[Gutenberg 20104] • The Cross-Cut

Courtney Ryley Cooper (1886-1940) was a publicist, journalist, U.S. Marine, historian, screenwriter, short story writer, novelist, non-fiction author, magazine writer, crime writer and crime expert. He was also an expert on circuses, at the time of his death employed by Ringling Brothers, Barnum he was Annie Oakley's first biographer. His books Here's to Crime (1937), Ten-Thousand Public Enemies (1935) and Designs in Scarlet (1939) championed the cause of the young Federal Bureau of Investigation and made the case that corrupt local governments and police forces permitted lawlessness to flourish in many parts of the United States. He is widely believed to have ghostwritten the book Persons in Hiding (1938) as well as a number of magazine articles for Hoover.