Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “A Terrible Thunder: The Story of the New Orleans Sniper” as Want to Read:
A Terrible Thunder: The Story of the New Orleans Sniper
by
On New Year's Eve in New Orleans, 1972, Mark James Essex began violent and deadly sniper attacks on policemen. Before it ended one week later, hundreds of heavily armed police and a Marine Corps assault helicopter went to a burning down-town hotel to battle gunmen who refused to surrender or to be killed.
Get A Copy
Paperback, 284 pages
Published
February 8th 2005
by Garrett County Press
(first published 1978)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
A Terrible Thunder,
please sign up.
Recent Questions
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30
Start your review of A Terrible Thunder: The Story of the New Orleans Sniper
I remember the Howard Johnson's incident when I was a teenager. I didn't read the book until years later. I knew many of the NOPD & NOFD responders by the time I read the book. Hernon did a wonderful job of reporting all of the events leading up to & during the incident. There has always been controversy about a single gunman vs a group or pair of them. This is a fantastic story & well written.
...more
Jan 09, 2018
PencilWorks Dba Imani Neville
rated it
really liked it
Shelves:
book-challenge-read-books
toward the end there was some confusion to the incident that led up to the death due to the time jump of the telling the story. other than that after purchasing book and having it for two years finally read it as the first book of 2018
A very good book. I will always wonder if there were one or more gunmen that escaped that day.
It's amazing to think one sniper could so take over a city and last so long against determined if disorganized response from police and allies. Essex's experiences of racism in the Navy are both a deadly spark and an Indictment of the institution at that time. I love a good conspiracy theory, but it really looks like Essex went over the edge, acted alone, and reports of additional sharpshooters or co- conspirators is the result of confusion and reverberating fear like aftershocks from this solo
...more
This happened when I was about 7 or 8, and living south of New Orleans. The entire neighborhood was clued to their televisions all day and I remember going from house to house with my friends, listening in on the conversations of the adults around us. I never understood exactly what was going on until I read this book last summer. The older I get, the more curious I am about things that happened when I was a child.
Jul 18, 2016
Ernest Sneed
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
african-american,
history
Excellent investigation of the events, police actions, motivations, and societal forces that created the sniper and the tragedy.
Unsettling but engrossing.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Readers also enjoyed
Related Articles
There is nothing like reading a history or biography book and being so completely transported to another time and place that you find...
60 likes · 20 comments
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
