TALK TO MY LAWYER! Great Stories of Southern Alberta's Bar & Bench

Hardback. The Calgary Bar Association chose the author to bring together the vast resources of oral history, archival documents, and court records in one comprehensive book on the legal procession in Calgary and its effect upon the development of the province and the country. The courtrooms of Calgary were often the scenes of pivotal events in Canadian history, such as the battles over prohibition and conscription, the fall of the Alberta UFA party in the 1930s, and R.B. Bennett's titanic war with Sir James Lougheed - the start of Bennett's rocky road to the highest office in Canada. Some of the cases the author recounts are the stuff of great drama: the Picariello-Lassandro case in which a father's revenge lead 2 people to the gallows; the "Jumbo" Fisk murder case, as horrifying an example of brutality, sexual assault, and racism as one is ever likely to find; the MacMillan-Brownlee trial in which a young woman accused the premier of Alberta of seduction, thereby toppling the UFA government, and indirectly allowing the rise to power of Social Credit; the McPherson-Mattern wife-swapping caper that whetted the appetite of the depression-weary public for juicy sex scandals. From race relations to oil and gas exploitation, from murder and mayhem to political intrigue, from aboriginal rights to women's rights, to just plain good stories well told, the author has assembled a cast of colourful characters and presents a fascinating piece of Canadian history. Illus. 214pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true-crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate plus that of The Calgary Bar Association. Nr. F. in sl. sunned vg+ dw.