Maddening and astonishing in its revelations of a crime spree that cost taxpayers untold millions.
A vigorous investigation into the life of a con artist and swindler who had half the leadership of the U.S. Navy in his pocket.
Leonard Glenn Francis (b. 1964) was a high school dropout with few visible prospects. However, according to one of his former nemeses, he was “smarter than anyone he ever met.” Francis, a former street hustler in Malaysia, made no effort to conceal himself: He was heavy and uncommonly tall, and he threw himself around on the principle that “with a little luck and the right connections, you could pretty much get away with anything.” Washington Post reporter Whitlock, author of The Afghanistan Papers, capably chronicles how Francis did just that. Starting a seat-of-the-pants naval resupply business, which “faced scant competition in what was then a niche market,” Francis serviced ships of the U.S. Seventh Fleet in the Pacific. Soon, as what the Navy calls a “husbanding contractor,” he was gouging prices and cooking the books, such as when he billed one visiting missile destroyer $2.8 million for fuel and port services: “More than half the amount was fraudulent, based on fake invoices from fictitious subcontractors.” To enable his bilking, he bribed Navy officers and officials with prostitutes, booze, and baubles, playing on weaknesses—drinking problems, failing marriages—as deftly as the KGB. He also had spies everywhere, including inside the Navy’s vaunted NCIS. It all came crashing down when a few honest sailors began to doubt “Fat Leonard,” who grew grotesquely obese as the dollars accumulated. By 2018, 90 Navy admirals came under investigation for illicit dealings with Francis. The close of Whitlock’s account is the cat-and-mouse game of Francis’ trials before U.S. judges, an unlikely escape to Venezuela, and now, in 2024, extradition and resumed judicial inquiry.
Maddening and astonishing in its revelations of a crime spree that cost taxpayers untold millions.Pub Date: May 14, 2024
ISBN: 9781982131630
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.
Documenting perilous times.
In his most recent behind-the-scenes account of political power and how it is wielded, Woodward synthesizes several narrative strands, from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel to the 2024 presidential campaign. Woodward’s clear, gripping storytelling benefits from his legendary access to prominent figures and a structure of propulsive chapters. The run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is tense (if occasionally repetitive), as a cast of geopolitical insiders try to divine Vladimir Putin’s intent: “Doubt among allies, the public and among Ukrainians meant valuable time and space for Putin to maneuver.” Against this backdrop, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham implores Donald Trump to run again, notwithstanding the former president’s denial of his 2020 defeat. This provides unwelcome distraction for President Biden, portrayed as a thoughtful, compassionate lifetime politico who could not outrace time, as demonstrated in the June 2024 debate. Throughout, Trump’s prevarications and his supporters’ cynicism provide an unsettling counterpoint to warnings provided by everyone from former Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley to Vice President Kamala Harris, who calls a second Trump term a likely “death knell for American democracy.” The author’s ambitious scope shows him at the top of his capabilities. He concludes with these unsettling words: “Based on my reporting, Trump’s language and conduct has at times presented risks to national security—both during his presidency and afterward.”
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668052273
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
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