Off Topic and New---Cold Cases And The Ninth Level of Dante's Inferno

The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World's Most Perplexing Cold Cases, Michael Capuzzo, Gotham Publishing, 448 pages, $26.95

I've read all of the Sherlock Holmes stories. I've read Arthur Conan Doyle's biography. I've read enough of the history of crime detection to know who Eugene Francois Vidocq was. So I'm not in the center of this author's target audience. The book may have been written for a much wider audience. And during middle school, I read lots of Readers' Digest condensed novels. If I was still reading RD's condensed novels I would have been satisfied with Michael Capuzzo's effort to tell the story of the Vidocq Society, which come to think of it he really doesn't do. The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World's Most Perplexing Cold Cases, is really a greatest hits [excuse the pun] of the Vidocq Society.

I have been trained as an historian and am sensitive to issues of chronology, cause and effect, and unsupported generalizations. Somehow the word 'hoopla hoops' and the 'serial killers' search for authentic self-expression' are in the same sentence that attempts to describe the 1950s. The initial chapters come across as being interview notes poorly knit together. Paragraph transitions must have been written by fictional detective Philip Marlowe created by Raymond Chandler during the 1930s, 1940s and the 1950s. At times Capuzzo inserts his own character into the story and I began to wonder how accurately he transcribed the interviews he made with the three leading characters.

On the other had the murder stories are compelling as are William Fleisher, Frank Bender and Richard Walter, the prime movers of the Vidocq Society. Fortunately the subtitle of the book is wrong. The Vidocq Society members are not the 'heirs of Sherlock Holmes'. They are real people who are brilliant, hardworking, intuitive and possibly flawed individuals. In a stunning monologue detective Richard Walter, having reading the classics of Western Civilization, graphically describes how the descent of serial killers' personality corresponds to Dante's levels of hell. The cases covered in The Murder Room are at times heartrending and horrific. Other cases are mundane and presented in a fashion which encourages the reader believe that local police detectives at times are lazy, uncreative and out of touch with their profession.

Compelling stories are told without suspense in The Murder Room. A newspaper journalist and I read the book during the same week. Though debating some merits of Capuzzo's style and organization, we both agreed that there are currently too many unemployed book editors and proofreaders. What is the difference between a benefactor and a beneficiary? Capuzzo needed a professional editor/proofreader. There are no footnotes, although there is a long bibliography. In the acknowlegements Capuzzo states that he did more than 1,000 hours worth of interviews with the three investigators he upon which he focuses. He also cites many other interviewees.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, but not as a model for style, organization or clarity. The substance of the stories is compelling even if the handling of the material by the author is not.

Off Topic---Journalism: Disturber of the Domestic Peace, H.L.Mencken

Disturber of the Peace: The Life and Riotous Times of H.L. Mencken, William Manchester, Harper Brothers, 1951 (hardcover), 1967 (paperback), 2008 (Blackstone Audio Book, $29.95).

A classic work on an amazing journalist written by a accomplished and highly regarded historian, Disturber of the Peace is still in print as a new audio book on compact disk. Before William Manchester became famous as a chronicler of the John F. Kennedy administration and assassination, his early career as a journalist and historian is usually not appreciated.

If you recognize the name of Hunter S. Thompson, founder of Gonzo Journalism during the 1970s, and appreciate his Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Hells Angels , and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, then the writings of H.L. Mencken should also be on your bookshelf. Late in Mencken's life, William Manchester came to be his friend. As a friend, Manchester both appreciated the brilliance of Mencken and weathered the apparent arrogance of the man. In his day, Mencken was known as both a Baltimore newspaper writer/editor and as a literary critic/linguist.

Born in 1880 and living until 1956), Mencken was the leading satirist of the early and mid-twentieth century. A critic of both the rural poor and the urban middle classes of American society, Mencken was an elitist who accepted the superiority of Aryan culture. As the "Sage of Baltimore", he is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the 20th century. He is generally remembered today for The American Language, a multi-volume study of how the English language is spoken in the United States. Also, his satirical reporting of Tennessee's Scopes-Monkey Trial is noteworthy as is his conversational malice during the event. Upon being asked the most significant outcome of the trial, Mencken replied 'We killed the son of a bitch.' William Bryan, former Progressive Party leader and Woodrow Wilson's Secretary of State died the day after the trial, in which he was both a counsel for the prosecution and a defense witness, ended.

The hardcover editions are rare and somewhat expensive; since the editions are out of print many libraries refuse to inter-library loan this book. Fortunately, an unabridged audio book is available. The top cover is of the 1967 paperback edition; the bottom cover is of the 2008 audio book.

Off Topic: Journalism ---World War Two and The Birth of Broadcast Journalism

The Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism, Bob Edwards, Wiley Publishing, 168 pages, 2004, $19.95 and Tantor Media Audiobooks,, unabridged on 4 compact disks, $24.95, 2004.

Bob Edwards, host NPR's Morning Edition 1979-2004 clearly and concisely examines the life and times of Edward R. Murrow, who is recognized as the creator of both radio and television broadcast journalism. Moving radio broadcast news from live parades and flower shows, created live broadcasts of unplanned events. Beginning in 1937 Murrow managed CBS radio's European Bureau and within three years became a celebrity with his heart-racing rooftop broadcasts during the Luftwaffe Blitz of England in summer of 1940. The radio audience in parlors and living rooms across the United States heard London being "bombed in real time."

Murrow was a master of finding talent researchers and correspondents. Also, he flew and reported on 25 bombing runs over Europe. He delivered reports on everything from the Allies march to Paris to the liberation of the concentration camps. Returning to the U.S. after the war, Murrow was not idle and gained further historical significance for his radio and television attacks on Joseph McCarthy during 1952-1954. Morrow created a groundbreaking television broadcast entitled See It Now by managing producers and correspondents on location and gathering unrehearsed interviews. Murrow's live remote production, split screens, and use archived and new film was in stark contrast to the usual fair of television news that consisted of the reading of headlines produced by the Associated Press and other newspapers.

Edwards' portrait is of a driven, fearless career journalist who by setting standards so high that modern newsreaders and spin masters, trying to pass themselves off as journalists, are not even in the same ballpark as Murrow. On the audio book, Bob Edwards reads his own work. Undeniably it sounds like a NPR broadcast. Edwards has enhanced the audio book by integrating recordings of Murrow's famous broadcasts from during the Blitz, from a bomber run on Germany, and from the Army-McCarthy hearings.