The Alvin Karpis Story - Softcover

Karpis, Alvin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 4871873331 ISBN 13: 9784871873338

Publisher: Ishi Press, 2011

Synopsis

"My profession was robbing banks, knocking off payrolls, and kidnapping rich men. I was good at it. Maybe the best in North America for five years front 1931 to 1936. . . . In another set of circumstances, I might have turned out to be a top lawyer or maybe a big-time businessman. I might have made it to any high position that demanded brains and style and a cool, hard way of handling yourself . Certainly I could have held the highest job there was in any line of police detection work. . . "These are the opening lines of Alvin "Old Creepy" Karpis' unique auto-biography. In its nostalgic pages, one of the 1930's most notorious and colorful underworld figures - Public Enemy Number One in an era that saw such contenders for the title as John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Bonnie and Clyde, and Pretty Boy Floyd-tells all and tells it like it was. "The book," Karpis writes, "is basically the story of what went on among us better known thieves of the Depression era and also what seemed to make us tick." And tick it does, like a time bomb set against a safe.From his early days as a petty thief, his meeting with Freddie Barker and the Karpis - Ma Barker gang's personal crime wave that swept the Midwest and carried them into the headlines, to his enduring duel of nerve and wits with his nemeses, J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, Alvin Karpis recalls a remarkable life in crime. At the same time, he re-creates the full flavor of a unique chapter in American history: the desperado-ridden years of the Depression, when payroll heists and bank robberies, and gunpoint confrontations between cops and robbers filled the front pages and the daring escapades and high living of the Karpis-Barker gang provided a colorful contrast to the severity of those very hard times. Completely candid and startling in its revelations, The Alvin Karpis Story brings to dimensional life all the legendary and infamous characters who peopled that extraordinary world'

About this title

About the Author:

In 1934, when J. Edgar Hoover decided to get some publicity for his newly named organization, the FBI, he created a list of “Public Enemies”. One by one, the FBI hunted down and killed these “Public Enemies”. The most famous was John Dillinger, who was killed on July 22, 1934 by the FBI after having been fingered by his girlfriend, “The Lady in Red”, as part of a deal to save her from deportation. All of these “Public Enemies” were gunned down and killed by the FBI, until only Alvin Karpis was left. Those killed were John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson. This left Alvin Karpis as “Public Enemy Number One”. Meanwhile, J., Edgar Hoover was under increasing pressure from the United States Congress. It was pointed out that Hoover had never in his life conducted an investigation or made an arrest. Therefore, Hoover decided that he personally would arrest Karpis, to improve his image. Karpis was located in New Orleans and J. Edgar Hoover and his trusty assistant Clyde Tolson flew down on May 1, 1936 to arrest him.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ishi Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 4871873331
• ISBN 13: 9784871873338
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 260