Customer Reviews

Robbing Banks : An American History 1831-1999

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is rife with inaccuracies. Bonnie and Clyde were not killed May 23, 1935 but May 23, 1934. Clyde's head was not "unrecognizable". I've seen the autopsy photos and, he's a mess, but he still looks like Clyde. Two lawmen, not three, were killed by the Barrow gang April 6, 1934. There's no real evidence that Bonnie participated in the murders (the single eyewitness changed his story several times under police pressure). Bonnie's famous "cigar pose" was left behind after the Joplin shootout on April 13, 1933 so the photo isn't from 1934 as our author claims. And, the most glaring error, the Bonnie and Clyde ambush was arranged by Henry Methvin and his father Ivan, not W. D. Jones. These are the errors I found on one (!) page of a 229 page book.

The author has a few shortcomings that compromise the entire work.

For one, when the subject requires specialized knowledge a good writer does enough research to learn his way around the technical details.

In this case the author clearly knows nothing about firearms, and didn't bother to find out about something so important and intimately connected to bank robbers.

On one hand he has Jessie James armed with a pair of "Springfield revolvers", and on the other has the Thompson Submachine gun being made by four or five companies and sold at Sears!

The biggest failure is the authors propensity for simply rewriting history with no attempt to document or explain his opinion.

He has a gang of southern bank robbers involved in a famous mass shootout in a southern city being murdered in broad daylight by the police.
In another case, he simply states that a wounded and helpless Baby Face Nelson was executed by Melvin Purvis on the direct order of J. Edgar Hoover.

30's icon and famous bank robber John Dillinger, who was roundly acknowledged by even his enemies as a crafty and smart criminal, is suddenly reduced to "not very smart", by a passing, off-hand comment.

Throughout the book the author makes numerous comments questioning the honesty of various law enforcement officers and agencies with no attempt to justify these back-handed slaps.
When $20,000 in bank loot is missing, the author basically says the FBI stole it.
No evidence, no official charges, no documentation nothing at all.

The author offers NOTHING in the way evidence or documentation on any of these issues, and simply does a major rewrite of history, based apparently on his personal opinion.

What this entire work comes across as, is nothing more than the author's poorly researched personal opinion based on no known information.
He simply presents his opinions and suppositions as hard fact.

While the story is interesting and there is a good amount of information, all of it is suspect due to the poor job of offering at least some documentation to back it up with.

In the end, this book can be read as an interesting story, but can't be taken in any way as fact or truth.

Okay, I'll allow this book one star for its photos. Factually, though, major errors abound throughout this poorly researched book and it's so unreliable that any information it contains is completely untrustworthy. Don't bother.

I don't understand the other review on this page. I found this book outstanding--well written, informative, and fun to read. If you like reading about bank robberies and the wild history of the people who pulled off these crimes, this book is for you.