Devil Incarnate: A Depraved Mercenary's Lifelong Swathe of Destruction
When the author of this grisly book first met Athol "Ivan the Terrible" Vissor, the white African mercenary, arms dealer and drug trafficker's body was racked with AIDS, and he was ready to reveal his inner demons and sins for this "as-told-to" autobiography. During his childhood in Rhodesia, his mother, stepfather and stepsister were brutally raped and abused, and young Vissor remained traumatized for the rest of his life with violent and cruel obsessions. Thallon perfectly captures his subject's emotionless voice describing his stint in the British army in Kenya before becoming a bloodthirsty mercenary in the Congo in the 1960s, turning all his racist tendencies into frenzied scenes of grind-house mayhem. Possibly Vissor's most disturbing actions were in the shadowy ranks of the Civil Cooperation Board, the white South African assassination unit, determined to salvage apartheid. He claims involvement in the killing of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme; however, in a disclaimer at the book's end, the publisher notes that Vissor's version is one of many in this still unsolved case. The entire book is based only on Vissor's recollections; still, it's an incredible chronicle of cruelty and violence. 8 pages of color photos.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.