Spooks, Jim Hougan
Spooks, Jim Hougan
List: $34.99 | Sale: $24.50
Club: $17.49

Spooks
The Haunting of America—The Private Use of Secret Agents

Author: Jim Hougan

Narrator: William Sarris

Unabridged: 19 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/11/2025


Synopsis

"Probably the most eye-opening and engrossing exposé to date of the bizarre 'power games' played by multinational corporations and tycoons." —Publishers Weekly

A classic of investigative reporting, Spooks is a treasure trove of who-shot-who research on the metastasis of the United States intelligence community, whose practices and personnel have engulfed the larger society. Teeming with tales of wiremen, hitmen, and mobsters; crooked politicians and corrupt cops going about their business of regime-change, union-busting, wiretapping, money laundering, and industrial espionage, learn about: Richard Nixon's "Mission Impossible" war on Aristotle Onassis; not-so-deep-fake porno films starring the CIA's enemies; the Robert Vesco heist, targeting billions in numbered Swiss accounts; Robert Maheu and the kidnapping of billionaire Howard Hughes; the murder-for-hire of a Columbia University professor; Bobby Kennedy's archipelago of private intelligence agencies—Intertel and the "Five I's"; and "The Friendly Ghost" and Nixon's secret account in the offshore Castle Bank & Trust.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Mark on December 06, 2020

Dated but amusing stories about paramilitary freebooters, gunrunners and conmen. While not technically “spooks” as known in the trade, these outliers in the intelligence community are the essential tradesmen for governments and privateers. Of special note is the profile of the outlandish (and brilli......more

Goodreads review by Evan on January 04, 2026

Haunting doesn't cover it While this book covers matters that happened decades ago, the echoes are still being felt and heard in modern history. Well-researched, thought provoking, and fuel for a thousand spy novels. Thanks, Jim.......more