Dennis McDougalReseñas

This is a great book about a complicated serial killer, Randy Kraft. I read this book years ago, but decided to give it another read, and I am glad I did. It is very detailed, but not really graphic. Just gives the details necessary to understand what happened. Randy Kraft was killing young me at the same time other serial killers were out there in California. The author also talked about some of the other killers and gave the differences. I am glad because it was so interesting! I loved the way the book is written and it was well-written. I really had a hard time tearing myself away from it. I will read more of his books. This one is excellent and I highly recommend it!

Imagine a book about Ted Williams written by me, a guy who doesn't know much about baseball. That's what McDougal's biography is like. It's fine, I guess, but there's no there there. He barely talks about the songs and spends more time trying to paint his subject in some kind of edgy dark light--but even that gets old since facts about Bob are about as easy to confirm as facts about the Clintons. And when he does talk about the songs, he does so sparingly. (I can't resist noting that McDougal says this in his passage on Time Out of Mind: "A plea like 'To Make You Feel My Love' summoned sentiment as profoundly as any love song he'd ever written." Really? Is he kidding?)

Someone told me that he judges any Bob biography this way: read the passages on the God trilogy and see how he tackles it. McDougal does fine with this, but, like so much else, it's milquetoast. Better to read (or reread) Ian Bell's 2-volume biography, which I can't imagine being surpassed and features one perfect sentence after another. I couldn't wait to pick those up every day. This one I finished just to finish.

Wow, what a story. OK, I will say it, Theresa Knorr Cross is a horrible, horrible person. She treated everyone who loved her like her own personal slaves, that everyone should always be at her beck and call and do her bidding. She screams at you if you did anything wrong. She had to always make herself look good. She even did this to her own children, or rather, especially to her own children. And husbands. This book is about the murders of 2 of her daughters, caused by her in so many ways. These girls deserved so much more. The book itself is well-written and well-researched, not an easy feat either with all of the details needed. I really liked this book and do recommend it.

If you are in the entertainment industry or have even a passing interest in it, read this book.

It has its flaws. For example, with all of its footnotes and extensive citations, there are assertions made about situations the author would have no firsthand knowledge of, yet are not supported with references. There is one episode about Marilyn Monroe, in particular, that would have so much more power if there were a citation...There is also a bit of a knowing, insider tone that presumes the reader knows certain historical events or milestones that no lay person would have reason to know. In what is ultimately a non-academic, pop history book, these should be fatal flaws, except...

The story the book tells, how it tells it and the people whose voices are included make the good far outweigh any bad. There simply won't be another general interest book covering this period or point of view. I am not aware of a revised edition, but there is easily room for one as the main subject was still living when the book was published and the business he left behind went through a convulsive period in the years following publication.

Read this book.

https://msarki.tumblr.com/post/151713323458/dylan-the-biography-by-dennis-mcdoug...

If what Dennis McDougal presents in this biography is in fact true then Bob Dylan is a far different person than the accepted history his celebrity suggests. The tone attached to this appraisal reminds me of a documentary I watched on Hunter S. Thompson some time ago that had him admitting on camera that he lost himself in becoming the person his infamous celebrity had made him. This book as well, almost too eagerly at times, attempts to show how Bob Dylan and Robert Zimmerman became two different people. And to illustrate this ever-widening gulf between the two personalities in respect to all that has been already extensively written regarding Dylan’s life and music offers a novel opportunity for McDougal to move beyond the incessant analysis of his lyrics and well-worn biographical facts. Though often intuited at times to be a “hit piece” of sorts, the book proved to be an interesting read. And as I neared the last fifth of the book I began to see clearly McDougal’s honest fairness presented and redeemed.

The publisher’s opening blurb asks the question, “What happened during the past two decades to transform a heroin addict into one of the most astonishing literary and musical icons in American history?“ I was never aware that Dylan had a heroin addiction, but if true, I am not surprised. And his abusive use of alcohol would explain his erratic behavior both in concert and on the road. I believe I have personally seen him perform to both extremes.

But for some reason McDougal seems to have an unhealthy fixation on Dylan’s sex life and his discarding use of women. Though he does try, McDougal eventually fails in his attempt to portray Dylan as a buck in heat during rutting season. There is no doubt Dylan enjoyed many sexual opportunities due to his royal celebrity. He is probably the most famous American icon who has ever lived. My guess was a woman having sex with Bob Dylan was much different than a tumble in the hay with Robert Zimmerman. The one time I did express a bit of wonder over all these women falling for such a reported mess, with his bad teeth and tendency towards flight, my wife explained, “He’s Bob Dylan. Who wouldn’t want to be with Bob Dylan?”

There is no doubt the man did learn how to live and thrive in a world in which he constantly remade himself even in routinely risking his possible destruction. His work remains vital in spite of his more than five decades continuing to fan the music’s flames. Unlike other long-suffering artists from the sixties, such as the previously amazing Neil Young, Bob Dylan remains an original. And Dennis McDougal makes good use of interviews and available material in which to prove it. I had no idea Bob Dylan was such a real estate mogul. He has countless properties and businesses while remaining silent behind the scenes. Why the man wants as many homes he has is a bit of a conundrum to me, but most likely it is his investment portfolio that directs the management of his financial empire. Hard to imagine Bob Dylan a thriving businessman, but Dennis McDougal diligently follows his winding trail a long way from its humble beginnings on Macdougal Street.

I remember the story was very weird but that the book was not well written because I only gave it a 7 out of 10.

Although very well written, this book is a hard read due to the excessive detail and the clinical way the crimes are broken down. The story alternates between discussing the crime, sharing tidbits of Kraft's childhood, depicting his day to day life and detailing the lives of the victims. While extremely interesting albeit slightly disturbing, this book pacts so much information into it, it sometimes feels like your brain goes into data overload. I would recommend this only to the avid true crime reader, for as intriguing as Kraft and his crimes were, this detail oriented book takes time and dedication to get through.

This was one of the most terrifying books, I have ever read. Maybe because it was true? McDougal does an excellent discription of all the crimes...

I almost gave up reading books about serial killers because both the books and the killers seemed too much alike. Dennis McDougal does one thing different and well in his serial killer book, and he can do it because of skill of his subject, Randy Kraft, in hypocrisy. McDougal tells his tale in two streams. On one hand he tells the story of Kraft, a Goldwater conservative in the early sixties, a gay coming very tastefully out of the closet in the late sixties, and a yuppie computer expert in the seventies and eighties. On the other hand, McDougal tells of the efforts of the police to catch a sadistic killer who has been dumping the tortured bodies of young men on the highways of southern California. The author is so skillful that when Kraft turns up at a friend’s house with a victim’s jacket I was jolted, even though I knew how this story was going to end. The storylines finally converge when Kraft is arrested in his car with the corpse of a Marine sitting next to him.

Best book I ever read! McDougal conveys the characters feelings quite poetically. You can relate with their struggles. You would be a nymbasule not to read one of the most riveting books of modern times.

Wow. Two horrible people end up together and one ends up dead. Shocking. Research done for the book was good and gives you a solid background of those involved.

During a vacation at Yosemite, I stayed at the motel during the time this murderer worked there. I was alone in a room with no
other lodgers in my wing of rooms. Around midnight, I woke up
and started to wonder if my room was very secure. There were sliding doors to the outside, as well as a front door. I got up and checked the sliding doors, but was not strong enough to tell
if the lock was on or off. I didn't like that there was no safety
rod in the door's floor track. I checked the front door, and it was locked, and I secured the chain. I finally went back to sleep, but had a creepy feeling about that room even through the next day, and was glad we were leaving the area.

This book does a very good job of describing not only what happened, but the small town feeling and society common in the Sierra's, even in my larger town of South Lake Tahoe, California.

I read about murderer Randy Kraft years ago, but it was just a chapter in another book. I remembered him because of the brutality of the crime and the apparent fact he came from a normal, decent family, with no major past trauma to account for his sadistic crimes. He is one of the most prolific serial killers of all time, with the added notoriety of being the worst torturer I've read about. Kraft was a young, white, gay, successful computer programer, involved in a steady relationship, and known as smart, kind and friendly. He killed only young white men, many gay, mostly hitchhikers, by drugging them, sexually abusing and torturing them, and finished by strangling. He was pulled over for driving erratically, and was caught with a dead marine in the passenger seat and another bloody body in the trunk, yet maintained his innocence throughout. Speculation about the interstate highway system contributing to the increase in serial murders was also discussed. This is a tough, tragic account, but I found the psychology of the killer and those who knew him fascinating.

Because of this book, I found a few movies to see that I didn't know about (The Last Detail), learned a bit about the changes to the film industry between the 1950's and the present day, and got some surprising details about Marlon Brando, Nicholson's next door neighbor for a few decades.

This thoroughly researched book on the horrific crimes of Theresa Knorr begins with her parents and follows her through childhood up until her pre-trial. The interviews with everyone including childhood neighbors do bog down the story at points, focusing on details that don't seem to have a much explanatory power. At the same time, the inclusion of ex-husbands' and both her sons' and daughter's perspective results in a more balanced depiction than the A&E special on the case, narrated only by her daughter.

Despite the variety of interviews, the book only describes Theresa's actions, without making any significant attempt at explaining them. It would have been interesting to hear from the two psychiatrists in the court case (one who judged her sane, another who didn't) or better yet, from Theresa herself, though that almost certainly would have been impossible, at least at the time it was written.

While not as gripping as I'd hoped, the book is worth a few hours' time for any true crime reader. It is definitely an unforgettable series of cries committed by a mother who ranked highest on the (admittedly dubious) "scale of evil".

(Q)