What're the best biography/true crime books you've ever read?

HelloKiddo

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So, what are the best you've read? Not meaning the person who you were the biggest fan of, but the book itself was interesting.

Mine:

Helter Skelter, by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393322238/?tag=absolutewritedm-20

The true story of the Manson Family murders. It starts out slow, but if you stick with it it gets good.


Murder of Innocence, the tragic life and Final Rampage of Laurie Dann
, by Joel Kaplan, George Papajohn, and Eric Zorn

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0446360023/?tag=absolutewritedm-20

About the woman responsible for the 1988 shooting spree in Illinois.

I'm curious about interesting biographies too, not just true crime books.
 

underthecity

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I read Catch Me if You Can years before it became a movie. I thought the book was a lot of fun, and better in many respects than the film.

True Crime related, I read Deviant, about Ed Gein. This book was very well done. If I were to write a true crime book, that one would be my model.
 

ShapeSphere

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Maxwell: The Rise and Fall of Robert Maxwell and His Empire by Roy Greenslade.

A concise biography of a corpulent bastard.

Robert Maxwell was a (Czech-born) British media tycoon and con man who, among other things, stole from the pension funds of his workers. (They never got the money back.) The brilliance of the book is because the author, Roy Greenslade, was the editor of the Daily Mirror newspaper and worked directly with Maxwell.

An extract:

On my first real day in charge, Maxwell decided that every journalist from the age of 55 should be offered early retirement at enhanced terms. He added: “This will allow you to hire younger people from The Sun.” He told a receptionist to get Kelvin MacKenzie, editor of The Sun, on the phone. She rang through to say: “Mr MacKenzie will not accept your call, Mr Maxwell.” Maxwell demanded that the secretary relate the conversation in full, but she was hesitant. “No, no, no,” screamed Maxwell. “Tell me everything he said.” She said she would prefer not to, but Maxwell shouted: “You will not get into trouble, Patricia. But if you refuse, you will be in trouble.”
“Well, Mr Maxwell, he said, ‘I don’t want to speak to the fat Czech bastard’.”

Two weeks later Patricia left in tears, escorted from the building by a security man.
 

HelloKiddo

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Thanks underthecity, ShapeShphere, and rugcat.

Those looks like wonderful suggestions, I've already looked them all up. Now I should have some cool stuff to read in the coming weeks.
 

dirtsider

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Ultimate Evil

I can't remember the author's name but it's about the Son of Sam murders. IIRC, the author was one of the journalists involved in covering the murders. Pretty interesting.
 

HelloKiddo

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Thank you for the suggestions scarletpeaches and dirtsider.

Both sound interesting. I'll certainly have a lot of reading coming my way soon, but that's a good thing. I just hope my library has all this stuff (or at least some of it) ;)
 

firedrake

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Shot in the Heart by Mikal Gilmore.

Gilmore was Gary Gilmore's kid brother and the book tells the story of the Gilmore family and his brother's road to Hell. It is beautifully written and tragic and clever.

I don't even like True Crime but I loved this one and it would be one of my desert island books.
 

Claudia Gray

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The greatest is always going to be In Cold Blood.

Although it's not of the same literary quality, Small Sacrifices has always haunted me as well. And I am rather mesmerized by Fatal Vision, though in many ways the author is morally suspect in that case; also, although I believe Dr. McDonald is guilty, I do not think anyone has ever correctly hit on exactly what happened in that house. Once I even had a dream that I was sleeping on the sofa -- where McDonald claimed to be as that attack began -- and jumped up and ran to help her. It was horrifyingly vivid. And that was years after I'd read the book.
 

Kathleen42

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It may be stretching things, but Midnight in the Garden of Evil.
 

alleycat

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I'd put In Cold Blood at the top of the list as well. Chapter 1 is actually a prologue. If anyone wants to read a prologue that is well done, that is a good example.
 

Eastwood

Dealing with the mafia (American)/La Cosa Nostra:

Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi (it's the book the movie Goodfellas was based off of)...

Donnie Brasco by Joseph D. Pistone. About an undercover agent. Again, is the basis of a movie with the same title.

Murder Machine by Gene Mustain & Jerry Capeci. This is about a Gambino hitman named Roy DeMeo and his crew... very twisted.

Making Jack Falcone by Joaquin "Jack" Garcia. Another book about an undercover agent...this time infiltrating the Gambino crime family. It's alright, not completely a mob book but does explain being an undercover more (which is impressive).

Other:

My Bloody Life by Reymundo Sanchez. An account of an ex-Latin King in Chicago. Not well written, but hard to put down.

Raging Bull by Jake LaMotta. The boxer tells his life story (also made into a movie). Easy read but hard to put down.... Easily in my top 5.

Hands of Stone by Christian Giudice. This is about the boxer Roberto Duran. Really insightful if you are a fan of the sport.

Anyway... I read a lot of biographies and True Crime (mainly dealing with La Cosa Nostra).... this list would be very long if I were to continue my "favorites".
 

Shamrockgreen

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The Mormon Murders, the NYTimes journalists who did this TC book, put the best research I have ever read on the Mormon Church in the book. Once you read this you do not need to read very many more books on the Mormon Church, and it was done without bias.
 

Perks

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Whoever Fights Monsters by Robert Ressler. It's about the inception of The Behavioral Sciences Unit at the FBI.