Crime & Law Enforcement

Journalist Ernest Volkman. He and co-author John Cummings' new book "Goombata: The Improbable Rise and Fall of John Gotti and His Gang," chronicles the history of the mofia godfather once proclaimed the "Teflon Don." Since 1986, when Gotti took over the leadership of the Gambino crime family, he's been acquitted in three criminal trials. The latest was an assault and conspiracy trial in New York, in which he was acquitted February 9, 1990.

Journalist Daniel Akst. His new book is "Wonder Boy Barry Minkow: The Kid Who Swindled Wall Street." While a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and later the Wall Street Journal, AKST showed Minkow in his true light...not a clean-cut teenage success story...but rather the mastermind of a multi-million dollar fraud operation. (published by Scribner & Sons.)

Author and Journalist T.J. English. His new book is "The Westies: Inside the Hell's Kitchen Irish Mob." From the 1960's to the 1980's the mob led by James Coonan terrorized Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. Testimony from a former hitman of the gang, Mickey Featherstone, eventually broke up the gang. English's book has been called, "a grotesque chronicle" of the gang and "reminiscent of Poe and Dostoyevsky in subject and character," by New York Newsday. English's book is published by Putnam.

Journalist John Dinges (pronounced DING-gess, with a hard G in the second syllable). Dinges' new book, "Our Man in Panama," traces the history of Manuel Noriega's relationship with the United States, from his recruitment by the CIA in the 60s to his fate in the wake of the U. S. invasion of Panama. Dinges has covered Central and South America for many years. Currently he's a foreign editor for National Public Radio. ("Our Man in Panama" is published by Random House).

Judge Robert Satter. Satter is a judge on the Connecticut Superior Court, and in his new book, "Doing Justice: A Trial Judge At Work," he explains such things as how a judge operates, what influences him, and how he deals with conflicting evidence. Satter also gives his ideas on reforms of the jury system that he thinks are necessary to improve the judicial process. ("Doing Justice" is published by Simon & Schuster.)

Former mafia member Joseph Salerno. Salerno's damming court testimony was the lynchpin that brought down Philadelphia mafia don Nicodemo "little Nicky" Scarfo. Salerno was drawn into the Cosa Nostra in 1976. After taking part in a mob hit in 1979, Salerno decided to testify against Scarfo. That led to a 200-thousand dollar contract against Salerno and his fleeing into the witness protection program and assuming a new identity. With Stephen J.

Police artist Douglas P. Hinkle. Hinkle spent seven years as a forensic artist with the Athens, Ohio police department. He's written a book, called "Faces of Crime," about his experiences, and about the inexact science of obtaining criminal descriptions. (Interview by Sedge Thomson)

Edmund (Pat) Brown, the former governor of California. From 1959 to 1967, Brown commuted the death sentences of 23 convicts, but allowed 36 others to go to the gas chambers. He has written a book, Public Justice, Private Mercy: A Governor's Education on Death Row, about the extraordinary personal and political pressures that came to bear on each decision, and of the evolution of his thinking on the death penalty from his inauguration to his last day in office.

Writer Jack Olsen. He's been called a master of the `true crime' genre, and in his new book, Doc, he tells the story of how Dr. John Story, one of the most respected citizens of Lovell, Wyoming, systematically raped his patients, and how, in this ultra-conservative, God-fearing environment, the women either couldn't speak up, or, when they did, were dismissed. Lovell is set in Mormon country, and many of the women the doctor victimized feared excommunication for "fornication" if they when to the authorities, who, invariably, were also elders in the Mormon church.

Writer Joe McGinniss lived in the Toms River, New Jersey area to investigate how the community reacted to the murder of Maria Marshall at the hands of her husband. Two of Marshall's sons eventually came to believe in their father's guilt; the youngest still maintains his innocence. A book about that experience is called Blind Faith.