A Native's Guide to Chicago, Fourth Edition Review

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A Native's Guide to Chicago, Fourth Edition ReviewNow in a thoroughly updated and significantly expanded fourth edition, A Native's Guide To Chicago continues to be the premier guide to what Chicago has to offer its residents, suburbanites, out-of-town tourists, scheduled business travelers. Every chapter provides "user friendly" mainstream information and offbeat suggestions side by side. Ranging from touring, recreation, food, and entertainment, to lodging, shopping, walking, and keeping informed, A Native's Guide To Chicago is enhanced with photos, maps, an index, and is a "must" for anyone wanting to spend quality time making memories in America's foremost heartland city.
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Not for Tourists Guide to 2010 Chicago (Not for Tourists Guidebook) (Not For Tourists Guidebooks) Review

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Not for Tourists Guide to 2010 Chicago (Not for Tourists Guidebook) (Not For Tourists Guidebooks) ReviewLots of info,maps and well-categorized pretty easy to focus in on details by interest and area.In most ways,the book does live up to it's promise.The one real issue is the font.The books' printing is SO SMALL that it is nothing short of irritating.Map names are so small as to be almost illegible.While I recommend the book for it's info,I give it equally negative rating on it's ridiculously tiny print.Not for Tourists Guide to 2010 Chicago (Not for Tourists Guidebook) (Not For Tourists Guidebooks) Overview

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Total White Sox: The Definitive Encyclopedia of the Chicago White Sox Review

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Total White Sox: The Definitive Encyclopedia of the Chicago White Sox Review"Total White Sox: The Definitive Encyclopedia of the Chicago White Sox" is actually an updated version of a same-titled book which came out in 2006. (The first volume in this series was released in 1997 under the name "The White Sox Encyclopedia".) Those who have the earlier editions will still want to get the latest version. The 2011 book is about 80 pages longer and goes through the 2010 season with updated stats and information. There are also a number of photos that are in this book that are not in the other versions. It would have been easy to put this edition out with as little changes as possible, but Triumph Books and Richard Lindberg have done a great job in putting enough differences in this book that fans won't feel they are buying something they already have.
Of course any hard-core White Sox fan will want to purchase this. Richard Lindberg is the ultimate White Sox historian, and his opinions and comments on the last few years of White Sox history are required reading for Sox fans.
The 2011 "Total White Sox" is a continuation of the earlier volumes in layout, design, and content, but there is enough new material within to make this edition worth having. Highly recommended to all lifelong Chicago White Sox fans.Total White Sox: The Definitive Encyclopedia of the Chicago White Sox Overview

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The First Vice Lord: Big Jim Colosemo and the Ladies of the Levee Review

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The First Vice Lord: Big Jim Colosemo and the Ladies of the Levee ReviewThis is a brisk and entertaining account of the infamous career of Big Jim Colosimo, an influential political fixer, restauranteur and career criminal who was murdered shortly after the start of the Prohibition Era. Colosimo preceded Johnny Torrio and Al Capone as one of the top racketeers in Chicago. His celebrated restaurant and night club was unique in that served patrons from all classes of society, professional athletes, crooks, celebrities, politicians and elite members of the city's social register alike.
Jim Colosimo rose to power as a leader of Chicago's sanitation workers and as a top precinct captain for the notorious political bosses of the 1st Ward, Democratic aldermen "Bathhouse John" Coughlin and Michael "Hinky Dink" Kenna. Colosimo and his first wife, Victoria, owned and operated numerous lucrative brothels in the infamous Levee district. During elections, Colosimo turned out the pimps, cadets and whores to deliver their votes to the political machine. He was on good terms with the Everleigh sisters and collected payoffs from various Levee resort operators to be divided with the politicians and the police.
The key problem that I found in reading this book was that so much of the political and election data supplied in the text was clearly erroneous. I would have given this book a better rating if not for these errors: State's Attorney John Wayman did not conduct vice raids in the Levee as a prelude for a run for governor in 1913 (he had been an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 1912 which was held months before the raids began in earnest); "Big Bill" Thompson was not the incumbent alderman of the 2nd Ward when he ran for mayor in 1915 (he had served in the city council more than a decade earlier) and he was not encouraged to make the mayoral race by Carter Harrison's decision to retire (Harrison was a mayoral candidate in 1915, but lost to County Clerk Robert Sweitzer in the nominating primary); Thompson testified on behalf of his former campaign manager, Fred "Poor Swede" Lundin, during the latter's trial for orchestrating corruption and wasteful spending at the Chicago Board of Education, but Thompson was not under indictment as a criminal defendant charged with participating in this particular scandal; William E. Dever defeated Arthur C. Lueder in the 1923 mayoral race (Thompson was not a candidate that year). Political events are an intregal part of the Colosimo story, but the book is quite careless in supplying the necessary details correctly.
The errors that I have referred to are merely a sampling of the mistakes to be found in the otherwise enjoyable text. There are several more, but space does not permit me to list all of the non sequiturs. One final example will suffice. According to the glossary, the Volstead Act was the popular name for the 13th Amendment which ushered in the legal prohibition of alcohol in the USA. In fact, the Volstead Act (the bill was named for its Congressional sponsor, US Representative Andrew J. Volstead of Minnesota) was the legislation that implemented the 18th Amendment; the 13th Amendment was passed during the Reconstruction era and formally abolished slavery in the United States immediately after the conclusion of the Civil War.
There is some good information in this book (the material related to Colosimo's second marriage to Dale Winters, his officially unsolved murder and his lavish funeral is well handled), but the presence of so many historical errors prevents me from rating the book as definitive.The First Vice Lord: Big Jim Colosemo and the Ladies of the Levee Overview

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Terror and Wonder: Architecture in a Tumultuous Age Review

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Terror and Wonder: Architecture in a Tumultuous Age Reviewreally kamin knows his stuff . a good book on design and architecture and the new buildings planned for chicago . and the burj khalifa too in dubai has a special chapter.Terror and Wonder: Architecture in a Tumultuous Age Overview

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The Chicago Fake Book Review

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The Chicago Fake Book ReviewLots of Chicago tunes. The chords are spot on. It's not tab, so you have to listen to the song to pick up the fills and playing styles but the chords quickly get you headed in the right direction for playing the Chicago tunes.The Chicago Fake Book Overview

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Remembering Marshall Field's (Images of America) Review

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Remembering Marshall Field's (Images of America) ReviewWhen Macy's got rid of Marshall Fields, we lost a huge retail store, this book by the folks at I.O.A sure made a great book to remember this lost icon, I would recommend people to buy them and with Amazon's great low prices I am sure people will find something they'll like, I know I did!Remembering Marshall Field's (Images of America) Overview

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Polish Chicago: Our History, Our Recipes Review

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Polish Chicago: Our History, Our Recipes ReviewThis book blends a cookbook featuring authentic Polish cuisine with the history of the Polish immigrants and their descendants in Chicago. We bought a copy for each of my daughters. They used it as a guidebook. When they and my wife visited Chicago this weekend, the book sent them on a journey to uncovered a bakery with exceptional Polish pastries.I am still enjoying these. What more can I say!Polish Chicago: Our History, Our Recipes Overview

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Chicago - The Definitive Guitar Collection Review

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Chicago - The Definitive Guitar Collection ReviewThe song selection wouldn't exactly be my choice for a "definitive guitar collection" of Chicago songs, but they're certainly not bad. They are, in this order:
1. Alive Again (from Hot Streets)
2. Along Comes a Woman (from Chicago 17)
3. Byblos (from Chicago VII)
4. Dialogue (Part II from Chicago V) --and yes, it's JUST part II.
5. Flight 602 (from Chicago III)
6. Gone Long Gone (from Hot Streets)
7. I'm a Man (from Chicago Transit Authority)
8. If You Leave Me Now (from Chicago X)
9. In the Country (from Chicago II)
10. Just You 'N' Me (from Chicago VI)
11. Poem 58 (from Chicago Transit Authority)
12. Scrapbook (from Chicago X)
13. South California Purples (from Chicago Transit Authority)
14. Stay the Night (from Chicago 17)
15. 25 or 6 to 4 (from Chicago II)
Obviously there's heavy reliance on Terry Kath's material, as there should be. That said, many of the choices confound me. Let me state up front that no Chicago fan is dying to get authentic tab to any song from an album post Chicago XI. And CERTAINLY not anything post Donnie Dacus--there's some solos out there, but no GUITAR songs. So there's four song selections wasted there. Next, . . . "Just You 'N' Me"? "Flight 602"? "If You Leave Me Now"? These were included in favor over songs like "Introduction," "A Hit By Varese," "Make Me Smile," "Takin' It On Uptown," "I Don't Want Your Money"? And dare I suggest . . . "Liberation"!? It doesn't make any sense to me. Sure, "A Hit By Varese" may not have ever been a single, but neither was "Flight 602" and it blows that one out of the water. None of this is to mention that it drives me nuts when "Dialogue (Part I)" gets left out of things. Those two songs are one--heck, the radio edit even meshed them together. So why include just Part II? I really don't want to have to rely on internet tabs for that--no one gets the voicings right.
I wouldn't have much ground here if the publishers had not decided to sub-title the book "The Definitive Guitar Collection." But they did, and several of there picks are hardly "definitive" Chicago guitar songs. So . . . there we are. This is by no means a bad book, but it could have been much better. I'm still happy I have it and look forward to working on "25 or 6 to 4" very soon.Chicago - The Definitive Guitar Collection Overview

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Al Capone and His American Boys: Memoirs of a Mobster's Wife Review

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Al Capone and His American Boys: Memoirs of a Mobster's Wife ReviewLike gangster Gus Winkeler, this book is a real killer. William Helmer, who has been one of the true experts on Prohibition-era crime for four decades, hits the mark again with a well-crafted, beautifully written and researched work. Helmer rescued Georgette Winkeler's intimate memoir from FBI files and subsequently brought to light a wealth of first-hand knowledge that names the four shooters of the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, who were not the usual suspects in Chicago, but imported, fresh faces, mostly from Saint Louis - now known as "The American Boys." Moreover, he has illuminated August "Gus" Winkeler, who stayed in the city after the killings in the Clark Street garage on Feb. 14th, 1929 to become a force in the Outfit until his own death in 1933.
Winkeler's widow, a shattered but nevertheless cogent and credible witness, wrote her rather dynamic manuscript after her husband's murder at the hands of the Nitti-run mob. Helmer, who in 2004 with Art Bilek wrote "The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre - The Untold Story of the Gangland Bloodbath That Brought Down Al Capone," (another must read) has completed the historical deconstruction of the denouement of the Chicago Outfit of the 1920's with this latest treatise. Along with Georgette's recollections, Helmer has basically tied up the post-massacre gangland years with a culminating addendum of all the relevant players who have become household names, including Capone, Frank Nitti, and the rest of the infamous crowd who made Chicago rumble. Of all of the journalists who have taken on this epic, Helmer has added to his forty-years of contributions with his best and most revealing efforts in this book, defining the profile of the true historian.
For those of us who never get enough of the elusive truth and who ourselves research those hypnotic times, this book is, simply put, pure pleasure. Georgette's memory of seeing her husband and the other American Boys parading around in their Chicago Police costumes before mowing down George "Bugs" Moran's men in 1929, is the most scintillating solution imaginable to one of the world-changing crimes of the 20th century. Along with his 1969 history of the machine-gun (The Gun That Made the Twenties Roar) and his almanac of public enemies (co-written with the late, great gangsterologist Rick Mattix), William Helmer has once again proven himself as a premier authority on the Prohibition decade. This is an elegant book (buy it in hardcover - it's beautiful) issued by the University of Indiana Press, with no stone left unturned. I admit to being a great Helmer admirer; however, as a researcher myself, I must also say that he sets the standard for all of us. I give this one an unabashed five stars, but it deserves six. It is more fun than a barrel of booze.Al Capone and His American Boys: Memoirs of a Mobster's Wife Overview

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eat.shop chicago: The Indispensable Guide to Inspired, Locally Owned Eating and Shopping Establishments (Rather Chicago:: A Compendium of Desirable Independent Eating + Shopping Establishments) Review

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eat.shop chicago: The Indispensable Guide to Inspired, Locally Owned Eating and Shopping Establishments (Rather Chicago:: A Compendium of Desirable Independent Eating + Shopping Establishments) ReviewAwesome book that makes you got out and try new things and see new places!eat.shop chicago: The Indispensable Guide to Inspired, Locally Owned Eating and Shopping Establishments (Rather Chicago:: A Compendium of Desirable Independent Eating + Shopping Establishments) Overview

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Thirty Years in the Trenches Covering Crooks, Characters and Capers Review

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Thirty Years in the Trenches Covering Crooks, Characters and Capers ReviewDrummond, a reporter with CBS-owned Channel 2 in Chicago for many years, is best known for covering the "Outfit" in Chicago. As any Chicagoan can attest, he also covered many characters and other crooks, besides the big fish that hogged the headlines. Although there is a chapter on Tony "Big Tuna" Accardo, Drummond wisely focuses on the little guys that many of us forgot. This is a smart choice, for much is already written about the big guys like Accardo and if Drummond wanted to cover them right, he would of had to have written a separate book on several people. The only thing missing in the book is more on Drummond himself, for if you are a personal friend of his, as I am, you know that he is more interesting than any of the crooks and capers he ever covered. Read this book and try to learn as much as you can about John Drummond - a living Chicago legend and a journalism institution!Thirty Years in the Trenches Covering Crooks, Characters and Capers Overview

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Friday Night Bites (Chicagoland Vampires, Book 2) Review

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Friday Night Bites (Chicagoland Vampires, Book 2) ReviewChloe Neill's sophomore effort makes it very clear that the greatness of her first book, "Some Girls Bite", was not accidental.
The book opens a month after the events of the first book. There is a great deal of recapping in the first few chapters (the only thing that I could do without, but I understand that it might be necessary for those who missed the first book). Merit is still struggling with her transition to a vampire, but things are even worse now because almost every single relationship in her life is undergoing major changes. Her best friend is caught up in her own problems (learning to be a sorceress), and Merit is trying to juggle adjusting to her new life, solving a new mystery involving her House, and hiding a dark secret - the fact that she feels separate from her inner vampire and has to spend a lot of energy trying to control it.
I won't go into the details of the plot: the readers should be left unspoiled, all the better to enjoy the satisfying conclusion and the final cliffhanger, which is more of a lead-in to the third book. The trademark fine qualities that distinguish Chloe Neill's first book are present here: wonderful characterization and character development, interesting plot, emotional honesty and nuanced, intelligent writing. One of Chloe Neill's greatest strength as a writer, especially a writer of paranormal fiction, is her ability to make her characters' emotions and actions ring true, thereby making them and the rest of her universe seem very real (a quality she shares with another excellent writer, Patricia Briggs). She has a very light touch and her way of portraying Merit's pain and struggle is both sensitive and sympathetic, without resorting to heavy-handed melodrama or artificial toughness that is the trademark approach of too many paranormal books. Merit's relationship with Ethan has grown even more complex, and during the course of the book I found myself alternately wishing she would just realize how destructive their attraction was, and hoping that perhaps things would work out. I must say that I didn't like Ethan very much in this book, most of the time, but then there were moments that almost made it all worth it - which is exactly how Merit feels throughout the books. And, while it's difficult not to feel for Merit (another testament to Chloe Neill's excellent writing), and not to feel offended on her behalf for the way Ethan treats her most of the time, it's also impossible not to keep reading, not to keep wondering what will happen with their relationship, because honestly, anything can happen, which is another great things about these books.
"Friday Night Bites" is intelligently written and contains little actual "ass kicking" but much plotting and intrigue. There are many mysteries left to unravel. With every step the reader learns more of the complexities of the Chicagoland universe, and at the end of the book, is left longing for more. I for one can hardly wait for the third installment which comes out next year (too long a wait, if you ask me!). For those of you who haven't read the first book, I say please go out and buy it immediately. While Chloe Neill recaps the first book here, readers shouldn't skip reading it, especially for the sake of appreciating and relating to Merit's development and her emotional struggles. Please read both; I cannot recommend them highly enough.Friday Night Bites (Chicagoland Vampires, Book 2) Overview

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Chicago - Transcribed Scores Volume 1 Review

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Chicago - Transcribed Scores Volume 1 ReviewI order this because I have been studying chord progressions in rock music to that in jazz and classical. I was not anticipating the full transcription with the horn parts. This is a great book if you are in a cover band and want to do some Chicago tunes.Chicago - Transcribed Scores Volume 1 Overview

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Artwise Chicago Museum Map - Laminated Museum Map of Chicago, Illinois Review

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Artwise Chicago Museum Map - Laminated Museum Map of Chicago, Illinois ReviewI thought this map was actually more informative than the "Streetwise" version. This also includes good information on the Hyde Park area, and has information on the subway and bus lines. A good general map of the city. It's not big, so you can throw it in your pocket.Artwise Chicago Museum Map - Laminated Museum Map of Chicago, Illinois Overview

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To Sleep with the Angels: The Story of a Fire Review

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To Sleep with the Angels: The Story of a Fire ReviewMany books have been written about real-life tragedies, and in this sense, Cowan and Kuenster's book is no different. However, there is a thin line in these type of books between boring the reader by burying the human aspect of the story with an overload of factual material and becoming nothing more than a non-fiction hankie weeper. Quite a few books have disappointed me in the past by straying to either one side or the other. Not so with this one. It is a solid piece of reporting that does not lose the human dimension of the tragedy. Nor does it obscure the investigation and the facts with too much emphasis on the human dimension.
The fire at Our Lady of the Angels was one of the worst tragedies to strike America, made even more so in that the vast majority of its victims were innocent children. The authors follow the story from the day it occured to the fire itself and the heroic efforts of the fire department to the later delegation of blame and recriminations from what was seen as a bureaucratic conspiracy. In doing so they manage to bring the reader into the story not merely as a spectator but almost as a fellow reporter, sharing not only facts, but also conjectures and whispers plus personal items about the victims, always careful always to straddle the line between objectivity and thje trap of a "crusading" journalism. By letting the story speak for itself, they bring it home all the more forcefully, to where no one who reads it will remain unaffected.
This book should also serve as a warning against the false sense of security that this sort of thing cannot happen again. There are still many schools, public and private, at risk, and this is a book that should be read by every parent with children still in school, and not only during Fire Prevention Week.To Sleep with the Angels: The Story of a Fire Overview

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The Fifth Floor (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) Review

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The Fifth Floor (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) ReviewIn Harvey's second Chicago noir, ex-cop and private investigator Michael Kelly finds himself knee deep in a scandal that goes all the way back to the infamous Chicago Fire of 1871, and its possible origin as an attempt by two powerful families to eliminate the city's Irish immigrants by burning down the slums. While on a surveillance case tailing an ex-girlfriend's abusive husband (who happens to be one of the mayor's personal hatchet men) in the hopes of discovering something she can use against him, Kelly stumbles upon a murder scene that reaches into Chicago's sordid past, with its money- and power-grabbing elite, and their connection to the city's long-running political machine. Seems that machine is still humming: after digging a little too deeply into the murder he uncovered, Kelly is summoned to City Hall's notorious fifth floor, where he is warned off the case by the mayor himself. Naturally Kelly is undeterred, and things get more complicated and dangerous, with more bodies turning up and an attempted frame-up of Kelly for the crimes. P.I. Michael Kelly is a wonderfully flawed but honorable character created by a talented noir stylist, and his tenacious efforts to expose the wrongdoings of Chicago's most ruthlessly powerful and respected citizens keep you rooting for the this appealing underdog. Extra points for the colorful hardboiled dialogue.
Also recommended: A Stranger Lies There- a superior desert-noir set in Palm Springs, it won the Malice Domestic Award for best first mystery.
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Chicago: City in the Spotlight Review

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Chicago: City in the Spotlight ReviewIt's a wonderful coffee table book, resource book for academia, gift to a visitor or new resident. Beautifully done. The book showcases the city through a lavishly depicted photo journal, and through a series of self-composed profiles, highlights the city's best and brightest organizations that drive the economic engine in our great city. Stories are historical and display the commitment to progress that exists in Chicago.Chicago: City in the Spotlight Overview

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Destination: Loop--The Story of Rapid Transit Railroading in and Around Chicago (SGP shortline RR series) Review

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Destination: Loop--The Story of Rapid Transit Railroading in and Around Chicago (SGP shortline RR series) ReviewThis is a wonderful, rare book about something we know all too little about: how rapid transit was engineered and built around the downtown Chicago area. In light of the imminent reconfiguration of major rail lines around Chicago, this is a great thing to learn more about.Destination: Loop--The Story of Rapid Transit Railroading in and Around Chicago (SGP shortline RR series) Overview

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Guns and Roses: The Untold Story of Dean O'Banion, Chicago's Big Shot before Al Capone Review

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Guns and Roses: The Untold Story of Dean O'Banion, Chicago's Big Shot before Al Capone ReviewEven though I have read numerous other books on Chicago's infamous past during the prohibition years I found Rose Keefe's effort entitled Guns and Roses to be another fascinating read which is primarily devoted to Al Capone's North Side rivals. O'Banion's loss of his mother at an early age and subsequent move to a seedy section of Chicago contributed to Dean's alliance with the city's criminal element. The warring parties were driven by greed in invading each other's assigned territory during the beer wars. After the assassination of O'Banion in his florist shop in 1924 a number of his friends (Weiss, Drucci, and Moran) all had short terms heading the North Side mob. Weiss and Drucci being shot and Moran having his gang virtually wiped out at the St. Valentine's Day Massacre on February 14, 1929. If you have read other books on this subject you can prepare yourself to enjoy yet another offering on the subject with this book. In addition, this book has photographs I have not seen in other books. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.Guns and Roses: The Untold Story of Dean O'Banion, Chicago's Big Shot before Al Capone Overview

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