began, and stayed on it until the end of the civil case. I remember well when this happened, and will never forget listening to the radio in my boss's office as the verdict in the criminal trial was read. I'm sure my look of surprise matched his when we heard the announcement of "Not Guilty".

Everything about this case was a travesty, and it obviously should have ended in a mistrial, with a change of venue for the retrial. The LAPD investigation was poorly conducted from the beginning, and the inherent racism of the department in general, and Detective Fuhrman in particular, was a problem. This should not have been the focus of the case, however, since it didn't really have anything to do with whether or not Simpson was guilty. The arrogance and incompetence of the prosecutors was another problem. This was one of the first cases to use focus groups, which the defense team used brilliantly. The prosecution, on the other hand, didn't like what they heard and dismissed the company running the focus group for them after one day. As a result, the defense as able to pack the jury with people who were sympathetic to the defendant, and antagonistic towards the prosecution. The inept Judge Ito was more concerned with looking good on camera and pandering to celebrities than enforcing correct procedure. Of course, the defense team was the slimiest collection of legal weasels that could be assembled. They knew from the beginning that Simpson was guilty, and used the race card to redirect attention away from the actual case. As the original lead attorney, Robert Shapiro said afterwards: "We not only played the race card, but we dealt from the bottom of the deck".

All in all, this was a tragic miscarriage of justice that allowed a guilty man get away with murder. The book is excellent, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to read more about the "Trial of the Century".
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In the last days of the Nixon administration, the winter when my parents pulled me out of private university so that they could spend money on their divorce instead, one that had me working in an injection molding factory, the kidnapping of Patty Hearst occurred.

It was bizarre, of course. At one point, I speculated that the SLA was actually a covert FBI plot to discredit the left. If you were around in those days, you might remember all of the movements: black power, feminism, the Vietnam war protests, to name a few. It was all a bit scary for the the established power structures. Everyone I knew were afraid of the LAPD, and we were law-abiding folks (well, except for the cannabis use).

This book filled in a lot of blanks. The day-to-day coverage of this saga certainly left a lot to be desired. Since I wasn’t around my college friends, I really didn’t discuss the central question with anyone: did Patty really believe in the SLA’s goals, or was she just trying to survive?

Having lived through the Manson family thing when I was in high school, I was a bit surprised at some of the parallels with those people. For instance, how many of the people in both groups were women. And the willingness of the women to kill someone.

I did watch the assault on the house in L.A. live on television. It had finally dawned on me that they didn’t care at that point whether they might kill Patty. A truly bizarre piece of American history. Anyway, Toobin’s book is thorough and well-written and probably the only full account of the saga.… (plus d'informations)

This is an examination of Timothy McVeigh’s life; not only his infamous crime, but his radicalization that led to his bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building on April 19th, 1995. 168 men women and children were killed and thousands more were injured.

You probably remember photographs of the rage of the protesters surrounding young black children as they were escorted into segregated white schools during the 1960’s.I t’s important to know that the rage demonstrated in these photos has never truly vanished as certain groups see what they believe to be attacks on their way of life.

In the ‘90’s this angry anti-government rage had not vanished but had gone underground into such sources as the ads in the back of magazines like Soldier of Fortune which featured among other items a novel iconic to the haters called The Turner Diaries. Hate filled commentators such as Rush Limbaugh went from late night obscure radio stations to easier and more popular venues.

Ex military Tim McVeigh drifted into the culture of gun shows. There he found other disenfranchised people who swapped guns, angry literature and conspiracy theories.

Two events hardened McVeigh into committing to actions rather than theories. These were the Waco Branch Davidian disaster and President Clinton’s ban on assault weapons. Both of these convinced McVeigh that the government was out to eliminate the Constitutionally guaranteed right to have guns in order to quash dissenters.

It’s quite concerning is that many of McVeigh’s beliefs which were considered radical and aberrant in the 90’s have now become almost common among the far right. These include the necessity of a coming civil war/ revolution, taking the law into your own hands if you disagree with it, and violence against those who disagree with you.

Although most of the book focuses on Timothy McVeigh, It’also a well-written and thought-provoking view on how we got to the state of political and personal division we find ourselves in the United States today.… (plus d'informations)