Bootlegger Heaven: The Shelton Gang Story

by Kevin Corley

A sequel to 13 Steps for Charlie Birger, Bootlegger Heaven tells the incredible story of the bloody southern Illinois region known as Little Egypt from the 1920s through the 1940s. This novel is so closely based on historic evidence, the actual events are listed in the back of the book.

236 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 27, 2021

Reviews

[JulieAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Bernie’s most frequent municipal guest to his parties was none other than eighty-one-year-old Edward Everett Woodruff, the liberal mayor of Peoria (Illinois). The courtyard around his city hall was filthy with the homeless and their empty whiskey bottles. Prostitutes lined the streets in the red-light district. When newspaper men asked the mayor why he allowed this, he responded, “What the heck? You can make prostitution illegal, but you can’t make it unpopular.” After reading this I thought wow look at Minneapolis, MN and San Francisco, CA with liberals in power in 2025 and nothing has changed! After the lawmen chose not to accept the bribes by the gangsters, then things changed. This gang gave bribes as part of doing business. So much was so wrong with all this. And the gang members were Methodists who went to church. Very disturbing on many levels.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a review of the Shelton gang and the goings on of their lives. These guys were dangerous characters that hung around Southern and Mid Illinois.