Customer Reviews

The Mammoth Book of Illustrated Crime: A Photographic History (Mammoth Books)

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For half a century, Colin Wilson has been publishing wildly gullible and sloppily researched books, but he was clever enough to concentrate on themes where there are lots and lots of uncritical buyers -- crime and mysticism.

As usual, the text in this collection is unreliable when it is not downright silly.

Nevertheless, many of the photographs are interesting to browse through. I had never seen, for example, a photograph of Landru, the French Bluebeard. The photographs are authentic: they do depict the people they claim to depict. You just cannot rely on Wilson's version of what they did.

For some reason, this collection has been issued in a variety of titles, sometimes as 'Illustrated True Crime'; sometimes with Damon Wilson listed as co-editor, sometimes not; under different imprints; and with slightly different texts. Since its only value is as a casual and random collection of old photos, that makes no difference.

good book, nicely set out chronically by date on various crime photography. on the right page there is the photo, left- info; which is always a nice format. good value for money as well, as is thick and not too small not to see the photos clearly yet easy to carry around. in conclusion- good. nice.

Okay, I read real or true crime books as often as I can. I bought this book because I wanted to see photos that normally wouldn't be shown like Nicole Brown Simpson after her murder. There were cases that I don't think should be in the same book like the Long Island Lolita, the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the Lorena Bobbit trial, and others. Some crimes are far more serious like the Jack the Ripper murders, the World War II concentration camps, and some are missing like Pan Am 103 which was indeed a criminal act and a terrorist act. The pictures are interesting. The cover of the book is a mob hit. Even now after 13 years since the Simpson-Goldman murders in Brentwood, California, there is talk of the Goldmans publishing the O.J. book retitled Confessions of a Double Murderer.

There have been a multitude of books written about Crimes,Criminals and the gruesome pictures showing the aftermath of these evil deeds.
The authors of this book have limited themselves to crimes where we have photographic records. I don't know exactly when the photographic process was invented ;somewhere around the 1820's or 1830's,I suspect;therefore; this book deals with only the past 175 or so years of crime. The earliest photo in the book is from 1864 in England and from 1865 from America,the execution of Lincoln's Assassins. All the photos are B&W ,except those few from relatively recent crimes.There are none prior to 1978. This is the only disappointing aspect of this book,as many more color photos would have been welcomed.
While there is no way that all 'famous' crimes could be covered; the authors have done a good job of showing the types of crimes committed and how the types of crimes have changed over the years. The idea that crimes of the past don't occur any more,is not so. What we see here that there is no limit in the types of crimes that criminals can come up with.
As such,the murder of a person,by some nut case,and burying the body in the basement has gone on for centuries,and will continue. However, we now see the employment of modern knowledge in crimes like 9/11 and the possibility of even worse crimes using biological weapons and nuclear devices.
In other words,the more mankind advances,the more imaginative the crimes become.
In ancient times crimes were committed with clubs and stones;now the weapons are limitless and will continue to be increased.
As you go through the book you will probably be impressed by the fact that no matter how smart,determined or powerful the criminals seemed to be at the time; how utterly useless the crimes were, and that how all crimes and criminals ended in failure. But ,oh,what a terrible price paid by the victims.
Whether it is a crime by a depraved individual, such as a mass murderer,or great crimes of evil ,such a Nazi Germany,Communism ,expansion of the Japanese Empire,or the Terrorism at work today; the only hope for mankind is that in the end Good will always win out over Evil.
If you ever had any doubts about it; this book and its look at the last 175 years, leaves little doubt.