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Al Capone's Beer Wars: A Complete History of Organized Crime in Chicago During Prohibition
Although much has been written about Al Capone, there has not been--until now--a complete history of organized crime in Chicago during Prohibition. This exhaustively researched book covers the entire period from 1920 to 1933. Author John J. Binder, a recognized authority on the history of organized crime in Chicago, discusses all the important bootlegging gangs in the city and the suburbs and also examines the other major rackets, such as prostitution, gambling, labor and business racketeering, and narcotics.
A major focus is how the Capone gang -- one of twelve major bootlegging mobs in Chicago at the start of Prohibition--gained a virtual monopoly over organized crime in northern Illinois and beyond. Binder also describes the fight by federal and local authorities, as well as citizens' groups, against organized crime. In the process, he refutes numerous myths and misconceptions related to the Capone gang, other criminal groups, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and gangland killings.
What emerges is a big picture of how Chicago's underworld evolved during this period. This broad perspective goes well beyond Capone and specific acts of violence and brings to light what was happening elsewhere in Chicagoland and after Capone went to jail.
Based on 25 years of research and using many previously unexplored sources, this fascinating account of a bloody and colorful era in Chicago history will become the definitive work on the subject.
A major focus is how the Capone gang -- one of twelve major bootlegging mobs in Chicago at the start of Prohibition--gained a virtual monopoly over organized crime in northern Illinois and beyond. Binder also describes the fight by federal and local authorities, as well as citizens' groups, against organized crime. In the process, he refutes numerous myths and misconceptions related to the Capone gang, other criminal groups, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and gangland killings.
What emerges is a big picture of how Chicago's underworld evolved during this period. This broad perspective goes well beyond Capone and specific acts of violence and brings to light what was happening elsewhere in Chicagoland and after Capone went to jail.
Based on 25 years of research and using many previously unexplored sources, this fascinating account of a bloody and colorful era in Chicago history will become the definitive work on the subject.
414 pages, Hardcover
First published June 6, 2017
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962 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
June 30, 2017
A big thanks to John Binder, Prometheus Books, and Netgalley for the free copy of this book.
Binder proves he is a king of the statistic with Beer Wars. Never have I seen such concise compilation on this era.
Nothing was left out. The daily lives of prostitutes, the running of alcohol, the intimidation of union members-its all here. Prohibition was a breeding ground for crime. And there were some ingenious masterminds who learned how to successfully play the game for about 20 years-men and women.
I was very impressed with this book.
Binder proves he is a king of the statistic with Beer Wars. Never have I seen such concise compilation on this era.
Nothing was left out. The daily lives of prostitutes, the running of alcohol, the intimidation of union members-its all here. Prohibition was a breeding ground for crime. And there were some ingenious masterminds who learned how to successfully play the game for about 20 years-men and women.
I was very impressed with this book.
June 27, 2017
If you want to know to know something about the Chicago gangs during Prohibition, this is your book. The research is highly detailed and there are loads of pictures. On a personal note, I found out that Bugs Moran of St. Valentine's Day Massacre fame once shot up a bar in my hometown and then spent time in the McLean County jail before returning to Chicago. Who knew?
The names and amount of killings can be mind-boggling, but you do pick up an appreciation for the terror and corruption that spread through Chicago from bootlegging, gambling, and other forms of vice in the Prohibition era.
The names and amount of killings can be mind-boggling, but you do pick up an appreciation for the terror and corruption that spread through Chicago from bootlegging, gambling, and other forms of vice in the Prohibition era.
June 30, 2017
For starters, John Binder is the name in Chicago-area Prohibition-crime history. He’s been a friend, mentor, collaborator, and resource to me, but that hardly makes me unique. John has been a generous and insightful resource to everyone who’s found his way to him in the last quarter century. In fact, a good squeeze-the-produce way to find out if a work in this field is any good is to check its acknowledgements page: if John isn’t mentioned, it means the author never really got started digging. Lots of people are doing good and provocative work on the Capone era, (think of Rich Lindberg, Matt Luzi, Mario Gomes, Rose Keefe, and Mars Eghigian) and but none of them are doing it without somehow coming into contact with John.
And this book is the summation of John’s three or four decades of research. If you’ve never really gotten the skinny on Capone, this book has it (though it may not be the best place to get a first exposure to that long and bloody story). If you already know where some of the bodies are buried, then no other source can take you so quickly to the current, advanced thinking about what happened, what people say happened, and how far we can go with revising this well-known but distorted historical moment.
In a broad sense, this book has been done before, but not for almost 60 years and not without many significant recent findings. In the immediate wake of Prohibition, there was an entire industry dedicated to creating the general myth of Capone’s Chicago. On the one hand, you had the rise of the “Syndicate” under Colosimo, Torrio, and Capone. On the other, you had the nefarious Dean O’Banion (I can call him “nefarious” because he shot my grandfather), Hymie Weiss, and Bugs Moran lining up the Northside Gang. Then, after the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, it was just Capone until he got knocked off his perch by Eliot Ness. Or was it for tax evasion?
From almost the moment the bullet casings fell to the floor, you had writers mythologizing the Chicago gangster. (Armitrage Trail and Ben Hecht were writing versions of Scarface while Capone was still at large, and every day’s newspaper – of which there were seven competing – brought some fresh anecdote.) There was nothing romantic about the character – that wouldn’t come until the middle 1960s with Mario Puzo – but he was certainly magnetic. Equal parts charismatic, menacing, cunning, and doomed, he quickly fit into an established storyline: a rapid rise and a sudden fall.
I have a long shelf full of books that people were writing in the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s, all of which tell the same essential version of the Chicago gangster story, one that featured Capone but that didn’t necessarily revolve around him. Then, starting in the 1940s, writers tended to focus on one or another aspect rather than the whole. Capone’s legend grew larger and larger, to the point that it overshadowed almost everyone else’s. (There are at least four serious biographies of Capone – Pasley, Kobler, Schoenberg, and Bergreen – and that doesn’t count the dozens of books that deal with a slice of Capone’s life or the countless quickie biographies that simply recycle what’s already out there.) In other words, the Prohibition story in Chicago got reduced to the story of Capone.
What Binder does here, above all, is restore the larger context of that story. Yes, there’s still a lot about Capone and a lot about booze, but this book recovers the histories of the dozen or more substantial gangs that started out as legitimate rivals. And it also restores some necessary balance to the crimes in play. It wasn’t all booze. It began with prostitution and gambling, grew to include the crucial business of racketeering, and eventually necessitated political corruption. So it’s more characters doing more things.
That larger net makes it harder to tell a coherent story. There are stretches here where we get long lists of names that may not mean especially much to people who haven’t studied this material. Still, no one has attempted to publish such lists since at least 1961 (when Kenneth Alsop attempted the last such overarching history) and no one has ever done so with so much ancillary research at hand.
Once Binder lays out the structure here – several gangs involved in several different kinds of criminal enterprises – he gets to the familiar story of “Al Capone vs. Bugs Moran.” Except, here, Binder refuses to let it settle into the familiar rise and fall of Scarface. Among other things, he asks an obvious question that few have posed: if we know that the Northside Gang had hundreds of gunmen and dozens of significant lieutenants, then how did the killing of only half a dozen of them – leaving Moran alive – bring an essential end to the gang war?
Binder’s answer is that it didn’t. The Massacre marked the beginning of the end, but only the beginning, and he gives a substantial chapter to the extensive sequel. The Moran forces may have been weakened, but they were soon, but temporarily, even stronger after their alliance with the noxious pimp Jack Zuta, the suddenly wealthy Aiello gang, and the bold, further Northside Touhys. In other words, as Binder convincingly reminds us, the gang war continued a good five or six years longer. The Capone gang – even after Capone was sent to prison – pursued a patient and disciplined strategy, one that took foresight but also good fortune. Time after time they fragmented the opposition, absorbing some of the ones they’d defeated, and then continuing to pressure the ones who remained. It took really until World War II, but they eventually consolidated everything and became (though this is outside Binder’s study) a kind of government for the criminal world, compelling anyone who broke the law to play by their rules, paying the proper “street taxes” and abiding by clear directives about where or when they could ply their illegal trades.
Along the way, Binder offers a number of thoughtful digressions to take down either longstanding myths or attempts at historical revisionism. Among them
• He argues that the South Side O’Donnells, led by the media savvy Spike, were more influential than contemporary observers – particularly the ones who attempted to record which gangs held which territory – seemed to acknowledge. He uses careful studies of police logs and Chicago Crime Commission data to suggest we’ve allowed Spike to settle into a teller-of-tales sort when, in reality, he was consequential.
• He takes on Tribune columnist John Kass’s assertion that Capone was essentially a figurehead for later mob boss Paul Ricca. Binder acknowledges the consensus that Ricca went on to become probably the paramount figure in the mob, but he sees no evidence to suggest that influence began as far back as Kass asserts.
• He challenges the formidable Laurence Bergreen who put forward the notion that Capone was really fronting for Chicago Heights power Frankie LaPorte, but he does so thoughtfully, acknowledging the more focused (and more credible in this context) work of Matt Luzi who has shown the Chicago Heights gangsters were more consequential than contemporaries realized.
• And he more or less demolished Jonathan Eig’s recent assertion that William “Three-Fingered” White was the architect of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
Those digressions sometimes do break up the core narrative of the book, but since this is a book about expanding about that narrative we can forgive it.
In the end, there’s so much here that it’s easy to declare it an essential work in the field. Binder gives us the most complete updating of the overall Chicago Prohibition era study that we’ve had in decades, and he does it with the same modesty I’ve seen in him for years, crediting others for the pieces they’ve contributed to this very large puzzle he’s done so much to solve. A lot of us have been waiting for this one for a long time, and it’s great to have it at last.
And this book is the summation of John’s three or four decades of research. If you’ve never really gotten the skinny on Capone, this book has it (though it may not be the best place to get a first exposure to that long and bloody story). If you already know where some of the bodies are buried, then no other source can take you so quickly to the current, advanced thinking about what happened, what people say happened, and how far we can go with revising this well-known but distorted historical moment.
In a broad sense, this book has been done before, but not for almost 60 years and not without many significant recent findings. In the immediate wake of Prohibition, there was an entire industry dedicated to creating the general myth of Capone’s Chicago. On the one hand, you had the rise of the “Syndicate” under Colosimo, Torrio, and Capone. On the other, you had the nefarious Dean O’Banion (I can call him “nefarious” because he shot my grandfather), Hymie Weiss, and Bugs Moran lining up the Northside Gang. Then, after the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, it was just Capone until he got knocked off his perch by Eliot Ness. Or was it for tax evasion?
From almost the moment the bullet casings fell to the floor, you had writers mythologizing the Chicago gangster. (Armitrage Trail and Ben Hecht were writing versions of Scarface while Capone was still at large, and every day’s newspaper – of which there were seven competing – brought some fresh anecdote.) There was nothing romantic about the character – that wouldn’t come until the middle 1960s with Mario Puzo – but he was certainly magnetic. Equal parts charismatic, menacing, cunning, and doomed, he quickly fit into an established storyline: a rapid rise and a sudden fall.
I have a long shelf full of books that people were writing in the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s, all of which tell the same essential version of the Chicago gangster story, one that featured Capone but that didn’t necessarily revolve around him. Then, starting in the 1940s, writers tended to focus on one or another aspect rather than the whole. Capone’s legend grew larger and larger, to the point that it overshadowed almost everyone else’s. (There are at least four serious biographies of Capone – Pasley, Kobler, Schoenberg, and Bergreen – and that doesn’t count the dozens of books that deal with a slice of Capone’s life or the countless quickie biographies that simply recycle what’s already out there.) In other words, the Prohibition story in Chicago got reduced to the story of Capone.
What Binder does here, above all, is restore the larger context of that story. Yes, there’s still a lot about Capone and a lot about booze, but this book recovers the histories of the dozen or more substantial gangs that started out as legitimate rivals. And it also restores some necessary balance to the crimes in play. It wasn’t all booze. It began with prostitution and gambling, grew to include the crucial business of racketeering, and eventually necessitated political corruption. So it’s more characters doing more things.
That larger net makes it harder to tell a coherent story. There are stretches here where we get long lists of names that may not mean especially much to people who haven’t studied this material. Still, no one has attempted to publish such lists since at least 1961 (when Kenneth Alsop attempted the last such overarching history) and no one has ever done so with so much ancillary research at hand.
Once Binder lays out the structure here – several gangs involved in several different kinds of criminal enterprises – he gets to the familiar story of “Al Capone vs. Bugs Moran.” Except, here, Binder refuses to let it settle into the familiar rise and fall of Scarface. Among other things, he asks an obvious question that few have posed: if we know that the Northside Gang had hundreds of gunmen and dozens of significant lieutenants, then how did the killing of only half a dozen of them – leaving Moran alive – bring an essential end to the gang war?
Binder’s answer is that it didn’t. The Massacre marked the beginning of the end, but only the beginning, and he gives a substantial chapter to the extensive sequel. The Moran forces may have been weakened, but they were soon, but temporarily, even stronger after their alliance with the noxious pimp Jack Zuta, the suddenly wealthy Aiello gang, and the bold, further Northside Touhys. In other words, as Binder convincingly reminds us, the gang war continued a good five or six years longer. The Capone gang – even after Capone was sent to prison – pursued a patient and disciplined strategy, one that took foresight but also good fortune. Time after time they fragmented the opposition, absorbing some of the ones they’d defeated, and then continuing to pressure the ones who remained. It took really until World War II, but they eventually consolidated everything and became (though this is outside Binder’s study) a kind of government for the criminal world, compelling anyone who broke the law to play by their rules, paying the proper “street taxes” and abiding by clear directives about where or when they could ply their illegal trades.
Along the way, Binder offers a number of thoughtful digressions to take down either longstanding myths or attempts at historical revisionism. Among them
• He argues that the South Side O’Donnells, led by the media savvy Spike, were more influential than contemporary observers – particularly the ones who attempted to record which gangs held which territory – seemed to acknowledge. He uses careful studies of police logs and Chicago Crime Commission data to suggest we’ve allowed Spike to settle into a teller-of-tales sort when, in reality, he was consequential.
• He takes on Tribune columnist John Kass’s assertion that Capone was essentially a figurehead for later mob boss Paul Ricca. Binder acknowledges the consensus that Ricca went on to become probably the paramount figure in the mob, but he sees no evidence to suggest that influence began as far back as Kass asserts.
• He challenges the formidable Laurence Bergreen who put forward the notion that Capone was really fronting for Chicago Heights power Frankie LaPorte, but he does so thoughtfully, acknowledging the more focused (and more credible in this context) work of Matt Luzi who has shown the Chicago Heights gangsters were more consequential than contemporaries realized.
• And he more or less demolished Jonathan Eig’s recent assertion that William “Three-Fingered” White was the architect of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
Those digressions sometimes do break up the core narrative of the book, but since this is a book about expanding about that narrative we can forgive it.
In the end, there’s so much here that it’s easy to declare it an essential work in the field. Binder gives us the most complete updating of the overall Chicago Prohibition era study that we’ve had in decades, and he does it with the same modesty I’ve seen in him for years, crediting others for the pieces they’ve contributed to this very large puzzle he’s done so much to solve. A lot of us have been waiting for this one for a long time, and it’s great to have it at last.
July 15, 2019
The sheer volume of research that went into this book is amazing. The author constantly pulls in new people – criminals, kingpins, government officials, law enforcement -- often giving a paragraph or two description of the person and their connection to the story, and often followed by the details of their killing. It is numbing in volume. And buildings – you get cross streets addresses for many of the scenes of action, be it a gangland killing, a warehouse for illegal beer, a distillery, a brothel, or a hideout. And there are statistics, with ratios showing the ebb and flow of crime in the city and near suburbs. There was truly too much content here to make this a wholly readable and enjoyable book, but the author attempted to organize these facts into a roughly chronological narrative. I found the narrative did bounce back and forth in time too often to keep track, but I appreciated the attempt.
The author also included many, many interesting facts, thrown in to counter-balance the statistics that would otherwise overwhelm the narrative, sometimes with some personality. Talking about hoodlums visiting their Northern suburbs headquarters with their new machine guns: “They practice shooting targets there with a machine gun – and accidentally hit the occasional farmer.” I appreciated the depth of reporting, including organized crime before the beer wars of the twenties. There is also in-depth coverage of historic brothels throughout the city, as well as city politicians. Having lived in Chicagoland for 30 years, I found the details of the addresses interesting, not realizing the historic uses of some of the real estate that I have passed by every day. I listened to this on audio, and I could almost hear the voice of John “Bulldog” Drummond, local reporter who specialized in organized crime stories for decades. The narrator had a bit of his cadence.
Overall, likely a very good reference work, and a good narrative of Chicago organized crime from Capone’s 1920s and before.
The author also included many, many interesting facts, thrown in to counter-balance the statistics that would otherwise overwhelm the narrative, sometimes with some personality. Talking about hoodlums visiting their Northern suburbs headquarters with their new machine guns: “They practice shooting targets there with a machine gun – and accidentally hit the occasional farmer.” I appreciated the depth of reporting, including organized crime before the beer wars of the twenties. There is also in-depth coverage of historic brothels throughout the city, as well as city politicians. Having lived in Chicagoland for 30 years, I found the details of the addresses interesting, not realizing the historic uses of some of the real estate that I have passed by every day. I listened to this on audio, and I could almost hear the voice of John “Bulldog” Drummond, local reporter who specialized in organized crime stories for decades. The narrator had a bit of his cadence.
Overall, likely a very good reference work, and a good narrative of Chicago organized crime from Capone’s 1920s and before.
November 18, 2017
This was a difficult read, only for the fact, all the data that Mr. Binder sifted through and provided. His research was astounding. His conclusions I believe were spot on. This book is also filled with numerous funny stories in relation to these cast of characters from Chicago Prohibition era bootleg wars. The gangs involved and the major players plus other crimes associated such as: vice wars, labor unions, city, state, and even in some cases elections feuds between democrats and republicans for control of Chicago's wards, which the gangsters had their hands in, plus gambling. The information in this book is astounding. I think one of the funniest stories in the book is about the famous Everleigh Club which was a famous bordello, so famous and stylish that even a prince or two visited from Europe. The sister madames due to nority had to move out of Chicago, yet when they retired they were very well-to-do and my eyes popped out of my head over their estimated wealth upon their retirement. Plus, their expenses of cost in paying protection money. The book is also filled with interesting photos and quotes from various sources on the gangland activity of this era.
The conclusion of the book comes as no surprise while reading through it that The Capone gang once it was over and done came out the winners in the bootleg wars. Even though Capone was removed by the Federal Government when he went to prison for tax evasion which the feds would never had got to him if he had done as other gangsters out of Chicago and just filled an income tax. Binder proves that the Capone gang didn't disappear with Capone's removal.
Fantastic read, and puts into perspective how Capone coming out on top still resonates to this day in the underworld of Chicago. This book would be a great reference for anyone in college aiming for a degree in law enforcement and the writing of such papers for said courses.
The conclusion of the book comes as no surprise while reading through it that The Capone gang once it was over and done came out the winners in the bootleg wars. Even though Capone was removed by the Federal Government when he went to prison for tax evasion which the feds would never had got to him if he had done as other gangsters out of Chicago and just filled an income tax. Binder proves that the Capone gang didn't disappear with Capone's removal.
Fantastic read, and puts into perspective how Capone coming out on top still resonates to this day in the underworld of Chicago. This book would be a great reference for anyone in college aiming for a degree in law enforcement and the writing of such papers for said courses.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 1, 2018
Ok, first let me say that I know that this author is a legend in the Chicago area for his knowledge about the prohibition era. The book was interesting and taught me alot, but I have a major problem with it. It was dry, (pun intended), somehow he took one of the bloodiest and most violent eras in American history and made it read like a textbook. Listen, I am not perfect, I have done this as well with a book of mine. I also take issue with his seeming obsession with degrading other historians who have written about the era, he uses their names and talks about how their research was less than stellar and lacking. Overall, I learned, but it was a dry take laden with statistics.
July 1, 2025
So after a severe amount of procrastination and a surge of adrenaline in the last few days I have finally finished this book. I watched the show Boardwalk Empire back in January and got curious as to how historically accurate parts of were. To no surprise it’s not very historically accurate, in all but a few key moments. However, in spite of that John J Binder does a wonderful job of documenting crime in the Chicagoland area between the 1890s and 1930s. This is a great book if you want to learn more about prohibition. The story isn’t told in a conventional way, it’s more like having a 1,000 fun facts spouted at you throughout 315 pages, which is fine if it’s your cup of tea (it is mine). 4.5/5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 8, 2020
Extremely thorough, but in the way that a textbook is thorough. Lots of facts and figures however the overarching story appears lost. This feels like a book you’d reference one paragraph from in a university paper. The author worked very hard to assemble this, but it was not a compelling or enjoyable read for me.
July 16, 2017
Loved this book--Mr. Binder obviously did a lot of research. While Capone is the central character he does give some much needed attention to the many other gangs of the era. It seems from the way most books on this subject tell it the only major gangs of the era were the South Side Capone gang and the North Siders and this book delves into all of the goings on in Prohibition Era Chicago--not just the sensationalized stories that have been told a million times.
June 2, 2017
wow , very interesting book , the author did lots of recherche, very detail.
i win this book , it provides the history of vice,very violent world in 1920 era .
good job Mr John J.Binder.
i win this book , it provides the history of vice,very violent world in 1920 era .
good job Mr John J.Binder.
August 8, 2017
John Binder put together an interesting and precisely detailed book. From the first page, you can see how much time and effort John put into researching the events during the Prohibition. I have to say I did not know much about organized crime during that period other than knowing Al Capone's name, and I was very fascinated. I loved the break up of information with pictures of the people he was speaking of. It helped to put a face to the story you are reading about. This was definitely a great read!
November 5, 2017
If you're looking for an exciting and gripping companion read to Brian DePalma's The Untouchables then you'll probably want to look elsewhere.
However, if you want an engrossing and comprehensive read about the history of early organized crime in Chicago beyond just Al Capone then this is your book.
Calling Al Capone's Beer Wars well-researched would be an extreme understatement. While this does lead the book to being a bit dry at times (ironic for a book about liquor), it is certainly a must-read for those who care an iota about the subject material.
However, if you want an engrossing and comprehensive read about the history of early organized crime in Chicago beyond just Al Capone then this is your book.
Calling Al Capone's Beer Wars well-researched would be an extreme understatement. While this does lead the book to being a bit dry at times (ironic for a book about liquor), it is certainly a must-read for those who care an iota about the subject material.
December 20, 2017
Mr. Binder does a great job and getting into the trenches and digging up the most accurate numbers he can find and it's easy to see how well he researched this topic...but the sheer amount of figures that he gives in the book can make it a bit tiresome of a read. Tends to read like less of a narrative and more of an encyclopedia extract.
May 12, 2018
A scholarly look at Prohibition in Chicago, thoroughly researched and referenced.
June 10, 2018
i enjoy reading about this era. i have a better understanding of how gangs got started and operated.
the ending of the book dealt with murder statistics which i got a little bored with.
the ending of the book dealt with murder statistics which i got a little bored with.
August 6, 2017
Greatly detailed book covering public enemy Capone as he spent time in Chicago during prohibition
September 7, 2017
As a life long Chicagoan I found this vast compendium of local Thuggery to be fascinating. A masterful scholarly endeavor. Two Big Thumbs Up!
July 8, 2024
I'm middle of the road when it comes to this book. It didn't keep my interest throughout and I found myself putting the book down for weeks at a time. It took me five months to get through reading it on and off. I say this as someone who has been reading about this subject matter since the sixth grade; and that was over 30 years ago. I will say what sets this book apart from others about Chicago gangsters is that Binder has bothered to put together several maps of Chicago and show us who controlled which neighborhood and at what time. I can't tell you how helpful that is. He also acknowledges the other gangs that existed in Chicago besides Torrio/Capone and the North Side. If you are really into gangland statistics and don't mind some dry reading, this is an excellent book to add to your collection on Chicago's Prohibition Era. I can't say I'm all that happy that I spent time reading it but I can't say I regretted it either. Reading this felt like I gave myself homework.
January 24, 2023
What an underrated gem this book is, it looks at the wider picture of Chicago's underworld, looking at the rival gangs, the hits and all the characters involved.
However it goes beyond other books giving an overview of the territory movements and i have long thought a book that maps gang conflict by territory movements over time would be a good idea, this helps to scratch that itch.
It also looks at the stats, the number of bombings and machine gunnings and the overall affectiveness of these.
I highly remcommend this over all other books if you are looking for a read on Chicago's gangs during the prohibition period.
However it goes beyond other books giving an overview of the territory movements and i have long thought a book that maps gang conflict by territory movements over time would be a good idea, this helps to scratch that itch.
It also looks at the stats, the number of bombings and machine gunnings and the overall affectiveness of these.
I highly remcommend this over all other books if you are looking for a read on Chicago's gangs during the prohibition period.
February 20, 2018
A decent read. I felt there was a lot of background information missing because I'm not familiar with Chicago history of Prohibition or Al Capone beyond the basics. The writing was tedious in parts and made it hard to get through.
March 22, 2020
This book takes you beyond the sensational headlines of Prohibition and looks at the facts. It can be dry in spots but it is a fascinating look at Chicago politics, crime and Other gangs operating in the 1920’s.
June 14, 2021
I’ve read a couple books on Chicago Mafia and Al Capone over the years. This is very well researched and scholarly. Not for me. I wasn’t interested in the fine amount of detail included in the book. I didn’t finish it.
June 22, 2021
Sexist waste of time. While the overall history is quite in-depth, I struggled with Binder's language choices throughout. His apparent sexism and shaming of sex work disrupted fascinating sections and made me question his overall objectivity.
August 24, 2018
This is an incredibly information dense book. The author does a very good job of weaving the stories, questions, facts, and answers into an engaging read. I learned a lot and enjoyed the read.
July 6, 2023
Very thorough, but sometimes, the large amount of names gets confusing. Recommended for students of crime or prohibition
November 29, 2023
Works best on audio as semi-background. Narrator Colacci makes it less listy and thorough-to-a-fault than it might be in text.
August 25, 2020
This is a subject I'm very interested in. I learned much from this book but at times the research and the impulse to show off the statistics overshadowed the story's drama. It's also a comprehensive look about the beer wars, not just Capone's role in them, so I suspect his publisher pushed for that title to boost sales rather than accurately represent the subject. That being said, obviously Capone's gangsters are major players in this tale, if for no other reason than Capone survived past prohibition - many didn't!
September 5, 2017
Very interesting book of the bootlegging and much more that occurred in Chicago from 1920 to 1934. Has all the gangs involved, prominent members. Goes they each mayor ChicGo had during this era. Numerous characters besides Al Capone. One drawback not many pages about the Saint Valentine's Massacre.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews