L.A. Despair: A Landscape of Crimes & Bad Times [Paperback]

John Gilmore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2005

This singular book follows a mad, tumultuous landscape without remorse or pity, the high and low life of Hollywood/LA. Gilmore obsesses on a relentless panorama of sex, violence and death in five new chronicles of So Cal sickness:

*the sex-and-drug soaked Wonderland murders featuring porn legend John Holmes

*Sexpot Starlet Barbara Payton's hellbent descent into the gutters of Tinseltown

*the Hollywood Hooker who landed in San Quentin's gas chamber, the Ice Blonde Murderess Barbara Graham

For those already steeped in the canon of John Gilmore's work, this is the long-awaited true-crime capstone to a celebrated collection of works, a blood-and-semen-soaked noir trail of all-night diners, nightclubs and cheap motels.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Gilmore was born and raised in Hollywood and has worked as a child actor, a stage and motion picture player, poet, screenwriter, low-budget film director, journalist, true-crime writer and novelist. He has headed the writing program at Antioch University and has taught and lectured extensively. He is the author of Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia Murder, Manson, and his first book of memoirs, Laid Bare.

Product Details

• Paperback: 339 pages
• Publisher: Amok Books (August 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1878923161
• ISBN-13: 978-1878923165
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #286,382 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Described by the Sydney Morning Herald as "the quintessential L.A. noir writer," John Gilmore has been acclaimed internationally for his hard-boiled true crime books, his Hollywood memoirs and his biting, literary fiction. He is considered one of today's most controversial American authors, with a following that spans the globe from Tokyo, Paris and London, to his native Hollywood where he was friends with the likes of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. He traveled the road to fame in many guises before turning to writing: kid magician, painter, poet, actor in films, TV, and the New York stage, then screen-writer, B-movie director into a "bang 'em out alive," nine-day novelist. "Few like to look back at how they kept the pot boiling," Gilmore says. "For me it was an education--a turning point from frantic to be a movie star, to just letting the dog out of the cage."
After heading the writing program at Antioch's west coast university, Gilmore traveled and lectured extensively while creating an indelible mark in crime literature with Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia, described by Colin Wilson as "The best book on the Black Dahlia--in fact, the only readable book." After years of "being on the road," as he puts it, three times married, three times divorced and now single, he resides in the Hollywood Hills, expanding his body of work with a "lengthy, peculiar" novel, plus another unusual exploration into true-crime.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WHOA, NELLIE!, October 23, 2005

By 

Bored in Vegas "Al Jackson" (L.A., CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: L.A. Despair: A Landscape of Crimes & Bad Times (Paperback)

as Dick Lane used to say on the old TV shows. John Gilmore takes us back to huddle with the King of Western Swing, Spade Cooley, and this is the first and most exhaustive account I have read of Spade Cooley and his conviction for the first-degree murder of his wife, Ella Mae. "Whoa Nellie" Dick Lane is quoted regarding Cooley's drinking problem which got him fired from TV, and Cooley's downhill story is the most tragic account in Gilmore's "five bleeding sides of beef," as he calls them in the well-written introduction by Anthony Mostrom. Western swing music was put on the map by Cooley, ingrained into the American country-western scene, and Gilmore's handling of the Cooley tragedy is detailed and sympathetic, He is able to separate the tortured man from his musical brilliance. Equally, I have given this book five stars for each of the five "side of beefs," each tale unfolding souls as tortured as Cooley's; John Holmes, gas-chamber bound Barbara Graham, mass-killer Billy Cook, poor Barbara Payton, the fallen star. The book appears as a mosaic set into the consciousness of L.A., the megalopolis that, according to Gilmore, knows no pity. A very hard to put down book.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars John Gilmore Doesn't Dissappoint!, October 12, 2005

By 

Derek Williams (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: L.A. Despair: A Landscape of Crimes & Bad Times (Paperback)

If you enjoyed his other collections of anecdotes and analysis of the Hollywood sub-culture then you will enjoy this collection.I especially enjoyed the chapter on John C. Holmes which actually had some very good insights on Eddie Nash that had me wanting to know even more about this arab Godfather.Fascinating reading is to be had here without a doubt!

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars DARK, DARK, ON THE EDGE, October 24, 2005

By 

Bleeker "Janice" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: L.A. Despair: A Landscape of Crimes & Bad Times (Paperback)

A mind-blowing read. Hard to take in at times it is so stark and the style so jabbing, intricate and hard-boiled. The images Gilmore summons up are unforgettable and the photographs shocking. They are sorrowful and hard to look at if you are not a crime scene freak. Especially harsh are the shots of the children victims of William Cook, raised from an abandoned well and laid in a row along with the murdered mother and father. I have read Gilmore's other books, but this one seems different. The writing is sharp as a razors edge and dark, so very dark it makes you want to run into the sunshine and bathe in the glory of being alive.