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2nd out of 10 books
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Death Scenes: A Homicide Detective's Scrapbook
The strange and gruesome crime-scene snapshot collection of LAPD detective Jack Huddleston spans Southern California in its noir heyday. Death Scenes is the noted forerunner of several copycat titles.
Paperback, 168 pages
Published
April 1st 2000
by Feral House
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Hard to believe these grisly relics record the violence of the 1930s and 40s, before television became a "bad influence."
Jack Huddleston served as a homicide detective in Los Angeles in the first half of the last century. He collected these photos into a scrapbook, to which he wrote a preface that implies he intended the work for the edification of the general public. One wonders if he ever had the nerve to approach a publisher. After an estate sale in the mid-1980s, the...more
Jack Huddleston served as a homicide detective in Los Angeles in the first half of the last century. He collected these photos into a scrapbook, to which he wrote a preface that implies he intended the work for the edification of the general public. One wonders if he ever had the nerve to approach a publisher. After an estate sale in the mid-1980s, the...more
This is a scrapbook from a LAPD detective from the 20's. It has gory crime scene photos with the original notes. Some really disturbing pics and sometimes more disturbing notes. Remember, it was the 20's and they weren't very tolerant of what they did not understand. And they got the wrong impression about a lot. I would not recommend this book to anyone with a weak stomach. But I loved it. It's on my coffee table.
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This book lives up to its title. The pics are crime scene photos, dating from the 20s to the 50s, taken with the stark, staring, unrepentant eye of a police photographer. Most are murders, some are suicides, some are physical oddities. It's a pretty harsh book.
The introduction does a fair job of analyzing what this book can do for its reader. Help him/her sympathize with what homicide detectives do on a daily basis, discard the rose-colored-glasses effect of nostalgia, and understand ...more
The introduction does a fair job of analyzing what this book can do for its reader. Help him/her sympathize with what homicide detectives do on a daily basis, discard the rose-colored-glasses effect of nostalgia, and understand ...more
I have absolutely no idea how to rate this. And that's a first for me. I had no idea there was any collection like this out there. Finding it on a shelf in Borders I was shocked speechless while thumbing through.
I used to read a lot of true crime books, and still read them on occasion so my curiosity has been there for a long time, years at least. So I knew I wanted to go through this and I know I'll go through a few other books I've found since this.
But this is a shocker. I don't ...more
I used to read a lot of true crime books, and still read them on occasion so my curiosity has been there for a long time, years at least. So I knew I wanted to go through this and I know I'll go through a few other books I've found since this.
But this is a shocker. I don't ...more
This is not a book for the weak stomached kind. It's no worse then some true crimes with pictures. I really felt for the detective who compiled all these pictures for his scrapbook. In the book I got the impression some people might have found this sick on his part. I go along with Katherine Dunn on that Detective Jack Huddleston wanted people to see what he saw, feel his pain. Pictures leave out so much the officers see on a daily basis. The smells, the 3D real life image of these people who ha...more
More than it is gruesome, this book is unrelievedly sad, a compendium brutality, pettiness, broken lives, desperation, and mania. The books coda--photographs of the mess hall at San Quentin, filled by the endless hundreds by hardened criminals--suggestions that the crimes photographed in the book make up only a slim minority of those who live and die in a Hobbesian world.
If you dont like gore DO NOT even open this book. It is a Los Angeles detectives scrapbook of homicide, suicide and just bizarre photos of men women children hemaphrodites and animals, he is not prejudiced, its all inclusive. The pictures (especially babies n children) burn your retinas, but its like a car crash, you cant not look...
Loved it!!! The pictures were horrific and it's not for everyone. I bought a copy a while back and still find myself pulling it out to look at it.
Being a former mortician, this was really interesting. Definitely has made me think about getting into forensics.
I would like to see more books like this. You need to put your blinders on for the gore, and look at the book the way the police do.
Seriously, you have to be a practicing coroner or somewhat disturbed to get anything constructive out of this book.
Had to get rid of it when we had kids. The pics became too much for me to handle after I had babies.
All I can say is this is as close to death as I care to be!! Stomach churning photos taken from a scrapbook compiled by a homicide detective, the scrapbook was found in books bought at an estate sale and digitally remastered to create this book. Really opened my eyes to what police officers, EMT's and the like have to cope with just doing their jobs. Great introduction by Katherine Dunn!
Highly combustible nightmare fuel: a vivid parade of crime-scene corpse photos from a long-dead homicide detective's secret "necro-porn" stash. I love it. Not for the faint of heart. Or even the relatively sturdy of heart.
be prepared not to sleep- but it does forfill the morbid curiosities.. very interesting and captures the stark reality of 1940's LA- how gritty is really was- NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. I can't even open this book anymore.
One of my favorites, it is an expose on a homicide detective's photos from the 40s and 50s. In black and white, so the shock value is diminished, but very interesting.
an incredibly heavy book that i took from the library of an old art school. i had to take my time with this book, but i am glad i took the time to face some of these images.
The photos in this book are by turns desperately sad, nauseating, and humorous, if you can believe that. A must-read for any fan of the macabre or true crime.
Amazing, horrible, Beautiful, disturbing. A really great piece of Americana.....
A good children's book. It shows true love.
Katherine Dunn's introduction is brilliant.
Christopher
rated it
Recommends it for:
People who don't realize that there's no such thing as the good ol' days.
Read this with extreme Caution and respect!!
Not for those with a weak stomach.
Gruesome and fascinating.
not for the faint of heart.
great collection of the scenes of death. what I love this book is, this is a personally scrapbook by one detective. it was not made for art. that is very pointed the origin of the "photography".
intense
Missannthropy
marked it as to-read
Cristina
marked it as to-read
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Katherine Dunn is best known for her beloved novel "Geek Love," which was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1989. She is also the author of the novels "Attic" (1970) and "Truck" (1971). A fourth novel, entitled "The Cut Man," has been in-progress for decades and is finally scheduled for a September 2008 release.
Dunn is also known as a pro...more
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