Burn Boston Burn

The Story of the Largest Arson Case in the History of the Country

By: Wayne M. Miller

Narrated by: Chris Monteiro

Length: 15 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Burn Boston Burn is an astounding true crime narration. A conspiracy of nine men, including three Boston cops and a Boston firefighter, burned Boston and surrounding communities in the early 1980s due to tax-cutting measures that caused layoffs of hundreds of police and firefighters.

Over two years, these fire buffs-turned-arsonists torched 264 buildings, causing millions of dollars in damages and hundreds of injuries. The city was ablaze with nightly fires, sirens wailing through the streets, and people too afraid to sleep.

This book interweaves the activities of the arsonists with those of the investigators, the firefighters, and the citizens of the area. Listeners will shake their heads in disbelief at the brazen and wanton actions of these political terrorists. The author Wayne Miller, now a retired ATF special agent, lived this case for three years. A TV cameraman helped break the case when one of the cops waved his gun in the air at a massive fire as if he were at a rodeo.

The case included a stolen police car dumped in Boston Harbor and a threat letter consisting of cut-out letters and plans to murder witnesses. After the Boston police officer/arsonist became a witness, they utilized 17 undercover contacts to perfect a federal case.

Agent Miller spent innumerable hours with those perpetrators who became Government witnesses. An arsonist’s journal provided the basis for chilling insights into their words, actions, and thoughts. Mr. Miller now has regular contact with that arsonist who has provided additional information in support of the book.

Every firefighter who has heard of the story wants to read or listen about it. Also, anyone interested in true crime, investigative procedures, the inner workings of a criminal conspiracy, and fires would have strong interests in this book. The case was covered by national media in the early to mid 1980s.

©2019 Wayne M. Miller (P)2019 Wayne M. Miller

Great True story from those who were there

Excellent detail, easy to imagine the people and the events. Great case work and so many thousands of hours involved to solve hundreds of arsons.

Outstanding

As someone who grew up in the eighties, and who’s dad was a firefighter, a lot is coming back to me from those days. Wow, great listen.

informative

this book was very consistent and to the point. I wonder if there will be a movie made

A bad, long episode of Dragnet

Just because you can read a book doesn't mean you can write one.

Great potential story written like an episode of Dragnet. Wish Erik Larson wrote it. Tells the story twice with a lot of superfluous and disconnected information. Rated a 3 only because of family connection to Boston area fire fighters.

Read in one day.

I found this book very interesting. It gave a good insight into the mind of a arsonist. I found myself unable to put the book down. Read this book in one day couldn't wait to see what they waned to burn next.

A little less than I wanted it to be

It was good. It was loaded with details of all the fires. But I found I wanted either less of a list of fires, or a shorter book. Would have liked more of the trials and investigations. This seemed to skim the surface a little.

Writing not bad despite a few corny lines and lots of cliches.

The narrator took a chapter to get used to, but it worked as I got into the rhythm. He just sounds so.... bright.

Burning up the review

Burn Boston Burn is a magnificently researched, plotted out, detailed and a story well told. As one having good knowledge of the City and many of the events mentioned in the book, I saw not one mistake. Wayne even has the Alarm Box numbers and locations correct. A big thank you also to the agencies that put the customary differences aside and allied to take the perps off the street,

Way too much fluff

The book isn’t bad, but clearly the published told the author “the book must be XXX pages long” so the author just added lots of fluff to extend the book. To be totally honest you could have cut chapters out of this book, or chopped them up and combined to make it smaller.

long baby long.....

good book. Well researched and thorough but really after the decription of the 100th fire it got a little old. Worth the listen on 1 1/2 speed top shorten it up. Dont skip it - just anticipate a long slog.

Definitely Recommend!

A fascinating story, told meticulously from start to finish. Highly detailed, Miller touched on nearly every aspect and problem (political, legal, personal, mental) that allowed this arson ring to continue to terrorize the city for 2 years. The narration was appropriately Bostonian!