Anita Larsen

Guilty or innocent...this is the decision that juries all across America grapple with each and every day as an integral part of the American criminal justice system. It is a process whereby twelve ordinary citizens are expected to reach a unanimous verdict based on the facts of the evidence placed before them. It is a time-consuming process - one which should be treated with the utmost seriousness and respect - a verdict reached after much deliberation and weighing of the evidence. However, show more it is also a verdict that is dead wrong more often than one might expect.

In this book, Anita Gustafson gives the reader a chance to become a member of the jury in ten of the most controversial criminal cases in history. In criminal cases from the early 1600s to 1981, Ms. Gustafson presents the details of each crime and the arguments for both the prosecution and the defense of the accused. Then, after revealing the actual verdict, she goes on to discuss the peculiarities of each case and the possible reasons why the particular verdicts were reached.

Was Lizzie Borden's trial influenced by the fact that she was a woman? Did Sacco and Vanzetti suffer from prejudice against their foreign backgrounds? Were the Sam Shepard and Lindbergh trials swayed by the media and the effects of an angry mob mentality?

Guilty or Innocent? by Anita Gustafson offers a fascinating combination of intriguing criminal cases, fast-paced reading and insightfully comprehensive analysis that reaches one inescapable conclusion about our legal system: Sometimes the verdict rendered is determined by much more than just the letter of the law.

I found each case to be interesting enough to hold my attention, and despite this being a fairly involved book for me to read; I still enjoyed it immensely. Of the ten cases discussed, I would perhaps consider five or six of them to be modern 'Crimes of the Century' - primarily because of the level of celebrity of the victims and/or the accused, the crime itself, and the controversy of the verdict. My opinion is based only on my knowledge of the cases that have become infamous throughout history.

There were perhaps four cases that I knew nothing about when I started reading, although I am sure that each of these cases were considered by many to be 'Crimes of the Century' - at least during whichever century a particular crime occurred. As I said, I found that this was an intriguing book and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it; although I occasionally found my reading to be somewhat slower than I would have liked. My opinion may only be due to my own leisurely pace while reading and nothing more. Overall, I would give Guilty or Innocent? by Anita Gustafson an A+! show less

This book is a collection of ten true crime stories about people from all over the United States of America who all have one thing in common. Each person disappeared without a trace, and was never seen again. The cases range from 1854 to 1982 and involve every kind of disappearance: from a farmer out working in his fields to a wealthy young socialite walking down the street.

These cases have stymied and frustrated hundreds of detectives, reporters and families - because these are stories show more without definite answers. A plethora of theories have cropped up over the years, but still no one can offer satisfactory explanations as to how a thirteen-year-old newspaper carrier, or an eccentric historian, or a highly-respected judge can just disappear and never be seen again. But we can, and perhaps always will wonder. And in ten unbelievable tales, we can find out who these people were, before they vanished - without a trace.

I must say that I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a relatively quick read for me and the cases included in the book were unusual enough to hold my attention completely. Most of the stories were totally new to me, although I think two or three of them are considered famous for remaining unsolved mysteries for as long as they have. I've always had a fascination with the unexpected and unexplained and this book is no exception. I give it an A+! and will certainly keep my eyes open for more from this author to read in the future. show less

This book is a short collection of profiles of ten people who vanished without a trace. None of them have ever been found; four of them (Thomas Riha, Alice van Alstine, Michael Rockafeller, John Gosch) are the only ones not obviously deceased due to time factors. For the most part, the book focuses on the stories behind the disappearances and presents some of the theories offered. With two of them (Ambrose Bierce and Michael Rockafeller) it's pretty obvious both what happened and what the show more author thinks happened. With the other eight, there's no solution presented, and with most of them there probably will never be. There are some things left out of the profiles - John Gosch's case is mentioned without the disappearance of Eugene Martin (since the book was published in 1985, Marc Allen hadn't vanished yet). Alstine and Gosch were both tricky profiles - almost everyone in the book had been missing for two decades or more, but they're the only ones who had been missing less than ten years. It's sheer chance that they also were never found. It's worth reading by any missing persons' buff, and anyone interested in unsolved crimes.

The missing featured in this book are:

Orion Williamson
Ambrose Bierce
Dorothy Arnold (http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/a/arnold_dorothy.html)
Amelia Earhart
Thomas Riha
Alice van Alstine (http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/v/vanalstine_alice.html)
Michael Rockafeller
Charles Brancati
Joseph Crater (http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/c/crater_joseph.html)
John Gosch (http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/g/gosch_john.html) show less

Only two of the ten cases were actually interesting, with an additional case somewhat so because it was related to one of those two cases. If the first chapter is to be believed it is quite extraordinary. The last chapter was the most sad, it being a parent's worst nightmare: a missing child case. It was the case of Johnny Gosch (one of the first missing children to be pictured on a milk carton) of which a documentary was recently made.