During the Great Depression, writers of True Crime could take the decade off: life was imitating art so dramatically they had nothing to add. In these pages historian Robert Underhill presents the most notorious criminals of 1930-1934: Wilbur Underhill, Alvin Karpis, the Barker Clan, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, the Barrows (Buck, Blanche, Clyde, and Bonnie), and John Dillinger along with supporting material on their henchmen and the rise of the FBI. Often armed better than the police, criminals of the 1930s committed deeds ranging from stealing chickens to kidnappings, bank robberies, and killing innocent victims. Yet such crimes were often taken in stride by avid readers. Cooperation among local, state and federal lawmen was rare as each sought to protect his own turf. Criminals and lawmen made mistakes battling one another, but in most cases the law triumphed and the wanted fugitive died under a hail of bullets. His death would start myths and raise his reputation to national status. The author of 'Against the Grain: Six Men Who Shaped America' and 'The Rise and Fall of Franklin D. Roosevelt' shows us another aspect of the Roosevelt era and portrays a series of figures who contributed to pop culture as well helping to shape the security forces in America. Robbing the banks and driving fast cars, they did what many Americans dreamed of, and gave a depressed populace some excitement to distract from everyday worries. With the Great Depression, some citizens came to regard bank robbers as modern Robin Hoods seeking to avenge depositors whose life earnings had been wiped out by a bank's failure or malfeasance by its owners. No small wonder that criminals were given colorful sobriquets and fact and fiction became intertwined. Underhill shows how such heists, and kidnappings especially, helped create the modern FBI, overcoming the complaints of those who alleged that a federal force was the first step toward an American Gestapo. The belief that federal government had nothing to do with fighting crime was rooted in the U.S. Constitution and its provisions for states' rights. Local police were expected to provide security and to apprehend criminals without Washington getting involved. In the big cities, Prohibition era mobsters still ruled, but in the Midwest especially, smaller bands, "gangsters," began to make headlines. They tended to be blue-collar criminals whose favorite targets were filling stations, grocery stores, and small town banks. Prior to 1930, corruption was rife and cooperation among local, state, and federal police was little to none; criminals often got away. Only in 1935 was the FBI formally anointed and its agents were permitted to carry guns. Now, there was a federal agency that could supply sheriffs all over the country with information on suspected criminals. By 1935, the hardest times of the Depression were beginning to ease and the thrill of watching these cops-and-robber stories play out was combined with a renewed interest in the lives of the rich and famous, previously scorned for their role in ripping off the average man. All in all, the early 1930s were a uniquely dramatic time for crime and crimestoppers in America.

The first book-length account of a story too long overlooked Claro Solis wanted to win a gold star for his mother. He succeeded—as did seven other sons of “Little Mexico.” Second Street in Silvis, Illinois, was a poor neighborhood during the Great Depression that had become home to Mexicans fleeing revolution in their homeland. In 1971 it was officially renamed “Hero Street” to commemorate its claim to the highest per-capita casualty rate from any neighborhood during World War II. Marc Wilson now tells the story of this community and the young men it sent to fight for their adopted country. Hero Street, U.S.A. is the first book to recount a saga too long overlooked in histories and television documentaries. Interweaving family memories, soldiers’ letters, historical photographs, interviews with relatives, and firsthand combat accounts, Wilson tells the compelling stories of nearly eighty men from three dozen Second Street homes who volunteered to fight for their country in World War II and Korea—and of the eight, including Claro Solis, who never came back. As debate swirls around the place of Mexican immigrants in contemporary American society, this book shows the price of citizenship willingly paid by the sons of earlier refugees. With Hero Street, U.S.A., Marc Wilson not only makes an important contribution to military and social history but also acknowledges the efforts of the heroes of Second Street to realize the American dream.

You'll laugh and you'll cry as you meet everyday people whose courageous actions are anything but ordinary! Enjoy fifty inspiring stories, including:The Tale of a Mother's Love, The Amazing Unsinkable Man, The Power of Lemonade, Go Climb a Tree, Beware the Evil Batman, A Good Heart, plus dozens more!

Tired of the same old tourist traps? Whether you’re a visitor or a local looking for something different, Oklahoma Off the Beaten Path shows you the Sooner State you never knew existed. Catch a reenactment of a historic Wild West show at Pawnee Bill Buffalo Ranch, stroll through the collection of bonsai trees and Japanese-style cascading pools at Lendonwood Gardens, or admire the rose-colored fossilized crystals at the Timberlake Rose Rock Museum. So, if you’ve “been there, done that” one too many times, get off the main road and venture Off the Beaten Path.

Help Kids Discover Their Own Inner Hero We often teach children that heroes are famous because of something they did, but it's just as important to teach them that heroes are remembered for who they are. In Be Your Own Hero, Lisa King reveals what it takes to be a real-life hero. And it has a whole lot more to do with character and kindness than anything else! Being a hero takes having the courage to believe in yourself, overcome obstacles, and make the world a better - and brighter - place for everyone around you. And the good news is, we all can do that! It's Hero Week at school, and Quinn Wilson can hardly contain her excitement! Each day, her class will meet a real-life hero, and on Friday they get to dress up as their favorite hero from the past or present. Every other kid in the class knows who they want to be, except for Quinn! There are so many heroes she looks up to! How can she choose just one? But when Quinn's teacher, Mr. Finley, teaches the class some important truths about heroes, Quinn discovers something unexpected. In her search to find a hero in someone else, she actually finds the hero in herself!

This book leads you down the not-so-hallowed halls of law enforcement of four decades ago. It gives you an extra set of eyes and ears in the roll call lineups, in the patrol cars and detective cruisers, on the radio calls, in the streets and in the interview rooms, in the chases, arrests, gunfights, fist fights, hostage situations, and investigationsnot on a movie set but the real thing. You experience the sights, the sounds, the smells of a cops days and nights. You hear their words and those of the victims, witnesses and suspects when theyre not reading from a screenwriters script or posturing for the cameras of a reality show. It is populated not with fictional creations but real characters, by every definition of those words. The events, emotions and language are all served rawno dressing, no garnish. The rookies enthusiasm and optimism, the experienced veterans cynicism, the boredom of routine, the thrill of the pursuit, the satisfaction of a job well done, the frustration when events go bad, the anger, the hilarity, the dark and irreverent sense of humor, all pathways to the Ph. D. in Human Nature every street cop receives in a big city.

Oklahoma City was called “A City Born Grown” after it went from a population of a handful at Oklahoma Depot to over 10,000 on its first day. Nobody seems to mention how the streets were laid crooked and took 80 years to fix by tearing up half of downtown and that two rival city governments aimed guns at one another until the Supreme Court sorted out who was in charge. And that was only its first six months! Secret Oklahoma City: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure shares the places and stories that you won’t hear in History class, though you probably should! Learn about the Chinese Tunnels that housed hundreds of immigrant workers underground. Visit the Overholser Mansion and see if the lady of the house is still in, sixty years after her death! Gain new respect for animal heroes at the American Pigeon Museum. Find out what a giant milk bottle is doing on top of an old grocery store off 23rd. Speaking of groceries, did you know the grocery cart was invented on the south side of town? Or that the parking meter got its start in downtown Oklahoma City? Oklahoma farm kid-turned-professor Jeff Provine has spent more than a decade learning the lesserknown tales of OKC. Come with him on a tour of the unexpected side of Oklahoma City.

Cataloging some of the most notorious criminal events of the last 30 years, Coulson, the creator of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team, provides firsthand accounts and reflective personal opinions of his experiences in bringing hundreds of murderous extremists and killers to justice--from the Black Liberation Army to the sieges at Ruby Ridge and Waco.

“A coming-of-age story of friendships young, old, and canine.” —Kirkus Reviews “[A] good-natured tale of two unlikely friends determined to save a life.” —Publishers Weekly Shiloh meets Raymie Nightingale in this funny and heartwarming debut novel about a ten-year-old that finds himself in a whole mess of trouble when his new friend Maisie recruits him to save the dog next door. Hank Hudson is in a bit of trouble. After an incident involving the boy’s bathroom and a terribly sad book his teacher is forcing them to read, Hank is left with a week’s suspension and a slightly charred hardcover—and, it turns out, the attention of new girl Maisie Huang. Maisie has been on the lookout for a kid with the meatballs to help her with a very important mission: Saving her neighbor’s dog, Booler. Booler has seizures, and his owner, Mr. Jorgensen, keeps him tied to a tree all day and night because of them. It’s enough to make Hank even sadder than that book does—he has autism, and he knows what it’s like to be treated poorly because of something that makes you different. But different is not less. And Hank is willing to get into even more trouble to prove it. Soon he and Maisie are lying, brown-nosing, baking, and cow milking all in the name of saving Booler—but not everything is as it seems. Booler might not be the only one who needs saving. And being a hero can look a lot like being a friend.