Public Enemies, Bryan Burrough
Public Enemies, Bryan Burrough
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Public Enemies

Author: Bryan Burrough

Narrator: Campbell Scott

Abridged: 6 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/01/2004


Synopsis

The astonishing true story of America's first and greatest "War on Crime."
In Public Enemies, Bryan Burrough strips away a thick layer of myths put out by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI to tell the full story of the most spectacular crime wave in American history, the two-year battle between the young Hoover and an assortment of criminals who became national icons: John Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and the Barkers.
In 1933, police jurisdictions ended at state lines, the FBI was in its infancy, and fast cars and machine guns were easily available. It was a great time to be a bank robber. On hand were a motley crew of criminal masterminds, sociopaths, romantics, and cretins.
Bryan Burrough has unearthed an extraordinary amount of new material on all the major figures involved -- revealing many fascinating interconnections in the vast underworld ecosystem that stretched from Texas up to Minnesota.
But the real-life connections were insignificant next to the sense of connectedness J. Edgar Hoover worked to create in the mind of the American public-using the "Great Crime Wave" to gain the position of untouchable power he would occupy for almost half a century.

About Bryan Burrough

Bryan Burrough is a special correspondent at Vanity Fair, and the author of three books, Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco (With John Helyar), Dragonfly: An Epic Adventure of Survival in Outer Space, and Vendetta: American Express and the Smearing of Edmond Safra. A former reporter for The Wall Street Journal, he is a three-time winner of the John Hancock Award for excellence in financial journalism. He lives in Summit, New Jersey with his wife Marla and their two sons.

About Campbell Scott

Campbell Scott directed the film Off The Map, and received the best actor award from the National Board of Review for his performance in Roger Dodger. His other films include The Secret Lives of Dentists, The Dying Gaul, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle and Big Night, which he also co-directed.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kemper on September 19, 2013

The Kansas City Massacre occurred over 75 years ago, but you can still go to the renovated Union Station and see chips in the front of the building that were supposedly made by some of the bullets flying around that day. If you buy into the premise of Public Enemies, this is where the modern FBI was......more

Goodreads review by Wayne on April 13, 2017

I made Hoover's reputation as a fearless lawman. It's a reputation he doesn't deserve...I made that son of a bitch Alvin Karpis Forget about all the hollywood versions of these characters you've ever seen. They're all romanticized and lead the viewer from the real facts of those years of 1934 and 193......more

Goodreads review by G.d. on August 11, 2012

It's a tired cliché to say the book's better than the movie, but here it's far truer than usual. Michael Mann's "Public Enemies" was one of our best director's worst movies. On paper, it looked like a great combination; he likes cops and criminals, and his criminals tend to be too cool for neckties,......more

Goodreads review by Robert on May 05, 2019

4.5 rounded up . A good read . Very well researched .......more