Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties [Hardcover]

Michael Lesy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 17, 2007

Michael Lesy's portrait of a gruesome era could be fiction but it's not.

"Things began as they usually did: Someone shot someone else." So begins a chapter of Michael Lesy's disturbingly satisfying account of Chicago in the 1920s, the epicenter of murder in America. A city where daily newspapers fell over each other to cover the latest mayhem. A city where professionals and amateurs alike snuffed one another out, and often for the most banal of reasons, such as wanting a Packard twin-six. Men killing men, men killing women, women killing mencrimes of loot and love. Just as Lesy's first book, Wisconsin Death Trip, subverted the accepted notion of the Gay Nineties, so Murder City gives us the dark side of the Jazz Age. Lesy's sharp, fearless storytelling makes a compelling case that this collection of criminals may be the progenitors of our modern age. 60 illustrations

Editorial Reviews

Review

A chilling portrait. -- The Tribune, UK

A magnificent read. -- Dayton Daily News

Gripping and horrifying. -- Chicago Tribune

Lean and stark. -- City Pages, Minneapolis

Pungent...insistent...fervid. -- Popmatters.com

Startling...riveting...with a superlative array of photos. -- Capital Times, Madison, Wisconsin

[Has] the archaic strangeness of myth. -- The Atlantic

About the Author

Michael Lesy’s books include Angel’s World and Long Time Coming. In 2006 he was named one of the first United States Artists Fellowship recipients. A professor of literary journalism at Hampshire College; he lives in Massachusetts.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition edition (February 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393060306
• ISBN-13: 978-0393060300
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #118,302 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the bookend to Wisconsin Death Trip, February 28, 2007

By 

Richard Cumming "dick" (the heartland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties (Hardcover)

Fans of Lesy's legendary first book Wisconsin Death Trip (1973) will be delighted to discover his latest. Lesy teaches at Hampshire College. He was planning to give his students an assignment, to look at the on-line photo archive of a Chicago newspaper.

Lesy decided that he had better check it out for himself first. He was stunned by what he found. Chicago in the 1920's had an astonishingly high murder rate. The Chicago newspapers of the time went by the editorial mantra that if it bleeds it leads. Lesy found lots of high profile murder cases splattered across the front pages. He decided that this would make a book.

Lesy labored in the decaying microfilm libraries and excavated the material for Murder City. You might think that these would be mostly gangland killings. They are not. There are a few but Lesy had plenty of others to include. A WWI vet kills his sister-in-law for a few bucks. Battered women shoot the men who abused them, etc.

Lesy's choice of photographs is as compelling as his terse and pithy prose. These are not gory scenes but they give us snapshots of the haunted eyes of killers.

Your blood will run cold. Stunning!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Murder City - Good Book, May 7, 2007

By 

D. J. Smith (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties (Hardcover)

If you have any interest in the history of Chicago, the twenties, or just true crime, this is a really interesting book. The author chose several stories of Chicago murders that took place in the early twentieth century - including the tale of the women who inspired the musical "Chicago". There is a good assortment of stories - not just "mob murders' fow which Chicago in the twenties is known.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to reality, March 15, 2007

By 

Rose Keefe "author" (Canada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties (Hardcover)

With reality TV being such a phenomenon these days, I was expecting a book like "Murder City" to come along. A book that takes literary snapshots of moments in the bloodier side of Chicago history. I'm not talking about the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, the Dean O'Banion murder, or the killing of Assistant State's Attorney McSwiggin. I'm referring to the average Joes and Janes who lived, killed each other, and died without the same fanfare and media frenzy that accompanied the gangster assassinations of the same period. There are some underworld murders examined here, such as the Hymie Weiss hit, but they don't dominate the book. Each chapter is accompanied by photos of victims, crime scenes, or key players in the drama.

Themes that concern us today are found in these pages: abused women killing their attackers, fraternity hazing gone too far, men murdering the women they love as the ultimate act of control. As I read, I kept thinking, "The clothes change, but basic human nature does not."