LA Despair A Landscape of Crimes Bad Times eBook John Gilmore
Download As PDF : LA Despair A Landscape of Crimes Bad Times eBook John Gilmore 
Legendary noir author John Gilmore takes the reader on a mad, tumultuous all-night drive without remorse or pity, the high and low life of Hollywood and the City of Angels. This is the true-crime capstone to a celebrated collection of works, a blood-and-semen-soaked noir trail of all-night diners, nightclubs and cheap motels. Gilmore delivers a relentless panorama of sex, violence and death in five raw chronicles of SoCal sickness
• Porn legend John Holmes and untouchable LA crime and drug impresario Eddie Nash—the unvarnished story of the sex-and-coke-laced Wonderland murders.
• Hollywood’s fallen angel Barbara Payton—hell-bent on descending from Movie Star Sexpot to the gutters of Heartbreak and Vine.
• From gorgeous jailbait Sunset Boulevard hooker to San Quentin’s gas chamber—the saga of the infamous “Ice Blonde” murderess Barbara Graham.
• Highway hitchhike-killer Billy Cook unleashes his remorseless hate for the whole human race in one of the 20th century’s most grisly crimes.
• “King of Western Swing” and early TV “Fiddlin’ Cowboy” icon Spade Cooley rides a nightmare trail of madness, paranoia and murder.
“John Gilmore is one of America’s natural-born gifts to literature. His books aren’t just inspiring and wicked by-products of genius they’re miracles. . . . He’s the best ever.” — Gary Indiana
LA Despair A Landscape of Crimes Bad Times eBook John Gilmore
Gritty and gruesome. This book was hard to put down. Five stories of L.A. crime from the 1950s through the 1970s. Some of the scenes disturbed me so much that I had trouble sleeping. Especially a scene from the Wonderland Murders (first story in the book). Sad and scary, John Gilmore's writing is wonderful. He somehow finds the good in every criminal in this book. Although there wasn't much good to be found in Billy Cook, Gilmore dug until he found one little spark of goodness.Product details
|
Tags : Amazon.com: L.A . Despair: A Landscape of Crimes & Bad Times eBook: John Gilmore: Kindle Store,ebook,John Gilmore,L.A . Despair: A Landscape of Crimes & Bad Times,Amok Books,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Entertainment & Performing Arts,TRUE CRIME Murder General
People also read other books :
- The Greatest Thing Ever Known Ralph Waldo Trine 9781446077016 Books
- Elizabeth The Crimean War Nurse Anna Trogonoski John Trogonoski 9781439259252 Books
- The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire All 6 Volumes eBook Edward Gibbon
- What the Wolf Dragged In A M/M Shifter Novella Angel Rest Wolves Book 1 edition by Westin Gray Mason Winters Romance eBooks
- The forester daughter; a romance of the BearTooth Range Hamlin Garland 9781176349407 Books
LA Despair A Landscape of Crimes Bad Times eBook John Gilmore Reviews
I enjoyed the time period of the stories and did not recognize any of the people but it was interesting. Mr. Gilmore pulls no punches and might even be a bit edgier than James Ellroy.
It is not fair for me to rate this book as I advanced through most of it. I found it to be too depressing and ugly for me.
great, great book noir stuff here about a handful of cases that characterize the underbelly of southern california crime in the 1950s through 1980s...if you're a true crime fan, especially of the past, this book is for you...John Gilmore is a fantastic writer if the genre...thumbs up
James ellroy wannabe and pretentious.any scandal wrapped in slanguage didn't know reference
A real “film noir” of a read, gritty, dark, full of characters you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley — or anywhere! Brings real life to some of the biggest cases that dominated the headlines over the decades.
It is difficult to write of the subject matter that Gilmore tackles consistently without seeming to be motivated by prurient or exploitative motives and trying to convey only that superficial layer to the reader. Gilmore instead is telling unsparing cautionary tales of ambition unbridled by any morality. I had already read a fine journalistic account of John Holmes and the Wonderland murders but Gilmore's account is the definitive one.
John Gilmore's "L.A. Despair A Landscape of Crimes & Bad Times" takes you directly into the underbelly of the City of Angel's most infamous criminals and publicly ruined lives. Starting off with the story of 70's porn star and legend, John Holmes, L.A. Despair takes you into the life of a character with little to no redeemable qualities whatsoever. Holmes is, as Gilmore himself has put it, the definition of the L.A. mutant. He is a self-serving man whose only purpose in life is to get his next fix at any cost or consequence. After reading the story about Holmes, there is little doubt that he was a walking sociopath and a man who was headed for one place and one place only - self-destruction. It continues on from there into the story of 50's bombshell and fallen starlet, Barbara Payton, who notoriously went from making 10,000 dollars a week to being a homeless prostitute and drug addict living on L.A.'s skid row. I never knew about Payton before (because I was born in the 80's long after her rise and fall), but I found her life story to be unbelievably tragic and depressing. Riveting, to say the least. From there on, Gilmore goes onto several lesser known characters. People who were more infamous for their crimes and horrible deeds than anything else. However, there is an explosive conclusion in store with the story of Spade Cooley - a man who savagely beat his wife to death over her past infidelities imagined or otherwise. It's never made clear, but Cooley comes across as being an obsessively controlling and tortured man whom, at times it seems, tortures himself into believing the worst possible case scenario by looking for any reason whatsoever to justify it. Understandable, yes. Redeemable? Not quite sure.
In the end, L.A. Despair is like a bunch of little stories in one. Modern day and real life horror stories, you could say, centered around the City of Angels. Los Angeles is a city that people mainly associate with the famous, rich, and beautiful, but as John Gilmore demonstrates here there is a terribly dark and unforgiving underbelly to the city also. In any case, this is a portrait of sociopaths, bad times, and ruined lives.
Highly recommended.
Gritty and gruesome. This book was hard to put down. Five stories of L.A. crime from the 1950s through the 1970s. Some of the scenes disturbed me so much that I had trouble sleeping. Especially a scene from the Wonderland Murders (first story in the book). Sad and scary, John Gilmore's writing is wonderful. He somehow finds the good in every criminal in this book. Although there wasn't much good to be found in Billy Cook, Gilmore dug until he found one little spark of goodness.
0 Response to "∎ Read Free LA Despair A Landscape of Crimes Bad Times eBook John Gilmore"
Post a Comment