Gangster Hunters: How Hoover's G-Men Vanquished America's Deadliest Public Enemies - Hardcover

Oller, John

 
9780593471364: Gangster Hunters: How Hoover's G-Men Vanquished America's Deadliest Public Enemies
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0593471369 ISBN 13: 9780593471364
Verlag: Dutton, 2024

Inhaltsangabe

The enthralling, can't-put-down account of the birth of the modern FBI.

J. Edgar Hoover was the face of the FBI. But the federal agents in the field, relentlessly chasing the most notorious gangsters of the 1930s with their own lives on the line, truly transformed the Bureau.

In 1932, the FBI lacked jurisdiction over murder cases, bank robberies, and kidnappings. Relegated to the sidelines, agents spent their days at their desks. But all of that changed during the War on Crime. Hunting down infamous public enemies in tense, frequently blood-soaked shootouts, the Bureau was thrust onto the front pages for the first time.

Young agents, fresh out of law school and anticipating a quiet, white-collar job, faced off with murderous felons who were heavily armed, clad in bulletproof vests, and owned cars that outraced the best vehicles the Bureau had. But the federal men were fiercely devoted—to the Bureau, to each other, and to bringing America’s most wanted criminals to justice.

The G-men crisscrossed the United States in pursuit of John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Ma Barker's criminal family, Baby Face Nelson, and Pretty Boy Floyd. But the green FBI agents were always one step behind and a moment too late, the criminals evading elaborate stakeouts and dramatic ambushes. Facing mounting criticism, with bodies left in their wake, the agents had to learn to adapt. After all, more than their reputations were at stake. Through incredible primary source research, John Oller transports readers right to the most harrowing and consequential raids of the 1930s, with fast-paced action that shows the lengths both sides would go to win.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

John Oller is a retired Wall Street attorney and author of seven critically acclaimed books, including Rogues’ Gallery and White Shoe. He lives on New York's Upper West Side.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter 1

The Snatch Racket

The opening salvo in the FBI's War on Crime took place in the shadow of the billowing smokestacks of a sprawling beer brewery complex in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Just after noon on June 15, 1933, William Hamm Jr., the thirty-
nine-year-old president of the Hamm Brewing Company, left his office for a short walk home to have lunch at his family's hilltop mansion, as was his custom. He was unaware he was being watched by a group of men who'd been stalking him for days, observing his every move, learning his habits and walking routes. Maskless so as not to arouse any suspicion, they loitered about the street where the labyrinthine brewery was located.

Hamm didn't get far before a tall, distinguished-looking man with a graying mustache and a business suit strode up, shook his hand on the street, and grabbed his elbow.

"You are Mr. Hamm, are you not?" the man asked.

"Yes," Hamm responded. "What is it you want?" Suddenly the man tightened his grip on Hamm's right hand, and another, much shorter man stepped up, grabbed Hamm's left hand and arm, and pushed him to the curb.

Immediately, a black Hudson sedan, driven by a man in a chauffeur's hat and uniform, drew up next to them and screeched to a stop. The rear door was opened, and the two captors shoved the tall, handsome Hamm into the back seat next to yet another man.

The older man climbed in the front seat next to the driver while the shorter man who had grabbed Hamm jumped in alongside him, slipped a pillowcase over his head, and yanked him to the floor. "I don't like to do this," the older gentleman apologized to their captive. "But I'm going to have to ask you to get down on the floor because I don't want you to see where you're going. I hope you don't mind."

The car drove off over a paved thoroughfare for about a half hour, then onto a gravel road, where it stopped. Hamm heard the voices of additional new men, who'd driven to meet them at the stopping point.

After lifting Hamm's hood slightly, one of the new captors gave him a pen and four pieces of paper and ordered him to sign them. Each was a typed ransom note authorizing the payment of $100,000 and requesting that all instructions be carried out as specified. Hamm barely glanced at the papers before signing them.

The kidnappers talked casually about muskellunge (pike) fishing for a few minutes; then the Hudson resumed its journey. Hamm's pillow hood was exchanged for dark goggles taped over cotton balls pressed against his eyelids.

Another of the abductors asked Hamm to name a trusted intermediary they could use to negotiate with the divorced businessman's family. He suggested William W. Dunn, the brewery's sales manager and a close friend.

The kidnappers couldn't have been more pleased. Billy Dunn, a former billiards hall operator, was himself an underworld figure who could be counted on to follow directions. In a town known for beer and bribery, the short, bespectacled Dunn had served as a bagman for the St. Paul police, collecting extortion money paid by hoodlums and gamblers for protection. Hamm's brewery, like its crosstown rival, Schmidt's, was cozy with gangsters and bootleggers and corrupt cops during Prohibition, relying on them to grease the skids for the delivery of real beer to the Twin Cities' many speakeasies.

Around 2:45 p.m. on June 15, a couple of hours after Hamm was abducted, Dunn received an anonymous phone call in his office. "I want to talk to you, and I don't want you to say anything until I get all through," the voice said. "We have Mr. Hamm." He said the kidnappers wanted $100,000 in unmarked bills placed in a Hamm's beer truck with further delivery instructions to follow. The caller continued, "If you tell a soul about this, it will be just too bad for Hamm and you."

Dunn, disregarding the warning, contacted St. Paul's recently appointed police chief, Tom Dahill. An unusually honest cop for the city, Dahill brought the FBI's local office into the case.

Heading the FBI's investigation was St. Paul's veteran SAC (special agent in charge), Werner Hanni, a balding, thirty-eight-year-old native of Switzerland who had joined the Bureau in 1919. He had an intermittently contentious relationship with Hoover, who was forever castigating him for this or that minor transgression, such as forwarding a report a bit late or not telephoning headquarters with updates quickly enough.

As Hanni's granddaughter, Lisa Hanni, pointed out in 2021, her grandfather wasn't Hoover's type. He was European, dressed like one, spoke with an accent that he made no attempt to soften, was older than Hoover's young and grateful special agents, and was neither a lawyer nor an accountant. (He'd been a Swiss army colonel and a carpenter in Nebraska.) But his years of experience made him a valuable SAC in a tough town.

Meanwhile, the kidnap caravan rolled along. After a five-hour ride, Hamm was brought to a hideout: a two-story frame house where he was taken upstairs to a sparely furnished bedroom with an iron bed, boarded-up windows, and a single unshaded electric light dangling from the ceiling. He later recalled a couple of distinguishing features: pictures of flamingos on one of the walls and the word mother inscribed on the bed's baseboard.

Hamm was usually guarded by a man in a rocking chair and was forced to face the wall whenever his goggles were off. Nearby church bells, children playing, busy thoroughfare traffic, and a train whistle were among the sounds he heard.

With Hamm in captivity, the kidnappers continued sending messages to Dunn. At 1:30 a.m. on June 16, he received a call at home from the same anonymous person who'd phoned the previous afternoon. "Well, Dunn, you are following instructions very well so far," the man said. "You must realize by now that the call was not a joke."

Late that evening, a drugstore delivery boy named Art Kleifgen brought Dunn a note at his residence. As Kleifgen would tell the FBI, a curly-haired man had entered the Rosedale Pharmacy on the west side of town earlier that evening to buy some cigarettes. After leaving, he phoned the drugstore, claiming to be Dunn. He told young Kleifgen that he'd left a letter in a soda booth there and asked the boy to bring it to his home.

Kleifgen had known the voice wasn't that of Dunn, who was a regular customer, but he carried the message anyway. In the note, the kidnappers demanded that Dunn deliver the $100,000 in ransom money personally because they'd learned he was cooperating with law enforcement. "You brought the coppers to this, now you get rid of the assholes," the note read.

The FBI men suspected a leak in the St. Paul Police Department based on another note Dunn soon received. It warned him not to go through with a plan that St. Paul detective Charles Tierney had hatched for the delivery of the ransom money. Tierney wanted to conceal himself under a tarpaulin in the back of the Hamm's beer truck that Dunn was supposed to drive, then pop up and spray the kidnappers with machine-gun fire when they tried to collect. The latest missive to Dunn read, "If you are through with the bullshit and ballyhoo we will give you your chance." He was to "get away from the coppers" and find a standard Ford or Chevy instead of the beer truck they'd previously instructed him to use.

The note told Dunn to remove the side doors and trunk lid and put a red lantern in the back of the car so that no one could hide inside. Clearly, the kidnappers had been tipped off to Tierney's plan.

Dunn also received delivery instructions: drive alone out of St. Paul on Highway 61 with the money in a bag until he saw an approaching car flash its headlights five times. Then drop the bag at the side of the road and continue to Duluth. This time Dunn did as instructed, and on the night of June 17, he made the...

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Verlag
Dutton
Erscheinungsdatum
2024
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0593471369
ISBN 13 
9780593471364
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
512
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Dutton
https://www.penguin.com/dutton-childrens-overview/

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