To that mix, add glamorous personalities, prominent Texas businessmen, gangland reprobates, and a whole parade of medical experts. At once a documentary account of events and a novelistic reconstruction of encounters among the cast of colorful characters, this anatomy of murder first chronicles the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death in 1969 of Joan Robinson--the pampered daughter of a Texas oil millionaire and the wife of plastic surgeon Dr. John Hill--then examines the bizarre consequences that followed it. For in 1972, having been charged by his father-in-law with Joan's death and having survived a mistrial, John Hill himself was killed, supposedly by a robber. So was the robber, by a cop, supposedly for resisting arrest. From the exclusive haunts of Houston's super-rich to the city's seamy underworld of prostitutes, pimps, and punks, author and investigative journalist Thomas Thompson tracks down all the leads and clues. And in a brutal tale of blood and money he uncovers some shocking and bitter truths.

    

    on February 1, 1922, William Desmond Taylor -- a famous Hollywood director -- was murdered. Ernie Carter, a streetwise LA cop, wakes from a blow on the head and finds himself inside the body of Taylor some time before the murder. Suspense builds as the moment of the murder draws closer...The explosive climax of the novel will startle the reader as much as it startles Ernie himself. An unusual, fascinating book.

    Will take 25-35 days

    

    November 22, 1963a rifle, fired out of a window overlooking Dallas's Dealey Plaza, blasts the brain out of the skull of the most beloved president in history and catapults Lee Harvey Oswald, a loner know to the CIA and FBI because he had defected to Russia, into the headlines as the assassin.November 24, 1963a grief-stricken nation is further stunned when a two-bit night club owner named Jack Ruby sealed Oswald's lips forever by shooting him in the stomach while the Dallas police-and the whole world-watched.OSWALD AND RUBYWho were these men?What are their motives?Why did they each commit a history-changing murder?Now a prominent psychiatrist and a well-known author delve into the Warren Report, examine the testimony of countless witnesses, and probe the minds of The Two Assassins.

    The author, a psychoanalyst, describes these young people, examining the conditions in which their crimes occurred, the treatment they received in prison, and their treatment by society after leaving prison. She makes no attempt to justify the crimes or to propose reforms of the system, but to see the underlying conditions as important factors in the resulting homicides.