Mike Rothmiller

This is an interesting read, both for the selection of the crimes and for seeing the birth and development of yellow journalism. This book is mostly a collection of the news articles of the times regarding some of the most serious and or infamous crimes of the 19th century.
It is ironic, how in some of the most famous cases, such as Jack The Ripper, that within 20 years give or take the errors that were reported in articles regarding the case. It is also interesting to see that the Brits were show more not the only ones that were using gore and horror to sell their sheets.
What some readers might find unusual - the length of the articles. Some of these articles were pages long, they would have filled columns and columns of print in their respective papers.

*I received an advanced copy of this work and this is my honest review. show less

Bombshell by Mike Rothmiller is both unconvincing as an argument and poorly written in general. And no, if he took this to any court he would not get a conviction, unless they chose to investigate all of his crooked dealings as a cop and prosecute him instead.

Tell me if you've heard this before: A crooked cop is part of a crooked secret division and manages, almost from day one, to access and read explosive information about other crooked cops, politicians and celebrities. Years later, based show more on alleged documents and hearsay (assuming he ever spoke to Peter Lawford about anything other than alcohol) he (sorta) writes a book that claims he, and only he, knows the whole truth about Marilyn Monroe's death. So, what might set off bells and whistles here? Crooked cop telling on other crooked cops? No evidence? A confession he didn't bother to record? The long delay with "evidence" he claims would get a conviction yet he never produced in the book? I kept waiting for him to throw in for free the explosive story of how RFK went back in time and killed Lincoln.

Between the poor writing and the lack of concrete proof, this is largely a waste of time. I might have gotten some enjoyment reading about the inner workings of the paramilitary unit known as the LAPD if I felt I could trust anything at all Rothmiller says. But I don't, so I didn't.

If you love conspiracies, if you support Qanon and all of the crazy conspiracies currently being used to fleece the American public, you'll love this book. If you want something even remotely like proof before accepting such an accusation as this, then you will be disappointed. If you teach a writing class and you have been looking for a good example of how not to write a book, you have found a gold mine here.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less

Very interesting read about some true crimes. I wasn’t expecting to read newspaper articles that have been reproduced in the book though. I thought it would contain more of the author’s thoughts and ideas and maybe some new evidence. I do feel more knowledgeable about these crimes now.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.