Bloodletters and Badmen: A Narrative Encyclopedia of American Criminals from the Pilgrims to the Present [Paperback]

Jay Robert Nash (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 20, 1995

A narrative encyclopedia of American criminals from the pilgrims to the present.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jay Robert Nash

Product Details

• Paperback: 698 pages
• Publisher: M.Evans & Company; Rev Upd Su edition (April 20, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087131777X
• ISBN-13: 978-0871317773
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #361,886 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling. Your eyes will be as big as saucers!, January 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Bloodletters and Badmen: A Narrative Encyclopedia of American Criminals from the Pilgrims to the Present (Paperback)

A truly awe-inspiring work, this volume is that rare being: a non-fictional crime book that suceeds in sheer storytelling power.

However, I did not give it 5 stars because Nash is not always reliable with the facts. For instance, he moans to the world that the infamous Dr. H. H. Holmes ACTUALLY KILLED OVER TWO HUNDRED WOMEN!!!! In fact, Harold Schector, in his Holmes bio "Depraved," tells us that the number of bodies uncovered in the good doctor's house was never positively identified, since all the bones were hopelessly jumbled up, and that the actual number probably did not go nearly so high.

Also, Nash insists that a frenzied Holmes, about to be hung, cried out to protest his innocence and identify one of his victims as the real killer. Nash simply cannot resist treating this desperate plea for life as tantalizing evidence of an unsolved mystery. GIVE ME A BREAK, MR. NASH!!! After just pointing out how much of a notorious liar Holmes had always been, you suddenly go and turn novelistic on us. Shame on you.

In fact, in Schector's recounting we see an unaffraid Holmes, cool to the last, calmly reminding the hangmen not to make the noose too tight, and then swinging to his death without so much as a gag. This version is more believable, based on the fiend's personality, and is borne out by contemporary newspaper accounts. Why forsake the hard facts for Nash's dime novel retelling?

Otherwise, "Bloodletters and Badmen is highly recommended!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Better stuff out there., January 3, 2000

By 

Rick "Mad Dog" Mattix (Iowa) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Bloodletters and Badmen: A Narrative Encyclopedia of American Criminals from the Pilgrims to the Present (Paperback)

This is the best of Jay Robert Nash's generally not very good volumes of crime history. It has a wonderful bibliography, probably including hundreds of books, pamphlets, documents, articles, etc., that Nash hasn't read, and a magnificent collection of photos, maybe the best anywhere. Other than making a good doorstop, however, that's about the best that can be said of this book. It's literally strewn with errors and also borrows shamelessly, from such books as Capone by John Kobler and The Bad Ones by Lew Louderback. If you're looking for a good historical crime encyclopedia, pass this one up and go to The Encyclopedia of American Crime by Carl Sifakis.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Take it with a grain of salt and it's a wonderful read, July 22, 2009

By 

Hancock the Superb "Chris S." (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Bloodletters and Badmen: A Narrative Encyclopedia of American Criminals from the Pilgrims to the Present (Paperback)

Bloodletters and Badmen is a fine coffee table book about the history of crime in America. Open to pretty much any page and you'll find an intriguing article; and with over six hundred pages there's certainly a lot to get through. The book covers pretty much every type of crook you could imagine, from serial killers and spree murderers, to Depression-era outlaws and Mob bosses, Old West gunslingers and sex offenders, kidnappers and cannibals, swindlers and bank robbers, crimes of passion and assassins. Most of the most notorious crooks are here, along with many obscure ones you're likely to have never heard of. Nash is a fine writer with an electrifying style; his writing style is terse, crisp and wonderfully descriptive. It's passionate, which inevitably leads to bias on occasions, but mostly it makes for gripping reading.

To be sure, much of Nash's stuff is historically suspect, with the occasional hyperbole, exaggeration and misrepresentation. His chapter on Carl Wanderer, the "Ragged Stranger" murderer, has since been disputed by several other crime historians. He inflates notorious mass murderer H.H. Holmes' already grisly body count to epic proportions. He seems to accept the J. Edgar Hoover-propagated story of Ma Barker as criminal mastermind, when most other historians discount that she did anything more than profit off her son's criminal careers. Most questionable is his lengthy advocacy of the theory that John Dillinger somehow faked his own death and escaped justice. So far as I know Nash is about the only serious criminologist to believe this theory, and it's been all but debunked I think by this point in time.

Still, Bloodletters and Badmen is an overall fine and fascinating read, an occasional error notwithstanding. Take it with a grain of salt at times, but it's certainly worth one's time.