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American Murder: Criminals, Crimes, and the Media
How would you treat a murderer? If you’re from Hollywood and he’s notorious, you might turn him into a folk hero. Separate the facts from the many legends and revisions that have blossomed around these killers in this frightening look at the bloody real lives of movie’s infamous antiheroes.
You’ll find a blood-curdling assortment of the “criminal elite” in American Criminals, Crime and the Media , a rogue’s gallery of our most famous killings, killers and other scoundrels (and some that ought to be more famous than they are). A collection of high-profile murderers, gangsters, assassins, psychopaths, such as O.J., Amy Fisher, Robert Blake, Susan Smith, Claus Von Bulow, the Menendez brothers, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Richard Speck, Al Capone, Pretty Boy Floyd, Bugsy Siegel, Jesse James, John Dillinger, Charles Manson, Albert Fish, T. Cullen Davis, Ronald DeFeo, Jr., Edmund Kemper, Beulah Annan, Bonnie and Clyde, Billy the Kid, Charlie Starkweather, as well as an assortment of lesser known killers with some incredible tales!
With numerous photos and illustrations, this tome is richly illustrated, and its helpful bibliography and extensive index add to its usefulness. American Murder explores the legends as depicted in movies, stories, and songs. You’d not want to meet any of them in person – either the real or Hollywood versions!
You’ll find a blood-curdling assortment of the “criminal elite” in American Criminals, Crime and the Media , a rogue’s gallery of our most famous killings, killers and other scoundrels (and some that ought to be more famous than they are). A collection of high-profile murderers, gangsters, assassins, psychopaths, such as O.J., Amy Fisher, Robert Blake, Susan Smith, Claus Von Bulow, the Menendez brothers, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Richard Speck, Al Capone, Pretty Boy Floyd, Bugsy Siegel, Jesse James, John Dillinger, Charles Manson, Albert Fish, T. Cullen Davis, Ronald DeFeo, Jr., Edmund Kemper, Beulah Annan, Bonnie and Clyde, Billy the Kid, Charlie Starkweather, as well as an assortment of lesser known killers with some incredible tales!
With numerous photos and illustrations, this tome is richly illustrated, and its helpful bibliography and extensive index add to its usefulness. American Murder explores the legends as depicted in movies, stories, and songs. You’d not want to meet any of them in person – either the real or Hollywood versions!
448 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2008
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About the author
Michael Mayo
11 books15 followersMichael Mayo lives in North Carolina. The years he spent in New Jersey had a lot to do with his love of Prohibition-era New York and the creation of Jimmy Quinn. He has written about film for The Washington Post and The Roanoke Times. He was the host of the nationally-syndicated Movie Show on Radio and Max and Mike On the Movies. His non-fiction books include American Murder: Criminals, Crime and the Media, VideoHound’s Video Premieres, Horror Show, and War Movies. He edited three volumes of The DVD Guide. The fifth Jimmy Quinn novel, Welcome to Jimmy's Place will be published in September, 2022.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 2, 2020
American Murder: Criminals, Crimes, and the Media by media scholar Mike Mayo is, as the title suggests, a rather comprehensive true-crime encyclopedia—but it's much more than that. What makes American Murder stand out in a massive field of true-crime literature is that its focus is on when, how, and why mass media—television, film, popular fiction, etc.—addresses the particular subjects of notorious crime in the United States, whether serial murder, organized crime, or crime that's harder to categorize. Mayo's basically thorough approach, while not at all exhaustive (it really couldn't be, in all honesty, as true crime in the United States [and abroad] remains a perennial subject of fictional treatment; personally, I would very much appreciate seeing, say, My Friend Dahmer, a book I enjoyed immensely, in a second edition of American Murder [if Mr. Mayo is listening to this review, at least]), provides an ostensibly unique focus; Mayo draws elaborate connections, and his knowledge of true-crime-based fictional narratives does seem more-or-less exhaustive. (For example, in his entry on Ed Gein, perhaps one of the most notorious serial killers of the mid-20th century, Mayo very clearly cites Robert Bloch's Psycho—as well as Alfred Hitchcock's film, Tobe Hooper's film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Thomas Harris' The Silence of the Lambs, as well as Jonathan Demme's film; likewise, Mayo connects the infamous Lufthansa Heist to Henry Hill and Martin Scorsese's GoodFellas. And basically the entirety of American Murder is like these quintessential examples of Mayo's approach.)
What makes American Murder further compelling is that Mayo includes entries on writers of true crime such as Ann Rule and Jerry Bledsoe—and, like Rule and Bledsoe, Mayo's focus (and much of his sympathy) is decidedly on the victims of the many crimes detailed in his book. Perhaps Mayo's tone is sometimes arguably too casual or flippant for the subject matter, but for most of the gristlier or more serious crimes, Mayo's tone is equally—and appropriately—sober; moreover, Mayo is unafraid to note where he believes a miscarriage of justice has occurred, sending an innocent person to prison or to execution—as well as where someone got away with something they shouldn't've. Likewise, Mayo also is careful to note where a particular crime or criminal's exploits are too depressing, grotesque, obscure, or even mundane to warrant literary or cinematic treatment.
As I said earlier in this review, there's really no way Mayo's approach could be entirely exhaustive, but Mayo does an admirable job of detailing most of the examples in which cinema or literature (whether fiction or nonfiction) has addressed "American Murder"; moreover, Mayo's extensive bibliography provides ample fact-checking for further reading, always a plus in these circumstances. As encyclopedias or reference works go, American Murder is incredibly readable; that the material is interesting and compelling as well is a nice bonus.
What makes American Murder further compelling is that Mayo includes entries on writers of true crime such as Ann Rule and Jerry Bledsoe—and, like Rule and Bledsoe, Mayo's focus (and much of his sympathy) is decidedly on the victims of the many crimes detailed in his book. Perhaps Mayo's tone is sometimes arguably too casual or flippant for the subject matter, but for most of the gristlier or more serious crimes, Mayo's tone is equally—and appropriately—sober; moreover, Mayo is unafraid to note where he believes a miscarriage of justice has occurred, sending an innocent person to prison or to execution—as well as where someone got away with something they shouldn't've. Likewise, Mayo also is careful to note where a particular crime or criminal's exploits are too depressing, grotesque, obscure, or even mundane to warrant literary or cinematic treatment.
As I said earlier in this review, there's really no way Mayo's approach could be entirely exhaustive, but Mayo does an admirable job of detailing most of the examples in which cinema or literature (whether fiction or nonfiction) has addressed "American Murder"; moreover, Mayo's extensive bibliography provides ample fact-checking for further reading, always a plus in these circumstances. As encyclopedias or reference works go, American Murder is incredibly readable; that the material is interesting and compelling as well is a nice bonus.
January 5, 2013
The writing in this Murder-pedia is irritatingly glib. i.e. Ted Kaczynski's entry starts out, If Ted Kaczynski had just met the right girl and managed to get laid, we might have been spared the Unabomber. Um... ok.
Also the book tries to be lurid but is actually not lurid enough-- it aspires to be the dead-tree equivalent of the trutv crime library, but lacks the latter's scope & depth. The entries in American Murder are all fairly short, and they suffer for the lack of detail.
On the organized crime front, most modern American gangs (prison or otherwise) aren't covered. It's pretty Mafia-focused, with an eye to how criminals/crimes were made into movies and TV shows. True to the title I suppose but I didn't find the focus that interesting.
Also the book tries to be lurid but is actually not lurid enough-- it aspires to be the dead-tree equivalent of the trutv crime library, but lacks the latter's scope & depth. The entries in American Murder are all fairly short, and they suffer for the lack of detail.
On the organized crime front, most modern American gangs (prison or otherwise) aren't covered. It's pretty Mafia-focused, with an eye to how criminals/crimes were made into movies and TV shows. True to the title I suppose but I didn't find the focus that interesting.
August 12, 2016
Lots of mobsters, gentle descriptions of horrendous things.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews