ARSON!

Hardback. A man sets fire to his apartment building because of a neighbour's baby's incessant crying. A young punk burns the deserted summer bungalows of Rockaway, eluding every trap, until he is finally caught by means of ultraviolet powder. A psychopath claims that his dead mother ordered him to burn Robert Kennedy's body as it lies in state in St. Patrick's Cathedral. A college girl regularly sets fire to her Greenwich Village dormitory in the hope that a dreaded exam will be cancelled. In this book, the author recounts his adventures, case by case, in the arson wars of New York City. His unit, the Division of Fire Investigation of the New York Fire Department, is charged with hunting down the men and women who are burning the city out of hate, personal revenge, anger, perversion, for murder and for larceny, and to swindle. A fire marshal since 1967, Barracato solved a record number of cases with his unique methods of tracking down arsonists, and was recognised as one of the nation's top arson investigators. 239pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. With some pencil underlining to text o/w Vg. in Vg. pcdw.