ROBERT VESCO: THE PREDATOR'S FALL

Robert Vesco had escaped for so long it seemed he had escaped from memory. When the Cuban government announced last week that it had placed the fugitive American financier under arrest, Vesco was little more than a cipher, a relic from an earlier generation, recalled in vague outline for his criminal odyssey around the Caribbean and for a broad range of roles -- millionaire, gambler, stock cheat, illegal campaign contributor, Watergate shadow, drug dealer, scoundrel. He was, for archaeologists of roguery, the fossil evidence that money can buy power and immunity from the reach of the law. Now, suddenly and surprisingly,...