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Remembering Rachel: A True Story of Betrayal and Murder
By Rose Callaly. 2009
The day Rose Callaly found her daughter Rachel's battered body was only the start of her nightmares.Shortly afterwards Rose became…
certain that the person who had killed her beautiful daughter was Rachel's husband, Joe O'Reilly. After what seemed like an eternity, O'Reilly was charged. But that was the start of another ordeal - the revelation of just how much he despised his wife and the unfolding of his ingenious plan to kill her, a plan that set Rose up to discover the murder scene.Remembering Rachel is the shocking and heart-breaking story of Rachel Callaly's short life and brutal death. It is also a remarkable account of what it is like to be at the heart of a sensational and tragic murder case. And finally, it is a touching portrait of motherly love and the bond that survives death.The Parkhurst Years: My Time Locked Up with Britain’s Most Notorious Criminals
By Bobby Cummines. 2017
‘The next stage meant that there was no going back. An Irish prisoner stepped forward and slipped a blade into…
my hand. I felt the ice cold metal and pressed it against the governor’s cheek. I thought to myself: would they ever release me after this?’Bobby Cummines was only 28 when he passed through the grim gates of Parkhurst, Britain’s Alcatraz, as a category-A prisoner with a host of crimes to his name. Joining the most notorious gangsters and criminals of the day – from the Krays, the Yorkshire Ripper and Charles Bronson, to high ranking members of the IRA – nothing could have prepared him for the brutal regime, violent convicts, vindictive screws and riots on the inside. It’s the story of Britain’s most hellish prison, from one of its hardest inmates.The Buddhist on Death Row: How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place
By David Sheff. 2020
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Boyexplores the transformation of Jarvis Jay Masters who has become one…
of America&’s most inspiring Buddhist practitioners while locked in a cell on death row. Jarvis Jay Masters&’s early life was a horror story whose outline we know too well. Born in Long Beach, California, his house was filled with crack, alcohol, physical abuse, and men who paid his mother for sex. He and his siblings were split up and sent to foster care when he was five, and he progressed quickly to juvenile detention, car theft, armed robbery, and ultimately San Quentin. While in prison, he was set up for the murder of a guard—a conviction which landed him on death row, where he&’s been since 1990.At the time of his murder trial, he was held in solitary confinement, torn by rage and anxiety, felled by headaches, seizures, and panic attacks. A criminal investigator repeatedly offered to teach him breathing exercises which he repeatedly refused. Until desperation moved him to ask her how to do &“that meditation shit.&” With uncanny clarity, David Sheff describes Masters&’s gradual but profound transformation from a man dedicated to hurting others to one who has prevented violence on the prison yard, counseled high school kids by mail, and helped prisoners—and even guards—find meaning in their lives.Along the way, Masters becomes drawn to the principles that Buddhism espouses—compassion, sacrifice, and living in the moment—and he gains the admiration of Buddhists worldwide, including many of the faith&’s most renowned practitioners. And while he is still in San Quentin and still on death row, he is a renowned Buddhist thinker who shows us how to ease our everyday suffering, relish the light that surrounds us, and endure the tragedies that befall us all.Once a Cop: The Street, the Law, Two Worlds, One Man
By Corey Pegues. 2016
New York City Book Awards Hornblower Award Winner African American Literary Award Winner for Best Biography/Memoir As a youth, Corey…
Pegues was a criminal. As an adult, he became a high-ranking police officer.In this fascinating look at life on both sides of the law, Corey Pegues opens up about why he joined the New York Police Department after years as a drug dealer. Pegues speaks honestly about the poor choices he made while coming of age in New York City during the height of the crack epidemic. He&’s equally candid about why he turned his life around, and takes you inside the NYPD, where he becomes a decorated officer despite bureaucratic pitfalls and discriminatory practices. Written with the voice and panache of someone who knows the streets, Once a Cop is a credible and informative look at the forces that lead some into a life of crime and what it means to make good on a second chance.Wolf Boys: Two American Teenagers and Mexico's Most Dangerous Drug Cartel
By Dan Slater. 2016
The tale of two American teenagers recruited as killers for a Mexican cartel, and the Mexican American detective who realizes…
the War on Drugs is unstoppable. &“A hell of a story…undeniably gripping.&” (The New York Times)In this astonishing story, journalist Dan Slater recounts the unforgettable odyssey of Gabriel Cardona. At first glance, Gabriel is the poster-boy American teenager: athletic, bright, handsome, and charismatic. But the ghettos of Laredo, Texas—his border town—are full of smugglers and gangsters and patrolled by one of the largest law-enforcement complexes in the world. It isn’t long before Gabriel abandons his promising future for the allure of juvenile crime, which leads him across the river to Mexico’s most dangerous drug cartel: Los Zetas. Friends from his childhood join him and eventually they catch the eye of the cartel’s leadership. As the cartel wars spill over the border, Gabriel and his crew are sent to the States to work. But in Texas, the teen hit men encounter a Mexican-born homicide detective determined to keep cartel violence out of his adopted country. Detective Robert Garcia’s pursuit of the boys puts him face-to-face with the urgent consequences and new security threats of a drug war he sees as unwinnable.In Wolf Boys, Slater takes readers on a harrowing, often brutal journey into the heart of the Mexican drug trade. Ultimately though, Wolf Boys is the intimate story of the lobos: teens turned into pawns for the cartels. A nonfiction thriller, it reads with the emotional clarity of a great novel, yet offers its revelations through extraordinary reporting.Making Jack Falcone: An Undercover FBI Agent Takes Down a Mafia Family
By Joaquin Jack Garcia, Michael Levin. 2009
"Petey Chops wasn't kicking up. And if he didn't start soon, he was going to get whacked." So begins Making…
Jack Falcone, the extraordinary true story of an undercover FBI agent's years-long investigation of the Gambinos, which resulted in a string of arrests that crippled the organized crime family. But long before Joaquin "Jack" Garcia found himself wearing a wire with some of the Mafia's top capos, he was one of the FBI's unlikeliest recruits. A Cuban-born American, Jack graduated from Quantico standing six-foot-four and weighing 300 pounds -- not your typical G-man. Jack's stature soon proved an asset as the FBI looked to place agents undercover with drug smugglers, counterfeiters, and even killers. Jack became one of the few FBI agents dedicated solely to undercover work. Using a series of carefully created aliases, Jack insinuated himself in the criminal world, from the Badlands of Philadelphia, where he was a gregarious money launderer, to the streets of Miami, where an undercover Garcia moved stolen and illicit goods and brought down dirty cops. Jack jumped at the opportunity to infiltrate the shadowy world of La Cosa Nostra, but how would the Cuban-American convince wiseguys that he was one of their own, a Sicilian capable of "earning his button" -- getting made in the Mafia? For the first time, the FBI created a special "mob school" for Jack, teaching him how to eat, talk, and think like a wiseguy. And it wasn't long before the freshly minted Jack Falcone found himself under the wing of one of the Gambinos' old school capos, Greg DePalma. DePalma, who cared for an ailing John Gotti in prison, introduced Falcone to his world of shakedowns, beatings, and envelopes of cash, never suspecting that one of his trusted crew members was a federal agent. A page-turning account of the struggle between law enforcement and organized crime that will rank with such classic stories as Donnie Brasco, Serpico, and Wiseguy, Making Jack Falcone is an unforgettable trip into America's underworld through the eyes of a highly decorated FBI veteran.Relentless Pursuit: My Fight for the Victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
By Bradley J. Edwards, Brittany Henderson. 2020
&“A thrilling page-turner about the pursuit of justice&” (New York Post), this is the definitive story of the case against…
Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and the corrupt system that supported them, told in thrilling detail by the lawyer who has represented their victims for more than a decade.In June 2008, Florida-based victims&’ rights attorney Bradley J. Edwards was thirty-two years old and had just started his own law firm when a young woman named Courtney Wild came to see him. She told a shocking story of having been sexually coerced at the age of fourteen by a wealthy man in Palm Beach named Jeffrey Epstein. Edwards, who had never heard of Epstein, had no idea that this moment would change the course of his life.Over the next ten years, Edwards devoted himself to bringing Epstein to justice, and came close to losing everything in the process. Edwards tracked down and represented more than twenty of Epstein&’s victims, shined a light on his shadowy network of accomplices, including Ghislaine Maxwell, and uncovered the scope of his sexually exploitative organization, which reached into the highest levels of American society.In this &“revelatory exploration of the long fight to bring a monstrous man to justice&” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Edwards gives his riveting, blow-by-blow account of battling Epstein on behalf of his clients, and provides stunning details never shared before. Epstein and his cadre of high-priced lawyers were able to manipulate the FBI and the Justice Department, but despite making threats and attempting schemes straight out of a spy movie, Epstein couldn&’t stop Edwards, his small team of committed lawyers, and, most of all, the victims, who were dead-set on seeing their abuser finally put behind bars.Racehoss: Big Emma's Boy
By Albert Race Sample. 2018
&“A timeless classic&” (San Antonio Express-News), reissued with a new foreword, afterword, and ten percent more material about a black…
man who spent seventeen years on a brutal Texas prison plantation and underwent a remarkable transformation.First published in 1984, Racehoss: Big Emma&’s Boy is Albert Race Sample&’s &“unforgettable&” (The Dallas Morning News) tale of resilience, revelation, and redemption. Born in 1930, the mixed-race son of a hard-drinking black prostitute and a white cotton broker, Sample was raised in the Jim Crow South by an abusive mother who refused to let her son—who could pass for white—call her Mama. He watched for the police while she worked, whether as a prostitute, bootlegger, or running the best dice game in town. He loved his mother deeply but could no longer take her abuse and ran away from home at the age of twelve. In his early twenties, Sample was arrested for burglary, robbery, and robbery by assault and was sentenced to nearly twenty years in the Texas prison system in the 1950s and 60s. His light complexion made him stand out in the all-black prison plantation known as the &“burnin&’ hell,&” where he and over four hundred prisoners picked cotton and worked the land while white shotgun-carrying guards followed on horseback. Sample earned the moniker &“Racehoss&” for his ability to hoe cotton faster than anyone else in his squad. A profound spiritual awakening in solitary confinement was a decisive moment for him, and he became determined to turn his life around. When he was finally released in 1972, he did just that. Though Sample was incarcerated in the twentieth century, his memoir reads like it came from the nineteenth. With new stories that had been edited out of the first edition, a foreword by Texas attorney and writer David R. Dow, and an afterword by Sample&’s widow, Carol, this new edition of Racehoss: Big Emma&’s Boy offers a more complete picture of this extraordinary time in America&’s recent past.The Unarmed Truth: My Fight to Blow the Whistle and Expose Fast and Furious
By John Dodson. 2013
A hard-hitting inside account of the Fast and Furious scandal—the government-sponsored program intended to “win the drug war” by providing…
and tracking gun sales across the border to Mexico—from whistle-blower and ATF agent John Dodson.After the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, John Dodson pulled bodies out of the wreckage at the Pentagon. In 2007, following the shooting massacre at Virginia Tech, John Dodson walked through the classrooms, heartbroken, to cover up the bodies of the victims.Then came Arizona. The American border.Ten days before Christmas, 2010, ATF agent John Dodson awoke to the news he had dreaded every day as a member of the elite team called the Group VII Strike Force: a U.S. border patrol agent named Brian Terry had been shot dead by bandits armed with guns that had been supplied to them by ATF. Was this an inevitable consequence of the Obama administration’s Project Gunrunner, set in place one year earlier ostensibly to track Mexican drug cartels?Brian Terry’s murder would not only change John Dodson’s life forever; it would reveal a scandal so unthinkably unpatriotic that it forced President Barack Obama to claim executive privilege and caused Attorney General Eric Holder to be held in contempt of Congress.Federal Agent John Dodson, an ex-military man, took an oath to defend the world’s greatest country, and proudly considered himself a walking patriotic example of the American Dream. Brian Terry, ex-military like Dodson, was only forty years old, a family man who served his country by working for the government.Dodson was terrified when the next phone call came, one with the potential to destroy his career, his family, and his life. CBS investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson asked Dodson to go public with what he knew about Fast and Furious. To Agent Dodson, this meant blowing the whistle. But to the family of Agent Terry, it was a chance to save lives and right a wrong. As he took a fight from the border towns of Arizona to a showdown in the halls of Congress, John Dodson clung to the hope that truth would prevail, that he would be redeemed, and that Brian Terry’s death would not be in vain.Like whistle-blowers before him, John would not be welcome back on the job. But he found strength in his conscience, in the support of the American public, and in Senators Darryl Issa and Chuck Grassley. When his first-amendment rights to publicly tell his story were threatened, the ACLU took up his case. For her report revealing John Dodson as the key whistle-blower in Fast and Furious, Sharyl Attkisson received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism.Ultimately, John Dodson was cleared by the Inspector General’s office, publicly heralded as a hero, and returned to Arizona.Perhaps a lesson gleaned from John Dodson’s powerful account is well stated by former Speaker of the House of Representatives Sam Rayburn: “If you always tell the truth, you don’t have to remember what you said.”The Buyer: The making and breaking of an undercover detective
By Liam Thomas. 2023
An undercover detective is a buyer, and their commodity is intelligence. But what is the real price of justice?'A compelling…
and powerful account from the darker side of policing and the terrifying impact it has on those who strive to keep us safe' Nazir AfzalLiam Thomas was an officer in the Met for over a decade, many of those years spent deep at the heart of Britain's most dangerous criminal enterprises in the murky world of undercover surveillance. Before him, his father had also been a police officer, a pillar of their small community.Fighting corruption was Liam's life. But the murky world of undercover work teaches him that justice is far from black and white - and a family secret reveals that corruption is closer to home than he had ever expected. The revelations push him to the edge of his sanity - and then he discovers that his bosses are investigating him...A thrilling memoir of a life lived amongst a world of corruption, justice and loyalties, this book tells the real story of the police's line of duty.The Fixer: Moguls, Mobsters, Movie Stars, and Marilyn
By Josh Young, Manfred Westphal. 2024
A riveting tell-all biography that delves into the extraordinary life of Hollywood&’s most infamous private detective and &“fixer&” to the…
stars, revealing newly discovered shocking revelations from his never-before-seen investigative files. During the height of Hollywood&’s golden age, one man lorded over the city&’s lurid underbelly of forbidden sin and celebrity scandal like no other: Fred Otash. An ex-Marine turned L.A.P.D. vice cop, Otash became the most sought-after private detective and fixer to the stars by specializing in the dark arts that would soon dominate the entertainment industry. Otash was notorious for bugging the homes, offices, and playpens of movie stars, kingmakers, and powerful politicians, employing then state-of-the-art methods of electronic surveillance and wiretapping for a who&’s who list of clients for whom he&’d do &“anything short of murder.&” He lied to federal authorities to protect Frank Sinatra from criminal liability; recorded Rock Hudson&’s coming out confession to his estranged wife; moved in with Judy Garland to help her get sober; taped President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy&’s tragic love affairs with the greatest sex symbol of all time, and he listened to Marilyn Monroe die. Based on Otash&’s never-before-seen investigative files and personal archives, THE FIXER takes readers inside the sensational and nefarious world of the man whose art imitating life inspired the private eye characters portrayed by Jack Nicholson in Chinatown and Russell Crowe in LA Confidential.So much to read, so little time? This brief overview of Black Masstells you what you need to know—before or…
after you read Dick Lehr and Gerard O&’Neill&’s book. Crafted and edited with care, Worth Books set the standard for quality and give you the tools you need to be a well-informed reader. This short summary and analysis of Black Mass by Dick Lehr and Gerard O&’Neill includes:Historical contextChapter-by-chapter summariesDetailed timeline of important eventsImportant quotesFascinating triviaSupporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work About Dick Lehr and Gerard O&’Neill&’s Black Mass: The New York Times–bestselling Black Mass is a groundbreaking true crime story about the Mafia, the FBI, and the Irish Mob in between them. Journalists Dick Lehr and Gerard O&’Neill expose a decades-long partnership between FBI agent John Connolly and notorious Boston mob boss Whitey Bulger. Connolly taps childhood friend-turned–Irish mobster Bulger to be an informant. But soon enough, Bulger is the one pulling the strings, convincing Connolly to cover up his dirty deeds. This corrupt deal results in a web of crimes including racketeering, drugs, and murder, all leading to an FBI rocked by scandal when the truth comes out. Shocking and enlightening, Black Mass is an Edgar Award–winning book that magnifies the fine line between law and lawlessness. The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of nonfiction."Unmask Alice by Rick Emerson goes a long way to showing what investigative journalism could be in the right hands…
. . . this book is undeniably buzzworthy." —Portland Book Review"An absorbing and unnerving read . . . this book demands to be finished in one sitting." —Booklist Two teens. Two diaries. Two social panics. One incredible fraud.In 1971, Go Ask Alice reinvented the young adult genre with a blistering portrayal of sex, psychosis, and teenage self-destruction. The supposed diary of a middle-class addict, Go Ask Alice terrified adults and cemented LSD's fearsome reputation, fueling support for the War on Drugs. Five million copies later, Go Ask Alice remains a divisive bestseller, outraging censors and earning new fans, all of them drawn by the book's mythic premise: A Real Diary, by Anonymous. But Alice was only the beginning. In 1979, another diary rattled the culture, setting the stage for a national meltdown. The posthumous memoir of an alleged teenage Satanist, Jay's Journal merged with a frightening new crisis—adolescent suicide—to create a literal witch hunt, shattering countless lives and poisoning whole communities. In reality, Go Ask Alice and Jay's Journal came from the same dark place: Beatrice Sparks, a serial con artist who betrayed a grieving family, stole a dead boy's memory, and lied her way to the National Book Awards. Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World's Most Notorious Diaries is a true story of contagious deception. It stretches from Hollywood to Quantico, and passes through a tiny patch of Utah nicknamed "the fraud capital of America." It's the story of a doomed romance and a vengeful celebrity. Of a lazy press and a public mob. Of two suicidal teenagers, and their exploitation by a literary vampire. Unmask Alice . . . where truth is stranger than nonfiction.The Pirates Laffite: The Treacherous World of the Corsairs of the Gulf
By William C. Davis. 2005
An &“engrossing and exciting&” account of legendary New Orleans privateers Pierre and Jean Laffite and their adventures along the Gulf…
Coast (Booklist, starred review). At large during the most colorful period in New Orleans&’ history, from just after the Louisiana Purchase through the War of 1812, privateers Jean and Pierre Laffite made life hell for Spanish merchants on the Gulf. Pirates to the US Navy officers who chased them, heroes to the private citizens who shopped for contraband at their well-publicized auctions, the brothers became important members of a filibustering syndicate that included lawyers, bankers, merchants, and corrupt US officials. But this allegiance didn&’t stop the Laffites from becoming paid Spanish spies, disappearing into the fog of history after selling out their own associates. William C. Davis uncovers the truth about two men who made their names synonymous with piracy and intrigue on the Gulf.State Department Counterintelligence: Leaks, Spies, and Lies
By Robert David Booth. 2014
A veteran counterintelligence agent presents a revealing chronicle of his State Department investigations into intelligence leaks and spying on US…
soil. On October 7th, 1974, Robert D. Booth swore an oath to support and uphold the United States Constitution as a special agent of the State Department&’s Office of Security. As a member of the Special Investigations Branch, he investigated numerous information leaks, losses of classified documents, and instances of espionage. Now, in State Department Counterintelligence, Booth reveals some of the most egregious leaks, spies, and lies that have adversely affected national security over his decades-long career. Booth tells the story of his pivotal role in three major counterespionage assignments as well as numerous investigations into unauthorized disclosures—including the unmasking of Fidel Castro&’s most damaging US citizen spy. With the narrative style of a political thriller, Booth brings readers inside the real world of counterintelligence.The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer
By Robert D. Keppel, William J. Birnes. 2005
From a detective who knew “more about identifying . . . serial killers than anyone else in the field,” an account of the…
search for the Green River Killer (Ann Rule, New York Times–bestselling author of The Stranger Beside Me).After a search of over twenty years, one of America’s most elusive serial killers was finally apprehended. Now, read the true story of one man’s attempt to get inside the mind of the Green River KillerJuly 15, 1982: a woman’s strangled body was found, caught on the pilings of Washington state’s Green River. Before long, the “Green River Killer” would be suspected in at least forty-nine more homicides, with no end in sight. Then the authorities received an unbelievable letter from the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy—then on Florida’s death row—offering to help catch the Green River Killer. But he would only talk to one man: Robert Keppel, the former homicide detective who had helped track Bundy’s cross-county killing spree.Now these conversations are revealed, in which Bundy speculates about the motive and methods of the Green River Killer—and reveals his own twisted secrets as well. Now, as never before, we look into the face of evil . . . and into the heart of a killer.The first complete narrative of the pursuit & capture of SS Nazi officer and Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann, by a…
New York Times–bestselling author.When the Allies stormed Berlin in the last days of the Third Reich, Adolf Eichmann shed his SS uniform and vanished. Following his escape from two American POW camps, his retreat into the mountains and out of Europe, and his path to an anonymous life in Buenos Aires, his pursuers are a bulldog West German prosecutor, a blind Argentinean Jew and his beautiful daughter, and a budding, ragtag spy agency called the Mossad, whose operatives have their own scores to settle (and whose rare surveillance photographs are published here for the first time).The capture of Eichmann and the efforts by Israeli agents to secret him out of Argentina to stand trial is the stunning conclusion to this thrilling historical account, told with the kind of pulse-pounding detail that rivals anything you’d find in great spy fiction.Includes Mossad’s Rare Surveillance PhotographsPraise for Hunting Eichmann“A fantastic true spy story.” —Associated Press“[Bascomb’s] work is well researched, including interviews with former Israeli operatives and El Al staff who participated in the capture, as well as Argentine fascists. This is a gripping read.” —Publishers Weekly“An outstanding account of a sustained and worthy manhunt.” —BooklistMad Frank's Diary: The Confessions of Britain’s Most Notorious Villain
By Frankie Fraser, James Morton. 2000
‘They say I’ve killed 40 people and who am I to disagree? I’ve always liked even numbers.’Branded the dentist for…
using pliers to extract the teeth of those who owed money to his boss Charlie Richardson, Frankie Fraser was labelled the most dangerous man in Britain by two Home Secretaries. He is famous for his crimes, many of which have entered gangster folklore. In these diaries, however, originally published when he was 78, Mad Frank delved into areas he had never chosen, or dared, to talk about before. His day-by-day entries record unsolved murders, shoot-outs, crooked coppers, bribery, extortion, wrongful convictions, and even sex in prison. And by contrast, he also opens up with personal memories of growing up in poverty, in London's East End, and the reality of having to steal food to feed the family.Frankie Frasier died in 2014, and this rare True Crime classic is first-hand history at its most compelling.The Last Gangster: My Final Confession
By Charlie Richardson. 2013
Charlie Richardson, one of Britain's most notorious gangland bosses, sheds light on his extraordinary life story completed just weeks before…
his death in September 2012.Notorious Charlie Richardson was the most feared gangster in 1960s London. Boss of the Richardson Gang and rival of the Krays, to cross him would result in brutal repercussions. Famously arrested on the day England won the World Cup in 1966, his trial heard he allegedly used iron bars, bolt cutters and electric shocks on his enemies.The Last Gangster is Richardson’s frank account of his largely untold life story, finished just before his death in September 2012. He shares the truth behind the rumours and tells of his feuds with the Krays for supremacy, undercover missions involving politicians, many lost years banged up in prison and reveals shocking secrets about royalty, phone hacking, bent coppers and the infamous black box.Straight up, shocking and downright gripping, this is the ultimate exposé on this legendary gangster and his extraordinary life.Mad Dog: The Rise and Fall of Johnny Adair and 'C Company'
By David Lister, Hugh Jordan. 2003
A mindless sectarian psychopath or a loyalist folk hero who took the war to the IRA's front door? The name…
Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair is synonymous with a killing spree by loyalist terrorists that took Northern Ireland to the brink of civil war.From humble beginnings as a rioter and glue-sniffer on Belfast's Shankill Road, Adair rose through the ranks of the outlawed Ulster Freedom Fighters to head its merciless killing machine, 'C Company'. Surrounded by a group of trusted friends, his reign of terror in the early 1990s claimed the lives of up to 40 Catholics, picked out at random as Adair's hitmen roamed Belfast. Determined to lead from the front, his men even fired a rocket at Sinn Fein's headquarters, writing themselves into loyalist mythology and embarrassing the IRA in its republican heartland. Its desperate attempts to kill Adair culminated in October 1993, when a bomb on the Shankill Road, intended for the loyalist godfather, claimed the lives of nine Protestant civilians. Mad Dog: The Rise and Fall of Johnny Adair and 'C Company' describes in graphic detail Adair's criminal empire and an egomaniac's bloody war against Catholics and anybody else who got in his way. Adair's friends and enemies talk for the first time about the murders he ordered, his sordid personal life, and his attempts - ultimately disastrous - to become Northern Ireland's supreme loyalist figurehead.