The almost unbelievable story of endemic corruption, and theofficial condoning by the FBI of violent crimes committed by James“Whitey” Bulger and his South Boston Irish mob, entered a newchapter with Bulger’s arrest in California. For decades the FBI letBulger get away with murder, protecting him from prosecution forcrimes it knew he had committed and allowing him continued controlof his criminal enterprise in exchange for information about therival Italian mafia and even members of his own gang.? During the 1980s, Edward J. MacKenzie, Jr., “Eddie Mac,” was a drugdealer and enforcer who would do just about anything for Bulger. Inthis compelling eyewitness account, the first from a Bulgerinsider, Eddie Mac delivers the goods on his one-time boss and onsuch former associates as Stephen ''The Rifleman'' Flemmi andturncoat FBI agent John Connolly. Eddie Mac provides a window ontoa world rarely glimpsed by those on the outside. Street Soldier is also a story of the search for family, for
For Fauziya Kassindja, an idyllic childhood in Togo, WestAfrica, sheltered from the tribal practices of polygamy and genitalmutilation, ended with her beloved father's sudden death. Forcedinto an arranged marriage at age seventeen, Fauziya was told toprepare for kakia, the ritual also known as female genitalmutilation. It is a ritual no woman can refuse. But Fauziya daredto try. This is her story--told in her own words--of fleeing Africa justhours before the ritual kakia was to take place, of seeking asylumin America only to be locked up in U.S. prisons, and of meetingLayli Miller Bashir, a law student who became Fauziya's friend andadvocate during her horrifying sixteen months behind bars. Laylienlisted help from Karen Musalo, an expert in refugee law andacting director of the American University International HumanRights Clinic. In addition to devoting her own considerable effortsto the case, Musalo assembled a team to fight with her on Fauziya'sbehalf. Ultimately, in a landmark decision in imm
He had a number one hit at eighteen. He was a millionaire withhis own record label at twenty-two. He was, according to Tom Wolfe,“the first tycoon of teen.” Phil Spector owned pop music. From theCrystals, the Ronettes (whose lead singer, Ronnie, would become hissecond wife), and the Righteous Brothers to the Beatles (togetherand singly) and finally the seventies punk icons The Ramones,Spector produced hit after hit. But then he became pop music's mostfamous recluse. Until one day in the spring of 2007, when his namehit the tabloids, connected to a horrible crime. In Tearing Downthe Wall of Sound , Mick Brown, who was the last journalist tointerview Spector before his arrest , tells the full story ofthe troubled musical genius.
The complete history of one of the most long-lived andlegendary bands in rock history, written by its official historianand publicist a must-have chronicle for all Dead Heads,and for students of rock and the 1960s’ counterculture. From 1965 to 1995, the Grateful Dead flourished as one of themost beloved, unusual, and accomplished musical entities to evergrace American culture. The creative synchronicity among JerryGarcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, and Ron“Pigpen” McKernan exploded out of the artistic ferment of the earlysixties’ roots and folk scene, providing the soundtrack for theDionysian revels of the counterculture. To those in the know, theDead was an ongoing tour de force: a band whose constant commitmentto exploring new realms lay at the center of a thirty-year journeythrough an ever-shifting array of musical, cultural, and mentallandscapes. Dennis McNally, the band’s historian and publicist for more thantwenty years, takes readers b