- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: WW Norton; 1 edition (Jun 24 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0393051560
- ISBN-13: 978-0393051568
- Product Dimensions: 24.5 x 16.3 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 553 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,025,673 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
With the style and pacing of a good novel, Rehder portrays the great variety of bandits he pursued in his more than 30 years with the FBI, almost all of it in Los Angeles. Reaching a peak in 1992 of 2,641 hits, the number of bank heists in the City of Angels is surprising, as is the small take on most jobs, often under a thousand dollars. The numbers raise questions about what motivates people to go into robbery, and Rehder wisely spends more time discussing the bandits, their psychology and their MOs than he does the minutiae of law enforcement. In fact, he repeatedly describes the FBI strategy as hoping the guy pulls another job and screws up this time. Rehder focuses on five main subjects: the most prolific one-on-one bandit (when a single robber holds up a bank teller) in history, a gang leader who ran takeover jobs using mostly kids, an unapprehended group that tunneled into a Hollywood bank, a bank manager who helped her policeman boyfriend get more than $700,000, and a pair of loners who died in a North Hollywood shootout. He fattens the package with innumerable anecdotes from other heists, as variations on a theme-and the pages turn quickly. Crime reporter Dillow is probably responsible for the gritty turns of phrase, but the book is entirely in the first person, and Rehder himself emerges from the beginning as a compelling and complex character. This should become a standard in the genre.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Retired L.A. FBI agent Rehder chronicles the techniques of modern-day bank robbers, getting much sarcastic mileage from mocking the mistakes made in such heists, which lends his narrative a slangy, streetwise swagger. Denizens of true-crime literature will relish Rehder's undertone of humorous contempt for the stupidity of criminals stymied by time locks, exploding die packs, and silent alarms. Bank robberies take several basic forms, and Rehder, along with police-beat journalist Dillow, tells a tale representative of each style: announcing stick-ups sotto voce to a teller; inside jobs and after-hours break-ins; and the scariest version, the guns-drawn takeover, which Rehder illustrates with an unbelievably violent 1997 shoot-out by two movie-fantasizing lunkheads who were, fortunately, the only people killed. In addition to his many insightful comments about the criminal mind, Rehder packs plenty of action into this crime-fighting memoir. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
December 1966, a cold, gray, miserable morning in Cleveland; there was no other kind of December morning in Cleveland. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
December 1966, a cold, gray, miserable morning in Cleveland; there was no other kind of December morning in Cleveland. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
If you're entertained by Mickey Spillane's style, here's another one.,
By
This review is from: Where The Money Is (Hardcover)
This review is for the hardcover edition measuring 9 1/2 X 6 1/4 and having 287 pages and NO PHOTOS AT ALL!!!How this book ever garnered 5 stars is beyond me. The style is turgid and almost Mickey Spillane-ish peppered with street jargon and the author's obvious contempt for the criminal class. The lack of a photo section was VERY disturbing as ALL of these crimes are Los Angeles and contemporary. For a 'taste' of his style here's a short sentence re: the now-famous North Hollywood shootout...."Windrows of cops fell wounded and dead as hysterical bystanders ran screaming, trying to get away." WOW!!!...pretty heady stuff but unfortunately not even correct. In fact NO POLICE officers or civilians were killed and the only 2 fatalities were the robbers themselves. He delights in pointing out how stupid and amateurish most criminals are but we know that already....that's why America's jails are full to brimming...tell us something interesting....stupid we already know. All in all this is, for me, a seasoned true crime reader a very sketchy over-dramatic view of a few famous crimes this officer was involved in....but for the most part I find it way too dramatic. In my opinion read it at a library or borrow it but not worth a buy.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Turn off the television...,
By bill katovsky (san francisco, california USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Where The Money Is (Hardcover)
in our media-saturated audio-visual age when most shows are crime dramas or reality shows (there should be a law prohibiting some of those shows), it comes as a welcome relief to read this live-action real-life tale about one very good guy (natch, the FBI co-author), and many bad guys who rob banks. You can learn more from this anecdotal-laced memoir than a years's worth of law & order episodes. I felt that I got good education about how banks operate and foil thiefs. I got an equally good education on how the FBI tracks down their sticky finger prey. All the action takes place in L.A. which is the bank robbery capital of the world. You can take that to the bank...
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unique Insight,
By A Customer
This review is from: Where The Money Is (Hardcover)
William Rehder and Gordon Dillow have teamed up to provide an exciting book which gives the reader an insight into the motives and techniques of bank robbers while feeling like he is reading a fast-paced novel. From his perspective as a prominent FBI agent, Rehder shares much information and insight into the field as he relates an overview of his 33 years of involvement with bank robbers. The book is thoroughly engaging as it relates the history of five major cases, each with a different theme. Where the Money Is provides a truly amazing and unique look at the crime of bank robbery. At the conclusion of the book, the reader feels as if he has shared the life, experiences and attitudes of an outstanding man who is passionate about his career in law enforcement.
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