Speed reading.

• Author: Sullum, Jacob
• Position: Briefly Noted - Speed-Speed-Speedfreak: A Fast History of Amphetamine - Brief article - Book review

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Were Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow, John Dillinger, and George "Baby Face" Nelson under the influence of Benzedrine during their murderous crime sprees? There's no evidence they were, but maybe! Did speed freaks eat all the cats in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco in 1967? There's no evidence they did, which means the story should be dismissed as "arrant nonsense."

As those contradictory positions suggest, Speed-Speed-Speedfreak: A Fast History of Amphetamine (Feral House) is a weird mixture of wild speculation, rumor mongering, and just-the-facts skepticism. The British journalist Mick...