A Terrible Thunder: The Story of the New Orleans Sniper

By Peter Hernon

Book Overview

When Terror Came to New Orleans: A City Under Siege

On New Year's Eve 1972, Mark James Robert Essex, a 23-year-old former Navy seaman, began a calculated assault on the New Orleans police that would leave nine dead, ten wounded, and a city forever changed. What drove this quiet young man from small-town Kansas to wage a one-man war against an entire police force?

Peter Hernon, who covered the siege as an Associated Press reporter, spent over a year investigating this shocking story. Through extensive interviews and previously unpublished material, he reconstructs both the terrifying 11-hour hotel siege and the tragic transformation of Mark Essex--from a "happy-go-lucky" youth in Emporia, Kansas, to an embittered gunman consumed by rage.

The book alternates between the chaos of that January week--when hundreds of police officers, Marine helicopters, and volunteer gunmen battled a lone sniper while the Howard Johnson hotel burned around him--and Essex's journey through systematic racism in the U.S. Navy that left him, in Hernon's words, "a casualty of history."

This is more than a true crime narrative. It's a powerful examination of how persistent injustice can transform an ordinary person into an instrument of violence, and a sobering meditation on alienation in America. As The New York Times noted, Hernon's account "reads as fluently as a novel" while raising profound questions about society's responsibility for those it pushes to the breaking point.

A meticulously researched, compellingly written account of one of the most violent attacks on police in American history--and the broken system that created a killer.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1891053485
• ISBN13: 9781891053481
• Release Date: February 2005
• Publisher: Garrett County Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Terrible Thunder

I was 10 during this event and I remember it like it was yesterday. My father was a policeman in this event and put the first bullet in Essex - documented in this text (he is mentioned many times through the book). My uncle was a fireman in this and barely missed being killed. The book does a wonderful job of relating not only the final massive event but also the numerous events leading up to it. The book is highly readable and covers all related events throughly. This is an often shunned and/or forgotten event in American history which needs to be told. Ask 10 people at random what happened at the University of Texas tower and likely 9 will tell you that a sniper killed a number of people. Then ask the same people what happened in New Orleans in 1972 at the downtown Howard Johnson and none will have a clue, even though Essex killed and wounded many more people than the Texas shooter. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in American history, especially the largely ignored violent side of the Black Panthers and the civil rights movement.

A Terrible Thunder

Have you ever heard the expression "Been there, Done that"? Well, I have been there and I have done that. I was a Police Officer in the city of New Orleans, La. I've seen the places, bullet holes and people mentioned in the book. The book depicted the situation very well. This was a terrible time for the city and they lost a lot of good police officers in those days. It brings back a lot of memories and hurtful times. If you want to read a TRUE STORY then read this book, you won't regret it.

Accurate detail created a conspiracy

It used to be if you went to any used book store in New Orleansyou couldn't get this book. Owners willing to talk said that they were told to keep the books from the public and the New Orleans police would come by and pick them up. Others wouldjust say "No can't get that book" and refused to even talk about it. What were they afraid of? Was the sniper on his own or did the black panthers have a hand in it? It took a long time to get one guy and most swore there was more than 1 gun man. No grassy knoll. Just a rooftop. I think Peter Hernon did an outstanding job on this book and for anyone with a craze for black history, conspiracys and a little recent New Orleans history, this book is worth a read. The Rault Center was another tragedy and we will never know if the two are linked.

Great Book.

The New York Times wrote, "A Terrible Thunder is more than just another fashionable journalistic rehashing of a crime. In its depiction of Essex's abrupt transmogrification it raises questions about the accumulated effect of petty but persistent injustices and about the individual's capacity to endure aggrievement."This very rare book has just been reprinted by Garrett County Press. You can visit their website.

a great true crime book

I noticed that there is no editor review on this book so I'll help out a little. In 1972 the Howard Johnson's high rise hotel in New Orleans caught on fire. What no one knew was that someone(s)were inside the hotel starting the fires and murdering people along the way. When help arrived for the fire, the gunman starting killing them in a battle that lasted for the next 28 hours literally holding the city of New Orleans at bay and ending in a great loss of lives. This book is a page of history on many levels; racism, law enforcement and tragedy. It jumps around a bit in the beginning, but by the middle of the book you can't put it down. Peter Hernon does a good job of making you feel as if you are in the middle of this one man civil war. Good photos also.