Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

In the late 1960s, new to Chicago and bored with the still life subjects she painted in her home studio, artist Andy Austin began wandering the city in search of surprises from life as it is really lived. Chicago delivered--with the color and drama of volatile times and larger-than-life subjects. The streets were alive with noisy demonstrations, against the war in Vietnam, and in support of issues ranging from civil rights to raises for schoolteachers. Austin sketched picket lines and protests and sometimes joined them, soaking up every detail with crystalline clarity. When she turned her skills to court drawing, her stunning ability to capture pivotal moments and revealing human interactions gave Chicagoans an unparalleled you-are-there view of trials and personalities that made headlines.

Rule 53: Capturing Hippies, Spies, Politicians, and Murderers in an American Courtroom is a vivid memoir by one of the country's best visual chroniclers of courtroom proceedings. Austin's gift for seeing essential details offers intimate glimpses of defendants like the Chicago 7 radicals, the Black Panthers and the El Rukns, serial killer John Wayne Gacy, and a parade of mobsters. In prose as deft and insightful as her sketches, she shares her portraits of the lawyers, judges, politicians, and others involved in cases she observed, salutes friends and colleagues, and shares personal experiences that influenced her unique perspective on local history in the making.

Andy Austin does a remarkable job as a Chicago courtroom artist, and in her book, the truth comes through as vividly as in her sketches.

--Studs Terkel, author and oral historian

I like Andy Austin's quick mind and quick eye. She sees the drama, the humanity and, yes, even the humor in Chicago's greatest theater--its courtrooms. Her memoirs, beautifully illustrated, provide an amazing look at the inner workings of America's most ebullient city.

--Jon Anderson, Chicago Tribune

Average Customer Rating:

Rule 53

Customer Rating:

Andy Austin's Rule 53 is a gem. From her unique vantage point as an on-the-scene witness to a series of Chicago's gaudiest criminal trials since 1969, Austin's book offers the reader a dazzling panoramic history of the dark side of this great city's recent history. Her day job as an artist for a television station was to swiftly capture the amazing assortment of audacious trouble makers, crooked politicians, deranged murderers, dangerous spies, white collar criminals and violent gang members --white and black --who were brought into the the courts of Chicago. But her "night" job, it turns out, was to thoughtfully and elegantly reflect on the fascinating mindsets of all those who in one way or another were key players in these always dramatic trials -- the criminals, the prosecutors, the defense attorneys and the judges. Austin more than accompished her mission.

Great insight into Chicago and the US justice system

Customer Rating:

Andy Austin takes us on a riveting ride through 30 years of the Chicago underworld as seen from her perch right next to them as defendants--drawing their portraits for TV use in covering their trials. [[ASIN:1893121534 Rule 53: Capturing Hippies, Spies, Politicians, and Murderers in an American Courtroom] It brings back the Chicago 7, assorted Mafia figures and the street gang leaders who transformed the city: she shows them all in her sketches in prose as well as in drawings. A fast and funny and appalling story, great for anyone interested in Chicago and the way the US justice system works and doesn't work.

The 1960s were a turbulent time in America, with controversy around every corner.

Customer Rating:

The 1960s were a turbulent time in America, with controversy around every corner. "Rule 53: Capturing Hippies, Spies, Politicians, and Murderers in an American Courtroom" is a new perspective on the decade through the eyes of a courtroom sketch artist. The author saw countless pivotal cases and strange characters from all walks of life in an era when people began to stand up and speak out for their rights. Refreshing, charming, and packed with sketches from over the years, "Rule 53: Capturing Hippies, Spies, Politicians, and Murderers in an American Courtroom" is a top pick for community library memoir and art collections. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

Great Read!!	Customer Rating:
This is a fascinating picture of the underworld scene through the years from a unique perspective - a court room artist of great ability both as an artist and writer. It is a great read whether you are acquainted with the goings-on of the Chicago mob or not. The text is erudite and knowledgeable and the artistry fine, indeed. Run; don't walk, to find a copy