Let the Dead Bury the Dead cover

let the dead bury the dead is now available!

At present, the book is now available at CreateSpace (a subsidiary of Amazon): https://www.createspace.com/4056731

All the information on it is there, but I can state that, at least for the present, it's 27.95 USD, plus shipping. At 622 pages, it's reasonably priced. There will be sales after it's gone up on Amazon US, and in the weeks after, in the EU. 

I'm hoping there will be a lot of interest in the book, what with how popular the US is there now (I jest). That could help, actually, the anti-American sentiment, because Let the Dead Bury the Dead doesn't paint an especially pretty picture of America as a nation and a culture. That, of course, isn't my fault entirely, it's shared. We all own a piece of this mess. What the reaction to the book will be is beyond my ability to know, but I suspect that it will be mixed. That's fine, and I have to say here that it doesn't matter either way when you're dealing with a historical account. There are no rules here except to be as sincere and as accurate as it was possible at the time. I've gone gone above and beyond the call and honored that. 

There have been a few nibbles already from media and interested parties who want to do coverage. I welcome any and all interested parties who are thoughtful, who are receptive, and who at least know a modicum of the facts surrounding the case. It would be unfair to expect prospective interviewers to know as much as I do about the case, because most of what's in the text is out of view, or not well-known at all. Then, there's my unique take on it and my analysis, which I believe is actually more explosive than the primary materials in the book itself. Not a lot of people share my vantage in all of this for reasons of career--mostly selfish reasons. That's their problem, and I will not be humoring anyone with an obvious agenda. I also won't be answering questions from the conspiracy nut crowd, so save it. I don't recognize any legitimacy of these right-wing clowns. You will be ignored.

As for review copies, they will be provided only in the event of an actual review being written. Tiny blogs--like my own--will not be getting any copies, I'm not a charity. Serious inquiries only, the rest I will ignore...

all soul's day

I knew without planning it that the account was going to be finished on this day. That's not just serendipity, it's the architecture of fate. Rather than the dead burying the dead--part of why we have historical amnesia in this country--I, the living, am burying my part of Jeane. Why she picked me to assist her I believe is complicated. For one, I know she didn't want me pissing in the tent and preferred me pissing outwards. You could say she wanted to keep me on ice during the proceedings, most certainly a good possibility there. That means I was definitely onto something, maybe many fundamental somethings about her case. The problem was, not a lot of that was exculpatory. Such is life. Her suffering is over, ours continues until we meet our own endings, like a story. Anything ending tends to choke the best of us up, it's got a sadness to it that's part of the human condition. And so it goes. I'll probably even lay out a meal for her, and all of the people who I and my family have lost--who everyone has lost, because that's what All Soul's Day is about, remembering, honoring, and continuing on.

Postscript 11.03.12--And so it did, so mote it be, the circle is completed.

Definite September release of DC Madam account

Ed.--This has been a long time coming. The book is ready. There will be a standalone site for it. There will be a brief except, some background, a bio, and various links.

A Few Words on Writing a Non-Fiction Book: expect to lose at least a few years of your life if it's going to be worth a shit on any level. When artists in a variety of mediums refer to their works as their children, they aren't fucking around. It's accurate, the unvarnished truth. Never envy writers, not even the wildly successful ones, because most of them are doing it to keep the Devil from biting their ass. I share that with them now, and life certainly won't ever be the same.

You ask yourself, "Am I telling too much about myself, or too little?" and because of how personal it all is, no one can tell you the answers, you're it, you're on your own.

This kind of an undertaking requires incredible care, more time than you ever imagined possible, keeping you up nights, bringing worry, even illness, it's terrible. But, if you've been involved in an event of significance, invested so much of yourself in it that it hurt, there's no other option but to get it out of your system, and that's why this book was going to be written and slaved over until it reached a state that brings with it closure. That was the main reason to write this account.

On the Title and Cover Art: I'm only giving you part of the title. It's Let the Dead Bury the Dead, with a subtitle to be revealed later on, for security reasons. The title comes right from Palfrey's, yes, the little horse's mouth (look up the origin of her surname) and from a comment by my former co-researcher when we were working for Jeane's defense. Both were stated in a context that rendered it incredibly callous, cold, just more of the joys that involvement in the case inflicted on me, I'm Mark Twain now.

The cover will be posted on the book's website. It's based on a medieval woodcut of a hanged woman being tormented by demons. In the original, the expression is dour, slack in the mouth a little. I gave the woman a bit of a grin to underscore the very real perversity of the case and its conclusion. I've had to include significant social, cultural, and historical context so that my involvement makes some kind of sense. This was an international story with many different players, too many. Insofar as I've been able to ascertain, no one has established meaningful contact with any of the former escorts from Pamela Martin & Associates, not even Ken Silverstein last time I asked him within the last couple years. Someone posting her claiming to be Andrea Detty asked why I wasn't talking to any of the girls, which is a loaded question if ever there was one. You tell me. See how that works, or rather doesn't? I've posted comments and statements on here several times asking some of the former escorts to come forward, but we're talking hookers here folks, so what do you expect? A lot of bullshit yammering, nothing constructive.

None of these women have much motivation to talk. If they do, they're going to find themselves in a world of shit, that is, if they're not there already. The new and old fixers, the appointees wrecking our government and negating the rule of law, these AUSAs, these scum at the DOJ, would nail their asses to the floor on some trumped up charges. Then again, they might just harass them until they cry uncle, make their lives hell, like Brandy Britton's.

They're not talking, get over it and yourself, whoever the commenter was. I don't believe it was Detty, but if it was, her question was calculated in a way that's very suspicious. Was she Jeane's Judas? I have no idea. But I think there was one, it wasn't just the stupidity of mailing USPS Money Orders at a Postal Station--laundering it that way, through the mails, and using all their services. They ever hear of Western Union or 7-11s? Jesus, people, I'd be a better criminal than that shit, you gotta be kidding me, but that's the truth, from the trial transcripts. These girls should have bypassed Jeane's instructions to buy and send like that, gone and gotten a Slurpee, a Playgirl, and mailed it from anywhere else. You can't tell me that Palfrey wasn't protected in DC, no way, she wasn't even a good criminal. You see, USPS Inspectors busted her ass in San Diego that first time around, in the early 1990s. Get the drift? You will after reading my book.

I don't say this about my writing often and am my own worst critic. But I have to say that this is a good book, a solid account done with incredible effort to get things right. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but I have to lay all my cards on the table. After I got involved, there was no other choice, it was always waiting at the end. No one can be 100% correct about these kinds of things, the criminal underworld and the secret world of spycraft.

"I am not a witch" is added to the political lexicon

Did people react like this during the Great Depression? Did they vote for dimwits like Christine O'Donnell? Sadly, they nearly did, there being no real "good old days" in the real world. As a matter of fact, people acted about as crazy as they are now, albeit with better results. True, the New Deal didn't go far enough--thanks to the business sector--but at least they voted for FDR.

Americans are a pretty nutty bunch, and O'Donnell just reminds us of this fact. Being "nutty" is alright at parties, but not likely to get good results as a congressional representative, especially a Senator. Yet, nutty is what we tend to elect. O'Donnell is another kind of nutty altogether, however, not that she's hateful.

Fine, lots of young women screw around with the Occult during their teen years, sit on a Satanic altar on their first date...they don't? Really? Whoopsie! Hey, when I'm wrong, I'm wrong. Remember 1999? Me either! What were you having for lunch on June 21st of that year? Me either! Remember the impeachment hearings of Bill Clinton? Remember unlimited credit disguising the fact that Americans were making shit wages, even then? What a time! But it had to end, like all false Edens.

O'Donnell said this on her 1999 Bill Maher appearance (apparently, she blew the entire production staff, starting with Maher): "One of my first dates with a witch was on a satanic altar, and I didn't know it. I mean, there's little blood there and stuff like that," she says. "We went to a movie and then had a little midnight picnic on a satanic altar." As nutty as it sounds, I know of a woman from college who did this! "A little blood"?! OK, we don't want to start throwing the blood libel around here. Would this be tolerated from a Democratic candidate or anyone on the Left? Of course not.

Let's be clear: this isn't "normal" behavior, even to someone like myself who doesn't even believe in the Christian cosmology and certainly doesn't believe in the Devil, Belial, Cheeseburglar, and all shim's other supposed guises. Interestingly, we've gone from denying that we're actually the Devil (Nixon, during the Watergate hearings in 1973) in our politics to denying that we're a holder (witch) of the franchise license (O'Donnell), like a local businessperson who owns a Howard Johnson's (who?). OK, fine, you're not a Republican, just nuts...

So, here were are, 37 years later from the Watergate hearings, and somehow, some way, the GOP is still around. We've gone from "I am not a crook," to the obvious detached insanity of "I am not a witch." If that's not a warning sign with the bodies of dead canaries littered all around it, I don't know what is. What a fuckin' bimbo in our political stasis and limbo. We probably deserve her winning the election. Now dance, bitch...er, witch.

Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices (1995) review

This is the place where the modern horror genre begins--with characters like the Italian Renaissance Prince, Carlo Gesualdo. Possibly born in 1561 (or 1566, depending on who you believe), Gesualdo was born into nobility, and was the recipient of a Principality in the town of Venosa, and a Duke of the Kingdom of Naples. The Gesualdos were connected by blood-ties to nearly every noble family in Renaissance Italy.

Carlo was considered a child prodigy like Mozart, and was an accomplished performer of the lute and harpsichord.

In 1586, he married his cousin, Maria d'Avalos. The woman was known for both her incredible beauty and her amorousness (though this is debatable), and the marriage was possibly ill-fated due to Gesualdo's abusive behavior. It is unknown whether this is the reason for d'Avalos's infidelities, though his second wife consulted a witch who poisoned the Prince in an attempt to enchant him. Both this wife and a concubine were imprisoned and tortured for the deed, with the concubine dying shortly-afterward from the ordeal. D'Avalos would meet a much darker fate.

It's uncontroversial that the Prince was a sadist, and Gesualdo had wanted them both hanged, but the Church interceded. There is a strong possibility that the Prince plotted to murder his wife for years. However, it does appear that infidelity was the reason why Carlo slaughtered d'Avalos and her lover in what is considered the most heinous murder in the history of Italy and easily of music.

By 1590, the marriage had gone sour: the Prince had found the apartment that the two lovers were using from an uncle (a Cardinal who had unsuccessfully attempted his own affair with d'Avalos). The place was a niche-room in his own palace, and he commenced the planning of a murder. In a premeditated act, Gesualdo told d'Avalos he would be away on a hunting trip overnight with a party of his own senechals--except that he and this personal guard waited nearby until the two had consummated their lovemaking, finally falling asleep.

Gesualdo kicked-in the door and stabbed Maria d'Avalos dozens-of-times in the abdomen and vagina, as well as similar sexual-mutilations on her consort, the Duke of Andria. It is told in local legends of Venosa that after Gesualdo had dragged their bodies into the street, a San Dominican monk committed an act of necrophilia on the body of d'Avalos, adding to the depravity of the event.

This didn't sate the Prince's bloodlust: Gesualdo had their bodies displayed publicly on the steps of a Church, eventually using the corpses for an alchemical experiment that rubberized their organs and circulatory-systems. The bodies are still on-display in a Church in Venosa, making Carlo Gesualdo an evil genius who was clearly ahead of his time in almost every respect. Because of Gesualdo's station as a Prince there were no charges.

From the time that Carlo Gesualdo murdered his first wife, until his death in 1613, he did penance by composition and flagellation.

It is said that he suffered from asthma and constipation, and was possibly further enfeebled by his poisoning by the witch and sorcerer at-the-behest of his concubine and his second wife. For the rest of his life, Gesualdo composed his haunting choral madrigals, and was well-known in his time as a composer of inspired genius. Today, he is even more well-known, which is probably due to the depraved life he led and this documentary by the also-legendary Werner Herzog (commissioned in 1995 by ZDF).

The murders haunted Gesualdo until the end of his life. Immediately after the killings, he personally cut-down the forest surrounding Castle Gesualdo, much like Macbeth's fear of Birnham woods. Interest in the occult was universal in the time of the Prince, and it begs-the-question whether Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe were informed of Gesualdo's story through the court of Elizabeth I. An unsurprising number of Elizabethan and Jacobean plays come from stories with origins in Renaissance Italy. It's my opinion that this fact bears some investigation in the case of Carlo Gesualdo. By the end of his life, Prince Carlo Gesualdo was madder than Macbeth. There is every reason to think that the modern horror story was influenced by the horrific acts of Gesualdo. A hunch, yes, but it deserves investigation.

Werner Herzog does an incredible justice to the story of Gesualdo, and the events which made him famous. But he goes further by interviewing contemporary residents of Venosa on the impact left by the man into today, and his results are interesting and often seductively enigmatic. The region of Italy that he once reigned over is still haunted by him and other aristocrats.

Today, many people around the town still shun the name of Carlo Gesualdo, while the mentally-ill of the region fancy that they ARE the Prince, reincarnated. Others, such as the mad opera singer who "haunts" Castle Gesualdo, fancy they are Maria d'Avalos. It seems that the belief in magic is alive-and-well in Venosa and Ferrara, where local occultists enter the castle to exorcise it regularly with all manner of methods (one uses a bellows bagpipe).

With an extraordinary skill, Herzog wipes-away centuries with his approach, making this story a living one about the battles within all of humankind that continue to this day. The music of Carlo Gesualdo is unearthly, yet it is so terminally human, just like his legacy. Perhaps we find him so interesting because he was nearly 300-years ahead of his time, compositionally and alchemically. "Five Voices" is the documentary as high art and possibly Herzog's best work in the medium. There is a fascinating magic to this story, and the director has captured some of it on film.

Revised, 03.28.2009