John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crooks' Tour of Crime and Corruption in St. Paul, 1920-1936

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Summary: It's a Crime that this book gets great reviews
Review: The book is a snoozer. Makes me wonder if the author got carried away with his parasitical attachment to the characters he embellished upon enough to blackmail the above reviewers. Really, don't bother.

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Summary: Cops & Robbers
Review: The cops and robbers game was played differently in St. Paul in the '20's and '30's than in most American cities. That's because in St. Paul organized crime was largely controlled by the Police Department. Consequently, it became the headquarters for fugitive gangs who found refuge there until Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and the Barker-Karpis gang brought federal heat to the Twin Cities in 1934. The story of the "public enemies" who found sanctuary through local mobsters and police contacts in St. Paul is told in full glorious detail here for the first time, thanks to author Paul Maccabee's great research and his battle for the release of long buried FBI files. It's a must read for all gangster buffs.

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Summary: Great guidebook to St. Paul's strange gangster times
Review: The editorial reviews above pretty much say it all--I'll just add that this book was my expert guide around St. Paul on a snowy Sunday in December. It's a class act--well-written and slickly designed on glossy paper, with plenty of rare photos. If you're interested in Depression-era crime, all you have to do is buy this book from Amazon and a plane ticket to the Twin Cities.

Rating:
Summary: A Devastatingly Good Read
Review: What the lengthy reviews don't really touch upon is the writing style of the author. Maccabee is has a great touch -- light, breezy and able to turn deadly serious without a wisp of melodrama. The book is organized in short snippets, little windows into the world of the times. It is tempting to grab the book and just read one of the snippets. Good luck. I've been late to work, appointments, dinner, etc, too many times because I've gotten sucked in to "just reading one more". Certainly, it's tantalizing to know the places Maccabee describes firsthand as a St. Paul resident (imagine my surprise when I found that my office was once home to a huge underworld betting parlor!) I would guess that Maccabee's storytelling insticts would enthrall people from any geographic location.