"As she awaits her husband's release from prison, it is evident that Joy Desmond has not lacked for male companionship in his absence. Their lawyer, Bruno Capra, has in fact moved in with her, and it is Joy's desire to make the arrangement permanent. However, Bruno is interested in money as well as love, and the problem is how to gain both his client's wife and fortune, at the same time. It is the calculating Joy who comes up with the macabre means to do this, although their conspiracy is almost revealed when her unexpectedly paroled husband suddenly arrives before Bruno can pack his bag and exit. Dr. Desmond, who is quite a bit older than his wife, is also an eminent herpetologist and he brings with him a rare -- and particularly venomous -- snake to add to his collection. Joy's scheme, in simplest terms, is to plant the deadly reptile where her husband will come upon it by "accident" and receive a fatal bite, and she and Bruno devise a carefully worked out plan of action to abet this."--Publisher.

When Oscar Booze entered West Point in 1898, the older cadets decided that he did not conform to their image of what a cadet should be. After four months of constant torment, including a beating in an organized boxing match, ridicule for reading his Bible, and the forced consumption of hot sauce in the cadet mess hall, he resigned. When Oscar died a year and a half later from tuberculosis of the larynx, his family claimed that the West Point cadets had killed their son by scarring his throat and creating a fertile field for the fatal infection. This is the story of the ensuing scandal that brought West Point under fire in the press nationwide. Investigations following Oscar's death would reveal a long-standing pattern of cruelty that had become inextricably identified with the academy, related to notions of social Darwinism and initiation rituals popular at the time. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate considered closing the Academy in light of testimony by cadets in two separate investigations that revealed cruel and sadistic practices. Distilling startling accounts from trial transcripts, contemporary newspaper stories, archival records and correspondence, this book exposes a little-known chapter in the history of West Point.

Are there events that are inherently scandalous? Power of Scandal finds that the very idea of 'scandal' is derived not from an event, but from public opinion - which, in turn, is construed by media narratives. Scandal is powerful because of its ability to challenge institutions by destabilizing their legitimacy. The media plays an integral role in the creation of scandal because it interprets real events as purposeful actions for the public. Examining the ubiquity of scandals in today's mass media, Johannes Ehrat's conclusions are fresh and surprising. Ehrat applies classic semiotic and pragmatic thought to contemporary media issues, mainly moralist discourse from sex abuse cases to the phenomenon of televangelism. Arguing that sociological and communications studies of scandal have ignored the media's constructed nature, Ehrat focuses on how meaningful public narrative is produced. By examining the parallel worlds of media and public opinion, Power of Scandal uses an alternative heuristic for understanding mass communication that is both rigorous and sophisticated.

Alumni may think military schools do not change, that all graduates go through the same education and training. But there are distinct generational differences. Choosing the Harder Right is the untold compelling story of a very complicated event from the perspective of Cadet Timothy Ringgold, who publicly challenged the institution he loved-not because he was one of the accused, but to render loyal aid to hundreds of his fellow West Point cadets. Standing up to an establishment as powerful as the United States Military Academy at West Point-with its 174 years of tradition, alumni, enrolled Corps of Cadets, administration, faculty, and the US Army behind it-was not an easy undertaking. It was Tim Ringgold's way of "choosing the harder right instead of the easier wrong," and never being content "with a half-truth, when the whole can be won." (excerpt from the Cadet Prayer). The largest cheating scandal of any service academy in history, the events of 1976 were the catalyst that forged a better West Point.