Download or read book Pretty Boy The Life and Times of Charles Arthur Floyd written by Michael Wallis and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2011-07-18 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This engaging biography exactly and vividly catches the tone of a region, a time, and a man."—Larry McMurtry From the best-selling author of Billy the Kid and Route 66, a true-life story of a notorious outlaw that magnificently re-creates the vanished, impoverished world of Dust Bowl America. Michael Wallis evokes the hard times of the era as he follows the life of Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd from his coming of age, when there were no jobs and no food, to his descent into a life of petty crime, bootlegging, murder, and prison. Before long he was one of the FBI's original "public enemies." After a series of spectacular bank robberies he was slain in an Ohio field in 1934 at the age of thirty. Pretty Boy is social history at its best, portraying, with a sweeping style, the larger story of the hardscrabble farmers whose lives were so intolerably shattered by the Depression.
Download or read book Life and Death of Pretty Boy Floyd written by Jeffery S. King and published by Kent State University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charles Arthur Floyd, aka Pretty Boy Floyd (1904-1934), was one of the last so-called Robin Hood outlaws. He engaged in numerous bank-robbing exploits across the Midwest until federal agents and local police shot him down near East Liverpool, Ohio, on October 22, 1934. This detailed account of his life, crimes and death makes extensive use of FBI reports, government records, local newspapers and contemporary journalistic accounts.
Download or read book Pretty Boy Floyd written by Larry McMurtry and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-06-01 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The time is 1925. The place, St. Louis, Missouri. Charley Floyd, a good-looking, sweet-smiling country boy from Oklahoma, is about to rob his first armored car. Written by Pulitzer Prize–winner Larry McMurtry and his writing partner, Diana Ossana, Pretty Boy Floyd traces the wild career of the legendary American folk hero Charley Floyd, a young man so charming that it's hard not to like him, even as he's robbing you at gunpoint. From the bank heists and shootings that make him Public Enemy Number One to the women who love him, from the glamour-hungry nation that worships him to the G-men who track Charley down, Pretty Boy Floyd is both a richly comic masterpiece and an American tragedy about the price of fame and the corruption of innocence.
Download or read book Pretty Boy written by Bill Brooks and published by Thorndike Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rising out of the Oklahoma dustbowl, Charles Arthur Floyd became the most wanted man in America. While Bonnie and Clyde were robbing and shooting their way across the Southwest, Charley was robbing banks from Kansas City to Ohio. The news was full of stories about Dillinger and Capone, but no one had what "Pretty Boy" Floyd had: a taste for fancy clothes, fancy cars, and beautiful dames -- and uncommon good luck.
Download or read book Baby Face Nelson written by Steven Nickel and published by Cumberland House Publishing. This book was released on 2002 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using new information that comes from the formerly classified files of the FBI, this book tells the full story of the remarkable criminal career of Baby Face Nelson. Illustrations.
Download or read book Public Enemies written by Bryan Burrough and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-04-29 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Public Enemies, bestselling author Bryan Burrough strips away the thick layer of myths put out by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI to tell the full story—for the first time—of the most spectacular crime wave in American history, the two-year battle between the young Hoover and the assortment of criminals who became national icons: John Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and the Barkers. In an epic feat of storytelling and drawing on a remarkable amount of newly available material on all the major figures involved, Burrough reveals a web of interconnections within the vast American underworld and demonstrates how Hoover’s G-men overcame their early fumbles to secure the FBI’s rise to power.
Download or read book John Dillinger written by Dary Matera and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2005-05-20 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Dillinger is an adrenaline-fueled narrative that reignites America's fascination with the suave and deadly desperado who became the FBI's first Public Enemy, whose story—until now—has been riddled with rumors and fiction. Dillinger and his bank-robbing gang cut a criminal swath never to be equaled, thrilling a nation in the throes of the Great Depression. When caught, Dillinger staged one of the most harrowing prison escapes imaginable—only to finally be betrayed by the infamous "Lady in Red." John Dillinger brings to light bank robberies never before reported; detailed plans for major crimes that Dillinger nearly implemented; the revelation that the Lady in Red was actually a police plant; and the startling motives behind John Dillinger's execution by rogue FBI agents. With access to the thousands of sources collected in the world's foremost Dillinger archives—including dozens of photographs—New York Times bestselling author Matera describes every robbery, shoot-out, and prison escape as though he had choreographed them himself.
Download or read book Dillinger s Wild Ride written by Elliott J. Gorn and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-29 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents an account of the activities of the Dillinger gang in 1933 and 1934 when they robbed over a dozen banks.
Download or read book Way Down Yonder in the Indian Nation written by Michael Wallis and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A deeply sympathetic, colorful evocation of life on the American prairies In Way Down Yonder in the Indian Nation—a title inspired by the lyrics of Woody Guthrie—best-selling author Michael Wallis creates a brilliant tableau of America’s heartland. Featuring a new introduction by the author, this collection of sixteen essays reflects the finest examples of Wallis’s writing and harkens back to a time before fast food and malls replaced family-owned diners along Route 66. From tales of the notorious Oklahoma panhandle, where “the only law was the colt and the carbine,” to the fate of Woody Guthrie’s mother Nora, who, burdened by depression, set fire to her kids and spent the last years of her life in an asylum, Way Down Yonder in the Indian Nation brings to life some of Oklahoma’s most memorable characters—the famous and infamous, the ordinary and down-home. “Enclosed within the covers of this book are some of my favorite spoonfuls of Oklahoma,” says Wallis. The result is a quintessential American book—a crazy quilt of stories and a powerful portrait of Okie identity.
Download or read book The Life and Death of Pretty Boy Floyd written by Jeffery S. King and published by . This book was released on 2005-10 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jeffery King's entertaining biography of the Public Enemy Number One of 1934 is a piece of historical detective work that is scholarly as well as gripping. He not only relates Floyd's life & career from youth to death from lawmen's bullets, but chronicles the many crimes in which he took part or masterminded. King brings us back to the days of John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, & Ma Barker & her boys. Amidst these robbin' hoods, Floyd was seen as Robin Hood . . . . Like a populist politician, he convinced others & perhaps himself that he was, after all, only robbing the big money guys & that he loved the poor. King's story, based mainly on FBI files & contemporary newspaper accounts, moves along like a well-maintained getaway car. Black & white photos.
Download or read book Life and Times of Frederick Douglass written by Frederick Douglass and published by . This book was released on 1882 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frederick Douglass recounts early years of abuse, his dramatic escape to the North and eventual freedom, abolitionist campaigns, and his crusade for full civil rights for former slaves. It is also the only of Douglass's autobiographies to discuss his life during and after the Civil War, including his encounters with American presidents such as Lincoln, Grant, and Garfield.
Download or read book Oil Man written by Michael Wallis and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2014-10-14 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This rich, rousing gusher of a biography captures the life and times of an American hero and the birth of the modern oil empire he created. Frank Phillips, founder of Phillips Petroleum, was one of the most prominent self-made business tycoons of the twentieth century. In Oil Man, Michael Wallis, a best-selling historian of the West, presents Phillips against a pageant of luminaries and outlaws that includes Will Rogers, Harry Truman, Edna Ferber, J. Paul Getty, and Pretty Boy Floyd. Spanning the final days of America's frontier West through the Roaring Twenties and two world wars, Oil Man is a bold, colorful biography of an original American entrepreneur. A classic work that continues to gather accolades since its original publication in 1988, the book captures the life and times of an American hero.
Download or read book Tough Without a Gun written by Stefan Kanfer and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-02-01 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Humphrey Bogart: it’s hard to think of anyone who’s had the same lasting impact on the culture of movies. Though he died at the young age of fifty-seven more than half a century ago, his influence among actors and filmmakers, and his enduring appeal for film lovers around the world, remains as strong as ever. What is it about Bogart, with his unconventional looks and noticeable speech impediment, that has captured our collective imagination for so long? In this definitive biography, Stefan Kanfer answers that question, along the way illuminating the private man Bogart was and shining the spotlight on some of the greatest performances ever captured on celluloid. Bogart fell into show business almost by accident and worked for nearly twenty years before becoming the star we know today. Born into a life of wealth and privilege in turn-of-the-century New York, Bogart was a troublemaker throughout his youth, getting kicked out of prep school and running away to join the navy at the age of nineteen. After a short, undistinguished stint at sea, Bogart spent his early twenties drifting aimlessly from one ill-fitting career to another, until, through a childhood friend, he got his first theater job. Working first as a stagehand and then, reluctantly, as a bit-part player, Bogart cut his teeth in one forgettable role after another. But it was here he began to develop a work ethic; deciding that there were “two kinds of men: professionals and bums,” Bogart, for the first time in his life, wanted to be the former. After the Crash of ’29, Bogart headed west to try his luck in Hollywood. That luck was scarce, and he slogged through more than thirty B-movie roles before his drinking buddy John Huston wrote him a part that would change everything; with High Sierra, Bogart finally broke through at the age of forty—being a pro had paid off. What followed was a string of movies we have come to know as the most beloved classics of American cinema: The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, The Big Sleep, The African Queen . . . the list goes on and on. Kanfer appraises each of the films with an unfailing critical eye, weaving in lively accounts of behind-the-scenes fun and friendships, including, of course, the great love story of Bogart and Bacall. What emerges in these pages is the portrait of a great Hollywood life, and the final word on why there can only ever be one Bogie.
Download or read book By Myself and Then Some written by Lauren Bacall and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2010-06-18 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The epitome of grace, independence, and wit, Lauren Bacall continues to project an audacious spirit and pursue on-screen excellence. The product of an extraordinary mother and a loving extended family, she produced, with Humphrey Bogart, some of the most electric and memorable scenes in movie history. After tragically losing Bogart, she returned to New York and a brilliant career in the theatre. A two-time Tony winner, she married and later divorced her second love, Jason Robards, and never lost sight of the strength that made her a star. Now, thirty years after the publication of her original National Book Award–winning memoir, Bacall has added new material to her inspiring history. In her own frank and beautiful words, one of our most enduring actresses reveals the remarkable true story of a lifetime so rich with incident and achievement that Hollywood itself would be unable to adequately reproduce it.
Download or read book A History of Heists written by Jerry Clark and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-07-09 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No crime is as synonymous with America as bank robbery. Though the number of bank robberies nationwide has declined, bank robbery continues to captivate the public and jeopardize the safety of banks and their employees. In A History of Heists, Jerry Clark and Ed Palattella explore how bank robbers have influenced American culture as much as they have reflected it. Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, Willie Sutton, and Patty Hearst are among the most famous figures in the history of crime in the United States. Jesse James used his training as a Confederate guerrilla to make bank robbery a political act. John Dillinger capitalized on the public’s scorn of banks during the Great Depression and became America’s first Public Enemy Number One. When she held up a bank with the leftist Symbionese Liberation Army, Patty Hearst fueled the country’s social unrest. Jerry Clark and Ed Palattella delve into the backgrounds and motivations of the robbers, and explore how they are as complex as the nation whose banks they have plundered. But as much as the story of bank robbery in America focuses on the thieves, it is also a story of those who investigate the heists. As bank robbers became more sophisticated, so did the police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other law enforcement agencies. This captivating history showshow bank robbery shaped the modern FBI, and how it continues to cultivate America’s fascination with the noble outlaw: bandits seen, rightly or wrongly, as battling unjust authority.
Download or read book Criminals as Heroes written by Paul Kooistra and published by Popular Press. This book was released on 1989 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Public Enemy 1 written by John Fleury and published by BookCaps Study Guides. This book was released on with total page 93 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ★★★ The Original Public Enemy of the F.B.I. ★★★ Before John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Baby Face Nelson made the term "Public Enemy" famous, there was Alvin Karpis--one of the ruthless leaders of the Barker-Karpis gang. It was him that J. Edgar Hoover first thought worthy of the title Public Enemy In a page-turning style, this true crime book traces his criminal origins from his young days as a bootlegger to his ultimate demise.
