Public Enemies

The men and women at the center of this book are American legends: John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, the Barker gang, and "G-Man" J. Edgar Hoover have all become part of our national folklore. Bryan Burrough's Public Enemies strips away Depression-era myths to reveal the even more fascinating truth about America's most spectacular crime wave and the birth of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Vanity Fair correspondent uses newly released official files and other material to create an action-packed yet analytical narrative about the evolving warfare between lawmen and lawbreakers. Exposing the blunders and narrow misses of the tenderfoot FBI, he describes how Hoover cobbled together the Bureau's lofty public image from less-than-perfect performances. A first-rate read.