Secret Six

The Rise and Fall of Chicago's Greatest Vigilantes

Inbunden, Engelska, 2026

348 kr

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Beskrivning

In winter 1930, an unprecedented force for good emerged from the chaos of crime-ridden Chicago: The Secret Six. Supported by the Windy City's richest and most powerful businesspeople, the vigilantes took on extortionists, bombers, bank robbers, kidnappers, and eventually Al Capone himself. Using the latest crime-fighting technologies of the era, the Secret Six caught dirty cops, won convictions in cases large and small, and helped launch Eliot Ness and the Untouchables. And when Capone went to prison, he credited the group for bringing him down. The Secret Six inspired a movie featuring Clark Gable, testified before Congress, and wrote authoritatively about crime for the national press. Quickly, cities throughout America began emulating the Secret Six with their own vigilante forces. But there was a dark side to the heroics and international praise. Wealth, unchecked power, and the raw spirit of vigilantism corrupted the Secret Six from their inception. They victimized the innocent, tortured the guilty, and bragged about it, and after three years of lies, mistakes and misdeeds that were as laughable as they were tragic, the effort collapsed in disgrace. Nearly forgotten, The Secret Six brings this group back to life for the first time with the full, true story about what happens when good men in a large, chaotic city take the law into their own hands.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2026-03-03
Mått:152 x 229 x 32 mm
Vikt:674 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Antal sidor:382
Förlag:Red Lightning Books
ISBN:9781684352395

Utforska kategorier

Sanna berättelser inom Biografier
True crime inom Samhälle och politik
Amerikas historia inom Historia och arkeologi

Mer om författaren

Kevin E. Meredith first covered crime in 1985 as a general reporter for The News of Orange County in Hillsborough, NC, a historic town with its fair share of armed robbery, hostage taking, and theft. As an award-winning reporter at the Savannah News-Press, he covered the military, local education, and election corruption. Since earning his MBA in 1994, he has focused his professional life on the sale of computer technologies, but has continued to write on diverse topics, including evolutionary psychology, history, and crime.

Recensioner i media

"A public outraged by crime, demanding stricter law enforcement – sound familiar? In Chicago during the 1930s era of Al Capone, a group of millionaires funded and directed a posse of vigilantes. In The Secret Six, Kevin E. Meredith tells this long-neglected story of anticrime crusaders with ambitions of taking their vigilantism nationwide. Soon they were feckless laughingstocks who violated civil rights along the way. Meredith's study is scrupulously accurate, fair-minded, and alarming and entertaining at once."—James Merriner, author of Stumbling in the Public Square

Innehållsförteckning

IntroductionPart I: Damsel in a Burning City1. The Case of the Extorted Debutante2. A City on Fire3. The Tenth Man4. A Burning City Sparks a Nation's HopePart II: First Cases of the Secret Six5. Early Impact (and a Little Lying)6. The Truth of the Secret Six7. Shooting in the Dark8. The Case of the Extorted Congressman9. The New Top Cop, and the Case of the Pinochle Shootout10. The Case of the Queer Actor11. The Passion of William Speer Kuhn Jr.12. Nolle ProssedPart III: The Secret Six vs. Al Capone13. Al Capone Comes Home14. Al Capone Goes South15. Al Capone, Miami, and the "Chicago Plan"16. Col. Randolph Meets the KingpinPart IV: The War Continues17. The Best Cases of 193118. The Best Cases of 193219. The Secret Six Conjures a National Kidnapping Monopoly20. The Secret Six vs. the KidnappersPart V: Lord of the Vigilantes21. A Brief History of Vigilantism22. A Modest Proposal23. The Secret Six Were NeitherPart VI: The Secret Six and the Cases of Infamy24. The Case of the Deal with the Devil25. The Case of the Crooked Cops26. The Secret Six vs. Swanson27. The Secret Six on Trial28. The Case of the Two Bombs29. The End of the Secret SixEpilogueAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex