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12 Angry Men

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A booklist for: 12 Angry Men

Production dates: January 20-29, 2012

This is a booklist created by Gere Branch library staff to accompany the stage production of 12 Angry Men at Gere’s neighbor, The Lincoln Community Playhouse.

12 Angry Men is a play by Reginald Rose adapted from his 1954 teleplay of the same title for the CBS Studio One anthology television series. Staged in a 1964 London production, the Broadway debut came 50 years after CBS aired the play, on October 28, 2004, by the Roundabout Theatre Company at the American Airlines Theatre, where it ran for 328 performances. A 19-year-old man has just stood trial for the fatal stabbing of his father. “He doesn’t stand a chance,” mutters the guard as the 12 jurors are taken into the bleak jury room. It looks like an open-and-shut case—until one of the jurors begins opening the others’ eyes to the facts. “This is a remarkable thing about democracy,” says the foreign-born juror, “that we are notified by mail to come down to this place—and decide on the guilt or innocence of a person; of a man or woman we have not known before. We have nothing to gain or lose by our verdict. We should not make it a personal thing.” But personal it is, with each juror revealing his or her own character as the various testimonies are re-examined, the murder is re-enacted and a new murder threat is born before their eyes! Tempers get short, arguments grow heated, and the jurors become 12 angry men. The jurors’ final verdict, and how they reach it, add up to a fine, mature piece of dramatic literature.

Reading Recommendations for fans of 12 Angry Men:


12 Angry Men
directed by Sidney Lumet [DVD 12]

Depicts a jury of men who must decide the fate of a teenage boy who has murdered his abusive father. The jurors are from all walks of life, and bring with them their own opinions, prejudices, fears, and personal demons.

This play has been adapted to film twice, first in 1957, directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Henry Fonda, E.G. Marshall, John Fiedler, Jack Klugman, Martin Balsam and more. The second version was a made-for-TV movie, in 1997, directed by William Friedkin, and starring Jack Lemmon, George C. Scott, Hume Cronyn, James Gandolfini, Edward James Olmos and more.

Both versions have been released on DVD, however the libraries only own the 1957 version.




Juror Number Eleven
by Terry Devane [Devane]

No sooner are criminal defense aces Sheldon Gold and Mairead O’Clare successful at getting Boston gangster Big Ben Friedman acquitted of murder than juror number eleven is found dead in her home just after she places an urgent call for help to O’Clare.


The Last Juror
by John Grisham [Grisham]

Convicted of the murder of a young mother in a 1970 trial that ended with his threat to seek revenge against the jurors, Danny Padgitt is paroled after nine years in prison and returns to the scene of the trial in Ford County, Mississippi.


The Runaway Jury
by John Grisham [Grisham]

A member of the jury for the century’s most explosive trial against a giant tobacco company, juror number two, a mysterious man with a past and a hidden agenda, joins forces with a beautiful woman on the outside to get the verdict he wants, no matter what the cost.


The Anatomy of Motive: The FBI’s Legendary Mindhunter Explores the Key to Understanding and Catching Violent Criminals
by John E. Douglas [363.259 Dou]

From legendary FBI profiler John Douglas and Mark Olshaker — authors of the nonfiction international bestsellers Mindhunter, Journey into Darkness, and Obsession — comes an unprecedented, insightful look at the root of all crime.


Fingerprints: The Origins of Crime Detection and the Murder Case That Launched Forensic Science
by Colin Beavan [363.258 Bea]

It is almost impossible to imagine that prior to the 20th century, there was no reliable way to distinguish between the guilty and the innocent. All that changed in Britain in 1905, when the bloody bodies of an elderly couple were discovered in their shop — and a solitary fingerprint became the only piece of evidence.


A Trial by Jury – no longer in the libraries’ collection
by D. Graham Burnett [345.045 Bur]

Offering a compelling courtroom drama and an intimate and sometimes humorous portrait of a fractious jury, A Trial by Jury is also a finely nuanced examination of law and justice, personal responsibility and civic duty, and the dynamics of power and authority between twelve equal people.


Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34
by Bryan Burrough [364 Bur]

Public Enemies is the story of the most spectacular crime wave in American history, the two-year battle between the young J. Edgar Hoover, his FBI and an assortment of criminals who became national icons: John Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and the Barkers.


American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, the Birth of the “It” Girl, and the Crime of the Century
by Paula M. Uruburu [Biography Nesbit]

The story of Evelyn Nesbit is one of glamour, money, romance, sex, madness, and murder, and Paula Uruburu weaves all of these elements into an elegant narrative that reads like the best fiction— only it’s all true.


The Profiler
by Pat Brown [363.259 Bro]

The author recounts her journey from humble homemaker to one of the few female criminal profilers in the nation and discusses the high-profile cases that she has worked on, exploring some of America’s darkest crimes and the investigations that solved them.


And the Blood Cried Out — no longer in libraries’ collection
by Harlan Levy [363.258 Lev]

From the World Trade Center bombing to the O.J. Simpson case, here is how DNA has become a key tool in the search for truth and justice.


Journey Into Darkness
by John E. Douglas [363.259 Dou]

Follow the FBI’s premier investigative profiler as he penetrates the minds and motives of the most terrifying serial killers.


The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York
by Deborah Blum [364.152 Blu]

A fascinating jazz age tale of chemistry and detection, poison and murder, The Poisoner’s Handbook is a page-turning account of a forgotten era.


The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World’s Most Perplexing Cold Cases
by Michael Capuzzo [363.25 Cap]

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Created in partnership with the Lincoln Community Playhouse by ka/Gere Branch January 2012 | Modified for use on BookGuide by sdc/bmpl