UNDERWORLD U.S.A.

by Joseph Dinneen ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 26, 1956

Dinneen, a crime reporter for the Boston Globe for some 25 years, paralleled and postmortemed the Brink's robbery in Anatomy of a Crime (Scribner) and now applies much the same technique to a criminal career. This is again a ""documentary study"" in which facts, presumably from the files, have only a slight fictional cover and Boston, it might be anywhere, is the city where Carlton ""Fingers"" Tolland exercised his for many years unrestrained talents. A syndicate, headed by Earl Connors, did more to curb him than the police; froze him out at one point; forced him to marry Marjory. An early reformatory sentence led to many years at large-in spite of an incredible number of arrests and 46 entries on his probation record. Until finally after a long overdue sentence, he came out from jail to engage in the stick-up of an armored car and a take of three quarters of a million. Once again free after a trial in which everyone except the jury found him guilty, he found himself abandoned by his friends, left with money he could not spend at a point of no return...A liberal education in crime, its organization and operation during the '20's and '30's, this is capable reportage.

Pub Date: April 26, 1956

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Farrar, Straus

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1956

Categories: FICTION