Best Selling Books by Dick Lehr

When the FBI turned an Irish mobster into an informant, they corrupted the entire judicial system and sanctioned the worst crime spree Boston has ever seen. This is the true story behind the major motion picture. James "Whitey" Bulger became one of the most ruthless gangsters in US history, and all because of an unholy deal he made with a childhood friend. John Connolly a rising star in the Boston FBI office, offered Bulger protection in return for helping the Feds eliminate Boston''s Italian mafia. But no one offered Boston protection from Whitey Bulger, who, in a blizzard of gangland killings, took over the city''s drug trade. Whitey''s deal with Connolly''s FBI spiraled out of control to become the biggest informant scandal in FBI history. Black Mass is a New York Times and Boston Globe bestseller, written by two former reporters who were on the case from the beginning. It is an epic story of violence, double-cross, and corruption at the center of which are the black hearts of two old friends whose lives unfolded in the darkness of permanent midnight.

Determined to clear her father of the wrongful conviction for a gang-related crossfire death, thirteen-year-old Trell persuades a reporter and a lawyer to investigate the case and uncover the truth.

“Trell is an appealingly gutsy heroine whose belief in her father is strong enough to drag an attorney and a down-on-his-luck journalist into her orbit.” — School Library Journal On a hot summer night in Boston in the late 1980s, a twelve-year-old African-American girl was sitting on a mailbox talking with her friends when she became the innocent victim of gang-related gunfire. An immediate manhunt was on to catch the murderer, and a young African-American man was quickly apprehended, charged, and — wrongly — convicted of the crime. Dick Lehr, a former reporter for the Boston Globe’s famous Spotlight Team who investigated this case for the newspaper, now turns the story into a page-turning novel about the daughter of an imprisoned man who persuades a reporter and a lawyer to help her prove her father’s innocence.

Now in an updated and revised edition, the definitive book on the Boston Mafia, by the authors of the bestselling, Edgar award-winning true crime thriller "Black Mass."

In 1915, two men -- one a journalist agitator, the other a technically brilliant filmmaker -- incited a public confrontation that roiled America, pitting black against white, Hollywood against Boston, and free speech against civil rights. Monroe Trotter and D. W. Griffith were fighting over a film that dramatized the Civil War and Reconstruction in a post-Confederate South. Almost fifty years earlier, Monroe''s father, James, was a sergeant in an all-black Union regiment that marched into Charleston, South Carolina, just as the Kentucky cavalry -- including Roaring Jack Griffith, D. W.''s father -- fled for their lives. Griffith''s film, The Birth of a Nation, included actors in blackface, heroic portraits of Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and a depiction of Lincoln''s assassination. Freed slaves were portrayed as villainous, vengeful, slovenly, and dangerous to the sanctity of American values. It was tremendously successful, eventually seen by 25 million Americans. But violent protests against the film flared up across the country. Monroe Trotter''s titanic crusade to have the film censored became a blueprint for dissent during the 1950s and 1960s. This is the fiery story of a revolutionary moment for mass media and the nascent civil rights movement, and the men clashing over the cultural and political soul of a still-young America standing at the cusp of its greatest days.

"A monumental account. . . .Lehr''s depiction of one of the darkest chapters in Boston law-enforcement history . . .has all the earmarks of a classic." —Dennis Lehane, New York Times –bestselling author of Mystic River and Shutter Island The Boston police officers who brutally beat Michael Cox at a deserted fence one icy night in 1995 knew right away that they had made a terrible mistake. The badge and handgun under Cox''s bloodied parka proved it: He was not a black gang member but a plainclothes officer who had been chasing the same murder suspect they were. While Cox was being beaten, Officer Kenny Conley chased down and captured the suspect. Afterward, as Cox waited for an apology from his department, federal prosecutors accused Conley of lying when he denied witnessing Cox''s beating. Both Cox and Conley grew up in Boston and had dedicated their lives to serving the Boston Police Department, but when they needed its support, they were abandoned. Respected journalist Lehr, winner of the Hancock Award, the Loeb Award, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and bestselling author of Black Mass and Judgment Ridge, sheds a brilliant light on all aspects of this powerful, disturbing event and its aftermath. "Jolting, nightmarish and potent, this true cop yarn bests any bogus reality show or overblown tabloid tale with its hard-boiled spin." — Publishers Weekly, starred review

For fans of I''ll Be Gone in the Dark, the thrilling true story of a would-be terrorist attack against a Kansas farming town''s immigrant community, and the FBI informant who exposed it. In the spring of 2016, as immigration debates rocked the United States, three men in a militia group known as the Crusaders grew aggravated over one Kansas town''s growing Somali community. They decided that complaining about their new neighbors and threatening them directly wasn''t enough. The men plotted to bomb a mosque, aiming to kill hundreds and inspire other attacks against Muslims in America. But they would wait until after the presidential election, so that their actions wouldn''t hurt Donald Trump''s chances of winning. An FBI informant befriended the three men, acting as law enforcement''s eyes and ears for eight months. His secretly taped conversations with the militia were pivotal in obstructing their plans and were a lynchpin in the resulting trial and convictions for conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.White Hot Hate will tell the riveting true story of an averted case of domestic terrorism in one of the most remote towns in the US, not far from the infamous town where Capote''s In Cold Blood was set. In the gripping details of this foiled scheme, we see in intimate focus the chilling, immediate threat of domestic terrorism--and racist anxiety in America writ large.

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This "irresistibly absorbing" true crime investigation uncovers the brutal murder of two Dartmouth professors by a pair of students in 2001 ( Publishers Weekly). On a cold night in January 2001, the idyllic community of Dartmouth College was shattered by the discovery that Half and Susanne Zantop, two of its most beloved professors, had been hacked to death in their own home. Investigators searched helplessly for clues linking the victims to their murderers. Weeks later, in the nearby town of Chelsea, Vermont, they sought out a pair of high school seniors for questioning. Then Robert Tulloch and his best friend, Jim Parker, fled. Suddenly, two of Chelsea''s brightest and most popular sons had become fugitives, wanted for the murders of Half and Susanne Zantop. Authors Mitchell Zuckoff and Dick Lehr provide a vivid explication of a murder that captivated the nation, as well as dramatic revelations about the forces that turned two popular teenagers into killers. Judgement Ridge conveys the devastating loss of Half and Susanne Zantop, while also providing a clear portrait of the killers, their families, and their community—and, perhaps, a warning to any parent about what evil may lurk in the hearts of boys.

"[A] white-knuckle tale" of the targeted kill . . .of the admiral behind the Pearl Harbor attack "sheds new light on an important . . .turning point in the war" ( USA Today ). On December seven, 1941, the Japanese navy launched a surprise aerial assault on U.S. bases on Hawaii. In a little over two hours, more than two,400 Americans were dead, propelling the U.S.''s entry into World War II. Dead Reckoning is the true story of the high-stakes operation undertaken to avenge that deadly strike. Expertly crafting this "hunt for Bin Laden" —style WWII story, New York Times–bestselling author Dick Lehr recreates the tension-filled events leading up to the climactic clash in the South Pacific skies. Lehr goes behind the scenes at Station Hypo on Hawaii, where U.S. Navy code breakers first discovered exactly where and when to find Admiral Yamamoto, and then chronicles in dramatic detail the nerve-wracking mission to kill him. Lehr focuses on Army Air Force Major John W. Mitchell, the ace fighter pilot tasked with conceiving a flight route. Given unprecedented access to Mitchell''s personal papers, Lehr reveals for the first time the full story of Mitchell''s wartime exploits up to the face-off with Yamamoto, along with those of key American pilots Mitchell chose for the momentous mission. The spotlight also shines on their enemy target –Admiral Yamamoto, the enigmatic, charismatic commander in chief of Japan''s Combined Fleet. "Riveting . . .Major John Mitchell and his avenger flyboys emerge in these pages as true-blue military heroes of the Greatest Generation." — Douglas Brinkley "Lehr is a gifted raconteur. . . .[His] telling . . .has the excitement of a Steve McQueen car chase." — Wall Street Journal

At the dawn of the modern civil rights movement, Monroe Trotter, a journalist agitator, and D.W. Griffith, a technically brilliant filmmaker, incited a public confrontation that roiled America, pitting black against white, Hollywood against Boston, and free speech against the fight for equality. Monroe Trotter and D. W. Griffith were fighting over a film that dramatized the Civil War and Reconstruction in a post-Confederate South. Griffith''s film, The Birth of a Nation, included actors in blackface, heroic portraits of Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and a depiction of Lincoln''s assassination. Freed slaves were portrayed as villainous, vengeful, slovenly, and dangerous to the sanctity of American values. It was tremendously successful, eventually seen by 25 million Americans. But violent protests against the film flared up across the country. Almost fifty years earlier, Monroe''s father, James, was a sergeant in an all-black Union regiment that marched into Charleston, South Carolina, just as the Kentucky cavalry-including Roaring Jack Griffith, D. W.''s father-fled for their lives. Monroe Trotter''s titanic crusade to have the film censored became a blueprint for dissent during the 1950s and 1960s. This is the fiery story of a revolutionary moment for mass media and the nascent civil rights movement, and the men clashing over the cultural and political soul of a still-young America standing at the cusp of its greatest days.

James „Whitey” Bulger egy befolyásos politikus öccse, pályáját uzsorásként és bukmékerként kezdte, majd tíz évig az Alcatrazban raboskodott. Amikor az 1970-es évek közepén a La Cosa Nostra megpróbálta kiszorítani a bandáját a városból, John Connolly, az FBI feltörekvő tisztje ördögi alkut ajánlott a kisstílű gengszternek: védelemért cserébe szolgáltasson információt az olasz maffiáról. A konkurencia kiiktatása után Whitey az ír maffia könyörtelen vezetőjévé vált és átvette az uralmat Boston felett, ám Connollyval és az FBI-jal kötött alkuja kontrollálhatatlanná vált, és az Egyesült Államok legnagyobb informátori botrányába torkollott. Whitey Bulger tizenhat éven keresztül bujkált, Oszáma bin Láden után az FBI második legkeresettebb bűnözője volt, végül 2011-ben fogták el. 2013 óta életfogytiglani büntetését tölti zsarolás, pénzmosás, uzsora és 11 rendbeli gyilkosság miatt. Az igaz történeten alapuló könyv egy pszichopata bűnöző felemelkedésének és bukásának krónikája, a szerzők, Dick Lehr és Gerard O’Neill egykori újságírók a kezdetektől fogva nyomoztak az ügyben. A könyvből 2015-ben film készült Johnny Depp főszereplésével.

Le livre qui a inspiré le film EVENEMENT de la rentrée, BLACK MASS, avec Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon, et Dakota Jonhson ! La véritable histoire de Whitey Bulger, le criminel le plus violent de l''histoire de Boston, qui est devenu un informateur du FBI pour détruire une famille Mafia qui menaçait son territoire. Whitey Bulger, le chef du gangs Winter Hill, auteur de 19 meurtres a été arrêté le 22 Juin 2011, après une chasse à l''homme de 16 ans, il avait 81 ans. Mais Black Mass, c''est l''histoire d''une amitié entre deux gosses perdus des quartiers défavorisés de Boston, John Connoly et James « Whitey » Bulger, tous deux d''origine irlandaise. Connoly est devenu flic, Bulger voyou. Après une peine purgée à Alcatraz pour vol de 1956 à 1959, Whitey Bulger va mettre Boston à sa botte en exécutant tous ceux qui se dressent sur son passage et devenir le parrain incontesté de Boston. Bulger va alors passer un pacte avec son copain Connoly, il donne des infos au FBI sur gangs rivaux en échange de sa tranquilité. Mais avec le temps, la ligne de partage entre le bien et le mal va devenir floue et la criminalité ne cessera d''augmenter à Boston ville du trafic de drogue, du racket et du meurtre. La ville est devenue un lieu où les bons étaient méchants et les méchants étaient des cauchemars. Prévenu par Conoly que les Fédéraux vont l''arrêter, Whitey Bulger entame une cavale avec sa compagne qui va durer 16 ans. En novembre 2013, il est condamné à la prison à vie. C''est lui qui a inspiré le personnage incarné par Jack Nicholson dans le film Les Infiltrés de Martin Scorsese. La sortie du film BLACK MASS est prévue en octobre 2015.