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Full-text articles to support research in history and genealogy and lesson plans to support student learning.
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"A THRILLING MAGNUM OPUS ON AMERICA'S GREAT CRIME EPIC. A Mystery Writers of America "Grand Master"--author of the gangster classic Road to Perdition, long-time Dick Tracy writer, and multiple Shamus Award winner--teams with an acclaimed rising young historian, in this riveting, myth-shattering dual portrait of Al Capone, America's most notorious gangster, and Eliot Ness, the legendary Prohibition agent whose extraordinary investigative work crippled...
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"Although much has been written about Al Capone, there has not been--until now--a complete history of organized crime in Chicago during Prohibition. This exhaustively researched book covers the entire period from 1920 to 1933. Author John J. Binder, a recognized authority on the history of organized crime in Chicago, discusses all the important bootlegging gangs in the city and the suburbs and also examines the other major rackets, such as prostitution,...
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Even in Chicago, a city steeped in mob history and legend, the Family Secrets case was a true spectacle when it made it to court in 2007. A top mob boss, a reputed consigliere, and other high-profile members of the Chicago Outfit were accused in a total of eighteen gangland killings, revealing organized crime's ruthless grip on the city throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. ...
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Drawing on thousands of pages of recently discovered government documents, wiretap transcripts, and Al Capone's handwritten personal letters, "New York Times" bestselling author Jonathan Eig tells the dramatic story of the rise and fall of the nation's most notorious criminal in rich new detail.
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"Gangland Chicago is a revealing look at the Chicago underworld of yesterday and today. This comprehensive volume is sure to entertain and inform any reader interested in the evolution of organized crime and gangs in America's most representative city of the American Heartland,"--Amazon.com.
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"No business, legitimate or otherwise, has had a more raucous influence on the history of a city than that of the Outfit in Chicago. From the roots of organized crime in the late 19th century to the present day, The Chicago Outfit examines the evolution of the city's underworld, focusing on their business activities and leadership along with the violence and political protection they employed to become the most successful of the Cosa Nostra crime...
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Everyone knows stories about the American Mafia and its varied forms of crime, from racketeering to stock manipulation to murder. American Mafia: Chicago explores the Windy City, strolling through its neighborhoods and imagining scenes from the past—telling the stories of the men, women, and families and revealing the events behind the legends and the history of the families' beginnings and founding members.
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"Michael Cassius McDonald arrived in Chicago as a teenage scam artist who quickly sketched a blueprint for running the city through its criminal underworld. Chicago's original mob boss, he procured presidential pardons, stuffed mayoral ballot boxes and operated the town's plushest gambling parlor. But he was also a philanthropist who befriended Clarence Darrow, employed Theodore Dreiser, promoted the World's Fair and funded the Lake Street L. His...
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The story of Chicago gangsters in the 1920s is legendary. Less talked about is the tale of the politicians who allowed those gangsters to thrive. During the heyday of organized crime in the Prohibition era, Chicago mayor "Big Bill" Thompson and Gov. Len Small were the two most powerful political figures in Illinois. Thompson campaigned on making Chicago "a wide open town" for bootleggers. Small sold thousands of pardons and paroles to criminals, embezzled...
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Frank The Enforcer Nitti is arguably the most glamorized gangster in history. He was an infamous Chicago wise guy, who eventually rose to command the city's premier underworld organization-The Outfit. Though he has been widely mentioned in fictional works, this is the first book to document Nitti's real-life criminal career alongside his pop culture persona, with special chapters devoted to the many television shows, movies, and songs featuring Nitti....
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Chicago mob legend Al Capone set the template for future crime bosses, offering a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of being an underworld leader.
Al Capone could have pursued an honest career and quiet life with his wife and son. Instead, he chose to become a towering mob boss in Chicago, overseeing an underworld empire based on bootlegging, gambling, prostitution, and other rackets.
Quick to recognize the value of sympathetic media coverage and...
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A collection of short articles-- many of only one page-- in which Inserra discusses Criminal Squad #1, who were assigned to the Chicago Division of the FBI from 1957 to 1976. These agents waged war against one of the most powerful organized crime syndicates in the nation. At a time when the FBI did not have the necessary tools or legislation to combat organized crime, the squad accomplished their goals aggressively and tirelessly.
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For more than a decade starting in 1920, millions of regular Americans ignored the law of the land. Parents became bootleggers, kids smuggled illegal alcohol, and outlaws became celebrities. It wasn't supposed to be that way, of course. When Congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment, prohibiting the sale and manufacture of alcohol in the United States, supporters believed it would create a better, stronger nation. Instead it began an era of lawlessness,...