L.A. Despair: A Landscape of Crimes & Bad Times

A knowledgeable author with great style.

John Gilmore's "L.A. Despair: A Landscape of Crimes & Bad Times" takes you directly into the underbelly of the City of Angel's most infamous criminals and publicly ruined lives. Starting off with the story of 70's porn star and legend, John Holmes, L.A. Despair takes you into the life of a character with little to no redeemable qualities whatsoever. Holmes is, as Gilmore himself has put it, the definition of the L.A. mutant. He is a self-serving man whose only purpose in life is to get his next fix at any cost or consequence. After reading the story about Holmes, there is little doubt that he was a walking sociopath and a man who was headed for one place and one place only - self-destruction. It continues on from there into the story of 50's bombshell and fallen starlet, Barbara Payton, who notoriously went from making 10,000 dollars a week to being a homeless prostitute and drug addict living on L.A.'s skid row. I never knew about Payton before (because I was born in the 80's long after her rise and fall), but I found her life story to be unbelievably tragic and depressing. Riveting, to say the least. From there on, Gilmore goes onto several lesser known characters. People who were more infamous for their crimes and horrible deeds than anything else. However, there is an explosive conclusion in store with the story of Spade Cooley - a man who savagely beat his wife to death over her past infidelities imagined or otherwise. It's never made clear, but Cooley comes across as being an obsessively controlling and tortured man whom, at times it seems, tortures himself into believing the worst possible case scenario by looking for any reason whatsoever to justify it. Understandable, yes. Redeemable? Not quite sure.In the end, L.A. Despair is like a bunch of little stories in one. Modern day and real life horror stories, you could say, centered around the City of Angels. Los Angeles is a city that people mainly associate with the famous, rich, and beautiful, but as John Gilmore demonstrates here there is a terribly dark and unforgiving underbelly to the city also. In any case, this is a portrait of sociopaths, bad times, and ruined lives.Highly recommended.

I thought the book was stories were too long & overdrawn. Only 3 stories are in this book and each is connected with the other. Except for the first John Holmes story , which WAS very interesting & made me quite sick to my stomach due to the graphic ideals which are written about that I never thought could exist ; they do and just for the first story and this God awful pornography industry I would have given it a 1 star. The other two stories that follow are quite bland. Generic . An okay read. “True crimes “ is a better read. Longer, more graphic, interesting.

This is a well researched and thorough book examining several LA cases that don't get the attention like others, such as the Black Dahlia. This is great read and will not disappoint.

It is disappointing to see that Mr. Gilmore lifted so much material, verbatim, from my Crime Magazine Internet article on Barbara Payton (online since 2003) for HIS chapter on Barbara's life, and fails to credit the information to me in any way, shape or form (save for a passing mention of me at the tail end of his story). With Mr. Gilmore's legendary pomposity and self-important attitude he, of all people, ought to know how disheartening it is to see one's words taken without permission and made to seem as they are the words of another writer. That, Mr. Gilmore, sucks!I could find many things to gripe about in his malicious and unkind look at Barbara's life, but two that come to mind right off the bat are that he has nearly every person he "quotes" in the passage sound just like him when they speak. (Really, Mr. Gilmore, are we to believe that everyone you spoke to has adopted the same, hard-boiled manner of noir speak that you employ? Okay...) Second, as another reviewer pointed out, this man completely ignores Barbara's many good qualities. Not once is her well-known generosity mentioned, much less any notice whatsoever given to her extraordinary talents in the kitchen and her excellence in interior decorating, furniture refinishing and home improvement. Instead, we are told that Barbara Payton was a wanton, sex-crazed waste...an alcoholic and drug-addicted barracudda who chewed men up and then spit them out. Where is the woman's humanity in this portrayal? Why aren't the many MARRIED men who wooed Barbara called TRAMPS and WHORES? If she were YOUR daughter, Mr. Gilmore, wouldn't you want people to know that she also possessed some endearing personality traits as well as some unfortunate ones? Did Amok not give you enough space perhaps, to document Barbara's many positive qualities? Did you think it not important to try to seek out even ONE of her family and friends who could provide you with this kind of less-than-sensational material? Or was it just not important to you to try to write a well-rounded study of this woman's life?For people who want to see how John Gilmore lifted many of my words, right out of my mouth, so to speak, you can read my Crime Magazine article on Barbara Payton on the Internet. Again, it was first posted in April 2003. My comprehensive biography of Barbara's life--in which I dispel several of Gilmore's published allegations about her character--will be published by BearManor Media in 2006.I'm glad that Mr. Gilmore felt the material I wrote was so powerful that he thought he'd claim it for his own.The chapter on Barbara is a disgrace and I can only hope her son John, her brother Frank, her sister-in-law Jan and her ex-husband Colonel John Payton (among her many other family and friends who still love Barbara very much) don't read it as I know it would only break their hearts.John O'Dowd

Gritty and gruesome. This book was hard to put down. Five stories of L.A. crime from the 1950s through the 1970s. Some of the scenes disturbed me so much that I had trouble sleeping. Especially a scene from the Wonderland Murders (first story in the book). Sad and scary, John Gilmore's writing is wonderful. He somehow finds the good in every criminal in this book. Although there wasn't much good to be found in Billy Cook, Gilmore dug until he found one little spark of goodness.

The cases profiled are interesting and it appears that the author had researched the stories carefully. The Barbara Graham entry was particularly well done. I have seen the film "I Want to Live" starring Susan Haywood many times. This treatment helped to fill in many of the details that Hollywood couldn't include in the film. It provides a clearer, more accurate picture of the real Barbara Graham and helps to explain her mentality and actions in a more complete manner. Anyone who enjoys true crime should find this book satisfying.

The part about Barbara Graham was especially illuminating as her part in a gruesome murder was glossed over and even romanticised by the Hollywood movie "I want to live." I guess many of even current Hollywood stars are on the same slippery path to drug addiction, chaos and downfall as the ones of former years.

Tales from a city that never sleeps. Gilmore delivers to those with a dark bent. You can't make this stuff up, sordid greetings from LA.

Subject written to death.

No problems with this product at all