[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> one of the fascinating things, you know, a fascinating character, a rich history, some of you may know him as one of the fbi's ten most wanted. he was on the ten most wanted list right now to bin laden, and

so he was captured in santa monica, california a couple years ago. living just a couple blocks from the beach. i mean, it was quite a life he was living as this retired guy telling people he was, you know, charlie from new york. one of the things that's interesting about him is he was a bank robber, committed a string of bank robberies and testifies convicted in 1956 and sent off to federal prison, and because he was involved in some attempts, he ended up at alcatraz, which was the, you know, first max security federal prison for the worst of the worst, and much to our delight as reporters, everybody who has done time at alcatraz, their entire prison file is open to the public to see. you can go to the archives in san bernardino, california and read all the files, rerts wrote to his brother while in prison, you know, what his work regard was like while in prison, and it

was just amazing to get a glimpse of him as a young man, and one of the things we have known him in recent years is this vicious, scary criminal killer, and to see these letters, if you're in federal prison, at least at that time, you were allowed to write to temperature people and he had a big family, so six of the people were immediate family members, and the other four were all priests. who else would a killer write to? [laughter] one of the fascinating things is that talking about political connections, so while whitey's in alcatraz, his brother, billy, is in boston college law school, and we can see from the records that billy had a father, who was later a conman, become as brother's mentor, and father john was big into prison reform, and he said, oh, i'm so tired of being the black sheep of the family, and i'm going to go out

a and go straight, and he mentor him. >> watch this and other programs online at booktv.org.

>> we should have finished al-qaeda in 2001. our general who was there, but more than just a you general, bi think all of us think back, we were attacked on 9/11, 3,000 americans died, more than in pearl hair lore boar, and we had al-qaeda and bin laden trapped in some mountains called tora bora. we did not finish him off, and we let him escape over the other side of the mountain because we said that is pakistani territory. oh, wait. think for a moment. can you imagine during world war ii when we had admirals win the

battle of midway, which changed the entire war against japan, he sailed across the international date line in the pacific and they tacked the japanese. destroyed the fleet, 1942. he went across the international dateline. supposed he turned back, that's the international dateline, and japan said if we don't cocross the international dateline, you take that part of the pacific and we take this, and we live happily ever after. get to the mountains in the middle of nowhere allowing al al-qaeda to escape makes no sense. our entire country had become morally blaiseic. we should have finished it right then. >> this month, booktv.org's book club selection is bing west, the wrong war. read the book, join in the discussion at booktv.org. live, sunday may 4th, look for the next in-depth guest, former

gang member turned author and poet. his work includes the award winning "always running" and 2011 release "it calls you back." find booktv every weekend on c-span2. leers a look at books established this week.

>> these pictures provide qualities and variety of stages mobs claimed for the victims dangle not just from trees, but

light posts, telephone poles, and bridges. when we elevate the photographs above other artifacts of the same time period, our focus on strange fruit amounts to an acceptance of a very specific representation of the violence. after all, these gruesome images were created and preserved because they fell in line with the discourses that supported racial violence. the black corporation is surrounded by a mob of righteous whites, no grieving loved ones in sight. thus, mainstream lynching photography depighted victims with isolated brutes with no connection to family or community or to institutions like marriage. to similar effect, the images today encourage an acknowledgement of bodies and black bodily pain, but the interest in them has not naturally led to appreciation of the community as more enduring losses incoming psych logical, emotional, and financial suffering.

.. >> up next on booktv "after words" with guest host juan

williams columnist for the hill. this week syndicated columnist cal thomas in his latest book "what works" common sense solutions for a stronger america in it he argues that solving the country's problem starts with looking at what worked in the past is guarding politics and listening to voters. this program is about an hour. >> host: we are joined by cal thomas and his new book "what works" common sense solutions for a stronger america forward by sean hannity. that tells you a lot about this book cal. >> guest: sean is a very good friend of course and harpercollins which is publishing the book thought that he would be a very good person to write the forward. i was happy he did so. nancy pelosi was not available so i was glad to have his forward and he did a good job. >> host: this is intended for conservative bob -- breeder.