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The St. Valentine's Day Massacre: The Untold Story of the Gangland Bloodbath That Brought Down Al Capone Review

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The St. Valentine's Day Massacre: The Untold Story of the Gangland Bloodbath That Brought Down Al Capone ReviewIf you enjoy books that have 1001 points of trivia in them, you'll love this. It's jam packed with facts. It's clear the authors researched exhaustively.
For me it was exhausting, too. Some true crime books have a tendency to deteriorate into an spider web of tangentially related facts and read like reports instead of narratives. This is one of them. I now know the street addresses of dozens of gangsters, a dozen pseudonyms for each as well as multiple spelling variants for those pseudonyms. I know the names of relatives. I know the names of various reporters and photographers and the paths they took to the crime scene. We got a seeming word for word recital of every meeting of the coroner's investigation, were told which meetings got postponed and by whom, were informed of the several addresses they were held at and even the exact room numbers. We got a roll call of who was present. After slogging through pages and pages of testimony that to me seemed banal and utterly uninformative, the author sums it up by declaring that the coroner's investigation yielded nothing much of interest.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. So why did we get the blow by blow instead of the few leads that actually contributed to the investigation? Why did we hear about every dead end in detail, only to be informed that... it was indeed a dead end.
And yet, with all that information, as another reviewer pointed out, Bugs Moran and the other North Siders were glossed over.
So that's my take on it. If you are fond of books that are like tossed salads of facts, this is your kind of book. It's a trivia lover's dream. If you like an author to sift out the important details and give you a sequential, streamlined narrative (that's me) this book will drag.The St. Valentine's Day Massacre: The Untold Story of the Gangland Bloodbath That Brought Down Al Capone 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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The gang: A study of 1,313 gangs in Chicago Review

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The gang: A study of 1,313 gangs in Chicago ReviewThis landmark 1927 book by sociologist Frederick Milton Thrasher of the University of Chicago was considered a classic of its time. We read it for a college class, and it was pretty interesting despite a somewhat academic style. Thrasher illustrates the lifestyles of Chicago's then 1,300 street gangs (today it's about 200), most of whose members were of white immigrant stock (today its largely blacks and Latino's). As the author makes clear, 1920's gang members were known for toughness and delinquency. Still, the gangs of the 1920's weren't nationally affiliated, nor were they heavily into guns and illegal drug sales. It also seems that gang members of the 1920's were mostly teenagers - today many are well into adulthood.
This book was updated in 1963, and today there is an award in the author's name (set up in 1992) to honor leadership in the fight to make our society safer from violent gangs.
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After Capone: The Life and World of Chicago Mob Boss Frank The Enforcer" Nitti" Review

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After Capone: The Life and World of Chicago Mob Boss Frank The Enforcer" Nitti" ReviewIn a way the title of After Capone is misleading. This work not only covers history after Capone's exit from the Chicago Outfit, but deals with the early history of the Chicago Mob as well. Mars Eghigian has done an awesome job with this first bio of Frank Nitti. Everything to the last detail has been carefully researched and noted. He has utilized primary source records that others have neglected, such as actual court transcripts, birth, death and marriage records, immigration records, city directories and of course, all of the major Chicago newspapers to write the definite work on the life and death of Al Capone's successor. Not only that, but the prose maintains the reader's attention. This is a book that no historian of organized crime and Chicago history can do without. Researchers can thank Eghigian for having done a wonderful service.After Capone: The Life and World of Chicago Mob Boss Frank The Enforcer" Nitti" Overview

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The Gangs of Chicago: An Informal History of the Chicago Underworld (Illinois) Review

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The Gangs of Chicago: An Informal History of the Chicago Underworld (Illinois) ReviewI enjoyed reading this book, but it was written some time ago. The original copyright is 1940. In fact, it was written at a time when investigative journalism was still colored by the author's blatant opinions, details considered too gruesome were left out (although there are some), and fact and fiction blended without too much trouble.
It covers the time from the Chicago area's first settlement up to about the time of prohibition, but gang activity during prohibition is not a huge part of the book.
The problem with this edition of the book is that my copy was missing a significant section. Pages 187-218 were missing and they hadn't just fallen out. If they had fallen out, there would be a gap on the paperback's spine. There is none, so I would say there was an error at the printer's. My copy abruptly stops toward the end of the story of H.H. Holmes, the World's Fair serial killer, and then goes 30+ pages ahead, picking up at the end of the story of Buff Higgins. I have no idea what subject matter is missing, only that my page numbers skip and there is no continuity.
If you do get this book, check those pages immediately to see if my experience was isolated or there was a problem with the entire print run.The Gangs of Chicago: An Informal History of the Chicago Underworld (Illinois) Overview

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Cullotta: The Life of a Chicago Criminal, Las Vegas Mobster and Government Witness (True Crime) Review

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Cullotta: The Life of a Chicago Criminal, Las Vegas Mobster and Government Witness (True Crime) ReviewI have never written a review for a book before, but I never had a book IMPACT my life like this one. From the book Cullotta, I discovered who killed my father and his barmaid 27 years ago.

My name is Paul and I am the eldest son of Ronald Scharff. My father and Patricia Freeman were killed in Lakemoor, Illinois in 1981 by Larry Neumann. Neumann was one of Frank Cullotta's Hole in the Wall Gang members that my father had the great misfortune of knowing; my father's case in still officially unsolved.

Since reading the book, I have been working to get my father's case closed with a considerable amount of help from Frank Cullotta himself and his co-author, Dennis Griffin. My family and I are deeply grateful for their help. Frank Cullotta has been the only one in the past 27 years that has tried to bring my family and the Freeman's any kind of closure.

Please read this book to learn more about Larry Neumann and his ability to commit multiple murders. Your opinion on this man will help get this case closed. Visit my Facebook Group "McHenry County 1981" to follow my continuing efforts to get closure in the Ronald Scharff and Patricia Freeman case.
Copy and Paste the link below into your browser to Visit my Facebook group "McHenry County 1981"
http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?ref=mb#/group.php?gid=33678349794
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Operation Family Secrets: How a Mobster's Son and the FBI Brought Down Chicago's Murderous Crime Family Review

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Operation Family Secrets: How a Mobster's Son and the FBI Brought Down Chicago's Murderous Crime Family ReviewThis is a brutal story that chronicles a murderous "outfit" in the Chicago mob that is built around a psychopathic Father, Frank Calabrese Sr. and his son Frank Calabrese, Jr., who tells the story of a domineering abusive Father that forces him into the same way of life. The cold blooded descriptions of one murder after another are not for the squeamish. Frank Jr. who kept trying unsuccessfully to get out from under his multi-personality cold-blooded killing Father to try to lead a "straight" life... eventually winds up in a federal prison with his Father. Then he does the most unthinkable of the unthinkable. He puts his life on the line by contacting the FBI to rat on his Father... and agrees to wear a wire *IN THE PRISON YARD* to get taped confessions of his Father's almost uncountable amount of murders. The reader can feel the spine tingling tension and fear when the son takes a walk with his Father in the "yard" fully "wired-up". Jr. feels his Father is such a menace to society as well as already reneging on his pledge to get out of the "business" after prison, it's the only chance he himself has for a real life after prison. As if the emotional toll isn't high enough... simply ratting out his Father... but for Jr. to tell the whole story to the FBI he will have to include putting a noose around his Uncle Nick's neck, who Jr. has real affection for. Nick was involved in double digit murders either with... or at the bequest of Frank Sr. Though Nick was a cold-blooded killer himself... even he buckled under and cowered in the presence of Frank Sr. the few times he tried to stand up to Sr. regarding not forcing Jr. into "the-life"... he was physically and emotionally pummeled.
The family "outfit" specialized in "juiced" loans, gambling, labor racketeering, "no-show" jobs that were made famous in numerous "Soprano" episodes', extortion, and countless murders. And when it came to murder it didn't matter whether you were in the "outfit" or not. The corruption covered travels from Chicago to Las Vegas to Indiana and points in between. Numerous real life killings, skimming's, and breaking of mob code described here were used in Martin Scorsese's film "CASINO".
There are millions of dollars buried in the ground... riches hidden behind fake walls... and an abundance of one of my favorite nuances indigenous to true life mob sagas... *NICKNAMES*! Here are a few: "JOE BATTERS/BIG TUNA/DOVES/THE LACKEY/THE HOOK/JOHNNY APES/POKER TIRES/SHORTY/BIG STOOP/TOOTS/LITTLE GUY/TWAN/GUMBA/CICCIO/CURLY/WINGS/JOE NAGALL/ROCKY/TONY BORS/LITTLE JIMMY/JIMMY LIGHT/TONY THE HATCH/SOLLY D/THE CLOWN/LUMPY/THE ANT/THE INDIAN/TOOTSIE/JIMMY THE BOMBER/NO NOSE/THE BUILDER/THE MOOCH. The history making trial that is built around Jr.'s tapes and testimony has gone down as one of the biggest mob convictions in history... and you have a front row seat with this book.
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