Re: Off topic--spam, why does it work?

["J. R. Fox" jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

Norman Bauman wrote:

> You're thinking of Paladin Press. http://www.paladin-press.com/ They used
> to publish books like The Poor Man's Sniper Rifle; 21 Techniques of Silent
> Killing; Be Your Own Undertaker: How to Dispose of a Dead Body; 101 Sucker
> Punches; Head Butts, Eye Gouging and Hair Pulling: A Scientific Approach to
> Dirty Fighting; The Ancient Art of Strangulation; Fun, Games and Big Bangs:
> The Home and Recreational Use of High Explosives; and Kill Without Joy: The
> Complete How-to-Kill Book.

Interesting post, Norman, and thanks for the reminder, but No, I'm quite sure
the books I saw were *other* ones, and not theirs. That sounds like the
equivalent of Grade-Z Drive-in fare. Think more along the lines of a Nolo
Press, gone really bad. Think determined and practical, not sensationalistic.
The kind of stuff I saw might have *originally* come out of a far-Left
zeitgeist, like the Weather Underground, but, in subsequent decades, I think
far-Right examples took over. If you're doing illegal, underground stuff, I
guess the politics become irrelevent.

> One of their books was "Hit Man", which purported to be a manual for
> setting yourself up as a murder-for-hire contract killer. It was actually
> written by a woman who didn't even own a gun, who got most of her
> information from newspaper stories and movies.

On the other hand, even in that particular milieu, consider something like --
what was the title that some say wound Tim McVeigh's clock -- "The Turner
Diaries" ? A work of fiction, yet its details provided effective blueprints
for that sort of horrendous crime.

> I used to know Lyle Stuart, who ran a publishing house with his own name
> that specialized in controversial books, but he had his limits. He
> published a karate book, but deleted the chapter on "how to kill", and
> published the Anarchist's Cookbook, but then thought better of it and let
> it go out of print.

I vaguely remembered that name also. I think the *original* Anarchist's
Cookbook may go back to the early part of the last century, with the title
being reused many times since. At least some versions of that were no phoney
baloney, either.


Jordan