People: True Crime Stories: Cases That Shocked America

I was born in the early 90's, but I'm familiar with most of these cases. My dad also has a strong interest in true crime, and is going to love this book. The cases are all well-known to him as well. I would recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in famous cases, and criminal content in general.

I could not wait to get this book. Its a brief story of all different kind of crimes. Well worth the price.

People Weekly magazine has captured the last 30 years of true crime stories in magazine-style reporting that includes multi-page feature articles as well as sidebars and photo spreads. People, originally a feature in Time Magazine, has been consistently lauded for excellence in editing and circulation, and since 2001 has maintained a 50/50 ratio of celebrity coverage to human interest coverage. In many ways, true crime reporting represents the nexus of celebrity (albeit usually unintentional celebrity) and human interest news reporting. The 144-page book opens with murder - cold-blooded, pre-meditated homicide, from Andrew Cunanan to Scott Peterson. Other opening chapters focus on unusual criminals, crimes of passion, crimes that are stranger than fiction, serial killers, and murderous con artists. The profile of female con artist Sante Kimes, leader of a mother-son team, is chillingly captivating. Strange high-profile crimes focus on the fraudulent billing of the agency that ran Miss Cleo psychic ads and the fertility doctor who sold a method of treating an infertile husband's sperm for re-insemination that was really the doctor's own sperm! Crimes that went in and out of the headlines over a matter of decades are also described in detail, as well as the unsolved mysteries and sudden twists of national true crime. Of course, Hollywood celebrities do take up a few chapters, from "The Many Trials of O.J." to "The Fall and Fall of Michael Jackson" to "Martha in the Big House" and the more recent Phil Spector and Robert Blake murder indictments. Several pages are devoted to the guilty pleasure of celebrity mug shots. There is even an entire section devoted to analysis and critique of the made-for-TV movies based on the true crimes of the last few decades. This is a highly-recommended coffee table book for any subscriber of People or fan of true crime from the macabre to the bizarre.

From the files of People this book features every major true crime case from the last 20-30 years as well as a few lesser known cases. Most have to do with murder but there are some sensational crimes in here that have to do with other incidents as well. To name a few we've got Michael Jackson, Scott Peterson, Michael Kennedy, Ted Bundy, Versace, Preppy murder suspect Robert Chambers and many more. Plus funny close-up mugshots of a ton of celebrities who got arrested such as R. Kelly, Lil Kim, Bill Gates, Eminem, Ozzy Osbourne and tons more. Some I didnt even know that have been arrested are in here. Overall its a good book and has some nice pictures to go along with the outrageous stories. For the true crime buff this one will definitely interest you.

Scott Turow wrote the introduction to this book. Turow is one of my favorite authors, and he's one of the few who writes both fiction and non-fiction (and keeps them separate, unlike Michael Moore and Dan Brown). Having read Turow books and having read his writings about how he changed his views on the death penalty, I trust Turow. Therefore, his name on this book made me want to read it. This work is non-fiction, and it gives credence to the idea that "truth is stranger than fiction." Remember the bizarre OJ Simpson "trial?" I never did watch the television coverage, so I got all of my information after the melodrama had subsided. Of course, you'll find the OJ spectacle covered in this book. Interestingly, I read this book in parallel with listening to a couple of audio books on the same subject (one by two detectives on the case, another by Marcia Clark). This book left some impressions on me: * Rich people can be terribly cheap and petty. You would think that, with millions or billions of dollars, a person would not be so concerned about getting more that he or she would go to great lengths to hurt others to get it. After all, don't we stop eating when full? But some people are just gluttons. * People can tell the most brazen, stupid lies. While most of the crimes are in this book are heinous, the lies the perpetrators spin are almost humorously pathetic. Of course, we see this all the time with the American Taliban (not their official name), which has a 95% error rate in the notices it sends out to terrified taxpayers. * Not everybody views people as people (again, we see this with the American Taliban). * People who commit the most awful crimes most often follow those crimes with behavior that says, "Catch me!" OJ Simpson was a classic example. The Menendez brothers epitomized this. Horrendous crimes are interesting because they say something about us as well as the criminals. What really separates us from horrendous criminals, and how can we maintain that separation? The first thing you notice about this book is it looks like a magazine. It's the same size as three or four magazines stacked on top of each other, and it is as photo-centric as any good magazine. The material in this book comes from the files of People Magazine, so the cases do not represent a cross section of America. They represent a cross section of People Magazine's coverage. And that coverage is primarily movie stars, notable eccentrics, and the ultra-rich. I've read People Magazine, because you find it in waiting rooms everywhere. To me, it's eye candy and is of little value. I really don't care what various celebrities are doing. They live on a different planet with different rules, and most of them are just plain crazy. This book bears that out. I was surprised to discover the book has less of a fluff factor than the magazine does. In fact, it's not fluff at all, but a serious treatment of the material. But all the vignettes are short enough that you never

I think the book was really well written and the cases they profiled were of great interest. A great read for anyone intrigued by true crime stories like I am!