GammaJosh wrote:
His notoriety is such that, honestly, I doubt if his family's feelings on discovering the book were much different than you or I discovering someone had written a book about one of our relatives.

If somebody wrote a book about one of my relatives without my knowledge but said only positive things in that book*, I'd be pleasantly surprised.  I wouldn't start calling people "disgusting" or "crooked."  It's not even clear to me that it is "indecent."  If you want to say something positive about my family members (living or deceased), I don't have a problem with you doing so without getting my permission first. 

If you feel that it is important to contact the family in advance of publication of a book, where do you draw the line?  Do you need to contact them if you're writing a magazine article?  A letter to a magazine?  A blog post?  A post to a message board? 
 
 
*Again, I'm assuming that the contents of the book in question aren't saying anything controversial and aren't delving into anything that can be considered investigative.