Pretty Boy: The Life and Times of Charles Arthur Floyd

Pretty Boy: The Life and Times of Charles Arthur Floyd
Author: Michael Wallis
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2011-07-18
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0393342182

"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.

Pretty Boy Floyd

Pretty Boy Floyd
Author: Larry McMurtry
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2010-06-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1439129681

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.

Baby Face Nelson

Baby Face Nelson
Author: Steven Nickel
Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing
Total Pages: 444
Release: 2002
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781581822724

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.

John Dillinger

John Dillinger
Author: Dary Matera
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2005-05-20
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780786715589

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.

Public Enemies

Public Enemies
Author: Bryan Burrough
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 644
Release: 2009-04-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 110103274X

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.

Life and Times of Frederick Douglass

Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
Author: Frederick Douglass
Publisher:
Total Pages: 628
Release: 1882
Genre: Abolitionists
ISBN:

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.

Promises to Keep

Promises to Keep
Author: Floyd Little
Publisher: Triumph Books
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2012-09
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1617499862

This autobiography traces the life of Floyd Little who wasraised in poverty in New Haven, Connecticut, was bowlegged, sent off to military school, and told his IQ was too low to even consider college. He overcame those obstacles to become a three-time All-American football player at Syracuse University and one of the best NFL running backs of his era with the Denver Broncos. After football, he earned a law degree and ran a successful automobile dealership for more than 25 years. In Promises to Keep, Floyd Little reflects on a lifetime of beating the odds and achieving excellence on and off the field. He shares his memories from his record-setting seasons at Syracuse and in Denver and reflects on his long, unconventional road to the Pro Football Hall of Fame."

A History of Heists

A History of Heists
Author: Jerry Clark
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2015-07-09
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1442235462

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.

Oil Man

Oil Man
Author: Michael Wallis
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Total Pages: 529
Release: 2014-10-14
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0806146974

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.

Between Two Wars: A True Crime Collection

Between Two Wars: A True Crime Collection
Author: Cheyna Roth
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 129
Release: 2023-11-21
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1646045645

Discover the most fascinating crimes committed between two of the greatest wars ever fought, from America’s first train robbery by the Reno brothers in 1866, to alleged killings at the H. H. Holmes Murder Castle in 1893, to the Rumrich Nazi spy case in 1938, and much more. The era from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of World War II was a dynamic and evolving time for murderers, thieves, gangsters and more. Train robberies, presidential assassinations, high-profile heists, and serial murders are just a selection of what occurred between the 1860s and the 1930s. Between Two Wars: A True Crime Collection includes a curated mix of both familiar and less-infamous cases. Tour through the carnage of 1880s Chicago as H.H. Holmes builds his Murder Castle. Learn about the significance of the less famous presidential assassination of the 1800s—of President James Garfield. At the turn of the century, find out why the theft of the Mona Lisa made the piece the famous work of art it is today, and discover the impact of the Black mafia with John “Mushmouth” Johnson, the infamous “Negro Gambling King of Chicago.” The full list of cases includes: - (1866) The Reno brothers and the first train robbery in America - (1878) George Leslie, a high society bank robber - (1881) Assassination of President James Garfield - (1893) H.H. Holmes Murder Castle and the Columbian Exposition - (1890s –1907) John “Mushmouth” Johnson, the “Negro Gambling King of Chicago” - (1911) The theft of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa - (1926) Disappearance of Agatha Christie - (1933) Kansas City Massacre - (1938) Rumrich Nazi Spy Case Written for murderinos, true crime junkies, and history buffs, Between Two Wars reads like you’re having a conversation with a friend or listening to your favorite true crime podcast.