Criminals and Folk Heroes: Gangsters and the FBI in the 1930s, by Robert Underhill
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Criminals and Folk Heroes: Gangsters and the FBI in the 1930s, by Robert Underhill
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During the Great Depression, writers of True Crime could take the decade off: life was imitating art so dramatically they had nothing to add. In these pages historian Robert Underhill presents the most notorious criminals of 1930-1934: Wilbur Underhill, Alvin Karpis, the Barker Clan, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, the Barrows (Buck, Blanche, Clyde, and Bonnie), and John Dillinger along with supporting material on their henchmen and the rise of the FBI. Often armed better than the police, criminals of the 1930s committed deeds ranging from stealing chickens to kidnappings, bank robberies, and killing innocent victims. Yet such crimes were often taken in stride by avid readers. Cooperation among local, state and federal lawmen was rare as each sought to protect his own turf. Criminals and lawmen made mistakes battling one another, but in most cases the law triumphed and the wanted fugitive died under a hail of bullets. His death would start myths and raise his reputation to national status. The author of Against the Grain: Six Men Who Shaped America and The Rise and Fall of Franklin D. Roosevelt shows us another aspect of the Roosevelt era and portrays a series of figures who contributed to pop culture as well helping to shape the security forces in America. Robbing the banks and driving fast cars, they did what many Americans dreamed of, and gave a depressed populace some excitement to distract from everyday worries. With the Great Depression, some citizens came to regard bank robbers as modern Robin Hoods seeking to avenge depositors whose life earnings had been wiped out by a bank's failure or malfeasance by its owners. No small wonder that criminals were given colorful sobriquets and fact and fiction became intertwined. Underhill shows how such heists, and kidnappings especially, helped create the modern FBI, overcoming the complaints of those who alleged that a federal force was the first step toward an American Gestapo. The belief that federal government had nothing to do with fighting crime was rooted in the U.S. Constitution and its provisions for states' rights. Local police were expected to provide security and to apprehend criminals without Washington getting involved. In the big cities, Prohibition era mobsters still ruled, but in the Midwest especially, smaller bands, "gangsters," began to make headlines. They tended to be blue-collar criminals whose favorite targets were filling stations, grocery stores, and small town banks. Prior to 1930, corruption was rife and cooperation among local, state, and federal police was little to none; criminals often got away. Only in 1935 was the FBI formally anointed and its agents were permitted to carry guns. Now, there was a federal agency that could supply sheriffs all over the country with information on suspected criminals. By 1935, the hardest times of the Depression were beginning to ease and the thrill of watching these cops-and-robber stories play out was combined with a renewed interest in the lives of the rich and famous, previously scorned for their role in ripping off the average man. All in all, the early 1930s were a uniquely dramatic time for crime and crimestoppers in America.
Criminals and Folk Heroes: Gangsters and the FBI in the 1930s, by Robert Underhill- Amazon Sales Rank: #2326220 in Books
- Published on: 2015-09-22
- Original language: English
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x .53" w x 6.00" l,
- Binding: Paperback
- 212 pages
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Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Criminals and Folk Heroes shows us how easily talk, ink By Book Hunter Criminals and Folk Heroes shows us how easily talk, ink, or film can transform brigands into icons with high character and noble purposes. This book will appeal to readers who like exciting biographies or history buffs seeking information from a slice of America's past. Robert Underhill's latest work begins with the 1930's, when the Great Depression was at its lowest level. The narrative, written in an easy-to-read style, gives us reasons why bank robbers and kidnappers aroused so much public interest.In that period, most citizens believed that the federal government had little to do with fighting crime. As a result, there was almost no cooperation among federal and state governments and local police; it was easy for criminal to avoid capture. In Washington, D.C., there was a loose collection of agents staffed mainly by accountants and lawyers, but it was not until 1935 that the organization was named the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its agents were allowed to carry guns.Sensational kidnappings, including the one of seizing and murdering the infant son of fames trans-Atlantic flier Charles A. Lindbergh, prodded the U.S. Congress to enact a law making it a federal crime whenever kidnappers crossed a state line. Soon thereafter, the law was expanded to put bank robbers in the same category.Bankers who were robbed got little sympathy from an ordinary citizen likely to feel only disdain for the financier; after all, bankers "were robbers, too." A thief who stole money from a bank was a "good ole country boy," driven to crime by circumstances beyond his control.Newspaper reporters spiced their stories by giving the outlaws catchy nicknames: Pretty Bot Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, or Machine Gun Kelly. Such monickers helped picture Depression thugs as reincarnations of former Wild West figures: Billy the Kid, Jesse James, or the Dalton Gang. As Criminals and Folk Heroes portrays, however, in most cases justice triumphed, and the wanted fugitive died under a hail of bullets.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Learn this history By Suzanne K. Nelson Robert Underhill provides a well-researched history of criminals most people have heard of and those whose unfamiliar names and unlawful deeds survive only on pages of books such as this. Cast against the dire years of America's Great Depression and bank failures, the criminals lived off robberies of banks, stores and gas stations while criss-crossing the Midwest and Southwestern states in stolen cars. The law-enforcement officials who were assigned to apprehend these men (and their wives and girlfriends) were met with deadly force and many lost their lives trying to protect their communities and states. This is a history worth preserving as the criminals and devoted associates were considered modern-day Robin Hoods by those who were down-and-out during the decade covered here. Another history lesson in the book is the development of the FBI and its long-time director J. Edgar Hoover.
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