Product Description

If American crime had a golden age, it was between 1920 and 1940—the roller-coaster years when a rural nation became urbanized and the nineteenth century finally gave away to the twentieth. The same forces that reshaped society also changed the face of crime, and soon the Progressive movement that battled urban decay led to the unintended consequences of increased police and political corruption, drunkenness transformed from a working-class vice to middle-class rebellion, and organized crime was established nationally.
The Complete Public Enemy Almanac is the ultimate reference book for the gangster era, with many unique features:
• A highly original and revisionist history of the period, covering the entire nation
• A unique, unmatched collection of gangster and outlaw biographies
• Hundreds of illustrations and period photographs
• A full, first-ever crime chronology of the period
• Dozens of short features on everything from the shift from local to federalized law enforcement to the history of body armor and goofy schemes to deal with "motorized bandits"
• The origins and meanings of such terms as the "one-way ride," "X marks the spot," "the real McCoy," "G-Man," "Public Enemy," and many more
• Innovative lists, including the Chicago Crime Commission's "body count" of gang-style murders during the period
• New light on the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, the Kansas City Massacre, the deliberate killing of Pretty Boy Floyd, the mysterious death of Baby Face Nelson, and other events
• An exhaustive bibliography (including numerous short reviews) of every true-crime book published about gangsters and outlaws of the twenties and thirties
Meticulously documented, lavishly detailed, exhaustively researched, and written with an eye for the turths that have remained largely hidden, The Complete Public Enemy Almanac provides a reliable source of information about the violent and lawless era of the twenties and thirties.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #135504 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-02
• Released on: 2007-07-02
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 669 pages

About the Author
William Helmer, a former senior editor at Playboy, is the author of The Gun That Made the Twenties Roar and is the coauthor of Dillinger: The Untold Story, Baby Face Nelson, and The St. Valentine's Day Massacre. He lives in Boerne, Texas.
Rick Mattix, an expert on the criminal gangs of the twenties and thirties, is a prominent researcher and consultant to authors and television documentaries. The coauthor of Thompson: The American Legend and Dillinger: The Untold Story (expanded edition), and author of numerous magazine and journal articles, he lives in Bussey, Iowa.

Customer Reviews

This needs a sixth star!
This is a must have referance/gangster/outlaw book. If this subject or even this era of history intrests you at all this book is a goldmine.

This Book is Encyclopedic
Respected authors William Helmer and Rick Mattix have provided us with a reference book of nearly 900 pages relating to "the gangster and outlaw era: 1920--1940." The book is divided into seven sections dealing with all facets of crime during this turbulent era. Parts of this book can be read like any other book while criminal incidents from various years are listed chronologically. I feel this part of the book can be best used as a reference. The book contains numerous photos, several of which I have never seen before. The big shots of both Chicago and New York are all here as are the depression-era desperadoes. Depending on your interest level you may feel you are being told more than you care to know. However, as I said, much of this book can be used as a useful reference book to your crime library. If you do have such a library this book would be a worthy addition. Co-author Rick Mattix has reviewed numerous crime books on Amazon, and his opinion carries considerable weight with me in whether or not I decide to purchase a book.

Crime bible
If there's a bible to crime, this is it. There are hundreds of books out there that deal with Depression Era crime. You can buy them all and plow through them for information, but seldom know how accurate that information is. On the other hand, you can get this one volume and have it all at your fingertips. Researched in detail and written with a light finger, this well-laid out book is easy to read. You get the dates, times, details, photos and personnel that made America's Golden Age of Crime what it was. Get it; read it; refer to it. It's a winner on all levels.