From Publishers Weekly On Easter Monday of 1982, Margaret Barbera, an accountant, was shot to death in a parking lot on a Manhattan pier; three technicians from the nearby CBS-TV studios who went to her rescue also were killed. Hammer here recreates the crime and the police work that led to the killer, Donald Nash, a handyman hired by a jewelry manufacturer named Irwin Margolies. Margolies, only a marginally successful entrepreneur, had hatched a plot with the aid of a lawyer to defraud a factoring firm owned by a New York bank. The scheme, which netted millions thanks in part to creative bookkeeping by Barbera, began to unravel, and Margolies determined that the safest course was to eliminate her. Nash, the gunman, is now serving a 100-year sentence, Margolies 50 years. Hammer (The Vatican Connection, Hoodlum Empire has done an outstanding job of detailing the case thoroughly yet succinctly. Photos not seen by PW. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Three CBS employees were shot to death when they stumbled upon a murder-for-hire in progress in a New York City parking lot. The original victim worked as an accountant for Irwin Margolis, a shady diamond merchant, who was attempting to cover up a large-scale fraud. Margolis was convicted of the killings in 1984. Hammer ( The Vatican Connection ) has produced a brief, matter-of-fact account of the case. While suitable for larger true crime collections, this book is unlikely to have special appeal for a wide audience. Gregor A. Preston, Univ. of California Lib., DavisCopyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
