Product Description

Buried under decades of stereotype and parody, the true history of the female companions of the Great Depression's bank-robbing gang is uncovered. Don't Call Us Molls carefully examines the legacy of the Dillinger women using eyewitness and descendants' accounts as well as courtroom and prison records. This book explores the collective experience of these fugitives and offers a thoughtful, well-informed commentary on past attitudes toward the marginalized women of the day-the lawbreakers, the informers, and a lone female sheriff. FBI memos, court transcripts, and never-before-published photos reveal the events experienced by women under siege, resurrecting historical figures and their private behavior. This history lays bare the personal lives of the wives and girlfriends of the public enemies of the 1930s and examines how their conflicting loyalties were challenged and exploited by unrelenting pressure of the United States government to betray their men.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #557385 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Rick Mattix, author of Public Enemies: America's Criminal Past 1919-1940
"The Dillinger case from a unique perspective, the gang's women, whose stories are fascinating. Refreshingly different, crammed with new facts."

About the Author
Ellen Poulsen has worked as a staff writer for the Queens Chronicle, and she is the recipient of the Sandra Schor Nonfiction Award. She lives in Queens, New York.

Customer Reviews

Interesting but unwieldy and very poorly edited!
The book has an academic structure of sorts including notes for each chapter, an index and lots of photographs. However there is no list of photographs and they are not all referenced. Regarding the notes they do did not include all the information I expected and occasionally where I thought part of the story deserved a footnote for further explanation there was none. For example on page 372 the murder of nurse Myrtle Jordan is never fully explained and on page 377 a photograph of the Barker Death House is shown but no explanation is given as to why it is now unapproachable.

Due to the large number of people mentioned and the complex nature of relationships between some of them a diagram or cast of characters would have proved invaluable whilst reading the book. I frequently got lost as to who was who, the authors' habit of referring to people by any one of their aliases was tiresome and irritating and showed a lack of consistency. The author couldn't even settle on the breed of dog Evelyn Frechette had!

I think the author made a mistake in not starting off with the story of John Dillinger at the beginning. I realise the premise of the book is to show how important the women were to the gang but to be honest who were they without John Dillinger? Instead the author describes the marriage of Patricia Young to Art Cherrington and Evelyn Frechette to Welton Spark. Personally I think the book jumped backwards and forwards far too much which made it confusing. The book is also littered with spelling mistakes and the use of English gets worse as the book progresses.

Personally I think the author wanted to show how important the women were to the Dillinger Gang however with the exception of Mary Kinder I am unsure this was the case. Frequently the women seem to have been a liability, often leading officers to their hideouts or dishing out information once they were caught.

Although the book attempts to give an insight into the interesting and often tragic lives of many of the women in Dillingers acquaintance it seemed patchy in places and absolutely dire when relating what happened to them after the gangs demise. For example what ever happened to Sally Bachman after she was released from prison? There are far too many gaps in the biographies of these women afterwards and this is very disappointing.

It might have been better to do a full biography of just one of the women rather than attempt a sort of biography of all of them.

The book needs to be restructured, re-edited and re-released. It was like reading a very rough, unedited proof which is a shame because it could have been very good indeed.

The Truth Behind the Headlines
I believe that anyone who is interested in the Middle Western crime wave during the Great Depression is sure to enjoy this book. Ellen Poulsen leaves no stone unturned in this meticulously researched chronicle of the women behind the public enemies who shot their way into the headlines during the Thirties. The author provides us with a wealth of little known facts about Evelyn Frechette, Marie Conforti (real name Comforti), the Delaney sisters, Bess Green, Opal Long, Helen Gillis (Mrs. Baby Face Nelson), and scores of others who, through sheer misfortune and tough times, shared the beds of some of the most notorious outlaws in the annals of U.S. crime. An informative book which furnishes insight into the sad lives led by the "gun molls" glamorized by the press.

Great Book For True Crime Fans!
Don't Call Us Molls: Women of the John Dillinger Gang

This is a fascinating book that details the lives of the most famous "Dillinger Women"...Polly Hamilton, Anna "The Lady In Red" Sage and the love of his life, Evelyn "Billie" Frechette. It goes much deeper, profiling lesser-known girlfriends and female associates of the Dillinger gang such as Pat Cherrington, Opal Long, Mary Kinder, Beth Green, Marie Comforti, Jean Delaney Compton, Pearl Elliott and Helen Gillis as well as female associates of other criminal gangs of the era such as Dolores Delaney, Winona Burdette and the infamous Kathryn Kelly.

Ellen Poulson weaves a fascinating true history of these desperate women, illustrating in detail and with great empathy how their roller-coaster lives went from giddy excesses to grinding poverty, all the while being hunted like animals. This is a must read for any fan of American criminal history!!

Anne Rosenthal