Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34 (Paperback)
Description
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 the Author
Bryan Burrough is a special correspondent at Vanity Fair and the author of three previous books. A former reporter for the Wall Street Journal, he is a three-time winner of the John Hancock Award for excellence in financial journalism. Burrough lives in Summit, New Jersey, with his wife and their two sons.
Praise for Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34…
"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