The Summer Of Dillinger Continues

By Marcus Gilmer in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 13, 2009 4:40PM

Had a chance to catch Public Enemies yet? Even if you haven't, the topic of Dillinger and Chicago gangsters has been a popular topic this summer and with beach weather finally settling...for the last month of summer, there are a pair of previously published books that may catch your interest for some beach reading or just for general information if you're looking for more info on the era.

The Complete Public Enemy Almanac is a catch-all for those who love everything about gangsters and hoods. While a good chunk is focused on Dillinger, the Almanac actually covers everything about mob crime, ban robbers, etc. from 1920 until 1940. And contained within is a wealth of information. The New York vs Chicago kerfuffle? Yep, it's covered. Prohibition era crime? Yep, it's covered. The rumors that it wasn't really Dillinger that was killed outside The Biograph? Yep, it's covered. A helpful timeline also details all that happened in that 20 year period. If there's an issue with the book, it's the organization (or lack thereof). The timeline is constantly interrupted by smaller, bite-sized articles that - on their - own are pretty neat. The somewhat haphazard layout, though, doesn't undermine the quality of the book so much as it makes it one that's easy to pick up and put down at your own leisure.

If you're more interested in specifically reading about the Dillinger gang, Jeffrey S. King's The Rise and Fall of the Dillinger Gang. What the book lacks in the flourish of its prose it more than makes up for in its exhaustive detail and research (as is seen by the last 30 pages which is simply note citations and an index). In fact, it seems so meticulously researched that at times it can be easy to get a bit lost in trying to sift out who is who and every single detail, but, again, credit to King for being so thorough. And it's not as if personalities don't come through, such as in this passage describing one robbery:

A female customer who had apparently lost a shoe as she ran from the bank and down the alleyway toward [Baby Face] Nelson, screamed at the bandit, "Get to work and notify somebody! The bank is being held up!"

"Lady, you're telling me!" Baby Face shouted, waving her back with his machine gun.

And unlike Public Enemies, King's book doesn't just stop with Dillinger's death nor does it focus solely on Dillinger, fanning his attention across all of the members and figures involved in the Dillinger gang and the law's pursuit thereof.