GHOSTS AND GANGSTERS OF ILLINOIS
BLOOD, BULLETS & BOOZE
GANGS & GHOSTS OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
BY TROY TAYLOR (2023)
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When we think of the Roaring 20’s – that decade of gangsters, jazz, Prohibition, and flappers – most of us think of Chicago, Al Capone, and the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. The Windy City has become famous for its one-way-rides and violent shootouts, but author Troy Taylor presents another part of Prohibition-era Illinois that not only outgunned and outdrank Chicago but has just as many ghost stories left lingering behind from those turbulent days.
Southern Illinois – or “Little Egypt” as some call it – not only had just as many gangsters and just as much booze and bloodshed, but it also had aerial bombings, homemade military tanks, dirty cops, unsolved murders, attacks on hospitals, and gun battles with the Ku Klux Klan!
Take a trip back in time to the days of the explosive Southern Illinois gang wars, when Charlie Birger, the Shelton Brothers, the Ku Klux Klan, and a bunch of wild card gunmen wreaked havoc, created mayhem, and carried out countless murders as they fought for control of the liquor trade. And it was all happening at the same time Al Capone was the biggest mob boss in that city by Lake Michigan.
Maybe the gangs of Southern Illinois didn’t wear fancy suits or drink their bootleg liquor in fancy glasses on Lake Shore Drive, but they were just as deadly as their counterparts – maybe even more so!
Delve into the gangsters and ghosts of the Roaring 20’s in a way you never have before with this page-turner of a book!
408 PAGES WITH OVER 100 PHOTOS - $20
BLOOD, GUNS & VALENTINES
AL CAPONE & THE GHOSTS OF GANGLAND CHICAGO
BY TROY TAYLOR (2023 EDITION)
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The Roaring 20’s -- that decade of gangsters, jazz, Prohibition, and flappers – left a bloody mark on Chicago history with speakeasies, violent shootouts, corrupt cops, and a myriad of ghosts those violent days left behind. But there was one man who personified the era more than any other – Al Capone. He rose to the highest levels of the Chicago underworld when he was only 25 years old, becoming one of the wealthiest men in the world with scores of speakeasies, brothels, gambling joints, and hundreds of gunmen under his control. But despite his power, Capone was a man who lived in fear, haunted by the vengeful spirit of a victim of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929.
Travel back in time to the years of Prohibition with Troy Taylor and discover the story of Chicago gangland and the era when the streets ran red with blood! Unravel the haunting of Al Capone and other Windy City ghosts to the sounds of bootleg liquor bottles, jazz music, and rattling tommy guns – then enter the world of Big Jim Colosimo, John Torrio, the “Terrible Gennas,” Dean O’Banion, and more! Come along for the rise and fall of Capone, the Beer Wars, crime and corruption, deadly shootings, “One-Way Rides,” assassinations and suicides, and other terrifying events that left lingering spirits on the streets of Chicago.
You may think you know the stories of Prohibition Chicago – but you ain’t seen nothing yet!
494 PAGES WITH OVER 100 PHOTOS - $20