Matt Birkbeck
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DECONSTRUCTING
SAMMY
Money, Music, Madness, and
the Mob (Amistad/Harper Collins 2008)
Sammy Davis Jr. lived a storied life. Adored by millions over a six
decade career he was considered an icon and a national treasure. But
despite lifetime earnings that topped $50 million, Sammy died in
1990 near bankruptcy. His estate was declared insolvent, and there
was no possibility of ever using Sammy’s name or likeness again. It
was if Sammy never existed.
Years later his widow, Altovise, was living in poverty in
Pennsylvania. With nowhere else to go she turned to Albert “Sonny”
Murray , a former federal prosecutor,
to make one last attempt to resolve Sammy’s debts, restore
his estate, and revive his legacy.
Sonny, heir to another great but struggling black legacy, spent
seven years probing into Sammy’s life to understand how someone of
great celebrity and wealth could have lost everything. This serious
work of investigative journalism tells the extraordinary and
explosive story of an international celebrity at the center of a
confluence of entertainment, politics and organized crime and shows
how Sammy’s outsized
talent couldn’t save him from him self.
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A BEAUTIFUL CHILD
A True Story of Hope,
Horror, and an Enduring Human Spirit (Berkley/Penguin Hardcover
2004, Paperback 2005)
Sharon Marshall was brilliant.
As a student at Forest Park High School near Atlanta, Georgia,
Sharon was at the top of her class. She had a personality that
radiated, and the blond-haired, blue-eyed beauty to match, making
her one of the more popular, and respected, students.
She was the girl next door, her future filled with so much
hope and promise. She was an American dream.
But Sharon had secrets. Deep, disturbing secrets so shocking and
complex, and so unique, they took more than a decade to unravel.
A Beautiful Child
explores one of the most baffling, and chilling, cases in the annals
of American law enforcement. It tells the gripping true story of a
gifted, yet mysterious young woman trapped in the violent world of
the murderous felon and fugitive she called her father.
What unfolds is a heartrending testament to the profound
courage and perseverance of one woman trapped in the grip of extreme
evil.
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