Shots in the Dark: Crime Photographs from Daguerrotype to Internet [Paperback]

The book starts with an excellent introduction by Harold EVANS "Looking Crime Squarely in Its Disturbing Eye", followed by an essay by author Gail BUCKLAND about the development of forensic photography and the creator of the mugshot, the frenchman Alphonse BERTILLON in particular. I found this chapter especially compelling.
The rest of the book consists of crime pictures with short captions by the author, many of them are unfortunately rather brief. With only one or two exceptions all featured photos are black and white. Many of those shot in the period from 1930-1950 have a certain film noir look due to sharp contrast. Many pictures are not easy to look at particularly those shot at homicide scenes. And you'll see a lot of homicide scenes. There is a picture taken by a surveillance camera during the April 1999 Columbine school shooting, a police officer looking in despair at the body of a girl shot at the 1984 Mc Donald's massacre in San Ysidro, the corpse of slain actress Sharon TATE, crime scene photographs of stabbed Nicole SIMPSON, lots and lots of unknown victims of murder...As mentioned before, this is sometimes not easy to look at.
Another chapter is about punishment. An horrifying account of lynch justice is given; according to the author it was common practice in the last decades of the 19th century to send photographs of lynchings to friends and relatives. I didn't know that. You see photographs of the last public execution in the US, which took place in 1936, convicts in prisons, an arrested man tied to a restrainment chair etc. A very compelling chapter but I have to add that BUCKLAND shows way too much compassion for convicts in her captions commenting the pictures. Undoubtedly a convict can not be denied his human rights, but we have to bear in mind that many of them committed unspeakable acts of violence and too much compassion for such people is highly inappropriate.

I especially liked the chapter about presidential assassinations. There are portraits of president LINCOLN's assassin's co-conspirators and photos of their execution on the gallows. The most infamous political murder of the last century, the assassination of president KENNEDY in Dallas, is depicted in a very detailed manner with many rare and often cruel photos ( e.g. the slain president on the autopsy table and the corpse of Lee Harvey OSWALD after a postmortem was conducted) accompanied by insightful captions, which convey more information in some sentences than many non-fiction books in hundreds of pages.
A selection of celebrity mugshots (including Frank SINATRA, Jane FONDA and Bill GATES) adds a little curiosity and fun to an otherwise sombre and shocking book. Especially FONDA and GATES look incredibly ludicrous in their mugshots.
While I generally found SHOTS IN THE DARK a great book I didn't like two chapters very much, because they are so "overpublished". These were about gangland world and infamous cases. I mean how often did you see photographs of the O.J.SIMPSON trial? How often did you see Al CAPONE's not so friendly features?
But these are only minor complaints. This book is a must have for every true crime fan. It could also be of interest for people who like death shockumentaries.