Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #287288 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 310 pages

Customer Reviews

A Neglected Chapter in Organized Crime
Finding a book dealing with American organized crime is not a difficult task. Indeed, such books are ubiquitous- a small library could be created out of the books written about John Gotti and his various associates. The problem is finding a book that is accurate, historically sound, and entertaining, as well. Taylor Pensoneau has covered all the bases with this volume. He writes with a credible reporter's accuracy. Just as important, however, is that this book is never boring. This is a chapter of American organized crime that few people will find familiar. The stereotypical gangster is generally portrayed as an urban Italian or, in more rare cases, a Jew. The Sheltons were rural WASPs, but at their height, they were as powerful and ruthless as an Al Capone or a Lucky Luciano. Their personalities were diverse: there was personable Carl, who acted as their boss, and there was the sullen, brutal Bernie, who acted as their enforcer. Despite this diversity, they both ended their lives violently. Thankfully, however, Personeau avoids the simplistic morality of some organized crime books, which pit virtuous Government representatives against the pernicious, immoral racketeer. The reality of organized crime is that it could never exist without the active participation and/or connivance of those in the world of business and politics. Pensoneau demonstrates this clearly in his writing. In addition, the whole saga contains a combustible cast of secondary characters that probably couldn't be imagined in fiction- a flamboyant Jewish racketeer named Charlie Birger whose charm doesn't quite hide his homicidal propensities; venal politicians and craven law-enforcement officials that we'll wish were an anamoly or a relic of the past, but assuredly aren't; and Ku Klux Klan "crusaders" who make the racketeers seem to be models of virtue and enlightenment in comparison to their own vicious, narrow-minded nativism. For those who are beginning to find the "True Crime" genre as boring as the Vampire Novel, or the Gothic Romance, this book is a refreshing and informative find.

The Sheltons Get Their Due
Among the legends of the Prohibition era, the Shelton-Birger gang war, perhaps because of its rural setting, has been long overlooked by most gangster books and it's a shame. A lot of stuff happened outside New York and Chicago. In the mid-to-late '20's, the Birger and Shelton gangs rivaled Capone's Chicago beer wars in terms of both publicity and body count. Spectacularly so, with not only machine guns but armored trucks and even the first aerial bombing in U.S. history. What Gary DeNeal did for Charlie Birger, Taylor Pensoneau has now done admirably for his rivals. Birger was hanged in 1928 but the Shelton boys continued to prosper, in bootlegging, gambling and labor racketeering until the late '40's, when their story came to a violent end and this well researched and highly readable account tells the whole story. Read up, Hollywood--the Sheltons deserve a movie!