Rating: 
Summary: Good but needed to be better
Review: Schlictmann began this case with pure and simple greed and grew to care beyond the bounds of his professional responsibility.The case hinges around May,1979 (The same year Ken Langone helped finance the beginning of Home Depot)as the critical period when the wells were shut down in Woburn under Mayor Gill,who suspected much earlier knowledge of the water pollution was known under previous administrations. Under Gill, the budget of Woburn was suspect and speculation has been made that through possible probate fraud the inheritance due a young victim of the pollution was misappropropriated. At a time of drought, the city of Woburn elected NOT to participate in a MDC sewer extension project. In the 1960s,long before Anne Anderson,a group of Woburn citizens under attorney Michael Gatta sued the city for the suspicious water.One of the possible participants may have been an Evelyn Frenette, who died young and of theophylline toxicity under suspicious circumstances not long before this book was published. A man who lived in Woburn,was treated at the same hospitals as the victims in this book,lived in the same areas and later worked for Wr Grace and did not know about this case nor his involvement with the water pollution was approached by individuals claiming to have ties to the federal government and began a systematic program of harassment. It is speculated that his phones were tapped and monitored and major efforts to keep him from finding decent work made. A man with Tennessee license plates claiming to be in the Construction field appeared in an adjacent apartment when the phone problems began.Later the same man was seen driving a phone company truck and a possible ploy used to do this without warrants is that an off premise extension was used with several companies the man worked for without his knowledge.Grace owns a construction division and the man had once worked for them.Following the man's discharge, it is said Grace blackballed him on work references. There is also a possibility the man is linked to the Whitey Bulger case in some fashion without his direct knowledge,as Whitey disappeared before this book came out, and the Boston Herald is said to have had an article about Robert Redford and Sylvester Stallone appearing in a hearing in Massachusetts concerning the early days of the Bulger scandal and while Redford was preparing to film this book as a movie in Hudson,Mass- home of Ambassador to Canada,former Governor Paul Cellucci.Whitey is also said to have had a girlfriend in Woburn and Frank Salemme,Spec Agents Morris,Rico, & Connolly and Limone and Salvati all are said to have ties with the Woburn area also.
Rating: 
Summary: Tale of one city
Review: In 1995, Ken Grant, an environmental professional working for Grace, was summarily fired by Grace Corp. when this book was released. Upon the firing, evidence began emerging of his medical records disappearing,notably from hospitals mentioned in this book. When Grant was in high school another man going by the same name began passing himself off as Grant,living also in Woburn,and even going AWOL and sending the military after Grant. Ken Grant was a small boy living in Woburn when the epidemic began and frequently had to appear in court proceedings that nearly 30 years later were refused review by Judge Cullen.About the time Grace fired him, he was referred to a private investigator by a 'friend' and it soon became apparent the 'investigator' had ties to Woburn through family members. He was also introduced to and befriended by individuals with direct ties to this case without his knowledge.Forces appeared bent on creating financial,mental,emotional and spiritual devastastion in his life. Since this book's release, the man has been consistently in a financial situation that prohibited medical insurance, lost his home and nearly all personal belongings, had his phone tampered with( it has been suggested by OPX lines in fact used to divert or monitor calls which might lead to employment)as alleged by parties trying to contact him, and a sudden exodus of friends who became afraid, as if being approached and threatened by powerful forces behind the scenes. A great deal of energy has been exerted to make Grant disappear and make his life a living hell.At the same time allegations have been made there is a link between him,the Whitey Bulger case, and the roots of this tragedy in Woburn.Who has so much to fear that they would take it out on a boy too young to know what was going on in Woburn? and why, 30 years later would those forces still wage war on the same individual?
Rating:
Summary: Some unaswered questions
Review: There is a man frequently referred to in the reviews anonymously who might have become a major target in the unfolding of this book. Several things occurred following this book that you the reader can decide whether it is relevant or not. 1) The man was suddenly treated with considerable hostility by a friend who at that time claimed extensive mob ties and who held Grace in high regard and may have been linked to a nearby escort service with ties to Angiulo, prominent in the Whitey Bulger case. 2) A consultation with government officials yielded no concern by government authorities that escort service personnel may have been employed against the man who had ties to Woburn during the cancer outbreak unknown to the man-- even if such services might have involved use of company funds. 3) Some of the concerned parties in this case accused the man of collaborating with Harr and Schlictmann, even though the man neither knew or had spoken with either. 4) Judge Cullen of the Woburn court may have been involved in preventing the man from discovering what link to the Woburn outbreak,if any the man had. 5) The man was introduced to individuals who claimed to know several people directly mentioned in this book. 6) Does this case have any linkage to the simultaneous eruption of the Whitey Bulger case,where Whitey disappeared as this book emerged?
Rating:
Summary: So many,many questions!
Review: The prior history of Woburn, with the water case brought by Michael Gatta,NASA, and so much more has been conveniently skipped over in this book. Jan Schlictmann,when taking on this case, went bankrupt. Ken Grant, a former Environmental and Safety professional with Grace, was fired suddenly when this book came out. Following the firing, Grant began getting audited each year by the IRS,had some of his medical records back to birth disappear,is alleged to have been blackballed by Grace with respect to references in finding work,and received spurious threatening phone calls since this book came out. Why? The time frame of this book covers the 1960s, when Grant lived in Woburn and environments as a very young child.The boy lived in the same areas,was treated at the same hospitals, and exhibited many symptoms described in the book. It seems quite feasible that some parties,feeling exposed, might have targeted Grant as a potential threat over circumstances that occurred when the boy was not even in preschool. Why the nonstop IRS oversight, lack of employment beyond poverty-level wages, and almost complete abandonment by longtime friends remains unclear.Why did Grace suddenly fire him? Why has the IRS targeted this man earning near poverty level income? What is so threatening about a boy who grew up under deplorable circumstances?
Rating:
Summary: Some questions
Review: 1) Was the Aufiero child linked to a Frank Aufiero,a now deceased IRS agent? Did some accident occur or perhaps fraud involving the Aufiero incident off of I93 in Somerville,Mass.? How does a child suddenly die who is shown to be exhibiting increasingly better health? 2) Anne Anderson worked for General Aluminum in Woburn, beside what was a Grace Co. facility-- does this mean anything? 3) Have any of the principals in the Whitey Bulger case had children in the area when the outbreak occurred that may hold a key to the Bulger case? Was a child of one of those involed afflicted and has that child been a target of any kind because of it? 4) Did the federal government come in and swear any of the residents to secrecy concerning what went on Woburn?
Rating:
Summary: Fall guy
Review: Jan Schlictmann paid a serious professional and personal price but not so much as a former Grace employee,'X'. 'X' lived in Woburn when the first signs of epidemic occurred and by some accounts had leukemia and was treated secretly at an out of state hospital using highly experimental procedures at the time then conveniently made to disappear.Over the ensuing 15 or more years,'X' was bounced around, abused, neglected and made to suffer because of political and economic circumstances wholly beyond his control. When this book came out and before the movie, X was tossed out by Grace and from then on became untouchable by prospective employers. Jan Schlictmann suffered personal bankruptcy and a rebuilding of a career, but X lost his home,career,all savings, and has been forced to live homeless for nearly 2 years and earn barely enough to have a roof overhead and food all while not having health insurance for nearly 10 years. If Jan Schlictmann has suffered ,this man has suffered poverty,the loss of almost all and everything dear to him and possibly been consigned to a death sentence-- all because of being a child in the wrong place at the wrong time. When this book came out, X was called for numerous pretense job interviews where the interviewer interrogated him on his view of this book and the Woburn case and Grace while all of these interviews yielded no job.Later X learned job references at Grace were blackballing him as well as other companies with which Grace had business ties.Either Grace had it in for him or others with a vested interest in seeing the downfall of Grace were trying to create this impression to turn X against them.When X began suspecting a link between him and this book,neither Redford,Schlictmann nor Harr would return calls or letters. all X wanted was to know if they had information about him with respect to the Woburn case but no one responded while others near to X accused X of collaborating with Harr and Schlictmann on this book, both of whom were unknown to X.
Could X have survived leukemia as a child against the odds and been punished for it all of his life?
Rating:
Summary: Very Compelling Narrative
Review: I grew up a few towns over from Woburn in the 80s and in High School I heard jokes about Woburn water. Interesting to read the story behind it all. Author does a good job of keeping your attention. I found it very hard to put the book down right from the start.
Rating:
Summary: Could not put this book down
Review: If you are a lawyer and have an interest in Federal court practice, you will not be able to put this book down. This is why law schools are assigning this book to its classes on courtroom and civil procedure -- the case dealing with contaminated water raises every possible issue that can arise in a civil case, from depositions, to venue to sanctions to appeals. The narrative is gripping and reads like a novel. Best part about the book is that the good guys don't always win, and that sometimes the truth does not always come out in a lawsuit. Unlike legal fiction which usually has a tidy and happy ending, this is not the case in A Civil Action, and that makes the book realistic.
Rating:
Summary: Con job
Review: There is a man referred to in prior reviews who worked for Grace and was a state orphan who may be a target of harassment in all of this because of a link unknown to that man. When Harr's book came out, a man of Italian/Irish descent with strong roots to Newbury,Mass introduced the man to a supposed private investigator. Over the next few years it became apparent this investigator and his 'friend' began setting up the man by carefully orchestrated telephone calls and surreptitious taping of staged conversations. The Newbury man claimed to be his friend while threatening him,pretending to represent Jan Schlictmann and Grace,alternately. One question no one has explored is the possible link between this book and the gangland and political fallout so pronounced in the Whitey Bulger case. Was a child of one of the principals in the Bulger case sick from the pollution in Woburn and was this child treated under the condition of service to the government and/or private parties by that child's father. And was a promise made to look out for the child but when it was revealed that this was not done, the principal in the case fled, realizing they had been victim of a snow job?
Rating:
Summary: Unfinished tale
Review: There is something very curious about this case. Consider the plight of a man who was a small child when this epidemic first drew public notice: The child was treated out of state and lived in a hospital bed for over 2 years straight with no visitors,no known family and no definitive diagnosis until just before release. One of the procedures performed was the same as a bone marrow transplant and other tests performed also pointed to leukemia. Of government sponsored studies, only 3 children matched this child with diagnosis of aseptic necrosis of the femoral head and also wore the Patten brace and orthotics. This child had no social security number during the treatment nor was a number knowingly assigned to the child as that switched guardianship hands for the next 5 years following years after release from the hospital. In the early 1970s, a former army official attached to the Pentagon during Vietnam arranged for the boy to have a social security number. Prior to meeting this official the boy had a large number of state foster families with a particular Italian family in Burlington,Mass among the most abusive.
In 1993-94, the boy had a news article published detailing his quest for his father and the expense and ultimate disappointment in learning the man he was told was the father was not. About 2 years or so after the article a large article appeared in the Boston Globe detailing how Polymerase Chain Reaction(PCR) could be used to determine leukemia by the existence of minimal residual leukemia cells.On further investigation, the boy(now a man) learned this technique was used in his test. Additionally, consultation with the first expert witness in DNA fingerprinting in the U.S. revealed that the only thing that can throw this test is a bone marrow transplant, which was done in the early 1960s and the procedure for doing so is consistent with procedures performed on the boy.
In 1995 this man worked for WR Grace in a capacity to prevent the kind of pollution that tragically occurred in Woburn 4-5 decades ago. On release of Harr's book he was summoned to an Executive's office and told he was part of a "layoff" for "cost reductions". The layoff ultimately consisted of 1 person. The man knew little of the Woburn case and had a largely concealed family history in state records that even the likes of Ted Kennedy,Nick Paleologos, and many more could not reveal. For the next few years the man had a succession of job interviews in which he was grilled by the interviewers about the role Grace played in the Woburn case and the interviewers claimed to know parties in the case. In each interview case the man never got the job. While this went on, the man's medical records began disappearing, and an EPA official tha man had been introduced to told him" good luck finding work". Several years before, the man had been called into a Grace managers office with ties to Woburn and informed that if he didn't take a specific job his future was dead with Grace or anywhere else. The man also found himself maneuvered into certain jobs where he suddenly became the target for much harassment because it was thought he had something to do with Harr's book, of which he didn't.
Grace has been historically a very Republican company, and the man suddenly began having problems at Fleet Bank, a supporter of gubernatorial candidate Paul Cellucci. Most recently the man was told he had 7 days to leave where he was staying by a relative of a Grace executive.
From 1995 on there was a succession of people remerging from the man's past whom had been introduced by different names when he was a boy than they now carry. In at least one case one such individual suggested that they had made 'mistakes' but ' know how to cover them up'. Since this book came out associates known to the man for decades in some cases suddenly switched demeanor and it became apparent that when the man contacted those "friends" that the phone conversations were being steered to elicit specific responses perhaps for legal purposes and perhaps recorded without the mans knowledge or permission.It appeared as a significant number of individuals knew something about this man he had never been told so as to protect themselves. Some of these individuals claimed to know Jan Schlictmann, who would not respond to any attempted contacts by this man.
The man lived in the same areas at the same time as the kids mentioned in the book. He was treated at the same hospitals (of which medical records began disappearing on release of Harr's book) at the same time and when the man constructed a table of similarities between some of the kids and himself there were 15-20 matched similarities. The man had even been approached by some associates of the Mayor of Woburn himself who had to deal with the initial onset of the epidemic. That man,because of a municipal tragedy and a withheld family history, has had to suffer long term homelessness,joblessness, the loss of old 'friends' and nearly every personal possession over and over again while growing up as a child bounced place to place.The man's whole life has been essentially taking one beating after another for events that preceded him and of which he was not a cognizant participant.
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