The Donna Gentile Story

The REAL STORY AS TOLD BY THE FIRST COUSIN. A young woman

Donna Marie Gentile was an informant for the San Diego Police Dept. Larry Avrech, who was a young officer at the time, stumbled across Donna and the information about her 'sugar daddy' within the department. Recognizing the telltale signs of possible corruption, he befriended the prostitute to dig deeper. It would turn out to be the biggest mistake of his career. Eight months later, Avrech was terminated. His police brothers had chosen to believe a prostitute over a trusted officer "because it fit the specific needs of the department at that particular time". His integrity cost everything dear to him-his career, his home, and later his children. After his termination, the vindictive department continued to threaten him; doing everything they could to preserve their coverup and destroy Larry. Only six weeks after Donna testified against Avrech, her lifeless nude body turned up making Larry an instant murder suspect. In a twist of fate, Avrech got a call from a high-ranking Deputy District Attorney who said he could prove Larry was set up. But the question remained, "Who Killed Donna Marie Gentile?" Larry would work tirelessly for the next seven years to uncover a serial murder and eventually reveal the details in this comprehensive book about what happened behind the sensational headlines.

I turn to see a rocket-propelled grenade screaming toward me. The ordinance strikes me in the side of the head, instantly blinding me in one eye and crushing the right side of my face. On September 9, 2010, while embedded with an Army unit and talking with locals in a small village in eastern Afghanistan, journalist Carmen Gentile was struck in the face by a rocket propelled grenade. Inexplicably, the grenade did not explode and Gentile survived, albeit with the right side of his face shattered and blinded in one eye. Making matters worse, his engagement was on the ropes and his fiancée absent from his bedside. Blindsided by the Taliban chronicles the author’s numerous missteps and shortcomings while coming to terms with injury and a lost love. Inventive and unprecedented surgeries would ultimately save Gentile’s face and eyesight, but the depression and trauma that followed his physical and emotional injuries proved a much harder recovery. Ultimately, Gentile would find that returning to the front lines and continuing the work he loved was the only way to become whole again. As only he can, Gentile recounts the physical and mental recovery which included staring only at the ground for a month, a battle with opiate-induced constipation and a history of drug addiction, attacks by Taliban assassins born of post-traumatic stress, the Jedi-like powers of General David Petraeus, and finding normalcy under falling mortars in an Afghan valley. The result is an unapologetic, self-deprecating, occasionally cringe-worthy, and always candid account of loss and redemption in the face of the self-doubt common to us all. Blindsided by the Taliban also features the author’s photos from the field that depict the realities of life in Afghanistan for soldiers and civilians alike. #KissedbytheTaliban

A superb account of a little understood chapter in Philadelphia's storied health care past. This is a must-read for anyone interested in public policy, health care delivery, or history of public institutions. Dr. Claire M. Fagin

"[T]he amazing story of a woman who lived through one of the worst times in human history, losing family members to the Nazis but surviving with her spirit and integrity intact.” —Publishers Weekly Marthe Cohn was a young Jewish woman living just across the German border in France when Hitler rose to power. Her family sheltered Jews fleeing the Nazis, including Jewish children sent away by their terrified parents. But soon her homeland was also under Nazi rule. As the Nazi occupation escalated, Marthe’s sister was arrested and sent to Auschwitz and the rest of her family was forced to flee to the south of France. Always a fighter, Marthe joined the French Army and became a member of the intelligence service of the French First Army. Marthe, using her perfect German accent and blond hair to pose as a young German nurse who was desperately trying to obtain word of a fictional fiancé, would slip behind enemy lines to retrieve inside information about Nazi troop movements. By traveling throughout the countryside and approaching troops sympathetic to her plight--risking death every time she did so--she learned where they were going next and was able to alert Allied commanders. When, at the age of eighty, Marthe Cohn was awarded France’s highest military honor, the Médaille Militaire, not even her children knew to what extent this modest woman had helped defeat the Nazi empire. At its heart, this remarkable memoir is the tale of an ordinary human being who, under extraordinary circumstances, became the hero her country needed her to be.

Relax, create and connect with mandala art. Do you love coloring mandalas? You're not alone! Adult coloring books are gaining in popularity every day. Do you want to learn how to draw and color your own mandalas? In The Mandala Guidebook, Kathryn Costa shows you how with easy instructions perfect for the beginner. You'll find a wide range of projects, each with beautifully illustrated step-by-step instructions covering more design styles and artistic mediums than any other book out there. Simply put, a mandala is a circle with a design in the center, but psychologists and spiritual leaders have used mandalas as a tool for self-reflection and self-exploration through the ages. Mandalas have intrigued cultures around the world, from Celtic spirals and Indian mehndi to medieval church labyrinths. And now it's your turn! If you can write the alphabet, you can create beautiful and expressive mandalas. Journey with Kathryn, creator of the "100 Mandalas Challenge," to create spontaneous and spirited mandala art: • Enjoy prompts and questions to practice self-discovery, gratitude, relaxation, meditation and explore your unique talents and artistic path as you create • Discover 24 demonstrations with clear and colorful step-by-step instructions to master the mechanics of making mandalas--both freehand and geometrically symmetrical designs • Explore mixed media and textural painting techniques within the boundaries of a circle using everything from a simple pen and paper to watercolor, collage, acrylic and stamped Gelli plate • Get pattern inspiration and discover how to play with color using common palettes from the world around you Set your intention and learn how to use mandalas to solve problems, let go of fear, lean into love and gain clarity and insight as you create!

Use these reproducible Bible craft patterns and Bible stories to teach children God's word.

The object of this work is to define Dante's attitude or, if need be, his successive attitudes towards philosophy. It is therefore a question of ascertaining the character, function and place which Dante assigned to this branch of learning among the activities of man. My purpose has not been to single out, classify and list Dante's numerous philosophical ideas, still less to look for their sources or to decide what doctrinal influences determined the evolution of his thought.

It’s the summer of 1978 and most people think Elvis Presley has been dead for a year. But not eleven-year-old Truly Bateman – because she knows Elvis is alive and well and living in the Eagle Shores Trailer Park. Maybe no one ever thought to look for him on an Indigenous reserve on Vancouver Island. It’s a busy summer for Truly. Though her mother is less of a mother than she ought to be, and spends her time drinking and smoking and working her way through new boyfriends, Truly is determined to raise as much money for herself as she can through her lemonade stand … and to prove that her cool new neighbour is the one and only King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. And when she can’t find motherly support in her own home, she finds sanctuary with Andy El, the Salish woman who runs the trailer park.

When Donna Marie Gentile, escaped from a home for delinquent girls and made her way to San Diego she had big dreams. She worked in security for a while and even dreamed of joining the police department. But things didn't work out as she planned. Donna, like many other innocent runaways, became a victim of the street walker life. While in survivor mode she was groomed, exploited, and coerced into prostitution, a path that took control of her life and ultimately led to her death at the age of twenty-two. Donna Gentile allowed herself to be befriended by several police officers thinking that this would afford her some protection in her dangerous life on the streets. Instead she was harassed and ultimately victimized by some of the same police to whom she had turned for help. But Donna was a fighter. Rather than taking the abuse, which included sexual harassment, she reported it to the San Diego Police Department. She testified against two officers, one of whom lost his job on account of her testimony. Her life became further complicated when the Internal Affairs Division exploited and coerced her into becoming a police corruption informant . Donna was scared. She left a voice recording with her attorney beginning with the words, "In case I disappear," and going on to state that "someone wearing a badge may turn out to be a serious criminal." In March 1985 while she was serving a sentence in Las Colinas jail the Philadelphia native wrote "My life is in danger when I get out." Then three months later her brutally murdered body was found on Mt. Laguna in the rural part of San Diego county. Gravel was stuffed in her mouth, something the mob does when it wants to warn others against being a "snitch." Donna's autopsy was sealed - the first and only autopsy ever to be sealed in the city of San Diego. Someone wanted to silence Donna. But who? "The Donna Gentile Story," written by Donna's first cousin lets you decide, and it gives voice to future runaways forced to survive on the streets as sex workers. It shows how Donna Gentile was a trailblazer who carved a path for women by not remaining silent in the face of harassment and abuse. In this way she was an early pioneer of the "Me Too" movement which, at long last, is telling women that not only can they speak out, but that they can also act. This high profile story exploded in the media and was nationally televised. Artists unveiled a billboard with the logo NHI, "No Humans Involved," bearing Donna's picture and facing toward the SDPD headquarters. We believe her murder was a "cover-up," perhaps of police incompetence, or perhaps of something much more sinister. The police try to label all sex workers as criminals. In fact many young women are victims of sex trafficking who have been coerced into prostitution, and sometimes the police are complicit in this.