| Description |
1 online resource (lvii, 275 pages) : illustrations, map |
| Series |
Shawnee classics |
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Shawnee classics.
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| Contents |
List of illustrations -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chronology -- 1. Birger's early years -- 2. Bootleggings days -- 3. Charlie and Beatrice -- 4. Booze and Harrisburg -- 5. A bad man, yet ... -- 6. Egan rats and Hogan's jellyrolls -- 7. The arrival of S. Glenn Young -- 8. The Klan -- 9. Bloody Williamson -- 10. "Don't pull that gun, Ora" -- 11. The start of shady rest -- 12. Bloodshed, cockfights, and bulldogs -- 13. Charles "Hardrock" Davis and the anti-horse thief association -- 14. Trouble in Herrin -- 15. "Blonde bombshell" -- 16. Shotgun shot between the eyes -- 17. Art Newman and Connie Ritter -- 18. Death in drag -- 19. Aerial bombing -- 20. The death of Joe Adams -- 21. "Jar like an explosion" -- 22. A man who knew too much -- 23. "Black hand" letter -- 24. Birger unsatisfied -- 25. "I'm done" -- 26. Oral and Eural Gowan -- 27. "We have beans, beans, beans" -- 28. The mystery couple in the Ford Coupe -- 29. The sympathetic hangman -- 30. Lucky boys -- 31. "It's a beautiful world" -- 32. A bystander who had stumbled into a nightmare -- 33. The mystery of the destruction of shady rest -- 34. "If it hadn't been ..." -- Bibliography -- Index |
| Summary |
"Charlie Birger's legacy is that of the most popular and, arguably, the most violent gangster in southern Illinois during the 1920s. A Russian immigrant who first proved his grit on the streets of St. Louis as a newsboy, Birger later excelled in boxing and breaking horses in the West. But the coming of Prohibition to the coal fields of southern Illinois provided the opportunity for Birger to become a key figure in a maelstrom of violence that would shock the country. Bolstered by years of research and interviews, Gary DeNeal tenders an insightful biography of this controversial character. Enhanced by newly discovered photographs and a new chapter, the second edition of A Knight of Another Sort brings Birger and his bloody era vividly to life." "Drawing from the colorful cast of the living, the dead, and the soon-to-be-dead - a state shared by many associated with Charlie and his enemies, the Shelton gang - DeNeal re-creates Prohibition-era southern Illinois. He depicts the fatal shootout between S. Glenn Young and Ora Thomas, the battle on the Herrin Masonic Temple lawn in which six were slain and the Ku Klux Klan crushed, and the wounding of Williamson County state's attorney Arlie O. Boswell." "The gang wars ended with massive arrests, trials, and convictions of gangsters who once had seemed invincible. Charlie Birger was convicted of the murder of West City mayor Joe Adams and sentenced to death. On April 19, 1928, Birger stood on the gallows looking down on the large crowd that had come to see him die. "It's a beautiful world," Birger said softly as he prepared to leave it."--Jacket |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-266) and index |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Birger, Charlie, 1880-1928.
|
| SUBJECT |
Birger, Charlie, 1880-1928 fast |
| Subject |
Murder -- Illinois -- Case studies
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Murderers -- Illinois -- Biography
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Prohibition -- Illinois
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TRUE CRIME -- Murder -- General.
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Murder
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Murderers
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Prohibition
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Illinois
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| Genre/Form |
Biographies
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Case studies
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Biographies.
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Biographies.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
0585111537 |
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9780585111537 |
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