Between 1933 and 1939, the FBI pursued an aggressive, highly publicized nationwide campaign against a succession of Depression era “public enemies,” including John Dillinger, George “Baby Face” Nelson, Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd, George “Machine Gun Kelly” Barnes, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, and the Ma Barker Gang. Bureau Director J. Edgar Hoover’s successes in this crusade made him the hero of law and order in the public mind. This historical analysis reveals the agency’s often illegal tactics, including torture, frame-ups, and summary executions–later expanded throughout Hoover’s 48-year reign in Washington, D.C., and exposed only after his death (some say murder) in 1972.

The late Michael Newton, an award-winning author of numerous books on topics ranging from cryptozoology to civil rights and organized crime, lived in Indiana.

Michael Newton

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 286
Bibliographic Info: 49 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2021
pISBN: 978-1-4766-8440-6
eISBN: 978-1-4766-4533-9
Imprint: McFarland

Author’s Note viii
Acknowledgments ix
Depression-Era Gangs 1
Preface 5
1. “A bureaucratic bastard” 7
2. Public Enemies 16
3. “Get ’Em Up! Up!” 45
4. Cops and Robbers 65
5. Open Season 76
6. Trials and Errors 86
7. Shoot on Sight 114
8. Wanted Dead 127
9. Melvin Who? 163
10. Old Creepy 187
11. Mopping Up 200
12. Scorched Earth 219
13. Redacting History 234
Chapter Notes 247
Bibliography 257
Index 265