Inside the Shelton Gang tells the true story of what happens when a father’s wall of secrets begin to crumble and a family’s lost heritage of violence erupts from the front pages of history. For daughter Ruthie it’s a discovery that will forever change her life as she learns what it meant to be a Shelton in the days of Prohibition and the decades following, to be a member of a crime family that rivaled Al Capone’s for control of Illinois.
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.
This book covers the lives and times of Carl, Big Earl, and Bernie Shelton, who were Kingpins of racketeering in downstate Illinois from the 1920's through the late 1940's.
St. Louis was a city under siege during Prohibition. Seven different criminal gangs violently vied for control of the town's illegal enterprises. Although their names (the Green Ones, the Pillow Gang, the Russo Gang, Egan's Rats, the Hogan Gang, the Cuckoo Gang and the Shelton Gang) are familiar to many, their exploits have remained largely undocumented until now. Learn how an awkward gunshot wound gave the Pillow Gang its name, and read why Willie Russo's bizarre midnight interview with a reporter from the St. Louis Star involved an automatic pistol and a floating hunk of cheese. From daring bank robberies to cold-blooded betrayals, The Gangs of St. Louis chronicles a fierce yet juicy slice of the Gateway City's history that rivaled anything seen in New York or Chicago.
Charlie Birger's legacy is that of the most popular and, arguably, the most violent gangster in southern Illinois during the 1920s. A Russian immigrant who first proved his grit on the streets of St. Louis as a newsboy, Birger later excelled in boxing and breaking horses in the West. But the coming of Prohibition to the coal fields of southern Illinois provided the opportunity for Birger to become a key figure in a maelstrom of violence that would shock the country. Bolstered by years of research and interviews, Gary DeNeal tenders an insightful biography of this controversial character. Enhanced by newly discovered photographs and a new chapter, the second edition of A Knight of Another Sort brings Birger and his bloody era vividly to life.
In his second year in office, the Illinois Constitutional Convention produced the first new state charter in one hundred years. Ogilvie effected penal reform and was instrumental in upgrading the state's highway system. And in 1970 he established the machinery necessary to make Illinois a leader among states in the war on pollution.
Known as the home of the Prohibition-era Shelton Brothers Gang, the true heritage of Wayne County, Illinois, is the collective life of its ordinary citizens--their surroundings, activities, and challenges. In 1819, settlers named the county seat Fairfield because there was "no fairer field" than the broad prairie between the timberlands. Villages scattered across the 715-square-mile county attracted families, teachers, doctors, blacksmiths, ministers, and merchandisers. The railroad brought prosperity. Fairfield's opera house, college, woolen mill, stately churches, elegant homes, and packed business district made it a social hub. In the 1900s, Sexton Manufacturing added a massive factory complex, including Cambridge Court cottages for unmarried female workers. On farms, poultry production reached industry levels. By the 1920s, the county had over 100 one-room schools. The discovery of oil in 1937 relieved Depression-era woes and fueled Fairfield's civic expansion after World War II. These photographs show generations of shopkeepers, students, farmers, musicians, builders, barbers, teachers, merchants, and factory workers in the heart of the rural Midwest.
