When Father and Son Conspire examines in depth the September 29, 1983, murders of two southwestern Minnesota bankers by 46-year-old James Jenkins and his 18-year-old son, Steven, on a farm mortgaged to the bankers and abandoned by Jenkins. The crime led to a nationwide search, the apparent suicide of James, the surrender of Steven, and a case for Stevenâ€™s defense based on the bizarre relationship between father and son. Was their crime really the desperate act of desperate men caught in the farm crisis, as the media espoused? Or was it the eruption of both menâ€™s growing mental illness fed by mutual delusions of reality, rootlessness, divorce, loneliness, and obsessive behavior? Nine detailed chapters examine the men, their myths, the murders they ommitted, and the motivation of it all-considering facts not taken into account at the trial and concluding that the farm crisis was a convincing excuse but not the real reason for this ruthless crime.

When Father and Son Conspire: A Minnesota Farm Murder

Biographies & Memoirs

Amato, Joseph

True Crime

Iowa State Pr

"I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understand the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks, who had a genius, so to speak, for sauntering." — Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862)
" Everything is within walking distance if you have the time." —Stephen Wright (1955—)
For approximately six million years, humans have walked the earth. This is the story of how, why, and to what effect we put one foot in front of the other. Walking has been the primary mode of locomotion for humans until very recent times when we began to sit and ride-first on horses and in carriages, then trains and bicycles, and finally cars, trucks, buses, and airplanes-rather than go on foot. The particular way we saunter, clomp, meander, shuffle, plod along, jaunt, tramp, and wander on foot conveys a wealth of information about our identity, condition, and destination. In this fast-stepping social history, Joseph A. Amato takes us on a journey of walking-from the first human migrations to marching Roman legions and ancient Greeks who considered man a "featherless biped"; from trekking medieval pilgrims to strolling courtiers; from urban pavement pounders to ambling window shoppers to suburban mall walkers. Concentrating on walking in Europe and North America and with particular focus on how walking differed according to social class, Amato distinguishes how, where, when, who, what, and under which conditions people moved on foot. He identifies crucial transformations in the history of walking, including the adoption of the horse by the mounted warrior; the rise of public display among European nobility; and the building of roads and transportation systems, which led to the inevitable ascent of the wheel over the foot.

On Foot: A History of Walking

History

Americas

NYU Press

Great Jerusalem Artichoke Circus: The Buying and Selling of the Rural American Dream

In 1981, near the end of the second post-World War II energy crisis and at the onset of the nation's most recent farm crisis, American Energy Farming Systems began to sell and distribute what it called a 'providential plant' destined to be a new and saving crop: the Jerusalem artichoke. In this book, the author tells the story of the failed attempt by a less-than-honest businessman to introduce this new crop to a depressed agricultural region of the United States..

Business & Money

Economics

Univ. of Minnesota Press

Servants of the Land: God, Family & Farm : The Trinity of Belgain American Folkways in Southwest Minnesota

Crossing Pr

The book describes natural decline in rural Minnesota.

Decline of Rural Minnesota

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Southwest Minnesota : the Land and the People

A study of Emmanuel Mounier, founder of Personalism, and Jacques Maritian, significant contributor to revival of Catholic thought and Thomism, and two generations of French Catholic intellectuals, this book examines the gulf between nineteenth century Catholic tradition and the twentieth-century European events. Amato's brilliant 1975 study of Mounier and Maritain's attempts to find a Catholic understanding of a world marked by total war, genocide, totalitarianism, mass society and the loss of faith in democracy. He shows us how much we still need to comprehend that period if we are to understand our new century as Catholics and Christians.

Mounier and Maritain: A French Catholic Understanding of the Modern World

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

Sapientia Press Ave Maria Univ

A rare memoir of a handsome young Italian-American soldier stationed in Japan during World War II who fell in love with a Japanese beauty. In order to bring her to the U.S. during a time when the nation hated all things Japanese, Angelo Amato repeatedly petitioned his congressman, John F. Kennedy. The bill sponsored by JFK to allow the entry of Kimiko Yamaguchi into the United States was signed by President Harry Truman and is just one part of a dramatic love story. As a veteran back home in East Boston, Amato rejoined his Sicilian family, worked for the state and built a long career as a union leader and civil engineer for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Public Works. Amato was often heard to say, “I have always felt that I have an Angel assigned to me personally who protects me.” This is his story.

Angelo A. Amato and the Power of Unions: The life of an East Boston Italian in post-war Japan, Massachusetts politics and unions

Community & Culture

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Books by Amato, Joseph