Thursday, December 13, 2007

Book Review: Hellcats, Vixens & Vice Dolls edited by David Jacobs



Violence and heartache on display on lurid detective magazine covers at the candy and cigar shops. Exploitation disguised as news designed to entertain and titillate the atomic generation with the exploits of axe murderesses, high-class call-girls and sex-crazed dope fiends. It worked then and it works now.

Hellcats, Vixens & Vice Dolls is a white-hot compilation of vicious retro crimes committed by the fairer sex so vivid in their detail of blood and perversion that they will leave the reader with the sensation of being worked over by a girl gang armed with a sack of nickels.

The no-nonsense, just the facts approach to this book reminded me of a spinning newspaper headline from a B&W crime movie or a radio announcer who interrupts the broadcast with news of a brutal crime. Because of it’s retro-reporting the vibe is pure noir with all the trappings, desperation and pathos of a sex-slay at Lovers Lane. Fetish and crime collide!


The man responsible for this ample lineup of doped-up and desperate dames is David Jacobs, true crime author from the popular Court TV paperback book series, and among the 50 true crime tales he selected are: Bloody Barbara, She Sawed Off His Head, The Sex Party Racket, and One Thousand Thugs and a Girl, She-Devil Running Wild, I’ll See You in Hell!, and Gateway to White Slavery.


If you are a true crime reader who likes your stiffs cold and your babes hot, be on the lookout for Hellcats, Vixens & Vice Dolls!

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