tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post5360885008118104398..comments2024-03-28T08:30:57.453-04:00Comments on Murder is Everywhere: EmbuOvidia Yuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05749549092493567689noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-63278682955833414532010-11-20T11:16:09.003-05:002010-11-20T11:16:09.003-05:00Hi Kathy D.,
I see you're going back and readi...Hi Kathy D.,<br />I see you're going back and reading some of the older posts.<br />That's gratifying - and I thank you for it.<br />The people who NEVER gave up on looking for Mengele were the Israelis.<br />They were hot on his trail until almost the end, had sent a team to Brazil to track him down and would have got him if he'd lived just a little bit longer.<br />By all accounts, his life wasn't half as miserable as (if this were a just world) it should have been.<br />But it was pretty bad all the same.<br />Apparently, he lived in constant fear of discovery. That gave him a stomach ulcer.<br />And he was always chewing on his mustache so that an operation was necessary to remove a hair ball from his stomach.<br />He'd also been a very social individual in his youth, but ended his life as a recluse and a paranoid, distrustful of virtually everyone.<br />Not sufficient punishment, of course.<br />But then nothing would have been, would it?Leighton Gagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09788807904434180290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-55607083328713628472010-11-20T03:08:48.813-05:002010-11-20T03:08:48.813-05:00I simply cannot fathom with all of my own reading ...I simply cannot fathom with all of my own reading and learning, how these Nazi war criminals lived in South America, in Europe, the U.S. or Canada for decades and were not caught and punished. I keep reading obituaries in the New York Times of these torturers who lived out their lives., and well, too. One, the other day, talked of one who brutally murdered several young women, one pregnant, in a camp. He died at an old age, living in Canada.<br />Another article recently told of many who lived in Europe for all of these years and had good lives. Another told of war criminals living in the U.S., also living good lives.<br />It is just beyond me. Why Interpol, and all of the intelligence agencies weren’t looking for them is outrageous. Many were right here in my own backyard.<br />I can’t read novels about WWII; it’s too awful. It’s not academic. It was real life; unfathomable crimes were committed against millions. And there was not justice for so many responsible.kathy d.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-66461800878879662292009-12-04T14:24:12.724-05:002009-12-04T14:24:12.724-05:00Thanks, Beth --
This is Tim, horning in on Leight...Thanks, Beth --<br /><br />This is Tim, horning in on Leighton's comments thread to say thanks for remembering Eleanor and Simeon. There's a chance the series may be reprinted. I'll talk about that here and on my own blog if things get settled.<br /><br />Thanks again.Tim Hallinanhttp://www.timothyhallinan.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-28175406429218283212009-12-02T19:54:14.564-05:002009-12-02T19:54:14.564-05:00In a group that used power as a murder weapon, Men...In a group that used power as a murder weapon, Mengele stands out. Himmler, Goering, Goebbels, and Hitler were men of small intellect who rallied the masses who could not, would not, believe that they had lost the war. The more fear they created, pitting people against each other, the more powerful they became. But Mengele was different. As you wrote, Leighton, Mengele had the intelligence and the medical skills to be so much more. Himmler was a chicken farmer and killing humans was no different than killiing people, although he killed people at a distance. Mengele was hands on; Mengele was evil.<br /><br />I remember all the sightings of Mengele throughout the years. It was like all the sightings of Whitey Bulger (the Jack Nicholson character in "The Departed"). Even after the exhumation proved he was dead a lot of people didn't want to believe that he could have died so easily, so painlessly, as in simply drowning. Mengele is proof that horror can present itself as banal.<br /><br />I have read "Murder in Mykonos" and I am looking forward to the next book in the series. Are the abandoned chapels in the mountains real? I have a tall, blonde daughter; it was too easy to imagine her as one of the victims.<br /><br />I have enjoyed both of Dan Waddell's Nigel Barnes books. I hope there will be another soon. I identify with Nigel's interest in chasing down minute bits of information although my searches are confined to the purely mundane.<br /><br />Simeon Grist and Eleanor Chan are two of my favorite characters. I left a post last night on the "Mystery Cafe" discussion in which I went on at length about Eleanor's reason for her research if she is challenged at a university library.<br /><br />Leighton, I am eagerly awaiting your book. Mario Silva isn't like Wallender. Mario is a man people would like to meet off the page.<br /><br />Beth CrowleyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-80987898888761937442009-12-01T18:45:05.337-05:002009-12-01T18:45:05.337-05:00Hi Susie,
I'm glad you're having fun with ...Hi Susie,<br />I'm glad you're having fun with the blog.<br />Exchanges on the back channel indicate that my blog mates are too.<br />We're all going to do our best to continue to make it interesting and readable.<br />Talk it up for us, will you?<br />The more followers, the merrier.<br />Then we'll all be trapped and have to do it forever.Leighton Gagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09788807904434180290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-71247232259665972742009-12-01T11:58:54.608-05:002009-12-01T11:58:54.608-05:00Hi Leighton,
The comment that starts 'I'm...Hi Leighton,<br /><br />The comment that starts 'I'm loving your blog..'<br />is mine.<br /><br />I'm so used to posting without signing my name.<br /><br />SusieAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-28191760640100051732009-12-01T11:55:15.430-05:002009-12-01T11:55:15.430-05:00Hi Leighton,
I'm loving your blog, your artic...Hi Leighton,<br /><br />I'm loving your blog, your articles are fascinating.<br /><br />I'm also glad to find a new author, to me, Jeff Siger, to check out.<br /><br />How wild to stand at Mengele's gravesite.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-49062403283842689602009-12-01T11:52:46.569-05:002009-12-01T11:52:46.569-05:00Great post, Leighton. Glad my effort got you to ch...Great post, Leighton. Glad my effort got you to change tack and give up that offering!Dan Waddellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03664392799894772255noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-46044236196099779222009-11-30T17:37:48.800-05:002009-11-30T17:37:48.800-05:00Hi Tim,
I, too, had the impression he'd been t...Hi Tim,<br />I, too, had the impression he'd been there much longer. I also had the impression that he was the camp's chief doctor - which he wasn't.<br />I think it was all those experiences with the twins that resulted in more notoriety for him than for the others. That, and the fact that he used to make his selections in a white doctor's coat. The prisoner's name for him wasn't "The Angel of Death" it was, "The White Angel."<br />Macabre.Leighton Gagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09788807904434180290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-68156257147563032982009-11-30T13:24:27.635-05:002009-11-30T13:24:27.635-05:00Fascinating post, Leighton. Monsters in the neigh...Fascinating post, Leighton. Monsters in the neighborhood, probably a lot more commonplace than most of us would like to think, although even as monsters go, Mengele was over the top.<br /><br />I had no idea he did all of that in only 21 months at Auschwitz. Robert Jay Lifton's hair-raising "The Nazi Doctors" is so packed with incident that it felt as though Mengele had been there for years.Tim Hallinanhttp://www.timothyhallinan.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-74871839568230127512009-11-30T12:27:55.214-05:002009-11-30T12:27:55.214-05:00Leighton,
I'm not one to blush, but if I were...Leighton,<br /><br />I'm not one to blush, but if I were you're the one to make me do it. Like I said before, you're the best. And a very gracious gentleman and colleague.Jeffrey Sigerhttp://www.jeffreysiger.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-32647255990302006722009-11-30T12:03:54.405-05:002009-11-30T12:03:54.405-05:00Hi Jeff,
Thanks for dropping in and for taking th...Hi Jeff,<br /><br />Thanks for dropping in and for taking the time to write.<br /><br />Jeff, for those of you who haven't read it, wrote a terrific first novel in "Murder in Mykonos". If you're here, reading this, you like books set in locations outside the US.<br /><br />And Jeff's is a cracker-jack work that belongs on your reading list. Now, he's written another, "Assasssins of Athens", which I have yet to read, but if it's anything like the first one I'm going to love it. <br /><br />BTW, for those of you who don't know me well, I'm a harsh critic who doesn't praise lightly. "Murder in Mykonos", believe me, is a book you're going to enjoy.Leighton Gagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09788807904434180290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-3426067277751216132009-11-30T09:08:26.271-05:002009-11-30T09:08:26.271-05:00Hi Leighton!
It is indeed a small world; and a dar...Hi Leighton!<br />It is indeed a small world; and a dark, mysterious, interconnected one if your piece on Embu/Mengele and that terrific except from "Dying Gasp" are any measure. You sure do know how to set the hook:) Congratulations. A colleague told me to take a look at this site-- what with my living in Greece and placing my Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis series there--and can you imagine my surprise when what to my wondering eyes should appear but the photo and blog of my favorite author this year! It was great seeing you at MBFI and, with luck, perhaps we'll bump into each other on tour this winter. Best, JeffJeffrey Sigerhttp://www.jeffreysiger.comnoreply@blogger.com