Recent Book: Edward Gein: America's Most Bizarre Murderer
| Published date | 01 October 1982 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X8205500428 |
| Author | Daniel P. King |
| Date | 01 October 1982 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
the National Gendarmerie Intervention
Group (GIGN) which consists of 54 men
in three squads, one of which is at
immediate readiness at
anyone
time.
This squad can be on the move within 30
minutes, the other squads following
within two hours. The big difference
between the GIGN and the GSG9 and the
S.A.S. is that GIGN is regularly used for
dealing with armed criminals, not just
terrorists. They claim to have conducted
84 actions, on average of 14 a year,
liberating 212 hostages and making 63
arrests. As a result the number of hostage
takings has fallen from 18-20 per year in
1973-74 to 3 or 4 per year now. This
should keep them in practice.
Despite the horrific scale of terrorist
attacks in Italy, 2,359 in 1978 coupled
with a huge rate of crime including over
70kidnaps for ransom, it took the kidnap
and murder early that year of their most
distinguished stateman, Aldo Moro, to
jerk the Italian Government into proper
coordination of their three police forces
and
the
enactment
of
adequate
emergency laws to tackle the problem.
Since then there have been numerous
arrests and the number of incidents have
been halved. It is no less surprising that,
in Spain, the Government did not train
an effective Special Operations Group
(GEO) until
1981
but here too there has
been progress since then.
Police officers will find it extremely
valuable to compare the organization
and techniques of the various anti-
terrorist forces and of the governmental
structures and laws under which they
operate. There is ample data, reinforced
by
accounts
of
successful
and
unsuccessful operations, from which to
study the relative merits of a purely
police anti-terrorist squad, or a purely
military one (like the S.A.S.) or a "third
force" between the two, as in Germany.
The book is packed with well researched
facts and is written in a clear and direct
style and it is very well worth owning a
copy at £3.95. One day your telephone
may ring and you will be thankful to be
able to reach for it to refresh your
memory on a parallel situation. It is that
kind of book. Richard Clutterbuck
EDWARD
GRIEW: The Theft Acts 1968 and 1978. 4th Edition.
London: Sweet &Maxwell. £9.50.
This book is becoming a standard text
for all persons involved with the
intricacies of the law relating to theft and
kindred offences. The
layout
of the
relevant sections in the same order as
those in the Acts is both helpful and time
saving, and the inclusion of the text of
both Acts in the Appendices is a handy
ready reference.
It is easy to read, giving the right
balance between the history of larceny,
comments made by the Criminal Law
Revision Committee, discussion of the
Theft Act and relevant cases; and the
comments on particular decisions,
including the noted arguments of other
respected commentators. The abundance
of examples of individual offences and
explanations serve as an excellent guide
to police officers involved in the
investigation
and
prosecution
of
offences. T.D.
ROBERT H. GOLLMAR: Edward Gein: America's Most Bizarre Murderer.
Delavan, Wisconsin: Chas. Hallberg &Co., 1981.236 pp. $9.95.
As a youngster growing up in Wisconsin,
I still recall, vividly, reading the
sensational newspaper accounts of the
arrest of the ghoulish killer in that rural
Wisconsin community in 1957. The
papers headlined the unspeakable
horrors found in that old, lonely
farmhouse in Plainfield.
Edward Gein had grown up in
Plainfield - a village of some 700
persons - and had lived alone in the old
October 1982
house without electricity since his
mother's death in 1945. He was regarded
as somewhat of a loner, a little bit ofan
oddity who had laughingly admitted that
he'd
been
responsible
for
the
'disappearance of many women in the
area over the years.
But no one took seriously the frivolous
gossip surrounding the recluse who was
regarded by his neighbours as a
trustworthy babysitter for their children
399
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