France On Trial: The Case of Marshall Petain, Jackson - B

                      During his wartime speeches, de Gaulle referred to Petain as 'le Pere la Defaite' - Father of Defeat. A trial was promised, and it ran in Paris from July 23 to August 15, 1945.  Petain was tried for treason, described in the French penal Code as 'collusion with the enemy.'  A contemporary observer wrote - " Petain will remain a tragic figure, caught between treason and sacrifice...A trial like this one is never over and will never end."

                     Because of his heroic service in WWI, the 84 year old Marshal was "viewed as a savior" when he took over the Vichy regime in 1940. Over the course of the four years he was head of state, he was continually undermined by the Germans. Even after his position was emasculated, he opted to stay on. He was essentially under house arrest for the last months before the Germans took him east in August, 1944. In April of the following year, the government announced it would begin an in absentia trial of Petain. Two days later, he "presented himself at the Franco-Swiss border so that he could answer to the French people in person." During the interrogation phase prior to the trial, it became obvious to his lawyers that the 89 year old, although a remarkable physical specimen, was approaching senility. 

                      His trial was conducted by 3 judges before 24 jurors. Petain read a statement into the record defending his actions as being in the best interest of saving France for the future. He had very little to say thereafter. The case began with the events before and after June 12, 1940 when Petain, a member of theFrench  government, stated they should accept an armistice.  Were the Marshal's actions treasonous? After a week, it was evident that the prosecution had not proved that Petain had plotted a government takeover. He advocated for peace and accepted his new role.  The defense called Maxime Weygand, the general who was made the chief of staff just before the armistice. He castigated the government for placing him and Petain in untenable positions. The politicians had mismanaged the war,  put them on the spot, and were now accusing them of treason.  Pierre Laval, former premier, the number two throughout Vichy's course and generally considered the man behind the regime's excesses took the stand. Over two days, his essential message was that Petain approved of, and knew of, Laval's actions. Each side made lengthy closing arguments. The jurors voted for treason, but requested that the automatic death penalty not be carried out. DeGaulle immediately commuted the sentence to life imprisonment.

                      He was imprisoned in a two room cell on a tiny island 20 miles off the Brittany coast. By 1949, his memory was fleeting at best. He died in 1951 and was buried on the island. Throughout the country, a Petainist movement garnered support. When the 50th anniversary of Verdun approached, there was movement toward allowing the remains of 'The Hero of Verdun' to be laid to rest with his colleagues. DeGaulle declined to approve it. Decades later, in the 1990's, Jacques Chirac apologized for France's role in the deportation of its Jews, thus changing the post-war focus from the fighters to the victims. Nonetheless, the polls showed that 60% of the populace supported the armistice, and only 20% disapproved of Petain. Today, the schools from which Jewish children were deported have plaques saying they were "innocent victims of Nazi barbarism and the government of Vichy."  Vichy supporters respond that France's Jews survived at a higher percentage than any other occupied country. As it has been eight decades now, the issue is fading, but as mentioned in the first paragraph:  "this one is never over and will never end."

                      

The Devil's Playground, Russell - B+

                      This fabulous novel is set in 1927 Hollywood, and somewhere in the California desert forty years later. Mary Rourke is a fixer for Carbine Studios and is called to the house of Norma Carlton, the studio's most important actress and star of 'The Devil's Playground.' Norma is dead, and Mary begins the process of cleansing the scene, bribing the cops, and hustling the body away. Having your star kill herself is bad for business. Later, Mary realizes Norma was murdered but now it's too late to call the police. The studio head asks her to look into the mess. The studio returns to finishing 'The Devil's Playground,' an epic horror movie set in medieval France. As Rourke delves into the investigation, her sights set on Norma's co-star, Robert Huston and his wife, Veronica Stratton. They do not appear to live as husband and wife, and may be two runaways from the deep South with a sordid and violent history. People around them seem to keep dying. The final scene of 'The Devil's Playground' is the burning of the city, and it goes terribly awry, killing innocent extras and burning more than planned.  A few weeks later, Veronica Stratton and the rest of the conspirators kill the studio chief, burn all but one copy of the film, and disappear.

                     Four decades later, a film professor drives to the desert because his research leads him to believe that the only surviving copy of the legendary film may be at the studio's long abandoned hotel. He is met by an older woman, still uniquely beautiful, who invites him in and shows him the film. It is the masterpiece it has always been rumored to be.  However, even decades later, it has a sinister outcome.

                     It is difficult to write up a narrative for books that move back and forth to different eras. This book, however, is near perfect with a few plotting flaws at the end, and better than my post implies. I recommend it for the thriller aficionados.

The Exchange, Grisham - C+

                      For my money, the two most memorable characters Grisham has created are Jake Brigance from 'A Time To Kill' and Mitch McDeere from 'The Firm.' This is undoubtedly due to the charismatic renderings in the books, and the charming young actors, McConaughey and Cruise respectively, who portrayed them in the movies. Jake has had three books. This is Mitch's second, and oh what a crushing disappointment. It is to the best of my recollection Grisham's first thriller overseas. By moving the focus to Libya and featuring a kidnapping, none of the author's brilliant plotting and suspense is present. Indeed, we wait and wait for the kidnappers to raise their hands. When they do, they ask for $100M for an associate from Mitch's firm, NY based, and the largest in the world. Mitch and a few others race around the world trying to raise the funds. Unfortunately for the McDeere's, the kidnappers choose Mitch's wife, Abby, as the go-between. The money is raised, the hostage freed, and Mitch so disillusioned by his firm that he quits. I'm not sure it would rate as a thriller. It certainly flops as a legal thriller.

Clarence Darrow: Attorney for The Damned, Farrell - B

                      At the age of thirty-six in 1893, Darrow found himself at the pinnacle of success as the number two lawyer for the Chicago & North Western Railway Company. He was making a good living but felt unfulfilled working for the great businesses of the Gilded Age. His heart was with America's underdogs. When his boss died suddenly in April, he opted to go to work for the mayor of Chicago, Carter Harrison. "The great theme of Darrow's life, the long war he fought in his march through courtrooms and cases, was the defense of individual liberty from modernity's relentless, crushing, impersonal forces."

                     He was born in northeast Ohio on April 18, 1857. His father was a brilliant, widely-read man of liberal tendencies who made a  modest living as a furniture maker. The growth of the country during Darrow's boyhood produced "huge extremes of poverty and wealth." From his father, he learned "to question rather than accept."  He spent a year in Ann Arbor at law school, and began clerking in Youngstown, Ohio. He passed the bar, practiced in his hometown of Kinsman and married Jessie Ohl.  In 1887, they moved to Chicago, then described as "a mining camp five stories high." His legendary oratorical skills soon attracted admiration, fans, and clients. His political involvement led to an appointment as the city's special assessment attorney. He started a law practice in the Rookery Building with three former judges. 

                  On the last day of the Columbian Expedition, Patrick Prendergast assassinated Mayor Harrison. Prendergast was convicted and sentenced to death.  Darrow took his case and obtained a retrial. After five hour closing statement regarding the man's insanity, Prendergast was again convicted, and was soon executed. It was his "first big criminal case. And he lost the mad newsboy to the hangman's rope."

                When the Panic of 1893 led to the Pullman Company cutting wages, the American Railway Union, led by Eugene Debs, went on strike.  Violence ensued in  Chicago and Debs was arrested. Darrow became his lawyer. Debs was cited with contempt for failing to follow an injunction prohibiting the strike, convicted, and imprisoned. Additionally, the federal government pursued a criminal case for obstructing the mails. The case was so weak and Darrow's arguments so convincing that the US withdrew the complaint. Debs emerged a hero.

                 Darrow was unique for his times. He did not believe in religion. Indeed, he developed a deep distaste for presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan because of the latter's focus on the scriptures. Of equal importance, he was an inveterate womanizer who preached the gospel of free love. He divorced his wife of seventeen years and carried on endlessly with innumerable younger women.  Politically, he described himself as a "reformer, a Democrat, a philosophical anarchist, a socialist, a populist, or a progressive."

                One of Darrow's great skills was his ability to use his courtroom tactics to play to the press and public opinion. In 1902, Teddy Roosevelt intervened on behalf of the United Mine Workers to compel a commission to resolve issues between the strikers and the mine owners. Before a seven man commission in Scranton, Darrow paraded disabled men, children and women to such an extent that there were regular tears in the hearing room. Although the miners did not achieve all of their goals, their success before the commission was considered a major breakthrough for union rights. Darrow was now the country's leading labor lawyer.

               In 1903, he married Ruby Hamerstrom.  Although honoring his marriage vows was not part of the understanding, the marriage was a successful one. His next great battle was in Idaho. "The violent struggle between capital and laboring industrial age America reached a climax out west." From 1906-1913, he spent a considerable amount of time there, and won a number of cases. In Caldwell, Idaho, the former Gov. Steunenberg was blown to smithereens by a miner named Frank Orchard. The Pinkerton's, charged with investigating the murder, intended "to dismember the union..." When Orchard was told he would not be hung, indeed he might even be set free, he implicated the union's management in every crime throughout the west that he could think of. After three leaders of the Western Federation of Miners were kidnapped in Colorado and taken to Idaho, the union retained Darrow. The trial of the union leader Big Bill Haywood, with Orchard was the leading witness, closed with what is considered Darrow's greatest summation before a jury. Not guilty, but many were upset with Darrow as he excused violence when discussing the union's grievances against the owners. He returned to Idaho for a second trial of a union chief in Steunenberg's death. It was the same story from Orchard, and Darrow destroyed his flimsy credibility on cross, but illness precluded him from finishing the trial. He was in LA seeking medical help when the not guilty verdict came in.  "Despite its home court advantage and the star witness, the finest prosecutors and a compliant press, the mine owner's money, the Pinkerton spies, a permissive Supreme Court, and the unconscionable meddling of Theodore Roosevelt, the state had failed to prove that the union killed Frank Steunenberg."

                 On October 1, 1910, the LA Times headquarters  was rocked by an explosion that destroyed the building and killed twenty-one. The following spring, James and John McNamara were arrested, and their union hired Darrow, who dissolved his law firm and moved to California. He put together a defense team, but acknowledged that the McNamara's were "as guilty as hell." Darrow saved their lives by having them take a plea deal, but he incurred the wrath of organized labor and was indicted for attempting to bribe the jury.  The prosecution presented a weak case and Darrow was acquitted. The LA prosecutor had state-wide political aspirations and tried Darrow for the bribery of a different juror. His lawyer became ill during the trial and Darrow defended himself. The trial ended in a hung jury, after which the prosecutor agreed to drop the matter if Darrow promised to not practice law again in California. "Darrow was fifty-five when the second trial ended, broke and disgraced. But for the rest of his life he would make amends, score his greatest triumphs, and die an American hero." 

                  No longer the darling of the labor movement, he rebuilt his life and legal practice in Chicago. In 1915, when 844 Western Electric workers and their families died when the 'Eastland' capsized in the Chicago River, Darrow represented the chief engineer, and kept him from jail by convincing the judge that the ship itself was unsafe. During WWI, the US passed an Espionage Act and a Sedition Act, both intended and used to crush any dissent about the US's involvement in Europe. Immediately afterwards, the country was wracked by race riots, labor violence, and the Red Scare. When the prosecutions began, Darrow took on many cases some of which he won and some of which he lost. As the war receded, many of those convicted were pardoned. Throughout the Roaring 20's, he represented the gamblers, rum-runners, and corrupt politicians of the era. When asked why,  he said "money." One of his biggest cases was the defense of Fred Lundin, Cook County's Republican boss, force behind the throne of the mayor and fourteen of his colleagues. They had taken Chicago's noted corrupt ways to new heights, but were of course not guilty. 

                "Of the infamous villains whom Darrow defended, none were so patently evil in the eyes of Americans as the teenaged killers Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb." Privileged, well-educated, Jewish homosexuals, they killed a young boy for the "thrill" of it. He took on the trial because of his opposition to capital punishment and he knew he'd be paid well. Darrow pleaded them guilty and began to present evidence of mitigation hoping to save their lives.  Darrow emphasized the fact that Leopold's nanny sexually abused him, presented exculpatory psychiatric testimony, tried to manipulate the press on the issue of hanging teenagers. In the end, the prosecution insulted the judge, and no minors pleading guilty in Illinois had ever been hung. Leopold and Loeb were sentenced to life plus 99 years. 

               In 1925, Tennessee banned the teaching of Darwinism in the public schools. Beliefs other than those propounded in Genesis were criminal. One of the leading lights of the Evangelical movement throughout the Bible Belt was former Democratic candidate, William Jennings Bryan. He believed in a strict reading of the Bible.  The town of Dayton cooked up the trial to generate tourism, and a local teacher, John Scopes, volunteered to be the guinea pig. When Bryan offered to prosecute, Darrow decided to lead the defense. Dayton now had an international event to occupy its summer. The prosecution confirmed that Scopes had taught in violation of the law. The judge ruled against the defense's request to present expert scientific witnesses. After Darrow was held in contempt, he apologized, the judge forgave him and he called an expert on the Bible - William Jennings Bryan. They battled for two hours, at first calmly but eventually yelling and pointing fingers at each other. Darrow slowly wore Bryan down and got the better of him. Darrow pushed him on how long were the days of creation. When Bryan said they could have been a million years, the crowd gasped. He had conceded the defense's main points. Bryan "agreed that no intelligent person would accept the Bible literally." That Darrow had bested Bryan flashed around the world. William Jennings Bryan died five days later.

            "When he arrived in Tennessee in the summer of 1925, Darrow was a famous man; by the time he left, he was an American folk hero." At the request of the NAACP,  he defended 11 black men in Detroit who had fired on a white crowd trying to stop a black physician from moving into a white neighborhood. The trial led to a hung jury. In the retrial, the prosecution named the one man who had acknowledged firing into the white crowd. Darrow won a not guilty verdict and the publicity propelled the nascent NAACP to the forefront of civil rights organizations. Just before his 70th birthday, he had a heart attack. There were now fewer trials, and more speaking engagements and trips to Europe. He took on a case in Hawaii defending some navy men accused of vigilante atrocities against Hawaiians. He resolved the case with his clients sentenced to an hour in jail. He returned to the mainland, published his memoirs, and did some narrative work for Hollywood. At the age of 75, he took two more cases and saved two youngsters from the gallows. But, he was suffering from arteriosclerosis and it began to affect his brain. He soon needed full time nursing care, could not get out of bed some days, and was down to 90 pounds. He died on March 13, 1938.

                 This has been a superb read, but somehow somewhat wearying. Darrow was clearly a complex human being filled with faults, but someone on the right side of history. This book is a vivid reminder of how trying the industrialization of America was, how violent the conflicts between capital and labor were, and just how biased the institutions of the country were. I was prompted to read the life of William Jennings Bryan earlier this year ( July 11) and now Darrow by virtue of re-watching one of my favorite movies. The 1960 film 'Inherit The Wind' was based on a play produced on Broadway in 1955. The play was not historically accurate, but used events from 30 years earlier to take a swipe at McCarthyism. The Clarence Darrow character was called Henry Drummond and was brilliantly portrayed by Oscar nominated Spencer Tracy. The funny thing about reading this book is that I have seen and heard Spencer Tracy throughout. It's been over 60 years since I first saw the film and needless to say, it had a powerful impact on me.

               

The Lock-Up, Banville - B

                    In 1957 Dublin, Chief Pathologist Quirke concludes that Rosa Jacobs did not commit suicide, but rather was murdered by carbon monoxide piped into her car after she was drugged. Det. Inspector Strafford begins the investigation, with Quirke accompanying him. Rosa was a firebrand doctoral candidate at Trinity writing about the Jewish Diaspora in Ireland and yet, spending time with the Kesslers, rich Germans ensconced in County Wicklow. Both men are suspicious of the Germans who have a business in Israel and seem to have the support of a highly placed bishop, who acknowledges that the church helped them escape Europe after the war. They learn that an Israeli journalist who may have been investigating the Kesslers died in a hit and run accident. Then much closer to home, Rosa's sister, Molly, a London journalist in Dublin for her sister's funeral, is also a hit and run victim. It is, of course, the Nazis. Although the Republic of Ireland was not South America, it did harbor a few of Catholicism's bad guys after WWII.

The Rivalry: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and the Golden Age of Basketball, Taylor - B+

                      On Nov. 7, 1959, the Boston Garden, seldom if ever sold out for Celtic games, packed in the maximum capacity of 13,909. The reason was that the Philadelphia Warriors and their young rookie, Wilt Chamberlain, were coming to town. He was 3-4 inches taller, and probably 40 pounds heavier than Bill Russell, winner of two college titles, an Olympic gold medal, and two NBA titles in the previous four years. Boston won because Wilt did not have a supporting cast that could match the Celts. 

                      The two men had reached the pinnacle of the basketball world by two very different paths. Chamberlain had been heralded as an extraordinary athlete his entire life. He was courted by every university in the country. He went to KU on a basketball and track scholarship. He toured the world with the Harlem Globetrotters before joining the Warriors. His approach to hoops was one of casual, effortless success. Russell's course was less assured. He didn't play ball until he was in high school. A scout for the University of San Francisco saw him play and spoke to the coach. Bill was working in a shipyard after high school when USF offered him a scholarship. He and his roommate, KC Jones, studied and analyzed the game constantly in an effort to improve themselves. His meteoric rise saw him meet President Eisenhower at the White House before he graduated. Ike asked him to not turn pro immediately so he could play in the fall for the 1956 Olympic team.

                    After their first meeting, Wilt went on to be Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player. "Wilt had taken more shots, scored more points, gotten more rebounds, taken more free throws, and played more minutes  than anyone else in the history of the league." The Warriors met the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. The contest was highly anticipated and became the talk of the nation. Because Chamberlain hurt his hand in an on court melee that was par for the course in that era, and because the other four Celtics were better than the other four Warriors, the Celts won in six.

                  Their next head to head series was the conference finals two years later. The 1961-62 season saw Wilt score 100 points against the Knicks in March. Wilt was the best athlete in the league, but Russel knew how to slow him down and kept him below his averages. It went seven, with Boston winning in the last seconds at home. The Warriors moved to San Francisco, and met Boston in the NBA finals in 1964. A new coach had brought down Wilt's scoring, and had melded him together with his teammates for the betterment of the club. One again though, it was the Celtics who prevailed.  

                  In the beginning of the 1964-65 season, Wilt spent a month in the hospital  suffering from pancreatitis, insulted the principal owner, and played with his usual indifference, focused on his stats. Mid-season, the occasionally petulant prima donna was traded to the 76ers. Wilt was rejuvenated and led his hometown club on a winning streak. "Instead of the limelight seeking ball hog some of the 76ers expected, Chamberlain proved to be a true team player." They met the Celtics in the conference finals after an article in SI, authored by Chamberlain, lambasted just about everyone including the Sixer coach. Nonetheless, it came down the last play of game seven when "Havlicek stole the ball" saved Boston's season. A year later, in Auerbach's finale as coach, the Celts breezed past Philadelphia and beat LA in the finals. The next three seasons would see Russell as the player-coach.

              The following year, Chamberlain became a passer and a rebounder scoring one third of his career average. With Wilt surrounded by talent, they won 68 games - the best in the history of the league. The Celtics had won 8 titles in a row, overcoming a Wilt led team six times. Nineteen sixty-seven would be different. Philadelphia won the first three in the conference finals and closed out the Celtics in Boston in game six. Their success was short lived and they lost in 1968 to Boston, who won their tenth title in twelve years.

              When Alex Hannum, one of the only two coaches Wilt ever listened to, left for the ABA, Wilt asked for the job and a raise. His owner told him he was released and could sign with anyone he wished. Chamberlain simply was not worth the aggravation. So in 1968, Wilt joined his third and final NBA team, the Lakers. He and his new coach Butch van Breda Kolff, battled all season. In Boston, Russell signed a new two year contract, but seemed almost indifferent. As the season wore on, the 35 year old Russell seemed exhausted. It showed in the standings, as Boston finished in fourth place in the East. The Lakers, newly cohesive at season's end, finished as the number one seed. The Lakers were favored when they met in the finals. Each team held serve and met in the Forum for game seven. Back and forth it went, with Boston up by one with a minute left. Boston won by two. A very thoughtful observer said that "Russell was always able to make his players an extension of himself, while Chamberlain, for all of his personal dominance, never truly became part of a team."

           Russell drove away from Boston that summer and did not return for 30 years. Boston was a racist city that he never felt comfortable in. His post playing career was not a success. He failed as a coach and as a general manager. The immensely proud and stubborn Bill Russell cried when he came back to Boston to have his number 6 retired. Wilt, who won again in 1972 and retired himself that year appeared at Russell's ceremony in the new Fleet Center. Wilt died six months later. At his funeral service, Russell said, "The fierceness of the competition bonded us for eternity."

           This fabulous book might better be subtitled a primer on the early years of the league. Most of the owners also owned successful hockey teams and bought the fledgling NBA franchises to fill up dead dates in their arenas. Most were tight-fisted nasty men who treated each other and their players with disdain.  There are spectacular chapters on Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, and Red Auerbach. The book was written a while ago, long before Russell died in 2022. The finals MVP trophy has been named for him for quite some time and every player in the league wore a commemorative number 6 for all of the 2022-23 season. Like Jackie Robinson's number 42, it will be permanently retired. Thanks again to my brother for a great recommendation.

Moscow X, McCloskey - B+

                      Moscow X is the name of a unit at Langley whose job it is to initiate non-traditional operations against the Russians. Artemis is in charge. She opens an email from Sia, a London lawyer who happens to be an officer under non official cover (NOC). Sia has been approached by, Anna, a highly placed Russian, whose father is an FSB general and whose husband Vadim is Putin's bagman. Anna knows that Sia's law firm washes money for oligarchs and Anna is trying to recapture funds taken from her father. Anna's dad is on the outs with the Kremlin and is soon under arrest. Because Anna and Vadim own a horse farm, Artemis comes up with a plan to try to compromise them at the Mexican ranch of a foreign national officer (FNO). So Sia and Max, the owner of the ranch, entertain the Russian couple. Anna realizes that she is dealing with professional operatives. Anna is so discouraged by the brutality of her father's treatment that she wants CIA help to embarrass those roughing up her dad. The CIA cooperates, but has plans to fool the intelligence agencies into believing that a number of Putin's cronies are plotting against him. The operation is under way when the FSB comes very close to killing/capturing Sia and Max, who manage to escape. Anna is imprisoned but eventually released, and most importantly, the operation convinces Putin that there is a plot against him and he takes the necessary steps to rectify the sins of the oligarchs. I'm not sure this is a classic, but I really enjoyed it. It's long and has quite a few twists and turns. Reading this, I thought back to some of LeCarre's earlier novels and realized that we've come so, so far from the great old stories. Today's are just as intriguing, but they're completely driven by the massive technological changes we've seen over the decades.

The Nightingale Affair, Mason - B

                       The setting of this novel is 1867 London. Former Inspector Charles Field, on whom Dickens modeled his Inspector Bucket in 'Bleak House' is thrust into a nightmare from the past. A decade and a half earlier, he was sent by Scotland Yard to the Crimea to find the man threatening and killing Florence Nightingale's young nurses. He solves that crime, marries a young nurse and settles in London.  Now, strangulation victims with the same embroidered rose in their mouths pop up in the capital. Fields is beside himself as he investigates.  A man named Jack Stanhope, who was in the Crimea, is now the killer the Yard is trying to find.  Eventually, Field's wife, daughter, and son help him capture Stanhope. Some very nice insights into the the culture and physical structure of 19th century London.

Eyes of the Queen, Clements - B+

                     This is a very enjoyable historical novel set in 1572, featuring Francis Walsingham, leader of the monarch's burgeoning intelligence operation. England is opposed by enemies, all of whom would love to rally around the Queen's cousin, Mary of Scotland. Spain, of course, is the leader of the Catholic coalition, but France has just slaughtered its Huguenots and is clearly allied against England. Walsingham goes to great lengths to pass a phony document to the Spanish, which sets them off on a foolish attempt to find the northwest passage to the Pacific and put off any attempts to free Mary. Meanwhile, Mary continues her desperate attempts to communicate with anyone who will help her. Walsingham comes close to finding convincing evidence against Mary, but does not. Walsingham's most skilled agent, John Dee, astrologer and mapmaker, uncovers a plot to shoot the queen and personally captures the assassin. The queen eventually approves what Walsingham calls her majesty's secret service.