Crimes and the Rich and Famous - Softcover

Sifakis, Carl

3.29

7 ratings by Goodreads

9780816044214: Crimes and the Rich and Famous

Softcover

ISBN 10: 081604421X ISBN 13: 9780816044214

Publisher: Checkmark Books, 2001

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Examines more than 150 notorious crimes, including the murders of Lee Harvey Oswald and JonBenet Ramsey.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Carl Sifakis is a crime reporter and freelance writer. Formerly with UPI and The Buffalo Evening News, he is the author of numerous books and articles, including Encyclopedia of Assassinations, The Encyclopedia of American Crime, and The Mafia Encyclopedia for Facts On File/Checkmark Books.

From Publishers Weekly:

Newsman Sifakis (Encyclopedia of American Crime) has put together an A-to-Z of front-page American crimes some resolved, some cold involving society's elite as both victims and perpetrators. We meet up with comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, child star Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, multimillionaire playboy and automobile entrepreneur John DeLorean, rapper Tupac Shakur, television pitch man Crazy Eddie, the Menendez brothers and O.J. Simpson, among others. For the most part, the entries are brief, the style formulaic and newspaperish. Some items, though, contain particularly disturbing details: the sealing shut of a rape victim's eyes with superglue, the melting of a dead woman's finger out of her wedding ring by acid. Sifakis, a veteran crime reporter with such outfits as UPI and the Buffalo Evening News, often comments on coverage of the more sensational crimes, exposing the public appetite for sex and violence. Refreshingly, he also goes out of his way to provide social context. He notes the cases that touched hot-button issues of the day, such as inequality between the sexes, a sentiment that he says pervaded the murder trial of Jean Harris, jilted mistress of Scarsdale Diet doctor Herman Tarnower. Other such issues include the proliferation of the sale of guns for self-defense in California after the random slaying in 1980 of socially prominent and talented young journalist Sarai Ribicoff; or how Hollywood of yore protected its troubled and violent stars. In all, Sifakis offers up a handy reference tool, despite some glaring omissions mother and son grifters Sante and Kenny Kimes, Kennedy clan member and accused killer Michael Skakel, Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss, to name a few.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.