Download or read book Natural Born Gangster written by C. J. H. MOORE and published by Page Publishing, Inc. This book was released on 2020-03-09 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chris Bell was born on the West Side of Chicago and attended Catholic elementary school on the South Side. He was an unusual and gifted star child who was beyond his mother's understanding. His gang activities kept him out of the regular sequential leap from grade to grade. He joined his first martial arts gang, GGWB (Good Guys Wear Black), just after kindergarten, because he was being bullied everyday by an older kid. He earned his high school diploma by challenging the GED at his mother's behest, after reading books on math, language arts, classics, and Aesop's Fables, which he loved the most, in local libraries day and night, well before his eighteenth birthday, and earned the title "the richest man in the world" by working and fighting in the underground. In his youth, he consolidated the dangerous Black Disciples and Vice Lord gangs of Chicago and all their subdivisions to complete his dream in building another Black Wall Street on the West Side. After he met Madi, Derek Jenkins, and the Stepfather, he moved closer to his dreams. When the Shadow of Knights confiscated sixty tons of drugs and guns off the Chicago streets and placed them on the FBI's doorstep, the ghetto ninjas were a marked group.
Download or read book Natural Born Celebrities written by David Schmid and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-09-15 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jeffrey Dahmer. Ted Bundy. John Wayne Gacy. Over the past thirty years, serial killers have become iconic figures in America, the subject of made-for-TV movies and mass-market paperbacks alike. But why do we find such luridly transgressive and horrific individuals so fascinating? What compels us to look more closely at these figures when we really want to look away? Natural Born Celebrities considers how serial killers have become lionized in American culture and explores the consequences of their fame. David Schmid provides a historical account of how serial killers became famous and how that fame has been used in popular media and the corridors of the FBI alike. Ranging from H. H. Holmes, whose killing spree during the 1893 Chicago World's Fair inspired The Devil in the White City, right up to Aileen Wuornos, the lesbian prostitute whose vicious murder of seven men would serve as the basis for the hit film Monster, Schmid unveils a new understanding of serial killers by emphasizing both the social dimensions of their crimes and their susceptibility to multiple interpretations and uses. He also explores why serial killers have become endemic in popular culture, from their depiction in The Silence of the Lambs and The X-Files to their becoming the stuff of trading cards and even Web sites where you can buy their hair and nail clippings. Bringing his fascinating history right up to the present, Schmid ultimately argues that America needs the perversely familiar figure of the serial killer now more than ever to manage the fear posed by Osama bin Laden since September 11. "This is a persuasively argued, meticulously researched, and compelling examination of the media phenomenon of the 'celebrity criminal' in American culture. It is highly readable as well."—Joyce Carol Oates
Download or read book How to Sell Like a Natural Born Salesperson written by Gary S. Goodman and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents step-by-step advice on selling with tips on increasing confidence, creating rapport with clients, and using body language effectively.
Download or read book A Cinema of Loneliness written by Robert Kolker and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-06-08 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An updated and expanded version of this classic study of contemporary American film, the new edition of A Cinema of Loneliness reassesses the landscape of American cinema over the past decade, incorporating discussions of directors like Judd Apatow and David Fincher while offering assessments of the recent, and in some cases final, work from the filmmakers--Penn, Scorsese, Stone, Altman, Kubrick--at the book's core.
Download or read book Screening the Mafia written by George S. Larke-Walsh and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2010-04-06 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "post-classic" era of American gangster films began in 1967 with the release of Bonnie and Clyde, achieving a milestone five years later with the popular and highly influential The Godfather. This historical study explores the structure, myths and intertextual narratives found in the gangster films produced since The Godfather. The intense relationship between masculinity and ethnicity in the gangster film, especially within the movie-generated mythology of the Mafia, is carefully analyzed, and the book tracks the trends in the genre up to and including the landmark HBO television series The Sopranos (1999-2007). A selected filmography is included. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.
Download or read book Crime Films written by Thomas Leitch and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-08-15 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book surveys the entire range of crime films, including important subgenres such as the gangster film, the private eye film, film noir, as well as the victim film, the erotic thriller, and the crime comedy. Focusing on ten films that span the range of the twentieth century, Thomas Leitch traces the transformation of the three leading figures that are common to all crime films: the criminal, the victim and the avenger. Analyzing how each of the subgenres establishes oppositions among its ritual antagonists, he shows how the distinctions among them become blurred throughout the course of the century. This blurring, Leitch maintains, reflects and fosters a deep social ambivalence towards crime and criminals, while the criminal, victim and avenger characters effectively map the shifting relations between subgenres, such as the erotic thriller and the police film, within the larger genre of crime film that informs them all.
Download or read book Controversial Cinema written by Kendall R. Phillips and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2008-06-30 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the heart of any history of controversial films is a strange paradox: while films, especially popular and mainstream films, are often portrayed as meaningless products of popular culture, those popular films involved in public controversies become the focal point of enormous cultural energy, political attention, and profoundly conflicting sets of principles. The ongoing culture wars continue to shape the American political landscape, and controversial films continue to be a major point of conflict. Controversial Cinema: The Films that Outraged America traces the history of controversial films and offers insights into why it is that certain films spark controversies, and how Americans typically react to controversial moviemaking. Since the widespread banning of DW Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, the American film industry has found itself embroiled in one political controversy after another. These controversies have centered on everything from the portrayal of the past, as in Griffith's film, to depictions of sex and sexuality, to the use of graphic violence, and issues of race, religion, and politics. In turn, segments of the American public have been driven to boycott, picket, and even censor those films they felt challenged their sense of decency. At the heart of this history of controversial films is a strange paradox: while films, especially popular and mainstream films, are often portrayed as meaningless products of popular culture, popular films involved in public controversies become the focal point of enormous cultural energy and political attention. The ongoing culture wars thus continue to shape the American political landscape, and controversial films continue to be a major point of conflict. In the course of this wide-ranging work, Kendall Phillips offers insights into the kinds of films that spark controversies, and the ways that Americans typically react to them. Organized around broad controversial themes and with particular attention to mainstream films since the dissolution of the Motion Picture Production Code in the mid-1960s, Controversial Cinema explores why films spark broad cultural controversies, how these controversies play out, and the long-term results. The four broad areas of controversy examined in the work are: Sex and Sexuality, Violence, Race, and Religion. Each chapter offers a broad overview of the history of these topics in controversial American films as well as more in-depth examinations of recent examples, including The Silence of the Lambs, Natural Born Killers, Do the Right Thing, and The Passion of the Christ. A final section of the book considers the broader issues of cultural politics in light of the long history of controversial cinema.
Download or read book Women Who Kill written by Al Cimino and published by Arcturus Publishing. This book was released on 2019-07-15 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Women commit just 4% of homicides in comparison to men. But this disproportion can make their crimes seem all the more shocking. In this chilling casebook, Al Cimino explores 34 female murderers. We meet 'Angel of Death' Kristen Gilbert who induced multiple cardiac arrests among her patients while working as a hospital nurse, Enriqueta Martí, the 'Vampire of Barcelona' who killed children to make cosmetics, and many more. These case studies give riveting insight into the lives and motives of women who decided to commit the ultimate transgression. In many of these cases, the women had suffered years of abuse and psychological breakdown before their eventual crimes. Other times their heinous acts seemed to spring from nowhere, with an unpredictability that is haunting.
Download or read book A Cinema of Loneliness written by Robert Phillip Kolker and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2000 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this 20th anniversary edition, Kolker continues and expands his inquiry into the phenomenon of cinematic representation of culture by updating and revising the chapters on Kubrick, Scorsese, Altman and Spielberg.
Download or read book The Bad Kid written by Sarah Lariviere and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-09-06 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Claudeline Feng LeBernardin learns what it really means to be bad in this Edgar Award–nominated colorful and hilarious mystery reminiscent of Harriet the Spy. Claudeline Feng LeBernardin is very good at being bad. Her Grandpa Si was a real-life gangster, and Claude always thought she’d take over the family business when he was gone. Instead, Claude’s dad is in charge—and she’s sure he’s running things into the ground. She wants to step in, but her parents are keeping secrets and her partner in crime, Fingerless Brett, is suddenly on the straight and narrow. Then, when a very strange character by the name of Alma Lingonberry shows up in the neighborhood, Claude gets closer to the crime life than ever. Before long, she’s swept up in a maddening mystery that’s got her wondering: What does it really mean to be bad?
Download or read book Gangster written by John Mooney and published by Maverick House . This book was released on 2015-01-07 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gangster is the critically acclaimed biography of John Gilligan, the biggest drugs trafficker to emerge from the Irish underworld. The book is an extraordinarily account of how a young Dubliner became a multi-millionaire criminal. It uses first-hand interviews with Gilligan, his thugs, friends, family, enemies, anti-drugs activists, members of the IRA and the police. It tells of violence, kidnapping, shootings, criminal espionage, drug dealing and how criminal gangs vied for power to control the Irish trade in drugs.Shocking, fascinating and frightening, Gangster also tells the story behind the murder of Veronica Guerin, the crime reporter. Fully updated and revised with new photographs.
Download or read book Criminality and the Modern written by Stephen Brauer and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-01-28 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The emergence of the social sciences, established in the mid to late nineteenth-century, had a substantial bearing on how researchers, academics, and eventually the general public thought about criminal behavior. Using Modernism as a lens, Stephen Brauer, examines how these disciplines shaped Americans’ understanding of criminality in the twentieth-century and how it provides a new way to think about culture, social norms, and ultimately, laws. In theory, laws act as articulations and codifications of a community’s beliefs, values, and principles. By breaking laws, criminals help us reinforce social norms by providing the opportunity to affirm what is believed to be right. By operating outside the bounds of acceptable behavior, the criminal serves as a useful figure to understand what is at stake in the culture, what the central issues of that culture might be, and what the fears and anxieties are. Criminality serves as a lens through which we can read ourselves and how the criminal operates as a cultural figure signifies the things we are negotiating in our lives and in our communities. Brauer focuses on two main concepts, central to the very concept of Modernism, to explore criminality: contingency, the idea that the individual might not be in control of their own deviance, and agency, the notion that the criminal makes a conscious choice to use crime as a means of economic success. The figure of the criminal is a powerful one and is key to exploring American twentieth-century culture. This book would be of interest to students and scholars in criminology, sociology, cultural studies, literary studies, history, and many others.
Download or read book The Ultimate Book of Gangster Movies written by George Anastasia and published by Running Press Adult. This book was released on 2011-09-27 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The gangster movie is one of the most popular genres in film. From the Italian, Irish, and Russian "families" in America to similarly sinister groups in Europe, Japan, and beyond, the cinema has never shied away from portraying the evil exploits of these brutal outfits. In this highly entertaining and informative book, two accomplished and apropos authors put the genre in perspective like no other author or documentarian has done before. The Ultimate Book of Gangster Movies provides extensive reviews of the Top 100 gangster films of all time, including sidebars like "Reality Check," "Hit and Miss," "I Know That Guy," "Body Count," and other fun and informative features. Also included are over a dozen stand-alone chapters such as Sleeper "Hits," "Fugazi" Flops, Guilty Pleasures, Lost Treasures, Q&A Interviews with top actors and directors (including Chazz Palinteri, Michael Madsen, Joe Mantagna, and more), plus over 50 compelling photographs. Foreword by Joe Pistone, the FBI agent and mob infiltrator who wrote the bestselling book and acclaimed movie, Donnie Brasco.
Download or read book Kitchen Gangster written by John Newton and published by Next Century Books. This book was released on 2009 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Made Men written by Antonio Nicaso and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2013-07-05 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The novel The Godfather (1969) and the movie of the same name (1972) entrenched the myth of the Mafiosi as valiant knights, men of honor, and defenders of the traditional concept of family. As a result of this movie and other popular portrayals, the image of mobsters as “men of honor and tradition” has become iconic throughout America. Yet the truth of the matter belies this more noble image. The Mafia is a ruthless organization. Their concept of family is a twisted one. But viewed through the lens of popular culture, it is often difficult to separate the fiction from the reality. Made Men demystifies this image by dismantling the code of honor that Mafiosi live by, including its attendant symbols, rituals, and the lifestyle that it demands. Since the end of World War II, the Mafia in Italy and America has undergone major changes, which are charted by the authors through the present day. Nicaso and Danesi also consider all kinds of related organizations, not only the Italian ones, including the Yakuza, the Triads, and the Russian Mafia. The authors look at organized criminal culture in general, attempting to explain why its symbols, rituals, and practices continue to draw people in, both as literal members, or as consumers of the pop culture that glorifies them. This story traces and decodes the origins, history and success of the mafia in the U.S., bringing a better, and more accurate understanding of this ultimately brutal, violent, and corrupting “family business.” It is a story that has rarely been told in this way, but which is believed, nonetheless, important to tell.
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to American Crime Fiction written by Catherine Ross Nickerson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-07-08 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Companion examines the range of American crime fiction from execution sermons of the Colonial era to television programmes like The Sopranos.
Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Crime Films written by Geoff Mayer and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 515 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The crime film genre consists of detective films, gangster films, suspense thrillers, film noir, and caper films and is produced throughout the world. Crime film was there at the birth of cinema, and it has accompanied cinema over more than a century of history, passing from silent films to talkies, from black-and-white to color. The genre includes such classics as The Maltese Falcon, The Godfather, Gaslight, The French Connection, and Serpico, as well as more recent successes like Seven, Drive, and L.A. Confidential. The Historical Dictionary of Crime Films covers the history of this genre through a chronology, an introductory essay, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 300 cross-referenced entries on key films, directors, performers, and studios. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about crime cinema. -- from Amazon.com.
