Terror in the City of Champions, Tom Stanton
Terror in the City of Champions, Tom Stanton
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Terror in the City of Champions
Murder, Baseball, and the Secret Society that Shocked Depression-era Detroit

Author: Tom Stanton

Narrator: Johnny Heller

Unabridged: 9 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/06/2016


Synopsis

Detroit, mid-1930s: In a city abuzz over its unrivaled sports success, gun-loving baseball fan Dayton Dean became ensnared in the nefarious and deadly Black Legion. The secretive, Klan-like group was executing a wicked plan of terror, murdering enemies, flogging associates, and contemplating armed rebellion. The Legion boasted tens of thousands of members across the Midwest, among them politicians and prominent citizens—even, possibly, a beloved athlete.

Terror in the City of Champions opens with the arrival of Mickey Cochrane, a fiery baseball star who roused the Great Depression's hardest-hit city by leading the Tigers to the 1934 pennant. A year later he guided the team to its first championship. Within seven months the Lions and Red Wings follow in football and hockey—all while Joe Louis chased boxing's heavyweight crown.

Amidst such glory, the Legion's dreadful toll grew unchecked: staged “suicides,” bodies dumped along roadsides, high-profile assassination plots. Talkative Dayton Dean's involvement would deepen as heroic Mickey Cochrane's reputation would rise. But the ballplayer had his own demons, including a close friendship with Harry Bennett, Henry Ford's brutal union buster.

About Tom Stanton

Tom Stanton is author of several nonfiction books, among them the critically acclaimed Tiger Stadium memoir The Final Season and the Quill Award finalist Ty and the Babe. A journalist for more than thirty years, he cofounded The Voice Newspapers in suburban Detroit and served as editor for sixteen years, winning numerous press awards, including a Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Brandon

The mid-1930s were banner years for the city of Detroit’s unrivaled sports scene. In late 1934, the Tigers won the pennant. Just seven months later, the Red Wings took home the Stanley Cup and the Lions sat atop the National Football League. And it wasn’t just team sports that dominated. Hometown he......more

Well this was disappointing. This reads like a series of vignettes - jumping from the Tigers (lengthy descriptions of games in some instances), the Black Legion, the Lions, Red Wings, Joe Louis and back around again. It reads like a "day in the life" (or 2 year period in the life in this case) of th......more