True Crime

Name: Crooked Politics in Northwest Indiana
Brand: Jerry Davich
SKU: 9781467136426
Price: 21.99 USD
Availability: InStock

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Crooked Politics in Northwest Indiana

Jerry Davich

$21.99

Chicago to Springfield

Jerry Davich

Crooked Politics in Northwest Indiana

9781467136426

$21.99

Defined by a tangled web of deception for more than a century, Northwest Indiana's political culture involved secret handshakes, tapped phone calls, backroom deals and murder.

Found submerged in his car with a rock on the gas pedal, city official Babe Lopez's execution-style murder rocked East Chicago. Shot and killed at a political fundraiser, power broker Jay Given's murder occurred while four hundred guests mingled in a neighboring room. Former Lake Station mayor Keith Soderquist stole thousands of dollars from his reelection campaign and the city's food pantry account to gamble at local casinos. Author Jerry Davich explores the hidden political scandals and highly publicized court cases of public servants once sworn to serve and protect.

Jim Ridings

Chicago to Springfield

9780738583730

$24.99

The story of Chicago gangsters in the 1920s is legendary. Less talked about is the tale of the politicians who allowed those gangsters to thrive. During the heyday of organized crime in the Prohibition era, Chicago mayor "Big Bill" Thompson and Gov. Len Small were the two most powerful political figures in Illinois. Thompson campaigned on making Chicago "a wide open town" for bootleggers. Small sold thousands of pardons and paroles to criminals, embezzled $1 million, and was then acquitted after mobsters bribed the jury. This book is the story of those Jazz Age politicians whose careers in government thrived on and endorsed corruption and racketeering, from Chicago to Springfield. It complements author Jim Ridings's groundbreaking biography, Len Small: Governors and Gangsters, which was praised by critics and situated Ridings as a trailblazer among Chicago crime authors.

Robert S. Pohl

Wicked Capitol Hill

9781609495879

$21.99

Robert Pohl, the other half of the Walking Shtick duo, brings us Wicked Capitol Hill. Pohl includes such historic crimes as the affair between the Congressman and the Capitol Hill cobbler's daughter that ended in murder at the hands of the press. Tales range from the backrooms of Congress and the docks of the Naval Yard to the bars of 8th street and the grave of an infamous madam buried at the Congressional Cemetery. Pohl has worked to balance the tales between those of government officials misbehaving on the Hill and of truly local crimes.

William E. Hammonds

Pistols at Dawn

9781467172394

$24.99

Politics and power in Gold Rush California

At the north end of a quiet neighborhood in Daly City lies a historical marker noting the site of California's most infamous—and deadly—duel. The San Francisco of 1859 had grown rapidly, with treasure seekers from all corners of the globe converging to find their own fortune, either through prospecting or, more lucratively, catering to the needs of those prospectors.

Out of the muddy streets and the chaos, two leaders emerged whose actions would have an outsized influence on the course of American politics for decades. David S. Terry, the chief justice of the California Supreme Court, and U.S. Senator David Broderick were both determined to steer the fate of the new state, but in very different directions. At the heart of their rivalry lay the fight against slavery, with Senator Broderick advocating for California to remain a free state.

On September 13, 1859, their arguments came to a head in a duel that ended with Senator Broderick shot and mortally wounded. He died three days later, but the outcome would haunt David Terry for another thirty years.

Author William E. Hammonds explores the twists and turns of the duel for the future of Gold Rush California.