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Reviews (12)
15 Feb, 2017
Nice View of 1960s
1 of 1 found this helpful Very enjoyable trip into the past, and an opportunity to recall how different things were in the 1960s. Truly nostalgic. Would like to return to my teen years which were the 1960s.
09 May, 2010
The Strange Shooting Death of a Bank President
Author George Higgins developed his novel, "The Mandeville Talent," from an investigation he made into the shooting death of bank president in New Hampshire in the early 1960s. At the time, Mr. Higgins worked for Massachusetts Attorney General Elliot Richardson who subsequently became the attorney general in the Nixon Administration who negotiated the resignation of Vice-President Spiro Agnew.
For weeks before the banker was shot in New Hampshire, there were rumors among criminals in New England that the robbers who stole $1.5-million from a U.S. Mail Truck in August 1962 on U.S. Route 3 in Plymouth, Mass., were laundering the stolen money through a bank in the Granite State. Actually, almost all the stolen money was in circulated small bills, and all of it was untraceable except for about a dozen $100-bills which had serial numbers which were recorded, but none of those bills ever, ever surfaced.
Mr. Higgins has written an interesting story with well developed characters who move the story forward. But he did have to supplement the facts in the actual case to reach a very plausible result in his novel.
However, over the years, additional information has slowly surfaced which indicates that some of the F.B.I. Agents who collaborated with mobsters James "Whitey" Bulger and Steve "The Rifleman" Flemmi may have had a relationship with the "fellas" who robbed the mail truck back in 1962. If true, such a story might be more explosive than "The Mandeville Talent," but for now, Mr. Higgins' well-written story is all that is available to crime readers interested in the mysterious shooting death of the part-time bank president in New Hampshire on the day before Christmas in the 1962.
11 Jan, 2017
G.A.R. Convention Souvenirs
Well researched information on national convention souvenirs -- both official and unofficial -- of the Grand Army of the Republic's annual gatherings.