Terrible Thunder: The Story of the New Orleans Sniper

by Peter Hernon

On New Year's Eve in New Orleans, 1972, Mark James Essex began one of the most violent and deadly sniper attacks on policemen that any American city had ever seen.

It was yet another tragic journey down the road of hatred, and before it ended one week later, hundreds of heavily armed police and a Marine Corps assault helicopter would be called to a burning downtown hotel to battle phantom gunmen who refused to surrender or to be killed.

Genres: True Crime, Crime, Nonfiction

303 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[PencilWorks Dba Imani Neville · Rating 4 out of 5]

toward the end there was some confusion to the incident that led up to the death due to the time jump of the telling the story. other than that after purchasing book and having it for two years finally read it as the first book of 2018

[EP · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book. I will always wonder if there were one or more gunmen that escaped that day.

[Barbara Maxwell-Dubrinsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This started out to be a jumbled back and forth account of the New Orleans sniper. At one point the author was giving so many names of the police involved it was hard to follow. Overall not a bad book but it did lean toward the sniper, James Essex, as justified in his feelings as he was mistreated during his time in the navy and had to "unload" on someone. In some ways I felt it glorified the Black Panther movement and the radical racists that want justice but cannot live with or forgive Caucasians for injustices they have encountered. It also showed an inept handling of the incident as a disjointed collaboration with state police and officers of other departments. I would call this Three Stooges law enforcement and hope things have improved by now.

[Ida Vedros · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember the Howard Johnson's incident when I was a teenager. I didn't read the book until years later. I knew many of the NOPD & NOFD responders by the time I read the book. Hernon did a wonderful job of reporting all of the events leading up to & during the incident. There has always been controversy about a single gunman vs a group or pair of them. This is a fantastic story & well written.

[Thomas Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's amazing to think one sniper could so take over a city and last so long against determined if disorganized response from police and allies. Essex's experiences of racism in the Navy are both a deadly spark and an Indictment of the institution at that time. I love a good conspiracy theory, but it really looks like Essex went over the edge, acted alone, and reports of additional sharpshooters or co- conspirators is the result of confusion and reverberating fear like aftershocks from this solo act of episodic and increasing acts of terrorism.

The very last chapter is too chilling to spoil here. However, you can get a feel for the threat inherent in Essex' actions in "Inner city blues (poem the siege of new orleans)" by Gil Scott-Heron, specifically the cover version he recorded on the 'Reflections' album with the rap about Essex, no the Marvin Gaye original.

[Shannon Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This happened when I was about 7 or 8, and living south of New Orleans. The entire neighborhood was clued to their televisions all day and I remember going from house to house with my friends, listening in on the conversations of the adults around us. I never understood exactly what was going on until I read this book last summer. The older I get, the more curious I am about things that happened when I was a child.

[Ronnie Cramer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unsettling but engrossing.

[Ernest · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent investigation of the events, police actions, motivations, and societal forces that created the sniper and the tragedy.