No magazine has covered the world of true crime better than Playboy . The Playboy Book of True Crime includes twenty-one seminal works from the pages of Playboy that capture some of the most notorious crimes, criminals, organizations and investigations of the past several decades. This engrossing collection includes stories by leading chroniclers of Mafia life, including George Anastasia, Charles Brandt and Jimmy Breslin; Playboy's famous interviews of Gary Gilmore and Jimmy Hoffa (concluded just a month before the Teamster boss vanished); separate pieces by the incomparable Murray Kempton on organized crime and street crime -- his own mugging; accounts of some of the most fascinating and sometimes bizarre American murder mysteries in recent memory; biker wars between the Hell's Angels and Outlaws; the Russian mob; Gianni Versace's demise at the hands of Andrew Cunanan; a riveting interview with the Zelig of the true crime world, Lawrence Schiller; and stunning acts as disparate as the murder at a recording studio in Queens of Run-DMC DJ Jam Master Jay and the stealing of Edvard MunchÕs masterpiece The Scream from a museum in Norway.
'I only read it for the articles' is the joke, right?
Well, it's a well founded and truthful statement. Yes, tits and ass. But Playboy has a long and rich literary heritage. Especially when it comes to edgy reportage and this great collection is a testament to that statement.
Not only baps and bums, quims and bungholes, the legendary magazine was host to writings over the years (often launching careers) such as Wodehouse, Murakami, Baldwin, Dahl, Mailer, Bradbury, Garcia Marquez and Kerouac, just to name a few.
Unfortunately, this book of true crime articles features no such a luminary though. It does, however, contain some top notch work. We have the interview of an infamous serial killer days (and hours) before his execution, a look into the assassination of Run DMC dj, Jam Master Jay; mafioso from Russia, America and the sort who tear down the freeways on large hog motorcycles and also the white collar crime world of art theft.