Oh, this is a true story, all right. I was a child in the Chicagoland area when the nurses were killed, and I understood (superficially, at least) what Speck had done and the impact it had on the adults around me. "Richard Speck" became like "The Bogeyman," or the other monsters that haunt children's nightmares. So as an adult, I was eager to confront the demon of my girlhood by reading this detailed and serious study. I was not prepared for how genuinely horrible the crimes were, especially against the backdrop of those more innocent times. I had not been aware of how close Speck came to getting away. I had real admiration for the lawyers, jurors and judge who worked to ensure that our system of justice worked -- even for this piece of human flotsam. Most of all, I rediscovered a real-life heroine, Corazon Amurao. No one should have had to endure what she lived through that summer night, and the way she stood up to Speck in court was awe-inspiring. Hers is a truly indomitable spirit. But I'm still as afraid Richard Speck today as I was more than 35 years ago. He was my introduction to evil, and it seems that the killers who have come after him, from Bundy to Gacy to the Washington snipers, have just gotten stronger and meaner and smarter.

As an armchair criminologist and true crime fan, the story of Richard Speck has been the one story that has haunted me for years. I long waited for the gruesome story of Speck and his vicious murder spree to be told in detail. Now, with the release of this excellent book, Speck's prosecutor William Martin gives us an eyewitness view into the crimes and trial of Richard Speck. With the help of Dennis Breo, Martin weaves a page-turning, frightening tale that reads as well as anything by Stephen King. Except this horrifying story is true. Martin reveals many never-before-known facts about the case and pays a great deal of attention to accuracy and detail especially in his depiction of the murders through the eyes of the heroic witness, Corazon Amurao. This book is a must read account of the mass murders that introduced a shocked world to a new age of violence and mass murder. I only wish that they would revise this book to include the discovery of the Speck porno/confession videotape in 1996.

A well researched, exciting read. You've got a story that everyone knows its ending, but you keep turning the pages to see what happens next. What can I say that will inspire someone to read this book? It is a lengthy work through which you will race. A marvelous study of all that was known about a most diabolical personality and the human wreckage he left in his wake.

Buy this book! Learn to refocus the positive aspects of your type A personality for success. Don't let the title fool you. This is not about sitting back in a rocking chair after your first coronary event. Instead, this cardiologist who's as Type A as the rest of us explains how to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em in dealing with personal, professional and day-to-day social hassles. A great chapter on self talk and how it can frustrate adult stress. And a great chapter with quizzes on dealing with stresses. Take the quizzes on separate sheets of paper, date them, share them or have your significant other take them the same way as well. Periodic readings of this book got me from my first MI through 15 years of middle age, an angioplasty, and my recent triple bypass. The physical predisposition to coronary problems was genetic. My successful adjustment to the stress factors was all from the book, discovered as part of my original coronary rehabilitation in 1985. Read this book. Lead a better life. Buy copies for friends! Enjoy!

There is more than enough for three or four hit movies in this stunning collection of true medical stories. Len Cerullo, the world's leading laser surgeon, fights a killer brain tumor. Renee Hartz, a beautiful heart surgeon, operates to restore life to a heart-attack victim. Newborn Lauren Agger, dying of a birth defect, is transplanted with a life-saving new heart - on Christmas day. Black psychiatrist Carl Bell fights black-on-black violence with his crusade against handguns. Family physician Charles DeShazer, who grew up in the notorious black ghetto on Chicago's West Side, returns to Cook County Hospital in the old 'Hood to treat his former gang members. Janet Goetcheus, a missionary doctor find Third World poverty while treating the homeless in Washington DC, righ in the shadow of Capital Hill. Especially poignant is a ground-breaking section on confronting the twin epidemics of AIDS and AFRAIDS - the toll caused both by the AIDS virus and by the discrimination against those living with the disease. Leading AIDS doctors and their brave patients share their stories and provide the reader with an inside look at this modern plague. Highlingting a section on preventing heart disease is the chilling story of how former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington totally neglected his health and ate himself to deat. The wife of a wealthy physician share the bittersweet rewards of her lonely life. Wally Schlech, a young disease detective, expalins how he solved an epidemic among pregnant women by tracing it to tainted lettuce. ER nurse Cherie Bremer-Kamp gives a heartbreaking account of watching her physician husband, Chris Chandler, die while climbing a Himalayan mountain, and vowed to return to reach the summit in her husband's honor. She escaped alive, at the cost of losing her fingers and toes. Doctors Treadwell Ireland and Charles Van Corder recall their harrowing memories of invading France on D-Day, June 6, 1944. The book concludes with exclusive interviews of Nobelists James D. Watson and Francis Crick, who tell how in 1953, they discovered the "Double Helix" structure of DNA - the secret of life. The accomplishment inspired the dearm of curing cancer and other diseases. The author, Mr. Breo, is the former National Correspondent of The Journal of the American Medical Assoication, and his highly readable reportage brings alive the real world of medicine, as experienced by doctors and their patients.