Medium Paperback, As New Condition, 2003, 397 pages, ISBN 0 09 946476 4

The Gangs of Chicago – Herbert Asbury

In this classic history of crime, Herbert Asbury, author of the best-selling The Gangs of New York, tells how the Chicago underworld earned – and kept – its notorious reputation, from the time it was settled to the Prohibition days of the 1920s.

Recounting the lives of such infamous early inhabitants as the original Mickey Finn and mass-murderer H.H. Holmes, Asbury reveals life as it was lived not only in Chicago’s criminal districts, but also in the city’s infamous red-light district, where brothels boasted opulence unheard of before or since. Climaxing with Chicago’s golden age of crime, Asbury gives a dramatic account of the careers of the ‘biggest of the Big Shots’: Big Jim Colosimo, Terrible Johnny Torrio, and the elusive Al Capone. The result is a vivid portrayal of the wicked splendour that was Chicago.