Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties

Good job of masterful storytelling in historic context. Belongs in your urban history collection.

Professor of literary journalism Michael Lesy presents Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties, is a true crime anthology that lives up to its title -- and then some! Written in attention-grabbing prose for readers from all walks of life, Murder City intersperses its seventeen gritty murder stories with a handful of vintage black-and-white photographs. An excellent addition to true crime shelves and highly recommended reading for true crime buffs and students of Windy City history!

If you have any interest in the history of Chicago, the twenties, or just true crime, this is a really interesting book. The author chose several stories of Chicago murders that took place in the early twentieth century - including the tale of the women who inspired the musical "Chicago". There is a good assortment of stories - not just "mob murders' fow which Chicago in the twenties is known.

I am really enjoying reading "Murder City"...some of the stories are familiar, as I heard of them from my dad and various aunts & uncles who grew up in Chicago in the 1920s. And some are new to me, but no less interesting, especially the one about the Northwestern University student who died during a hazing incident. If anything, reading this book has led me to believe that human beings never really change, that anger, lust, jealousy and more banal things, such as drunkenness, will lead inevitably to "crimes of passion."

With reality TV being such a phenomenon these days, I was expecting a book like "Murder City" to come along. A book that takes literary snapshots of moments in the bloodier side of Chicago history. I'm not talking about the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, the Dean O'Banion murder, or the killing of Assistant State's Attorney McSwiggin. I'm referring to the average Joes and Janes who lived, killed each other, and died without the same fanfare and media frenzy that accompanied the gangster assassinations of the same period. There are some underworld murders examined here, such as the Hymie Weiss hit, but they don't dominate the book. Each chapter is accompanied by photos of victims, crime scenes, or key players in the drama. Themes that concern us today are found in these pages: abused women killing their attackers, fraternity hazing gone too far, men murdering the women they love as the ultimate act of control. As I read, I kept thinking, "The clothes change, but basic human nature does not."

Fans of Lesy's legendary first book Wisconsin Death Trip (1973) will be delighted to discover his latest. Lesy teaches at Hampshire College. He was planning to give his students an assignment, to look at the on-line photo archive of a Chicago newspaper. Lesy decided that he had better check it out for himself first. He was stunned by what he found. Chicago in the 1920's had an astonishingly high murder rate. The Chicago newspapers of the time went by the editorial mantra that if it bleeds it leads. Lesy found lots of high profile murder cases splattered across the front pages. He decided that this would make a book. Lesy labored in the decaying microfilm libraries and excavated the material for Murder City. You might think that these would be mostly gangland killings. They are not. There are a few but Lesy had plenty of others to include. A WWI vet kills his sister-in-law for a few bucks. Battered women shoot the men who abused them, etc. Lesy's choice of photographs is as compelling as his terse and pithy prose. These are not gory scenes but they give us snapshots of the haunted eyes of killers. Your blood will run cold. Stunning!