James B. Zagel (1941–2023)

This book, by a Federal Judge (who in 2010 presided over the Blagovecich trial) in Chicago, has some good reading as the crime is being carried out and the perpetrators are seeking to escape detection, but in the last 100 pages the story line declines in sense and interest. The character of the Federal judge and of his chief accomplice is deplorable and the denouement did not adequately punish the immoral and corrupt judge. The crime is always referred to as a robbery but seems more like theft to me, since it is not accomplished by putting of anyone in fear in order to get the money nor is the money taken by force exerted against any individual. And the story is wildly improbable.… (mehr)