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Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties
 
 
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Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: class rush, sanity trial, Dean O'Banion, Mike Genna, Judge David (more...)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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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

[V]ivid, laconic, crisp[….]The bodies fall like dominoes, and every word sounds like it was shot from a gun. -- Luc Sante, author of Low Life


Product Description

Michael Lesy’s disturbingly satisfying account of Chicago in the 1920s—the epicenter of murder in America—could be fiction, but it’s not. “Things began as they usually did: Someone shot someone else.” So begins a chapter of this sharp, fearless collection from a master storyteller. Revisiting seventeen Chicago murder cases—including that of Belva and Beulah, two murderesses whose trials inspired the musical Chicago—Michael Lesy captures an extraordinary moment in American history, bringing to life a city where newspapers scrambled to cover the latest mayhem. Just as Lesy’s book Wisconsin Death Trip subverted the accepted notion of the Gay Nineties, so Murder City exposes the tragedy of the Jazz Age and the tortured individuals who may be the progenitors of our modern age. .

Product Details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (February 17, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0393330591
  • ISBN-13: 978-0393330595
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #308,173 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Michael Lesy
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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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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)   
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.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars the bookend to Wisconsin Death Trip, February 28, 2007
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!
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to reality, March 15, 2007
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."
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A Middle-American Heart of Darkness
In this oddly disturbing book, Michael Lesy conjures a whirlpool of human venality and doubt. Odd because, after all, the basic lawlessness of 1920's Chicago is well documented,... Read more
Published 17 months ago by A Dissipated Monk

5.0 out of 5 stars For true crime buffs and students of Windy City history
Professor of literary journalism Michael Lesy presents Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties, is a true crime anthology that lives up to its title -- and then... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Midwest Book Review

4.0 out of 5 stars Lament for a former Chicago Newspaper
The real stars of this book are the photographs from the defunct "Chicago Daily News." This newspaper was a casualty of declining circulation in the Seventies. Read more
Published on March 29, 2007 by Borowy26

5.0 out of 5 stars Dad's stories were true!
I am really enjoying reading "Murder City"...some of the stories are familiar, as I heard of them from my dad and various aunts & uncles who grew up in Chicago in the 1920s. Read more
Published on March 26, 2007 by K. Alexandrakis

4.0 out of 5 stars Good If Flawed
This is an intresting look at the troubled history of Chicago in the 1920s. Lesy steers clear of "five star" murders like Leopold & Lobe and gives us stories of ordinary people... Read more
Published on March 18, 2007 by Celtia

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