The Union Station Massacre: The Original Sin of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI [Hardcover]

Robert Unger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1997

Robert Unger delves into the FBI's own files regarding the 1933 massacre of four lawmen in Kansas City's Union Station parking lot. Unger reveals that the case that catapulted J. Edgar Hoover's FBI into national prominence was far less the Bureau's proud birth than its original sin. Tearing away 64 years of secrets and legends, Unger gives us the real story.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Unger has written a superb yarn. This is narrative nonfiction at its finest." --Richard Atkinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Long Grey Line, and Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War

"A fascinating and definitive story of the bloody event that forever changed the American justice system." --Bryan Burrough, author, Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34 --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Robert Unger is head of the Urban Journalism Program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He was the national correspondent for The Kansas City Star newspaper from 1979 to 1993 and prior to that was a reporter, columnist, and foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune from 1970 to 1979. He has won the National Press Club's Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence and has received awards for investigative reporting from the AP and UPI. He shares a Pulitzer Prize and has been a Pulitzer nominee a dozen times during his career. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Unger lives outside Kansas City with his wife, Marianne. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Andrews Mcmeel Pub; First Edition edition (August 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0836227735
• ISBN-13: 978-0836227734
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,411,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real page-turner, December 6, 1999

By 

David Dearborn (Connecticut USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Union Station Massacre: The Original Sin of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI (Hardcover)

'Union Station Massacre' is a fast-paced mix of research and reporting by a Missouri journalism professor who persuasively argues that J. Edgar Hoover used the 1933 Kansas City shootings to kickstart the fledgling FBI and essentially frame Pretty Boy Floyd and sidekick Adam Richetti. Whether or not you buy his thesis (which includes a shocking and well-argued scenario of who shot whom), this is fascinating stuff. Also impressive is the portrait of Verne Miller, the golfing lawman-turned-murderer who evidently masterminded, if that's the word, the failed rescue of bank robber Frank Nash at Union Station that day. I couldn't put this book down.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating account of the abuse of power, April 12, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Union Station Massacre: The Original Sin of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI (Hardcover)

Using the FBI's own files Unger demonstrates how J Edgar Hoover ruthlessly raised the profile of the FBI and turned it into a federal police force. The lawlessness of the Mid West in the 1930's is highlighted as is the general weakness in cross state policing. Following the massacre unable to identify who the real killers were Hoover and the FBI decided to pin the murders on two men, Pretty Boy Floyd and Adam Richetti. These two men may have taken part in the shooting but this is shown, using the FBI's own evidence, by Unger to be highly unlikely. Hoover it seems used the above two men because they were then fugitives from the law being guilty of murder albeit elsewhere ie they were convenient fall guys. Unger shows how the frame-up was committed and who was involved in that frame up. Finally Unger comes up with a new twist to the masscre. At the end of this excellent book I was left with 'Does the end justify the means' - Hoover and his men undoubtedly thought so - me? I'm sitting on the fence.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful look at, and beyond, a bloody massacre, June 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Union Station Massacre: The Original Sin of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI (Hardcover)

I usually do not like to read history books, however, as a local I felt I should learn more about the massacre which bears my city's name. I was pleasently surprised by this book. I expected it to be very detailed and a little dry, because that is the nature of your typical history book. However, the details are surrounded by so many other events - i.e. Hoover trying to empower the FBI, outlaws on the run, mafia folk covering their backs. All together makes for a very interesting and insightful look into a bloody massacre.