Altered states of America : outlaws and icons, hitmakers and hitmen / Richard Stratton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stratton, Richard (Richard H.)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Stratton, Richard (Richard H.).

Stratton, Richard.

Journalists--United States--Biography.

Journalists.

United States.

United States--Civilization--1970-.

Civilization.

United States--Social life and customs.

Manners and customs.

Genre:

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

xlv, 373 pages, 7 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Nation Books : Distributed by Publishers Group West, [2005]

Summary:

Altered States of America is a riveting collection of journalism by outlaw-turned-author Richard Stratton. Stratton's years as an international marijuana smuggler, his eight-year bid in the federal prison system, and subsequent ascendance to acclaimed author and filmmaker give him the credibility with which to wrest an uncommon truth from his subjects.

Stratton is a miner into the heart of another America, a place far removed from suburbs and brightly-lit main streets. These are among the dramatic subjects of Stratton's alternative landscape: Greg Scarpa, a murderous Columbo mob hitman who was secretly an FBI informant; Bonecrusher, a guard at Corcoran penitentiary who witnessed bloody gladiator fights between convicts; the top-secret MK-ULTRA program in which the CIA secretly dosed unsuspecting civilians and its own agents with LSD; and Joe Stassi, America's oldest living gangster, who was ordered to murder his best friend. Whether he is speaking with Norman Mailer or a prison guard, Hunter S. Thompson or a drug smuggler, Sean Penn or a CIA agent, Stratton has an empathetic understanding of his subjects.

Contents:

Introduction: The Fugitive Novelist ix

Norman Mailer: The Rolling Stone Interview: Rolling Stone, January 2 / 16, 1975 1

Hunter S. Thompson: The Last Outlaw: High Times, August 1991 65

The Marco Polo of Pot: Howard Marks: High Times, January 1992 79

Operation Courier and the Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103: High Times, June 1992 93

Altered States of America: The CIA's Covert LSD Experiments: Spin, March 1994 113

The Metamorphosis of Michael Levine: From Gung-Ho Narc to Drug War Dissident: Prison Life, October 1994 135

Everybody Must Get Stoned: Oliver Stone Goes to Prison: Prison Life, March 1995 163

The Resurrection of Edward Bunker: America's Greatest Living Convict Writer: Prison Life, Sept/Oct 1995 181

The Grim Reaper's Girlfriend: The Story of the Secret Relationship Between a Vicious Mob Killer and a Top FBI Agent: Penthouse, August 1996 213

Lockdown!: Penthouse, February 1997 235

Only in America: The Getback of Dennis McKee: Prison Life, February 1997 253

The Making of Bonecrusher: Esquire, September 1999 283

The Man Who Killed Dutch Schultz: The Story of Joe Stassi: GQ, September 2001 307

Norman Mailer on Pot: The High Times Interview: High Times, Nov/Dec 2004 339

Norman Mailer on the Corporatization of Democracy: (Unpublished) 355

Being Sean Penn: Details, December 2004 365.

ISBN:

1560257776

OCLC:

61681238

Publisher Number:

9781560257776