Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI

By April | January 31, 2008

Bryan Burrough who has worked as a financial journalist for Vanity Fair writes in his book about the crime wave that swept America in 1933 and 1934. He has a personal interest in this period because it was his grandfather J. Edgar Hoover who helped man a roadblock at Arkansas during a hunt for Bonnie and Clyde.

At the time, police jurisdictions ended at state borders, the FBI was only in its infancy, the highway was spreading across America and fast cars along with machine guns were readily available. Also this was the time of the Great Depression where 13 million Americans were out of work and they blamed it all on the banks. This all made for the perfect climate for bank robberies which saw Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, Machine Gun Kelly, and the Barkers rise to fame.

J. Edgar Hoover was eager to see the small agency become the FBI that we know of today and he did so by promoting is “America’s Most Wanted” in the media. When the FBI eventually gunned down John Dillinger outside a movie theatre in 1934, this helped catapult Hoover to even more fame.

The book goes on to examine FBI files which have only just relatively recently been released. These files paint a very different picture from the propaganda Hoover fed the media at the time. Foremost for Burrough, the book is about how the FBI evolved from a bunch of incompetent amateurs to the slick and professional crime-fighting organization it is today.

Reviews:

“Fantastic….Bryan Burrough has pieced together one of the great American stories, and tells it like gangbusters.” David Von Drehle

“Public Enemies is a fabulous read….Great reporting and lots of new information. I loved it.” James B. Stewart

“A rollicking, rat-a-tat ride….Iconoclastic and fascinating. A genuine treat for true-crime buffs, and for anyone interested in the New Deal era.” Kirkus Reviews

“Burrough…has written a book that brims with vivid portraiture….Public Enemies is excellent true crime with all the strengths and limitations this implies.” Mark Costello, The New York Times Book Review

“Burrough has captured the vivid details of outlaw life on the run….I couldn’t put this book down.” Dominick Dunne

“[S]uperb — readable, thorough, and critical.” Denver Post

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