American Black Widow

Title: American Black Widow
Author: Gregg Olson
Publisher: Thread Books
Release Date: July 13, 2023
Page Count: 370
Rating: 3 stars out of 5

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Sharon Lynn Douglas Fuller Nelson Harrelson was a woman most men found attractive and exciting, while women tended to dislike her, feeling she was looking for a man, any man, preferably one with money. "Sharon wore her hair long, her dresses tight, her blouses unbuttoned one notch lower than a woman in her position likely should. [...] Sharon Fuller sauntered like a woman who held no doubt that all men watched her every move." 

Sharon married a preacher, a doctor and a fireman, killing two of them and leaving a wide swath of destruction behind her. She alienated children from their fathers, wrung almost the last dollar from anyone involved with her, convinced a man (twice) to murder for her, and almost got away with it. 

Where this book really shines is in all the very salacious details. We get a pretty good breakdown on Sharon's marriages, numerous lovers, a laundry list of various illegal activities, etc. And it's a pretty engrossing tale which definitely holds your interest. 

However, we never really get any insight into her psyche - Sharon is the queen of the self-serving statement, and given that she pled guilty to the murders of her second and third husbands, there was no trial, no expert witnesses to analyze her. We are left with Sharon's protestations (paraphrased by Olsen) that "she didn't do anything wrong. Not a damn thing. This was a free country. She was an American, for God's sake. She was misunderstood. She made bad choices, but she wasn't a murderer." 

After 370 pages of endless details and second-hand observations, without a thorough analysis, the story reads like a regurgitation of facts with little insight. IMHO. 3 stars. 

I received an ARC from the Publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Frank Sinatra and the Mafia Murders

Title: Frank Sinatra and the Mafia Murders
Author: Mike Rothmiller, Douglas Thompson
Publisher: Ad Lib Publishers
Release Date: September 15, 2022
Page Count: 259
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

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The book uses the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra, Jr. in 1963 as a framing device to show Sinatra's relationship with the Mafia; whereas publicly Sinatra was willing to let the FBI find his son, in reality he turned to his life-long friends in the Mafia to do whatever they needed to do to find Frank, Jr.

Through extensive research and interviews, the authors have put together a fascinating story. There's an Italian saying la famiglia e tutto meaning "family is everything" and in the case of Sinatra and the Mafia, his found family was everything - support for his singing and acting career, money and status, muscle to handle his disputes and disagreements - and Sinatra reveled in the perceived power it gave him. 

Sinatra is revealed to be a petty bully with a massive anger / inferiority problem - there was little about which he didn't explode and used his Mafia "cred" to solve pretty much any dispute or perceived slight.  Along the way, we get the inside scoop on the Rat Pack days in Vegas and Hollywood, Marilyn Monroe, Bugsy Siegel and Virginia Hill, Sam Giancana, Judith Exner, Carlos Marcello, Johnny Roselli, Pat and Peter Lawford, and so many more.

The authors' detail how "the boys" weren't too happy with the making of The Godfather and the careful negotiations to never mention "the Mafia" in the film.  However, once the movie was made .... "the boys" loved it.  Sinatra, on the other hand, deplored the weak, spineless depiction of himself in his alter ego Johnny Fontaine (which for the most part seems pretty much accurate). 

Especially noteworthy is the authors' take on the Kennedy family, starting with Joe using the Mob to get JFK elected, and how promises were made and not kept, RFK's mission to take down the Mafia, and the resulting assassination of JFK in Dallas in 1963.  The story seems pretty plausible, IMHO. 

The content of the book is 4 to 5 stars, but the editing (dear gawd, the horrible editing) and run-on sentences make reading the book a challenge. Also I wearied of the casual sexism, racism, homophobia.  One small example - Judith Exner is described as brainless "little Judy" running from JFK's bed to Sam Giancana's.

Rating:  3.5 stars - strong content marred by weak editing.  

I received an ARC from the publishers, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. 

Deliberate Cruelty : Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the Century

Title: Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the Century
Author: Roseanne Montillo
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: November 1, 2022
Page Count: 320
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

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Roseanne Montillo compares and contrasts the lives of Ann Woodward and Truman Capote; each came from broken small-town families and viewed New York City as their salvation, but for each it ultimately brought tragedy, 

The phrase "More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones" is central to both Ann and Truman's lives. Montillo carefully lays out Ann Woodward's dirt-poor life in Kansas and her heroic efforts to move to New York City, improve herself with acting lessons, vocal lessons to strip away her midwestern accent, and to do whatever was needed to land a rich husband. Ann succeeded beyond her dreams, marrying old money Billy Woodward in 1943.  But Ann soon realizes she  is despised by her mother-in-law and ridiculed by the society women she envies - she will never be enough, and no one will let her forget this.

Truman grew up in a small southern town, unwanted by his parents and raised by his maiden aunts and assorted relatives. Truman's mother Lille Mae viewed New York City as her salvation and soon found a new husband, bringing Truman to live with them when he was 10. Small, determined, profoundly cruel (Truman once said about himself, "I am about as tall as a shotgun, and just as nasty")  Truman worked hard for his fame, first known as an exceptional short-story writer, and writing Other Voices, Other Rooms, Breakfast at Tiffanys and the classic In Cold Blood, the first true crime non-fictional novel.

And at the pinnacle of his fame, Capote famously releases one chapter of his long-awaited novel Answered Prayers - a gossipy, nasty chapter entitled La Côte Basque 1965.  Ann Woodward commits suicide rather than be subjected to yet another round of hatred, and Truman Capote commits social suicide, effectively shunned by the whole of  NY society. 

Where the book drags a bit is in the telling of Ann's story.  Much is left to speculation (it is mentioned numerous times that Ann and Billy Woodward's father may have had an affair and that Billy was bisexual but this is left unexplored) and one never really gains any insight into Ann, beyond the superficial and shallow.  Overall, 4 stars for an enjoyable read.  

I received an ARC from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Nothing But the Night : Leopold & Loeb and the Truth Behind the Murder that Rocked 1920s America

Title: Nothing But the Night : Leopold & Loeb and the Truth Behind the Murder that Rocked 1920s America
Author: Greg King and Penny Wilson
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date: September 20, 2022
Page Count: 352
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

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My grandfather was fascinated by this case and after reading this new account, I can understand why the murder of Bobby Franks by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb on May 21, 1924 has remained in the public mind for almost 100 years. 

These two rich, very intelligent teenagers lived lives beyond most American's wildest dreams. Richard's father had made a fortune as vice president of Sears, Roebuck and the family had a vacation home on the shores of Lake Michigan; Richard was the youngest man ever to graduate from the University of Michigan at age 18. Nathan, the son of a millionaire, had also graduated at age 18, from the University of Chicago, with plans to enter Harvard Law school that fall.

Despite their obvious intelligence, their crime was quickly solved and the two confessed to murder. Their attorney, famed lawyer Clarence Darrow, pled them guilty, but NOT by reason of insanity. Darrow walked a very thin line between claiming that the two "boys" were not insane, but because of a number of factors - bad endocrine glands, too much money (an early version of the "affluenza" defense), bad parenting, Nietzsche, their homosexuality - they were the "real victims" in this horrendous crime. It spared them from hanging, and they were sentenced to life in prison. 

The authors deftly destroy the myth of Darrow's legendary closing argument. It was disjointed, rambling, wildly offensive and lasted three days. After the trial, Darrow borrowed the transcript so he could publish the argument, and streamlined the rambling, edited and revised and polished it into the "masterpiece" some claim it was. 

The authors also present solid information that it was Nathan, and not Richard, who killed Bobby Franks, and Nathan had the upper hand in their relationship. Unfortunately for Richard, who died in prison in 1930, history is written by the victors, and Nathan spent the next 30 years claiming that it was all Richard's fault. Richard was not innocent in the whole matter, but as the authors state: "Richard wanted a crime partner; what he got was a sociopath." 

Where this book really shines is in the details of the crime, the in-depth discussion of Leopold and Loeb's relationship and Darrow's attempt to save his clients from the death penalty. The last phrase of their lives - prison, Richard's death and Nathan's eventual parole - is quickly summarized in the final 10% of the book (the book essential ends at 71% and the rest is the bibliography and notes). Because of the careful and detailed analysis that goes before, this final stage appears rushed and more of a summary and personally I would have willingly read another 100 pages to bring the story to its conclusion! 4.5 stars. 

I received an ARC from the Publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

When the Moon Turns to Blood

Title: When the Moon Turns to Blood : Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, and a Story of Murder, Wild Faith, and End Times
Author: Leah Sottile
Publisher: Twelve Books
Release Date: June 21, 2022
Page Count: 320
Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Read book blurb here

If you read this book as a true-crime story, expecting a trial and verdict and neatly tied-up resolution, you will be disappointed. If you are looking for an in-depth study of the factors that created this bizarre case, Leah Sottile's fascinating well-researched account provides it in spades. 

"At first, the story of Chad and Lori and the missing children looked like a complicated version of a stock true-crime trope: a love affair gone wrong ... [...] but the story is so much more complicated than that. This is a story of faith, and of all the things we allow ourselves to believe." 

Sottile takes us down a dark path of LDS history and theology and carefully shows how extremism has been "bred in the bone" of the church of Latter-Day Saints. Chad and Lori were part of the AVOW movement ("Another Voice of Warning") that encouraged preparation for the coming apocalypse and the subsequent survival of the chosen 144,000 in tent cities somewhere in Idaho. AVOW was full of preppers with a purpose and they devoured Chad's "novels" about the coming upheaval. 

Chad was a star in the movement, and Lori his eager follower. And why wouldn't she be - when Chad told her she was a goddess in a former existence and destined to save their people? Lori's parents were firm believers in "sovereign citizenry" and not paying taxes, Lori's relationship with her brother Alex Cox was very unhealthy and Lori had an unfortunate heritage of mental illness from her father. 

At first I was skeptical, but Sottile makes a strong case that Daybell was a leader in the Warren Jeffs' mold (soft spoken and very manipulative) and that Lori was suffering from mental illness. Sottile offers a unique perspective and rich background with much boots-on-the-ground research into this complicated case. 5 stars. 

I received an ARC from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.