Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #339493 in Books
• Published on: 1998-03-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 322 pages

Amazon.com Review
In 1969, disgruntled high school teacher Phil Kerby applied to the FBI on a lark. To his surprise, he was accepted (via a personal telegram from J. Edgar Hoover), and he spent the next 26 years of his life serving as a special agent. With Honor and Purpose purports to tell the "true story" of the FBI's inner workings; Kerby makes repeated attempts to show the reader that the FBI presented in popular entertainment is mostly wishful thinking, and his just-the-facts writing style and endless references to mundane paperwork make the claim believable.

The FBI, as Kerby tells it, is really just another plodding bureaucracy, only these clerks get to carry guns. In one of the longer cases described in the book, Kerby spends almost a year just trying to get the paperwork done correctly to request a wiretap on a suspect; the tap is denied anyway. Kerby characterizes his graduating class at the FBI Academy as a bunch of accountants, an exclusively white club for men in white shirts and black ties. Later in his career, Kerby's passion turned to nailing mobsters and gangsters of all stripes, and the book's centerpiece, wherein Kerby and his fellow Saginaw, Michigan, agents laboriously investigate a local would-be Mafia don, is enthralling. While Kerby tends to grouse about policies made by headquarters, his book sheds welcome light on an organization all too often cloaked in shadows. --Tjames Madison

From Kirkus Reviews
A retired FBI field commander reports on his quarter-century with the bureau. Kerby joined the FBI in 1969 and was delighted by the princely salary of $11,626 and the opportunity to serve justice. He romanticizes the good old days to a certain extent. But he was a committed G-man, and devoted his life to solving bank robberies and busting up prostitution ringscrimes he thinks seem too small-time for FBI agents today. His early days at the Albany bureau were marked by several errors, such as the time he and a few other agents stopped a bank robbery by forming a circle around the would-be thieves and pointing their gunsthey would have ended up shooting one another. These days, writes Kerby, agents form an L around a suspect. Kerby is still incensed about Dog Ferguson, a big-shot pimp who liked to revisit his high school in Columbus, Ohio, with his best-looking girls draped on his arms. It drove Kerby to distraction that other agents let the pimp be, and he made catching the slippery Dog his top priority. Kerby's instincts were correct. Dog had contacts across the continent and was discovered to be among the most powerful pimps in the country. Dog also had many Ohio State University coeds on his payroll. Just days after one of his retired girls was seen talking to Kerby, she had a mysterious and fatal fall down her stairs. One of Kerby's sweetest moments was watching Dog go to jail. While short on the blockbuster crime-busting of other FBI memoirs, this book is full of intriguing detailslike the undercover agent who developed such a craving for bologna that he gained 60 pounds while on assignmentthat bring the FBI to life. An intelligent and welcome addition to a somewhat overloaded shelf. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Well worth it; a definite read
I found this book to be insightful and well written. Phil Kerby seems to tell you the good and the bad about the FBI. I could feel his pride as I read the book. If you are interested in the FBI, crimefighting, and more, this book is for you. I truly enjoyed it.

Interesting inside info
Mr. Kerby tells of many incidents during some of his active years with the FBI. He includes (true)happenings that really make it interesting. I attended the premiere of the movie Street Boss which recreates the 'capture' of Tony Jack (Giacolone), a Detroit mafia boss. Good movie, good book.

Exciting! Suspensful! Real-life stories of a retired FBI
I read this book in one night; I couldn't put it down. Kerby vividly decribes the cases he personally worked on in the FBI. You wouldn't believe some of the stories!