A pulpy true-crime account of one of America’s most infamous kidnappings.
Enss presents the true history of one of America’s great criminal romances in this nonfiction work.
There are few couples in the annals of American crime to rival George “Machine Gun” Kelly and his wife Kathryn Thorne. Their kidnapping of oil tycoon Charles Urschel not only made headlines in 1933 but also led to the creation of the Federal Kidnapping Act, as well as the first filmed trial in American history. It also proved a watershed moment for J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, which—after a series of embarrassments surrounding the Lindbergh kidnapping, John Dillinger, and Al Capone—reformed their reputation in the pursuit of the Kellys, deploying new crime-fighting and media-courting strategies, earning their immortal nickname, “G-Men,” in the process. With this book, Enss offers a history of the infamous couple, their crimes, their capture, and their trial. Readers meet George, the charming and fastidious scion of an upper-middle-class Memphis family who began selling whiskey to his neighbors as a teenager; Kathryn, the twice-divorced woman and bootlegger who may have murdered her last husband and whose ability to spin a media narrative rivaled that of Hoover; and Geralene Arnold, the 12-year-old girl who traveled with the fugitive Kellys as part of their cover story and was instrumental in their eventual capture. There’s also Ora Shannon, Kathryn’s mother, an experienced criminal herself who would end up sharing her daughter’s fate. The author draws heavily from court transcripts and newspaper accounts, offering what feels like a minute-by-minute report of events. “Glasses of whiskey and gin eased their anxiety,” writes Enss of how the couple spent their third anniversary—on the run. “Neither slept well. Kathryn continued to worry about her family, Kelly worried about the authorities discovering their location, and both fretted over the ransom money.” This propulsive and thoroughly researched true-crime account will especially please fans of Depression-era gangster stories as it helps to elevate George and Kathryn to the same iconic strata as Bonnie and Clyde.
A pulpy true-crime account of one of America’s most infamous kidnappings.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9780806543055
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Citadel
Review Posted Online: Feb. 14, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
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