JOHN DILLINGER SLEPT HERE -- Paul Maccabee

Minnesota Historical Society Press -- tpb
St. Paul -- ©1995 -- 362pp
ISBN: 0-87351-316-9

This book is based on more than 100,000 pages of FBI files and wiretaps, prison and police records, and mob confessions. Interviews with 250 crime victims, policemen, gun molls, and family members of criminals bring these public enemies to life. Crime historian Paul Maccabee takes you inside the bank robberies, gangland assassinations, and police intrigue of St. Paul's 1920s and 1930s gangster era. You'll also find Crooks' Tour maps and more than 130 rare FBI, police, and family photographs.

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Loaned to me by my uncle, this is not the kind of book that I would ordinarily pick up to read on my own. However, I did find it rather interesting to learn that the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul were havens for some of the most notorious underworld figures in history.

I felt that the book was trying hard to find a new angle on reoprting of Minnesota's ganster past, but because of that, it lacked a cohesion that might have kept my interest a little better. Just as I was finding a narrative interesting, it seemed to zoom to the end and then on to another criminal. The "selling point" to the book is the listing of the addresses where certain crimes occurred with the intent that those interested would walk/drive around the Twin Cities to see these locations.

Interesting, but not engaging.