UNION STATION MASSACRE: The Shootout That Started the F.B.L's War on Crime

by Merle Clayton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 28, 1975

This is as dull and phony as a Jack Webb voiceover for an Untouchables segment, being about who, what, why and wherefore the Congress of the United States gave the F.B.I. the power to arrest as well as investigate the activities of men deemed to be public enemies. It seems there was a great outcry in the press following the shootout in Kansas City, Mo., at the Union Station on June 17, 1933, when a slippery machine-gun finger riddled not only the custodial law officers but also the prisoner, one Jelly Nash, who was supposed to be sprung. Among the crooks are Ma Barker and her boy Fred, Alvin Karpis, Veto Miller and Pretty Boy Floyd. Even if their careers ran to embezzlement, bootlegging, gambling, bank robbery, bigamy and prison breaks, they're interchangeably colorless, flat and faceless here. The pietistic peroration pays an emotionalistic debt of gratitude to the devoted young lawyers who gave unstintingly of their time, effort, lives, etc., etc. J. Edgar must be financing a lobbying operation from the beyond.

Pub Date: Aug. 28, 1975

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Bobbs-Merrill

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1975

Categories: NONFICTION