The Newhall Incident: America's Worst Uniformed Cop Massacre [Paperback]

Chief John Anderson (Author), Marsh Cassady (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1999

Midnight, April 5, 1970. Minutes after a red Pontiac with two men in it was stopped, four young California Highway Patrolmen lay dead of gunshot wounds. The incident still stands as the worst of its kind and has changed the way police forces operate the world over.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Linden Publishing; 1 edition (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1884956017
• ISBN-13: 978-1884956010
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #686,583 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but not complete, December 1, 1999

By 

C. Darren Price (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Newhall Incident: America's Worst Uniformed Cop Massacre (Hardcover)

This was a very interesting book that looks at the deaths of four California Highway Patrol officers in 1970. The story is told in an engaging fashion that draws the reader in, in the style of The Onion Field. The background information is good, and paints a strong image. When describing the actual event and its aftermath, I was left wanting more detail. While I realize that it was not designed to be a true after-action report, I was still left wanting for some of the details. I would like to have seen a large section on the lessons learned from the event. All in all a good book, but there is more to be told.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well written, but lacks in places, December 6, 2000

By 

Robert Gonzalez (SoCal) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Newhall Incident: America's Worst Uniformed Cop Massacre (Hardcover)

I read this book while I was an explorer with the CHP. It has good background information and the stories of both sides of this conflict prior to the incident. It seems that it focuses more on the criminals, and what drove them to do it, but it lacks many of the officer safety innovations that the CHP developed after this incident. Everything from basic PMA to felony stops were revised because of this. While I was at the explorer academy, they stressed this incident to us over and over, and why we needed to be alert, in shape, and knowledgeable in out tactics as an individual, and as a team. Now I know why, after reading about the darkest day in the history of the California Highway Patrol. But the book is lacking, and could have been a bit better. A CHP PT instructor could probably give you an as good or better account of what happened.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable read, but read with a grain of salt., December 4, 2011

By 

M. Soto (Camarillo, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Newhall Incident: America's Worst Uniformed Cop Massacre (Paperback)

I borrowed this book from the library, as Massad Ayoob's mention of it in his book The Gun Digest Book of Combat Handgunnery on why speed loaders were mandated piqued my interest. All in all, I agree with what the other reviewers have said here: The author took quite a bit of liberty in conjecturing what all of the involved parties said, and what was going on in their minds. I'd hope that at least for the officer's background history he interviewed the family and friends of the fallen officers to get a feel for what they may have been saying or thinking during the different periods covered in this book and gotten their feedback. My paraphrase of a line the author may have said about one of the felons: "Davis looked out over the water, and wondered what the future had in store for him. Would he be going back to the slammer? [Bleep] no." I would doubt that the author could have had interviews with the felons' families, because, as I understood it, they both came from broken homes. I'd best categorize this as "Historical fiction," where the author took the facts that were known and then proceeded to take factual liberties with filling in the details. That's not to say that it wasn't an enjoyable read, though. I'd still recommend this as an entertaining piece. Just don't believe all that you read in here, though.