Vegas P.I.: The Life and Times of America's Greatest Detective

For 30 years, Headley, who died in 1992, worked as a private investigator in Las Vegas. This account of his career, written with Hoffman, his coauthor on Contract Killer, is shocking and exciting. The earlier book involved the killing of Jimmy Hoffa, so little attention is given that case here. But Headley does present startling revelations about his other investigations. He presents well-documented evidence that Donald DeFreeze, head of the Symbionese Liberation Army, kidnappers of Patty Hearst in 1974, was a police informant and an agent provocateur. Headley also worked on the investigation of the 1976 murder of reporter Don Bolles in Phoenix, and concludes that certain of Arizona's public figures conspired in a cover-up of the case (the convicted killers, Max Dunlap, a contractor, and James Robinson, a plumber, are to be retried). (Aug.)