THE DILLINGER DAYS

by John Toland ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

When John was released from an Indiana prison in 1933 after serving a nine year sentence for robbery, his intention to go straight seemed so sincere that his whole community was moved to help him. But while he was attending church and working at home with his father, he was also putting new prison-learned criminal skills to work robbing banks. This is the famed Dillinger's story, a compendium as well of the murderous doings of compatriots like Ma Barker, Pretty Boy Floyd, Bonnie Parker, the Barrow Brothers, and a host of other hip-shooting, car-stealing bank robbers who made underworld American history in the Depression. Dillinger's captures and consequent jail escapes escapades which led the public to call this public enemy a ""Depression Robin Hood"" are in themselves some of the most exciting reading from the '30's. How he and other gang leaders formed their bands, how they resorted to plastic surgery and disguises to avoid and how they finally met their ends by FBI coordination provide stark balance to the tale. Dillinger's own death in front of a theatre brings the reader to a driving climax to this brutal yet colorful book, which will run some interference from Dillinger by Robert Cromie, recently published by McGraw-Hill.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1962

Categories: NONFICTION