Final justice

the true story of the richest man ever tried for murder

  • 0 Ratings
  • 2 Want to read
  • 1 Currently reading
  • 0 Have read

My Reading Lists:

Create a new list

Check-In

×Close
Add an optional check-in date. Check-in dates are used to track yearly reading goals.
Today

  • 0 Ratings
  • 2 Want to read
  • 1 Currently reading
  • 0 Have read

Buy this book

Last edited by ImportBot
January 15, 2023 | History

Final justice

the true story of the richest man ever tried for murder

  • 0 Ratings
  • 2 Want to read
  • 1 Currently reading
  • 0 Have read

This is a fascinating and disturbing tale that illustrates just how hard it is to convict somebody who has a lot of money and power. Cullen Davis, warped little rich boy dominated by his incredibly wealthy and megalomanic father, grows up to inherit most of the fortune and position. What does he do with it? He chases sex kitten type women, showers them with lavish gifts, and abuses them.

Naifeh and Smith raise the true crime genre to something close to literature here. We have the usual litany of sickies and psychopaths, the usual police incompetence, prosecutors who can't prosecute, etc. The "final justice" in the title is somewhat ironic since multimillionaire Cullen Davis is never found guilty of any of his crimes, the worst of which was the cold-blooded murder of his wife's 12-year-old daughter; the least of which, perhaps the killing of her kitten. The juries in Texas just would not convict him (although they have put a number of poor people on death row). Instead they admired him for his money, stupidly since he just inherited it. And before the book is over, he blows most of it.

We get a terrible sense here that people with riches in positions of power really can get away with murder. People look up to them regardless of their crimes. It helps us to understand how murderers like Sadaam Hussein and what's his name in Yugoslavia continue in power. It's not just that people are afraid of them, they look up to them and find ways to excuse their crimes. This is the human tribal mind at work: better our corrupt and evil leader than theirs, and better a corrupt and evil leader than no leader at all. The women in this one come off as particularly subject to manipulation by power and money, although that was not necessarily the authors' intent. They wanted to show just what a sick, sick man Cullen Davis is, and they succeed in that. But incidentally they revealed the women around him, especially his gold-digging wives, as sad, sad creatures who would be abused and wallow in it for the sake of being close to all that money and power and maybe getting a little of it. One has the sense that they couldn't help themselves.

Publish Date
Publisher
Onyx
Language
English
Pages
528

Buy this book

Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Final justice

Add another edition?

Book Details


Edition Notes

Originally published: New York, N.Y. : Dutton, c1993.

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL7575423M
Internet Archive
finaljusticetrue00naif
ISBN 10
0451405137
ISBN 13
9780451405135
Library Thing
179065
Goodreads
962107

Community Reviews (0)

Feedback?
No community reviews have been submitted for this work.

History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON / OPDS | Wikipedia citation
January 15, 2023 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
December 17, 2022 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
August 12, 2011 Edited by ImportBot add ia_box_id to scanned books
August 6, 2010 Edited by IdentifierBot added LibraryThing ID
April 29, 2008 Created by an anonymous user Imported from amazon.com record.