Red Zone: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of the San Francisco Dog Mauling (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Esther Birkmaier held her breath as she walked toward the peephole of her heavy wooden door..." (more)
Key Phrases: legal mail, runic symbols, killer dogs, San Francisco, Pelican Bay, Robert Noel (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her sixth true crime book (after The Embrace), Jones displays a remarkable ability to present an enormous amount of detailed information in a thrilling narrative that is neither sensationalistic nor maudlin. Still, this is a shocking tale, as Jones provides a no-holds-barred investigation into the brutal death of 33-year-old Diane Whipple after being mauled when savage dogs owned by lawyers Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel entered the "red zone," a nonscientific term used to describe dogs "in the height of attack mode... beyond human control." The incident immediately received major national news attention, and Jones elaborates on the sordid details that emerged, including that the lawyers bred killer dogs to be sold to guard illegal methamphetamine labs, a scheme run from behind bars by Paul Schnieder, an Aryan Brotherhood member whom the lawyers not only represented but later adopted as part of a planned bizarre sexual triangle. Combining investigative reporting with exclusive access to Noel as well as to members of the San Francisco Police Department and the district attorney's office, Jones explores the lawyers' self-styled gothic world, a human "red zone" involving pornography and bestiality that had existed well before the death of Diane Whipple. With its graphic descriptions, this book is not for the squeamish.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In January 2001, a 33-year-old woman was mauled and killed by dogs that were in the safekeeping of her neighbors. The case vaulted onto the front pages of newspapers, and the trial of the victim's neighbors (they were both convicted of involuntary manslaughter) was in the news for months-- helped by the fact that the neighbors were attorneys taking care of the dogs for an imprisoned client who happened to be a member of the Aryan Brotherhood. In this riveting book, noted true-crime writer Jones goes behind the headlines and tells the whole story with simple, straightforward prose and plenty of close observation. It's a story that begins before the fatal attack and continues beyond its aftermath to embrace such hot-button issues as animal rights, the responsibilities of animal owners, and the legal rights of same-sex partners. This is no "quickie" book released to capitalize on the headlines; rather, it's thoughtful, compassionate, unsettling, and enlightening. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060537795
• ISBN-13: 978-0060537791
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,268,401 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping and Disturbing--As It Should Be, October 20, 2003

By A Customer

In one sense, Red Zone is not an easy book to read: it is, as it ought to be, a gripping but profoundly disturbing story of frightening people engaging in shocking activities. The horrible attack by dogs trained to kill, the attack that caused the death of Diane Whipple, is terrible in its own right, and the reader cannot help but feel compassion for the innocent victim. But as Aphrodite Jones reveals in her book, there many more layers to the story than there seem at first to be.
As she examines the case, Jones quickly takes one into a world that, one suspects, most readers have never imagined and could never imagine: a world in which lawyers seem to lose their bearings and come under the influence of an apparently charismatic convict already in prison yet still engaging in criminal activities. That the criminal activities engaged in by Aryan Brotherhood member Paul Schneider and lawyers Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel are by now fairly well known is due in no small part to Ms. Jones book.
The story is presented in a clear and unaffected style that draws attention to the contents rather than to the writer. A tale of unfolding and deepening levels of horror, the book is also a readable and well-researched example of what good investigative reporting can uncover and deliver. I recommend this book. I have, in fact, recommended Red Zone in my college-level essay writing classes to students who are interested in researching current/recent events, as I have also recommended Ms. Jones earlier book, All S/he Wanted.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting case, October 8, 2003

By	kevnm "kevnm" (Costa Mesa, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This is a pretty good true crime book, a thorough account of a fascinating, and tragic, killing in San Francisco. As these books usually do, this one walks the reader through the crime, the personalities involved, and the trial and sentencing. As the book progresses, the reader sees a wierder and more detailed portrait of the misfit lawyers and the violent convict at the heart of this case, and learns a bit about the breeding of vicious dogs.
Some of the morally indignant reviews below note that the book does not focus primarily on the innocent victim of this awful dog mauling, and they're right. It does not. For better or for worse, true crime books are primarily about crime and criminals.
As these things go, this book is interesting and informative, and will satisfy true crime buffs and those interested in this notorious case

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Hackwork, December 28, 2004

By	Dogs and Books (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Granted, this isn't a high-end genre once you leave behind Tim Cahill's "Buried Dreams," Ann Imbrie's "Spoken in Darkness," and the best work of the late Jack Olsen. I wouldn't take too many points off for pedestrian writing.

But this terrible story at least deserved careful research, didn't it? Jones really falls down on that job, offering no substantive background on either the Aryan Brotherhood or (my particular field) dog behavior. San Francisco is home to some of the world's best dog behaviorists, and Jones even cites one of them (Jean Donaldson) in her acknowledgments, yet she winds up unable to offer any informed insight into what went wrong in these animals' breeding, training and handling. Given the notoriety of this case and the horror of Diane Whipple's death, Jones has really squandered an opportunity. If the quality of her dog-related information reflects the quality of the rest of her information, you won't find too many facts in this book.