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 2011-05-17 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents the life of one of America's most notorious criminals, describing "Pretty Boy" Floyd's coming of age in poverty, his descent into petty crime and bootlegging, his stormy marriage, murders, jail terms, and violent death.
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 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 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 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 644 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 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 Go Down Together written by Jeff Guinn and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-12-25 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the moment they first cut a swathe of crime across 1930s America, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker have been glamorised in print, on screen and in legend. The reality of their brief and catastrophic lives is very different -- and far more fascinating. Combining exhaustive research with surprising, newly discovered material, author Jeff Guinn tells the real story of two youngsters from a filthy Dallas slum who fell in love and then willingly traded their lives for a brief interlude of excitement and, more important, fame. Thanks in great part to surviving relatives of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, who provided Guinn with access to never-before-published family documents and photographs, this book reveals the truth behind the myth, told with cinematic sweep and unprecedented insight by a master storyteller.
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: John Dillinger was one of the most famous and flamboyant celebrity outlaws, and this book illuminates the significnace of his tremendous fame and the endurance of his legacy of crime and violence, and the transformation of America during the Great Depression.
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 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 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 Ma Barker written by Chris Enss and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-10-05 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Was Arizona Donnie Clark, AKA Kate “Ma” Barker the mastermind behind the Barker gang terrorizing the Midwest during the early years of the great Depression? Or was she a terrible mother who urged her sons to criminal behavior for her own financial gain? Or does the truth lie somewhere in between. This lively retelling of the legend of Ma Barker and her boys is full of action, intrigue, and the answers to mysteries that have lingered for more than 70 years.
Download or read book Charles Pretty Boy Floyd written by Maria Wheeler-Hughes and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the period between 1932 and 1934, it is believed that Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd gained support from a large portion of the American public. This support is believed to be a result of the frequency in which articles relating to him appeared in contemporary newspaper and the subsequent sources relating to Floyd in the years after his death. This thesis intends to illustrate how the myth surrounding Floyd was shaped and driven by a narrative produced by the contemporary newspaper coverage of his exploits during his life. The popular support for Floyd was a result of these newspapers constructing an outlaw-hero myth surrounding Floyd and his actions during his life. Along with contemporary newspaper accounts of Floyd, there has also been a number of representations and interpretations through other media forms, such as music and novels, which were produced after Floyd’s death. These additional media examples show how the outlaw-hero myth, constructed during Floyd’s life, continued relatively unchanged after Floyd’s death. In order to showcase what about the contemporary newspaper accounts, and the subsequent sources, facilitated the myth of Floyd as an outlaw-hero, the ideas presented by folklorist Richard Meyer in his definition and construction of an outlawhero has been called upon. Using Meyer’s twelve elements this thesis has analysed both contemporary newspapers such as the New York Times, The Washington Post and the East Liverpool Review, as well as cultural sources such and Woody Guthrie’s ballad, Pretty Boy Floyd, the novel The Grapes of Wrath and Pretty Boy Floyd a novel. This thesis identifies how the narrative constructed around Floyd’s life and his actions became that of an outlaw-hero, both in life and death.
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 Lafayette in the Somewhat United States written by Sarah Vowell and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-10-20 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of Assassination Vacation and The Partly Cloudy Patriot, an insightful and unconventional account of George Washington’s trusted officer and friend, that swashbuckling teenage French aristocrat the Marquis de Lafayette. Chronicling General Lafayette’s years in Washington’s army, Vowell reflects on the ideals of the American Revolution versus the reality of the Revolutionary War. Riding shotgun with Lafayette, Vowell swerves from the high-minded debates of Independence Hall to the frozen wasteland of Valley Forge, from bloody battlefields to the Palace of Versailles, bumping into John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Lord Cornwallis, Benjamin Franklin, Marie Antoinette and various kings, Quakers and redcoats along the way. Drawn to the patriots’ war out of a lust for glory, Enlightenment ideas and the traditional French hatred for the British, young Lafayette crossed the Atlantic expecting to join forces with an undivided people, encountering instead fault lines between the Continental Congress and the Continental Army, rebel and loyalist inhabitants, and a conspiracy to fire George Washington, the one man holding together the rickety, seemingly doomed patriot cause. While Vowell’s yarn is full of the bickering and infighting that marks the American past—and present—her telling of the Revolution is just as much a story of friendship: between Washington and Lafayette, between the Americans and their French allies and, most of all between Lafayette and the American people. Coinciding with one of the most contentious presidential elections in American history, Vowell lingers over the elderly Lafayette’s sentimental return tour of America in 1824, when three fourths of the population of New York City turned out to welcome him ashore. As a Frenchman and the last surviving general of the Continental Army, Lafayette belonged to neither North nor South, to no political party or faction. He was a walking, talking reminder of the sacrifices and bravery of the revolutionary generation and what the founders hoped this country could be. His return was not just a reunion with his beloved Americans it was a reunion for Americans with their own astonishing, singular past. Vowell’s narrative look at our somewhat united states is humorous, irreverent and wholly original.
Download or read book Alvin Karpis and the Barker Gang in Minnesota written by Deborah Frethem and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-28 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The St. Paul of the gangster era springs vividly to life again . . . A captivating glimpse into a shadowy era in the city’s history.” —Community Reporter From their home base in Minnesota, the Karpis-Barker Gang cut a swath of crime and terror across the Midwest in the early 1930s. They kidnapped two important businessmen and held them for exorbitant ransoms. They stole payrolls and robbed banks as the bullets flew. Corrupt police and wily crime bosses helped Alvin Karpis and the Barker brothers Freddie and Doc every step of the way. Who were these men and women? What made them into killers and kidnappers? How did their reckless lifestyles lead to their downfall? From Ma Barker to Volney Davis to Edna Murray the Kissing Bandit, authors Deborah Frethem and Cynthia Schreiner Smith delve into the crimes, personalities and motivations of one of the most successful and infamous gangs in American history.
