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The Price Of Experience: Power, Money, Image And Murder In Los Angeles Audio Cassette – March 7, 1997

by Randall Sullivan (Author)

4.8 16 ratings

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Book by Sullivan, Randall

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Books on Tape, Inc. (March 7, 1997)
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0736636161
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0736636162
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.5 pounds

Customer Reviews:
4.8 16 ratings

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Randall Sullivan

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Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5

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J.R. LeMar

Excellent Journalism

Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2013

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I first heard of Joe Hunt and the so-called Billionaire Boys Club when I saw Billionaire Boys Club when I was in High School. I was immediately fascinated by this tale of greed, wealth, and violence among the kids of the rich and famous in Southern California. I taped it, watched dozens of times over the years, and bought Sue Horton's book about the case. But this one is much more thorough, and goes into great details about the inner-workings of Joe Hunt's financial dealings, and his "paradox philosophy", as well as the motivations and planning of the murders that he and his cohorts carried out. This is a big thick books, that I read in two days. I just couldn't put it down.

5 people found this helpful

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Patrick

Superb

Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2008

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This is a fascinating book and Sullivan recounts, in vivid detail, the rise and fall of the Billionaire Boys Club. Everything from the description of social dynamics at the Harvard School (which hold true today) to the financial dealings of the BBC to the astonishing and shocking trials makes it a pleasure to read. It is truly a remarkable story, and it is narrated superbly by Sullivan. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand the 1980s or Los Angeles, or has a passing interest in one of the most enthralling trials in modern California history.

My only regret is that there's not an updated version to tell us what became of Joe Hunt, Dean Karny, Jim Pittman, Ben Dosti and the other characters in the BBC.

9 people found this helpful

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Larry Burns

Story Examines Many Issues

Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2010

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This is a top notch, extremely well written examination of human behavior, the inherent desire to trust, and the need for direction in life. The fact that people who didn't need Joe Hunt followed him almost without reserve is a study in itself. Randall Sullivan clearly defines parallels such as wealth and insecurity, power and paranoia, and greed and gullibility. Detailed assessments of real people, their motivations and what they were willing to do to achieve them stand along side of the characterization of a transitional time in America (the 1980s), when morals, standards of conduct, and accountability would be changed forever in the journey toward a new century.

7 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2016

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Superb

One person found this helpful

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Antonio Sacin

A Long and Threaded Tale

Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2000

The basic characteristic of this book, rather the one that I most associated with it, was LENGTH. The narration is a variable too, the author's language tends to change from a complete recitation of facts to the inner feelings of some of the characters. Another characteristic is that this book runs through at least three story threads as the author covers the stories linking Joe Hunt and his associates first to the murder of Ron Levine and later with the appearance of Reza Islaminia and the murder of his father, Hedayadd Islaminia. The BBC has its spectre of characters, and almost one by one, the author writes the account of their deeds, most of the time recitating the facts and never jumping to any conclusions. At times, it seems like an excerpt of judicial records.

4 people found this helpful

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ntnrocket

Complete Story Of An Exciting & Disturbing True Crime Event

Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2003

Before reading The Price of Experience, I had seen television documentaries/docu-dramas and read a primer on the topic. But if you don't know anything at all about the BBC and Joe Hunt, or you want to know a lot more, this book is all you'll ever need to read...ever!!! Sullivan goes into such great detail on every individual involved, including murdered scammers Ron Levin and Headiah Eslamenia, that the reader feels like he now knows each of them personally and could talk about them at great length with anyone. Buy this book because if you don't, you'll merely waste gas driving to the library to borrow it again and again. A modern true crime masterpiece! Both an engrossing narritive and an exhaustive reference book on the Billionaire Boys Club case all at the same time. An off the charts winner. You won't be sorry.

8 people found this helpful

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Ramon Gonzalez

Simply put, the best work of non-ficition I have EVER read!!

Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2001

An absolute masterpiece. Unbelievably researched and beautifully written. It's a shame this book never caught the public eye, obviously because the BBC was such a dated subject at the time of publication. There is not a single tome in my entire collection that has brought me as much pleasure and insight. Far more than a mere true crime book, this epic is a stunning cultural history of Los Angeles. In fact, stating that "The Price of Experience" is merely a true crime book is like saying THE GODFATHER is merely a gangster film. Almost everyone I know that has read it agrees it is the finest non-fiction book ever written.

15 people found this helpful

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E. Granter

Too Much Information

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 26, 2014

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Most European and British readers will not have heard of the Billionaire's Boy's Club (BBC) I would guess. I certainly hadn't until I did some searching for literature on police corruption in LA. I didn't find much, but I did end up with the BBC Story.

In brief, the BBC were a group of young, rich, thick young men who during the 1980s allowed themselves to be manipulated and corrupted by an apparent psychopath called Joe Hunt (nee Gamsky). Hunt/Gamsky used the social cache of these LA brats to help him set up a ponzi scheme fraud, and then some of them murdered some people because they couldn't even commit fraud properly, and were running out of money.

That's about it, but the book describes the descent of these thoroughly unlikeable reprobates in excruciating detail. The reader is regailed with descriptions of not only the protagonists, but what feels like their family tree going back three generations, including pets and gardeners. It is at least professionally written and well edited, and there are some nice touched which evoke the LA of the 1980s in elegaic style. I assume, because I've never been to LA.

The central character, Hunt/Gamsky is someone you will feel you know, if not like, by the end of the book. He, and in some senses the book, seems to style himself as a cult leader cum financial whiz, but he failed at both. Anyone in their right mind should know that if someone claims to have discovered a 'system' for beating the commodities markets, or getting a return on investment of 13% per month, they are a deluded con man.

The author is to be commended on his superb research skills and his professional approach to writing, but this book is three times too long and getting to the end was a struggle.

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