Author: Jack Teich
Publisher: Bombardier Books
ISBN: 1642935247
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 179
Book Description
The New York Times described what happened to New York businessman Jack Teich as a “front page horror.” Two hundred FBI agents and Nassau County police officers combined forces to form a dragnet, hunt for his kidnappers, and rescue him. Teich lay handcuffed and chained to the walls of a closet in the Bronx with a medical bandage wrapped around his head to cover his eyes. His captors demanded that his wife, Janet, drop a bag with $750,000 (the equivalent of four million dollars in today’s currency) in a locker at Penn Station, making the Jack Teich ransom one of the highest in U.S. history at the time. FBI and Nassau County police detectives spent over a year before finally uncovering the meticulously planned kidnapping ploy hatched by radical mastermind Richard Warren Williams. The FBI internally dubbed the Jack Teich kidnapping operation “Jacknap.” The real-life crime drama that followed proved stranger than fiction, involving a tense across-the-country manhunt, a trailer in California stuffed with tens of thousands of ransom dollars hidden inside, a contentious jury trial that dominated NYC headlines for months; a guilty verdict that was overturned twenty-one years later on a controversial technicality; a retrial stymied by a mysterious fire that incinerated court records; and a civil verdict ruling that the kidnapper pay Jack Teich back the ransom money, plus interest. Operation Jacknap tells the incredible true crime story that continues even now. Indeed, as of this writing, no one knows where the majority of the ransom money is located. Inside, Teich also details his offer of a reward to anyone helping track down the still missing money and kidnappers.
Operation Jacknap
Author: Jack Teich
Publisher: Bombardier Books
ISBN: 1642935247
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 179
Book Description
The New York Times described what happened to New York businessman Jack Teich as a “front page horror.” Two hundred FBI agents and Nassau County police officers combined forces to form a dragnet, hunt for his kidnappers, and rescue him. Teich lay handcuffed and chained to the walls of a closet in the Bronx with a medical bandage wrapped around his head to cover his eyes. His captors demanded that his wife, Janet, drop a bag with $750,000 (the equivalent of four million dollars in today’s currency) in a locker at Penn Station, making the Jack Teich ransom one of the highest in U.S. history at the time. FBI and Nassau County police detectives spent over a year before finally uncovering the meticulously planned kidnapping ploy hatched by radical mastermind Richard Warren Williams. The FBI internally dubbed the Jack Teich kidnapping operation “Jacknap.” The real-life crime drama that followed proved stranger than fiction, involving a tense across-the-country manhunt, a trailer in California stuffed with tens of thousands of ransom dollars hidden inside, a contentious jury trial that dominated NYC headlines for months; a guilty verdict that was overturned twenty-one years later on a controversial technicality; a retrial stymied by a mysterious fire that incinerated court records; and a civil verdict ruling that the kidnapper pay Jack Teich back the ransom money, plus interest. Operation Jacknap tells the incredible true crime story that continues even now. Indeed, as of this writing, no one knows where the majority of the ransom money is located. Inside, Teich also details his offer of a reward to anyone helping track down the still missing money and kidnappers.
Publisher: Bombardier Books
ISBN: 1642935247
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 179
Book Description
The New York Times described what happened to New York businessman Jack Teich as a “front page horror.” Two hundred FBI agents and Nassau County police officers combined forces to form a dragnet, hunt for his kidnappers, and rescue him. Teich lay handcuffed and chained to the walls of a closet in the Bronx with a medical bandage wrapped around his head to cover his eyes. His captors demanded that his wife, Janet, drop a bag with $750,000 (the equivalent of four million dollars in today’s currency) in a locker at Penn Station, making the Jack Teich ransom one of the highest in U.S. history at the time. FBI and Nassau County police detectives spent over a year before finally uncovering the meticulously planned kidnapping ploy hatched by radical mastermind Richard Warren Williams. The FBI internally dubbed the Jack Teich kidnapping operation “Jacknap.” The real-life crime drama that followed proved stranger than fiction, involving a tense across-the-country manhunt, a trailer in California stuffed with tens of thousands of ransom dollars hidden inside, a contentious jury trial that dominated NYC headlines for months; a guilty verdict that was overturned twenty-one years later on a controversial technicality; a retrial stymied by a mysterious fire that incinerated court records; and a civil verdict ruling that the kidnapper pay Jack Teich back the ransom money, plus interest. Operation Jacknap tells the incredible true crime story that continues even now. Indeed, as of this writing, no one knows where the majority of the ransom money is located. Inside, Teich also details his offer of a reward to anyone helping track down the still missing money and kidnappers.
Long Island Compromise
Author: Taffy Brodesser-Akner
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0593133501
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 473
Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An exhilarating novel about one American family and the dark moment that shatters their suburban paradise, from the New York Times bestselling author of Fleishman Is in Trouble New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • New York Magazine’s Beach Read Book Club Pick • Belletrist Book Club Pick • A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year “Joins the pantheon of great American novels.”—Los Angeles Times “Exuberant and absorbing . . . a big old-fashioned social novel.”—The Atlantic “Were we gangsters? No. But did we know how to start a fire?” In 1980, a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway, brutalized, and held for ransom. He is returned to his wife and kids less than a week later, only slightly the worse, and the family moves on with their lives, resuming their prized places in the saga of the American dream, comforted in the realization that though their money may have been what endangered them, it is also what assured them their safety. But now, nearly forty years later, it’s clear that perhaps nobody ever got over anything, after all. Carl has spent the ensuing years secretly seeking closure to the matter of his kidnapping, while his wife, Ruth, has spent her potential protecting her husband’s emotional health. Their three grown children aren’t doing much better: Nathan’s chronic fear won’t allow him to advance at his law firm; Beamer, a Hollywood screenwriter, will consume anything—substance, foodstuff, women—in order to numb his own perpetual terror; and Jenny has spent her life so bent on proving that she’s not a product of her family’s pathology that she has come to define it. As they hover at the delicate precipice of a different kind of survival, they learn that the family fortune has dwindled to just about nothing, and they must face desperate questions about how much their wealth has played a part in both their lives’ successes and failures. Long Island Compromise spans the entirety of one family’s history, winding through decades and generations, all the way to the outrageous present, and confronting the mainstays of American Jewish life: tradition, the pursuit of success, the terror of history, fear of the future, old wives’ tales, evil eyes, ambition, achievement, boredom, dybbuks, inheritance, pyramid schemes, right-wing capitalists, beta-blockers, psychics, and the mostly unspoken love and shared experience that unite a family forever.
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0593133501
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 473
Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An exhilarating novel about one American family and the dark moment that shatters their suburban paradise, from the New York Times bestselling author of Fleishman Is in Trouble New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • New York Magazine’s Beach Read Book Club Pick • Belletrist Book Club Pick • A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year “Joins the pantheon of great American novels.”—Los Angeles Times “Exuberant and absorbing . . . a big old-fashioned social novel.”—The Atlantic “Were we gangsters? No. But did we know how to start a fire?” In 1980, a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway, brutalized, and held for ransom. He is returned to his wife and kids less than a week later, only slightly the worse, and the family moves on with their lives, resuming their prized places in the saga of the American dream, comforted in the realization that though their money may have been what endangered them, it is also what assured them their safety. But now, nearly forty years later, it’s clear that perhaps nobody ever got over anything, after all. Carl has spent the ensuing years secretly seeking closure to the matter of his kidnapping, while his wife, Ruth, has spent her potential protecting her husband’s emotional health. Their three grown children aren’t doing much better: Nathan’s chronic fear won’t allow him to advance at his law firm; Beamer, a Hollywood screenwriter, will consume anything—substance, foodstuff, women—in order to numb his own perpetual terror; and Jenny has spent her life so bent on proving that she’s not a product of her family’s pathology that she has come to define it. As they hover at the delicate precipice of a different kind of survival, they learn that the family fortune has dwindled to just about nothing, and they must face desperate questions about how much their wealth has played a part in both their lives’ successes and failures. Long Island Compromise spans the entirety of one family’s history, winding through decades and generations, all the way to the outrageous present, and confronting the mainstays of American Jewish life: tradition, the pursuit of success, the terror of history, fear of the future, old wives’ tales, evil eyes, ambition, achievement, boredom, dybbuks, inheritance, pyramid schemes, right-wing capitalists, beta-blockers, psychics, and the mostly unspoken love and shared experience that unite a family forever.
Mule
Author: C. A. Heifner
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0762787104
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 275
Book Description
Meet Chris Heifner, overachieving drug runner for a Mexican marijuana cartel. But he wasn’t always. This one-time econ student from Texas—broke, deep in debt, and facing eviction with a growing family to support—yielded to the temptation that he had resisted countless times before and went to work for his best friend from college, Jake Andes. But it wasn’t exactly a Career Day kind of job. Andes was a big-time dealer, captaining a $25-million-a-year empire. Heifner became a mule, running multi-hundred-pound loads from Juárez around the country. After digging himself out of his financial hole, Heifner contemplated going clean. But the money and the lifestyle had hooked him, so he kept moving loads. He was so good that Andes was grooming him to become his second-in-command. And then Heifner got busted with $300,000 worth of dope in a rental car, and his world came crashing down. After bailing out of jail, Heifner went home for a much-needed shower. He emerged to find Andes and a hit man hired to kill him and his family should he decide to narc. Heifner realized that he had only one option: to flip and become an informant for the DEA. That’s when life got really dangerous.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0762787104
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 275
Book Description
Meet Chris Heifner, overachieving drug runner for a Mexican marijuana cartel. But he wasn’t always. This one-time econ student from Texas—broke, deep in debt, and facing eviction with a growing family to support—yielded to the temptation that he had resisted countless times before and went to work for his best friend from college, Jake Andes. But it wasn’t exactly a Career Day kind of job. Andes was a big-time dealer, captaining a $25-million-a-year empire. Heifner became a mule, running multi-hundred-pound loads from Juárez around the country. After digging himself out of his financial hole, Heifner contemplated going clean. But the money and the lifestyle had hooked him, so he kept moving loads. He was so good that Andes was grooming him to become his second-in-command. And then Heifner got busted with $300,000 worth of dope in a rental car, and his world came crashing down. After bailing out of jail, Heifner went home for a much-needed shower. He emerged to find Andes and a hit man hired to kill him and his family should he decide to narc. Heifner realized that he had only one option: to flip and become an informant for the DEA. That’s when life got really dangerous.
The Shooting of Nancy Howard
Author: Alice Mathews
Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing
ISBN: 1457554607
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 148
Book Description
Nancy Howard’s story combines love, betrayal, conspiracy, suffering, and survival with a cast of improbable characters: a respected church-going husband and his mistress, a group of unsavory criminals, and a millionaire businessman. The story opens with Nancy’s returning home from a church function on a Saturday night in 2012, and pulling into her garage. As she walks toward the door to her house, she suddenly faces an attacker who demands her purse and then shoots her in the head. Investigation of the shooting first reveals that Nancy’s husband, Frank, has been having a three-year affair. A few days later, detectives uncover links between her CPA husband and an unsavory criminal in East Texas, Billie Earl Johnson. The story becomes increasingly bizarre as evidence surfaces of a murder-for-hire conspiracy between Billie and Frank, known to Billie only by his first name, John.
Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing
ISBN: 1457554607
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 148
Book Description
Nancy Howard’s story combines love, betrayal, conspiracy, suffering, and survival with a cast of improbable characters: a respected church-going husband and his mistress, a group of unsavory criminals, and a millionaire businessman. The story opens with Nancy’s returning home from a church function on a Saturday night in 2012, and pulling into her garage. As she walks toward the door to her house, she suddenly faces an attacker who demands her purse and then shoots her in the head. Investigation of the shooting first reveals that Nancy’s husband, Frank, has been having a three-year affair. A few days later, detectives uncover links between her CPA husband and an unsavory criminal in East Texas, Billie Earl Johnson. The story becomes increasingly bizarre as evidence surfaces of a murder-for-hire conspiracy between Billie and Frank, known to Billie only by his first name, John.
It's Better to Be Feared: The New England Patriots Dynasty and the Pursuit of Greatness
Author: Seth Wickersham
Publisher: Liveright Publishing
ISBN: 163149824X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 457
Book Description
NOW WITH A NEW EPILOGUE ON THE 2021 SEASON AND TOM BRADY’S BRIEF RETIREMENT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER SPORTS ILLUSTRATED • NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR National Sports Media Association • Book of the Year Kirkus Reviews • Best Nonfiction of the Year “Seth Wickersham has managed to do the impossible: he has pulled off the definitive document of the Belichick/Brady dynasty.” —Bill Simmons, The Ringer The explosive, long-awaited account of the making of the greatest dynasty in football history—from the acclaimed ESPN reporter who has been there from the very beginning. Over two unbelievable decades, the New England Patriots were not only the NFL’s most dominant team, but also—and by far—the most secretive. How did they achieve and sustain greatness—and what were the costs? In It's Better to Be Feared, Seth Wickersham, one of the country’s finest long form and investigative sportswriters, tells the full, behind-the-scenes story of the Patriots, capturing the brilliance, ambition, and vanity that powered and ultimately unraveled them. Based on hundreds of interviews conducted since 2001, Wickersham’s chronicle is packed with revelations, taking us deep into Bill Belichick’s tactical ingenuity and Tom Brady’s unique mentality while also reporting on their divergent paths in 2020, including Brady’s run to the Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Raucous, unvarnished, and definitive, It’s Better to Be Feared is an instant classic of American sportswriting in the tradition of Michael Lewis, David Maraniss, and David Halberstam.
Publisher: Liveright Publishing
ISBN: 163149824X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 457
Book Description
NOW WITH A NEW EPILOGUE ON THE 2021 SEASON AND TOM BRADY’S BRIEF RETIREMENT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER SPORTS ILLUSTRATED • NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR National Sports Media Association • Book of the Year Kirkus Reviews • Best Nonfiction of the Year “Seth Wickersham has managed to do the impossible: he has pulled off the definitive document of the Belichick/Brady dynasty.” —Bill Simmons, The Ringer The explosive, long-awaited account of the making of the greatest dynasty in football history—from the acclaimed ESPN reporter who has been there from the very beginning. Over two unbelievable decades, the New England Patriots were not only the NFL’s most dominant team, but also—and by far—the most secretive. How did they achieve and sustain greatness—and what were the costs? In It's Better to Be Feared, Seth Wickersham, one of the country’s finest long form and investigative sportswriters, tells the full, behind-the-scenes story of the Patriots, capturing the brilliance, ambition, and vanity that powered and ultimately unraveled them. Based on hundreds of interviews conducted since 2001, Wickersham’s chronicle is packed with revelations, taking us deep into Bill Belichick’s tactical ingenuity and Tom Brady’s unique mentality while also reporting on their divergent paths in 2020, including Brady’s run to the Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Raucous, unvarnished, and definitive, It’s Better to Be Feared is an instant classic of American sportswriting in the tradition of Michael Lewis, David Maraniss, and David Halberstam.
The Kidnap Years
Author: David Stout
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
ISBN: 1492694800
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 489
Book Description
A chilling true crime book that chronicles the wave of abductions that terrorized the U.S. during the Great Depression, including the most infamous kidnapping case in American history. "A thrilling account that puts the 1932 Lindbergh baby kidnapping case, billed as "the crime of the century," in the context of the thousands of other kidnappings that occurred in the U.S. during the Prohibition and Depression eras...will enthrall true crime fans."—Publishers Weekly, STARRED review The Great Depression was a time of desperation in America—parents struggled to feed their children and unemployment was at a record high. Adding to the lawlessness of the decade, thugs with submachine guns and corrupt law-enforcement officers ran rampant. But amidst this panic, there was one sure-fire way to make money, one used by criminals and resourceful civilians alike: kidnapping. Jump into this forgotten history with Edgar Award-winning author David Stout as he explores the reports of missing people that inundated newspapers at the time. Learn the horrifying details of these abduction cases, from the methods used and the investigative processes to the personal histories of the culprits and victims. All of this culminates with the most infamous kidnapping in American history, the one that targeted an international celebrity and changed legislation forever: the Lindbergh kidnapping. The Kidnap Years is a gritty, visceral, thoughtfully reported page-turner that chronicles the sweep of abductions that afflicted all corners of the country as desperate people were pushed to do the unthinkable. "A fascinating crime book like no other."—David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
ISBN: 1492694800
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 489
Book Description
A chilling true crime book that chronicles the wave of abductions that terrorized the U.S. during the Great Depression, including the most infamous kidnapping case in American history. "A thrilling account that puts the 1932 Lindbergh baby kidnapping case, billed as "the crime of the century," in the context of the thousands of other kidnappings that occurred in the U.S. during the Prohibition and Depression eras...will enthrall true crime fans."—Publishers Weekly, STARRED review The Great Depression was a time of desperation in America—parents struggled to feed their children and unemployment was at a record high. Adding to the lawlessness of the decade, thugs with submachine guns and corrupt law-enforcement officers ran rampant. But amidst this panic, there was one sure-fire way to make money, one used by criminals and resourceful civilians alike: kidnapping. Jump into this forgotten history with Edgar Award-winning author David Stout as he explores the reports of missing people that inundated newspapers at the time. Learn the horrifying details of these abduction cases, from the methods used and the investigative processes to the personal histories of the culprits and victims. All of this culminates with the most infamous kidnapping in American history, the one that targeted an international celebrity and changed legislation forever: the Lindbergh kidnapping. The Kidnap Years is a gritty, visceral, thoughtfully reported page-turner that chronicles the sweep of abductions that afflicted all corners of the country as desperate people were pushed to do the unthinkable. "A fascinating crime book like no other."—David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Unholy Trinity
Author: Denis Ryan
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 1743314027
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 295
Book Description
Australian.
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 1743314027
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 295
Book Description
Australian.
Hunt for the 60s' Ripper
Author: Robin Jarossi
Publisher: Mirror Books
ISBN: 9781907324659
Category : London (England)
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, and The Who were all performing in the Queensway and Shepherd's Bush areas of London in 1964-65, but in those same areas during the early hours a meticulous serial killer was stalking local prostitutes, dumping their naked bodies on the streets. While London was famed for its trendy boutiques, groundbreaking movies, and its Carnaby Street vibe, the reality included a huge street prostitution scene, a violent world that filled the magistrate's courts but rarely made headlines. Seven, possibly eight, women fell victim--making this killer more prolific than Jack the Ripper, 77 years previously. His grim spree sparked the biggest police manhunt in history. But why did such a massive hunt fail? And why has such a traumatic case been largely forgotten today? With shocking conclusions, one detective makes the astonishing new claim that all the original evidence from the crime scenes has been destroyed. Using secret police papers, crime reconstructions, and interviews with contemporary police experts along with insights from the world's leading geographical profiler, Hunt for the 60's Ripper revisits this chilling case. What do modern experts say about the case today? And why did the leading detective, John du Rose, claim to know all along who the killer was? With links to figures from the vicious world of the Kray twins and the Profumo Affair, the case exposes the depraved underbelly of British society in the Swinging Sixties. An evocative and thought-provoking reinvestigation into perhaps the most shocking unsolved mass murder in modern British history.
Publisher: Mirror Books
ISBN: 9781907324659
Category : London (England)
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, and The Who were all performing in the Queensway and Shepherd's Bush areas of London in 1964-65, but in those same areas during the early hours a meticulous serial killer was stalking local prostitutes, dumping their naked bodies on the streets. While London was famed for its trendy boutiques, groundbreaking movies, and its Carnaby Street vibe, the reality included a huge street prostitution scene, a violent world that filled the magistrate's courts but rarely made headlines. Seven, possibly eight, women fell victim--making this killer more prolific than Jack the Ripper, 77 years previously. His grim spree sparked the biggest police manhunt in history. But why did such a massive hunt fail? And why has such a traumatic case been largely forgotten today? With shocking conclusions, one detective makes the astonishing new claim that all the original evidence from the crime scenes has been destroyed. Using secret police papers, crime reconstructions, and interviews with contemporary police experts along with insights from the world's leading geographical profiler, Hunt for the 60's Ripper revisits this chilling case. What do modern experts say about the case today? And why did the leading detective, John du Rose, claim to know all along who the killer was? With links to figures from the vicious world of the Kray twins and the Profumo Affair, the case exposes the depraved underbelly of British society in the Swinging Sixties. An evocative and thought-provoking reinvestigation into perhaps the most shocking unsolved mass murder in modern British history.
Black Dragon Red Sun
Author: R. Sanchez
Publisher: BookRix
ISBN: 3730916149
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 212
Book Description
Complete organized chaos for the new guys would begin as we landed in Vietnam. Organized chaos, seemed like a contradiction in terms, but after a few weeks in Vietnam, it seemed plausible. We would be organized militarily, but we would have to break the bad habit, of trying to fight a conventional war in a guerrilla warfare environment. Returning Vietnam Combat Veterans, on subsequent tours, would fall into the routine in a matter of days. For the FNG’s (Fricking New Guys), we would get one chance to adapt, if not we would die.
Publisher: BookRix
ISBN: 3730916149
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 212
Book Description
Complete organized chaos for the new guys would begin as we landed in Vietnam. Organized chaos, seemed like a contradiction in terms, but after a few weeks in Vietnam, it seemed plausible. We would be organized militarily, but we would have to break the bad habit, of trying to fight a conventional war in a guerrilla warfare environment. Returning Vietnam Combat Veterans, on subsequent tours, would fall into the routine in a matter of days. For the FNG’s (Fricking New Guys), we would get one chance to adapt, if not we would die.
From Miniskirt to Hijab
Author: Jacqueline Saper
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1640122427
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
Jacqueline Saper, named after Jacqueline Kennedy, was born in Tehran to Iranian and British parents. At eighteen she witnessed the civil unrest of the 1979 Iranian revolution and continued to live in the Islamic Republic during its most volatile times, including the Iran-Iraq War. In a deeply intimate and personal story, Saper recounts her privileged childhood in prerevolutionary Iran and how she gradually became aware of the paradoxes in her life and community--primarily the disparate religions and cultures. In 1979 under the Ayatollah regime, Iran became increasingly unfamiliar and hostile to Saper. Seemingly overnight she went from living a carefree life of wearing miniskirts and attending high school to listening to fanatic diatribes, forced to wear the hijab, and hiding in the basement as Iraqi bombs fell over the city. She eventually fled to the United States in 1987 with her husband and children after, in part, witnessing her six-year-old daughter's indoctrination into radical Islamic politics at school. At the heart of Saper's story is a harrowing and instructive tale of how extremist ideologies seized a Westernized, affluent country and transformed it into a fundamentalist Islamic society.
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1640122427
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
Jacqueline Saper, named after Jacqueline Kennedy, was born in Tehran to Iranian and British parents. At eighteen she witnessed the civil unrest of the 1979 Iranian revolution and continued to live in the Islamic Republic during its most volatile times, including the Iran-Iraq War. In a deeply intimate and personal story, Saper recounts her privileged childhood in prerevolutionary Iran and how she gradually became aware of the paradoxes in her life and community--primarily the disparate religions and cultures. In 1979 under the Ayatollah regime, Iran became increasingly unfamiliar and hostile to Saper. Seemingly overnight she went from living a carefree life of wearing miniskirts and attending high school to listening to fanatic diatribes, forced to wear the hijab, and hiding in the basement as Iraqi bombs fell over the city. She eventually fled to the United States in 1987 with her husband and children after, in part, witnessing her six-year-old daughter's indoctrination into radical Islamic politics at school. At the heart of Saper's story is a harrowing and instructive tale of how extremist ideologies seized a Westernized, affluent country and transformed it into a fundamentalist Islamic society.