On the night of September 27, 1972, twenty-five year old Bob Lowe was just out walking his dog when he witnessed the brutal murder of his neighbor, Billy Logan. Lowe, an auto mechanic and family man living in a blue-collar neighborhood on Chicago's West Side, came literally face to face with the killer, Harry Aleman, before he jumped into an idling car and sped away. It was a vicious mob hit, plain and simple. Lowe easily identified Aleman, and with the assurance of witness protection, was willing to do his civic duty and testify. As he stubbornly told the police and his frightened family, "I saw what I saw." So began Bob Lowe's twenty-five year odyssey through two murder trials, political corruption and pay-offs, disillusionment with the system, depression, petty crime, alcoholism, and finally vindication, redemption and justice..... Fasten your seatbelts, Maurice Possley and Rick Kogan are about to take you on a very bumpy, suspenseful, and compelling ride through the mean streets of Chicago during the years organized crime had a stranglehold on police, judges, and politicians at the highest levels. This is a fascinating, intricate, and intriguing page-turner, made even more so because it's all true. The writing is crisp, intelligent, and engaging, the scenes vivid and riveting, and the characterizations, brilliant. But it's Possley's and Kogan's indepth, painstaking research and great attention to detail that makes this novel stand out. Everybody Pays: Two Men, One Murder And The Price Of Truth is a spectacular and absorbing story, rich in drama and history, and told with insight, wisdom, and humor. This is a novel that shouldn't be missed and should definitely find a place at the top of every mystery/thriller and true crime fan's MUST READ list.

This is a true story of a hit man literally getting away with murder in 1970s Chicago because of a pyramid of power and payoffs, only to have the story come full circle more than twenty five years later and have justice prevail in the end. The hit man, neighborhood wiseguy Harry Aleman, thought that he had gotten away with murder. After all, he had been tried and acquitted, and one can't be tried for the same twice on the theory that double jeopardy would bar such a second bite of the apple. Or would it? Well, more than a quarter of a century later, the Department of Justice thought otherwise. After all, how much jeopardy could Harry Aleman have actually have been in, if the fix were in?

This is a well researched, well-written, compelling chronicle of a case that would would have great impact on an eyewitness to a murder. It also a fascinating narrative on the influence that the mob once wielded over the criminal justice system in Chicago. It is a fascinating birdseye view into a criminal justice system so rife with corruption, it will keep the reader riveted to its pages. It is also the story of one man who tried to be a stand up guy and do the right thing under this corrupt system and found himself the one paying the price for its shortcomings.

Bob Lowe, a working class stiff who worked at a gas station, had the misfortune to stumble into the murder of Billy Logan, a neighborhood acquaintance, one night. In the mean streets of Chicago's West Side, Bob saw Harry Aleman blow Billy away with a sawed-off shotgun. In that one brief moment, simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Bob's life and that of his immediate family would change forever. From that moment on, it would be Bob, and not Harry, who would be on the run.

Placed with his family in a witness protection program that was ineffectual and problematic, characterized in a negative way by the corrupt judge who presided over the trial, and seeing a murderer vindicated at his expense, Bob Lowe saw his life, as he knew it, simply ebb away. He became awash in a haze of booze and drugs, doing some crime and doing some time. His life was a continual lost weekend, until he was finally able to pull himself out of the personal morass into which he had descended. Over a quarter of a century later, he would find himself finally vindicated at Harry Aleman's second trial for the murder of Billy Logan, as Harry Aleman would finally get the verdict he should have gotten over a quarter of a century earlier. The wheels of justice did, indeed, grind slowly.

On September 27, 1972, Billy Logan was murdered on his front lawn. Neighbor Bobby Lowe was an eye-to-eye witness. Hit man Harry Aleman had left his car to check on the victim when Bobby's dog leapt in front of him. For a few seconds, the two men stared at one another, Bobby in shock, and then Harry broke the spell and returned to his car, which then sped away. And Bobby's life changed forever.

Though Bobby told the police he had been an eye witness (much to his family's dismay) and had identified Harry's picture in a mug book, nothing happened. It was buried. Harry Aleman was well connected with the local mob and a nephew to one of its kingpins. Authorities estimated Harry had killed over 20 people. Four years later the case was reopened, and this is when Bobby's personal hell began. Before the trial (estimated to be a slam dunk), Bobby, his wife and three children were placed in one seedy motel after another. They had to give up their jobs, the children changed schools on a weekly basis, and they lived off fast food. The trial was a farce, Aleman was found not guilty and the Lowes entered the Witness Protection Program without adequate identification to secure a decent job. Bobby spiraled down and lost his job, his family and self-respect. Finally, he got his life back together, discarded his false identity, and regained his family. In 1997, the case was reopened again, 25 years after the crime. Bobby had no choice but to testify again.

Possley and Kogan do a masterful job in presenting this complex case without wasting a word. Bobby's character is done so well, you feel like you have known him all your life. The research and documentation are meticulous. The only mystery that remains is Harry. He was an excellent husband and adoring father that just happened to be a cold-blooded killer. I would buy another book explaining to me what made Harry tick.

Sadly, the message I received was to never, ever admit to being a witness to a mob killing. The Witness Protection program, which is devastating and mind shattering even if it worked perfectly, was a farce for the Lowe family. "Everybody Pays" is true crime and investigative journalism at its finest.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer