The Price of Justice: A True Story of Greed and Corruption
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.44 (730 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B009LRWHWW |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 441 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-08-11 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
He is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Harper's, and Playboy, and has written cover stories for Newsweek. . Laurence Leamer is the bestselling author of more than a dozen books, including The Kennedy Women and Madness Under the Royal Palms. He lives in Washington, D.C., and Palm Beach, Florida
From Booklist *Starred Review* Not content to dominate the coal-mining industry through Massey Energy and the West Virginia judicial system that indirectly supported it, CEO Don Blankenship ferociously punished anyone who dared to challenge that dominance. The legal intrigue that formed the basis of John Grisham’s novel The Appeal (2008) includes fascinating real-life characters: vindictive, coldhearted Blankenship; folksy Stanley, a son of West Virginia; and meticulous, cause-driven Fawcett. --Vanessa Bush . Leamer is masterful at presenting the important issues, strong personalities, political and legal machinations, and economic stakes of the ch
"Buy this book!" according to Kindle Customer. "You couldn't make this stuff up." How often have you heard/read this? Mr. Leamer has written a book that proves the quote to be true. I was looking for a "white collar true crime" type book. The name Don Blankenship piqued my curiosity. He was in the news a few years ago when we all heard about the awful mine disaster in West Virginia.What a great read this book is. I realized there's more to the story (sadly) than what I saw on the news. Blankenship was evil incarnate.Money, corporate corruption, disregard for the good people of Appalachian heritage, back room legal shenanigans. It's all here.. "Business Gone Bad and Lawyers Gone Good" according to Robert B. Lamm. This book was recommended to me by a friend who holds a senior position with an institutional investor. She knows a lot about companies and a lot about corporate governance. And she's recommended some terrific books to me in the past. When she recommended this, she said it was good, if not as good as some others she's recommended to me over time.She was totally spot on. This is a good book, and yet another cautionary tale about big business breeding big egos and big, bad behavior. In other words, it's disturbing and - SPOILER ALERT - sad, because the ending is bittersweet at best.When my friend said that the book was good rather than great, I. "Knowing the outcome." according to Glass Artist. Living in West Virginia and being aware of these trials, but not in such detail, I was very interested to read about the trials and tribulations of the people involved in the struggle. The only thing I wished was that the book had been published later, so we could read of the fall of Blankenship. A more despicable person who has ruined the lives of so many good people, some of whom I've known. Great read.
And as Laurence Leamer demonstrates in this captivating tale, because it's true, it's scarier than fiction.. A nonfiction legal thriller that traces the fourteen-year struggle of two lawyers to bring the most powerful coal baron in American history, Don Blankenship, to justiceDon Blankenship, head of Massey Energy since the early 1990s, ran an industry that provides nearly half of America's electric power. Supreme Court, and to a dramatic decision declaring that the wealthy and powerful are not entitled to purchase their own brand of law.The Price of Justice is a story of corporate corruption so far-reaching and devastating it could have been written a hundred years ago by Ida Tarbell or Lincoln Steffens. Just about the only thing that stood in the way of Blankenship's tyranny over a state and an industry was a pair of odd-couple attorneys, Dave Fawcett and Bruce Stanley, who undertook a legal quest to bring justice to this corner of America. From the backwoods courtrooms of West Virginia they pursued their case all the way to the U.S. But wealth and influence weren't enough for Blankenship and his company, as they set about destroying corporate and personal rivals, challenging the Constitution, purchasing the West Virginia judiciary, and willfully disregarding safety standards in the compa