100 Oklahoma Outlaws, Gangsters & Lawmen


Book Description

The only thing wilder than Oklahoma in the late nineteenth century are the tales that continue to surround it. In the days of the Wild West, Oklahoma was teeming with assassins, guerillas, hijackers, kidnappers, gangs, and misfits of every size and shape imaginable. Featuring such legendary characters as Billy the Kid, Bonnie and Clyde, Machine Gun Kelly, Belle Starr, and Pretty Boy Floyd, this book combines recorded fact with romanticized legend, allowing the reader to decide how much to believe. Violent and out of control, the figures covered in 100 Oklahoma Outlaws, Gangsters, and Lawmen often left behind numerous victims, grisly accounts, and unforgettable stories. Included are criminals like James Deacon Miller, the devout Methodist and hired assassin. Righteous and devious, he often avoided the gallows by convincing others to admit to his murders. Rufus Buck, a man of Native American descent, targeted white settlers. His crimes against them became so heinous as to cause the Creek nation to take up arms against him. The answer to criminals such as these came in the form of Hanging Judge Parker and other officers of the law. Although they were greatly outnumbered, they provided some balance to the chaos. This historical compilation covers every memorable outlaw and lawman who passed through Oklahoma.




Criminals and Folk Heroes


Book Description

During the Great Depression, writers of True Crime could take the decade off: life was imitating art so dramatically they had nothing to add. In these pages historian Robert Underhill presents the most notorious criminals of 1930-1934: Wilbur Underhill, Alvin Karpis, the Barker Clan, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, the Barrows (Buck, Blanche, Clyde, and Bonnie), and John Dillinger along with supporting material on their henchmen and the rise of the FBI.Often armed better than the police, criminals of the 1930s committed deeds ranging from stealing chickens to kidnappings, bank robberies, and killing innocent victims. Yet such crimes were often taken in stride by avid readers. Cooperation among local, state and federal lawmen was rare as each sought to protect his own turf. Criminals and lawmen made mistakes battling one another, but in most cases the law triumphed and the wanted fugitive died under a hail of bullets. His death would start myths and raise his reputation to national status.




Gangsters and Outlaws of the 1930s


Book Description

Examines famous gangsters and criminals of the 1930s and includes discussions on Pretty Boy Floyd, the Dillinger Gang, and Bonnie and Clyde.




The Golden Age of Bank Robbers 1920s 1930s: True Stories of How They Lived and Died


Book Description

"The Golden Age Of Bank Robbers" describes what occurred during this nation's darkest days. Bank robberies during the 1920's and 1930's were at an all time high. Many banks closed their doors after robbers cleared out their vaults. A new breed of folk hero was created: spiritual descendants of Jesse James and Billy The Kid. This book describes how outlaws such as John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd and other gangsters, lived and died. Lawmen that were under-paid and out-gunned were no match for the machinegun welding gangsters during the Great Depression. Many men died trying to capture these notorious outlaws. Details of bank robberies, shoot-outs with police, and daring get-a-ways are described with vivid details. This book describes eight different notorious bank robbers. Read about stories of their lives, crimes, and deaths. This fascinating book details the research of how these robbers were able to steal thousands of dollars from banks. Until now, many of these bank robbers have long been forgotten by history. By reading this book, you'll go back in time and ride with each gangster as he daringly robs bank after bank. "The Golden Age of Bank Robbers" is a colorful collection of historical anecdotes and descriptive accounts - including some great photographs - of the rambunctious crime spree that occurred mainly in the Midwest during the first half of the twentieth century. This book serves as both an opportunity for academic learning as well as a thorough resource for those personally interested in or passionate about a significant (and fast-changing) time in US history. Readers interested in American history and the unique drama of the 1920s and 1930s will appreciate the material covered in this book.




Running With Dillinger


Book Description

This book picks up where The Desperate Ones: Canada's Forgotten Outlaws left off. Here are more remarkable true stories about Canadian crimes and criminals -- most of them tales that have been buried for years. The stories begin in colonial Newfoundland, with robbery and murder committed by the notorious Power Gang. As readers travel across the country and through time, they will meet the last two men to be hanged in Prince Edward Island, smugglers who made lake Champlain a battleground, a counterfeiter whose bills were so good they fooled even bank managers, and teenage girls who committed murder in their escape from jail. They will meet the bandits who plundered banks and trains in Eastern Canada and the West, and even the United States. Among them were Same Behan, a robber whose harrowing testimony about the brutal conditions in the Kingston Penittentiary may have brought about his untimely death in "The Hole"; and John "Red" Hamilton, the Canadian-born member of the legendary Dillinger gang.




John Dillinger Slept Here


Book Description

Traces the history of crime in St. Paul, Minnesota, from 1920 to 1936, describing specific incidents, profiling criminals, victims, and law enforcement officials, and looking at places where criminal activity occurred.




Public Enemies


Book Description

In Public Enemies, bestselling author Bryan Burrough strips away the thick layer of myths put out by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI to tell the full story—for the first time—of the most spectacular crime wave in American history, the two-year battle between the young Hoover and the assortment of criminals who became national icons: John Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and the Barkers. In an epic feat of storytelling and drawing on a remarkable amount of newly available material on all the major figures involved, Burrough reveals a web of interconnections within the vast American underworld and demonstrates how Hoover’s G-men overcame their early fumbles to secure the FBI’s rise to power.




Organized Crime in Chicago


Book Description

This book provides a comprehensive sociological explanation for the emergence and continuation of organized crime in Chicago. Tracing the roots of political corruption that afforded protection to gambling, prostitution, and other vice activity in Chicago and other large American cities, Robert M. Lombardo challenges the dominant belief that organized crime in America descended directly from the Sicilian Mafia. According to this widespread "alien conspiracy" theory, organized crime evolved in a linear fashion beginning with the Mafia in Sicily, emerging in the form of the Black Hand in America's immigrant colonies, and culminating in the development of the Cosa Nostra in America's urban centers. Looking beyond this Mafia paradigm, this volume argues that the development of organized crime in Chicago and other large American cities was rooted in the social structure of American society. Specifically, Lombardo ties organized crime to the emergence of machine politics in America's urban centers. From nineteenth-century vice syndicates to the modern-day Outfit, Chicago's criminal underworld could not have existed without the blessing of those who controlled municipal, county, and state government. These practices were not imported from Sicily, Lombardo contends, but were bred in the socially disorganized slums of America where elected officials routinely franchised vice and crime in exchange for money and votes. This book also traces the history of the African-American community's participation in traditional organized crime in Chicago and offers new perspectives on the organizational structure of the Chicago Outfit, the traditional organized crime group in Chicago.




American Mafia: Chicago


Book Description

Everyone knows stories about the American Mafia and its varied forms of crime, from racketeering to stock manipulation to murder. American Mafia: Chicago explores the Windy City, strolling through its neighborhoods and imagining scenes from the past—telling the stories of the men, women, and families and revealing the events behind the legends and the history of the families' beginnings and founding members. Featuring the most fascinating stories from the early days, when loosely-organized, incredibly secretive gangs terrorized neighborhoods with names like Little Hell, through the mob’s headiest years, when Al Capone and his men pretty well controlled the city, American Mafia: Chicago offers tantalizing glimpses into the era when Chicago was ruled by gangs with their ever-twisting allegiances and tangled webs of relationships. Most of the buildings are gone now. But the stories are still there, if you know where to look.




Bad Guys in American History


Book Description

Bad Guys in American History recounts the events related to our country's most compelling outlaws, from colonial times to the 1930s. Complete with photographs of the outlaws and their haunts, this book investigates some of American history's most infamous acts and informs readers where they happened and how to visit those sites today. Both a history book and a travel guide, Bad Guys in American History shines a revealing light on the dark side of America's past.