Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the Fbi, 1933-34 - Softcover

Burrough, Bryan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143035371 ISBN 13: 9780143035374

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2005

Synopsis

In Public Enemies, bestselling author Bryan Burrough strips away the thick layer of myths put out by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI to tell the full story--for the first time--of the most spectacular crime wave in American history, the two-year battle between the young Hoover and the assortment of criminals who became national icons: John Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and the Barkers. In an epic feat of storytelling and drawing on a remarkable amount of newly available material on all the major figures involved, Burrough reveals a web of interconnections within the vast American underworld and demonstrates how Hoover's G-men overcame their early fumbles to secure the FBI's rise to power.

About this title

Review:

"Brims with vivid portraiture ... Excellent true crime." --The New York Times Book Review

"An amazingly detailed true-life thriller..." --Entertainment Weekly

"It is hard to imagine a more careful, complete and entrancing book on the subject, and on this era." --The Washington Post

"[A] riveting true-crime tale... Fascinating... The real story, it turns out, is much better than the Hollywood version." --The Wall Street Journal

"Spellbinding... A model of narrative journalism and [a] gripping read." --BusinessWeek

From the Back Cover:

Entrancing ... definitive ... a wild and amazing story' Washington Post

In 1933 a crime wave blazed across America. Fuelled by cheap liquor and fast cars, gangs of chancers, bank robbers, gunslingers and their molls cut a murderous, cash-snatching dash through the US - and became
legends. Among them were homicidal Baby Face Nelson, outlaws Bonnie and Clyde, cranky hillbilly Ma Barker and, most deadly of all, the suave gentleman criminal John Dillinger.

This is the breakneck story of America's most wanted, and their nemesis: J. Edgar Hoover and his strong-arm law enforcers, the agents of the FBI. Using shocking secret files and eyewitness accounts, Public Enemies reveals the facts about the crime spree that shook America.

'Seriously exciting ... crackles and pops with dialogue so outrageous that you suspect a dozen scriptwriters have worked on it, but every word is true' Spectator

'Excellent true crime ... brims with vivid portraiture' The New York Times

'It makes a good tale, and Burroughs tells it well, in all its horrible detail' Literary Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0143035371
• ISBN 13: 9780143035374
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 640