Stephs Cheers and Jeers was provided the samples mentioned in this post in return for an unbiased review.
The Gangsters & Grifters Book by Agate Publishing is the perfect gift for the true crime fan in your life. This book is full of photographs from The Chicago Tribune’s vast archives and features infamous criminals, small-time bandits, hoodlums, crime scenes and more. Most of these pictures were taken in the early 1900s to the 1950s and are previously unseen by the public as most have never been published before. Most of the pictures also feature captions that detail the story behind the picture as well as news headlines.
The book features well-known name such as John Dillinger and Al Capone and gives you an up-close look at Chicago’s criminal underworld and even features a few great photos from the Prohibition Era.
I was super fascinated by this book, the pictures are very powerful and the backstories and headlines associated with the pictures were even more powerful. There is so much raw emotion in this book as it features pictures of family members in courtrooms at hearings and people identifying deceased loved ones. While the book isn’t overly graphic it might be upsetting to some but it will be an instant hit with any true crime fan, photographer or history buff. This book is very well put together and I struggled to put it down.
You can purchase this book for $29.95.
Agate Publishing also has some other great books to choose from including Holiday Cookies, 10 Things You Might Not Know About Nearly Everything, A Century of Progress, and Capone.