The Boys on the Tracks: Death, Denial, and a Mother's Crusade to Bring Her Son's Killers to Justice (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "By all accounts, the engineer did a masterful job bringing his train to a stop..." (more)
Key Phrases: hospital grand jury, fake cocaine, drug task force, Little Rock, Dan Harmon, Linda Ives (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

If this Arkansas murder tale weren't a true-crime thriller by an established investigative journalist, it would be too crazy, complicated and bizarre to believe. The action grips readers from the beginning, with the death of two teenagers, Don Henry and Kevin Ives, told from the perspective of the train engineers who accidentally ran over the boys' bodies. The 1987 case was originally ruled a double suicide, then an accidentAthe boys supposedly smoked too much marijuana and passed out. But their bodies were suspiciously neatly arranged on the train tracks. The parents, rejecting the official explanations, pushed for a murder investigation. Leveritt tells most of the story through the eyes of Linda Ives, Keith's mother, who pursues the medical examiner, the sheriff, then-governor Bill Clinton, the CIA and everyone else she thinks is blocking or slowing the progress of the investigation. The case remains unsolved, and Leveritt draws no conclusions. She merely fleshes out the context and explores all the leads in all their various directions. Yet the further away from the murder she gets, the less compelling her story becomes. Leveritt brings up every wild conspiracy theory in Arkansas and ties each to the boys' death; some of the theories are wacky right-wing fantasies, others are simply small-town oddities. The result is that what should be chilling ends up seeming merely fantastical. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This book documents a long and tangled criminal investigation that began in 1987, when Linda Ives's teenage son and his friend were killed by a train near Little Rock, AR. The deaths were ruled accidental. Not satisfied with that finding, Ives launched a series of investigations that eventually touched on the malfeasance of a prominent medical examiner, the misconduct of a local prosecutor, drug trafficking, and governmental corruption. The story, interestingly, unfolds against the backdrop of both the Arkansas and Washington Clinton administrations, so Clinton associates like Jocelyn Elders; Clinton's mother, Virginia Kelley; his brother, Roger Clinton; and Webster Hubbell pop up throughout the narrative. Leveritt, an award-winning investigative reporter, handles a mountain of details well and succeeds in making this convoluted story reasonably understandable. However, her intimation, in the epilog, of an ongoing, large-scale conspiracy is open to question. An optional selection for larger public libraries.APatrick Petit, Catholic Univ. Law Lib., Washington, DC
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1 edition (November 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312198418
• ISBN-13: 978-0312198411
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #57,066 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Complete account of incredible corruption in AK; too long, April 26, 2000

By	S. A. Felton (southern OR USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Many people are familiar with the story of the boys on tracks, first featured nationally on TV and then in the very anti-Clinton "Clinton Chronicles" video, which, despite some apparent inaccuracies, still contains a great deal of truth, and changed my own view of political corruption forever. The book "The Boys On The Tracks" is the real story of what happened in Arkansas, and is endorsed by Linda Ives, the mother of one of the boys who was killed and placed on the railroad tracks on that fateful night in August, 1987. Mrs. Ives is the central character in this book. The reader is presented with not only the entire story of the unfathomable corruption, but much of this incredibly detailed story is as if from Ives' diaries, written or mental.

The author, Mara Leveritt, takes the reader from the time the two boys are killed, through the complete story of what Ives goes through to try to find out the truth (and she still hasn't found the truth about what happened that night). First, we encounter the unbelievable and outrageous behavior and incompetence of the Arkansas State coroner, Famy Malek, who is protected countless times by top state officials despite absolutely false determinations he makes. Malek rules the boys deaths suicides from drug intoxication, and it takes the Ives family a long time to prove this false due to lack of cooperation from Arkansas officials. Only this is just the beginning of the obstructions of justice the

Ives face.

Then we see that, at least in part, practically the entire state of Arkansas's legal and law enforcement agencies are rampant with corruption, to the point that felons hold high-level positions in government and law enforcement. Clearly these state officials will go to any length to prevent the truth of the boys's deaths from being revealed. A very prominent figure in this aspect of the story is Dan Harmon, a county prosecuting attorney. Harmon brutally beats people up, incl. his wives and ex-wives, and even steals confiscated drugs, and yet is held completely unaccountable for his actions and is returned to office again and again. Harmon is eventually and surprisingly convicted of certain offenses, but any crimes related to events around the time of the boys's deaths are deliberately ignored. Oddly enough, though not at all surprising once you read the unbelievable things revealed over and over in this book, Harmon is initially depicted as an ally of Linda Ives!

Of course the biggest, most outrageous part of this story is the cover-up of large-scale drug smuggling done through the Mena Airport, incl. the Barry Seal story, which is never dealt with by Arkansas officials. The details of this horror story are so phenomenal that you have to wonder how the people involved in these crimes can take part in such corruption and hypocrisy, and do their misdeeds with such impunity!

If you want the complete story, this is undoubtedly the book to read. If you don't have time to read this very well-written, 300+ page book, see "The Clinton Chronicles" and the more accurate (according to the participants) "Obstruction of Justice" videos.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mara provides more pieces to the CIA/Cocaine puzzle, December 27, 1999

By	Darryl Phillips "darryl36" (Eastern Oklahoma) - See all my reviews

This is an excellent book for everyone raising kids in today's society, everyone interested in the inner workings of law enforcement, and everyone interested in the "War On Drugs".

Fiction writers have it easy, they can limit their cast of characters. In real life, Mara Leveritt, Gary Webb, Terry Reed, and the others who have explored the CIA/cocaine connection found it's not so easy. The cast of characters is immense, many of their names are confusing, but real life is like that. (As you read the various authors, many of the same characters do keep popping up!)

I wanted to read "Boys on the Tracks" because I was flying my personal plane in and out of Mena during the same time period that Barry Seal and the CIA were importing drugs. I wanted to see whether Ms Leveritt's book rang true. It does. I have met a few of the characters and know of others. The facts in this book accurately reflect what I have personally observed.

Unlike "The Secret Life of Bill Clinton" by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, this is not an anti- Clinton book. Those who want to bash Willie will have to look elsewhere. But after looking elsewhere, when you need independent verification of what is fact versus what is only rumor, I hope you will read this book.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The Boys on the Tracks" - Reality in Arkansas, January 5, 2000

By	Lorri Davis "[e-mail]" (Arkansas) - See all my reviews

Readers outside of Arkansas might have a hard time believing that the events this book describes actually happened. Unfortunately, they did, as those of us who live here know. Although Leveritt works for a competing paper, the statewide Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reviewed "The Boys on the Tracks" at length. The review did not challenge any of the author's facts. Rather, it said the account was "eye-opening" and described the book as "staightforward, engaging and extensively researched." The review also said the book "reads like a psychological thriller," and that it "lures you in and holds you hostage." I pass this on so that readers who are not familiar with the caliber of Leveritt's reporting will feel confident about ordering the book. You won't be disappointed.