News and commentary on organized crime, street crime, white collar crime, cyber crime, sex crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, espionage and terrorism.
I’ve recently read and enjoyed three interesting historical true
crime books. They cover Wild West bank robbers, a notorious traitor, a movie
star and her gangster boyfriend.
Tom Clavin has written excellent books
about Texas Rangers, Wild Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson, all of
which I’ve covered here. His latest book, “The Last Outlaws: The Desperate
Final Days of the Dalton Gang,” is about three of the four Dalton brothers and
their gang, who began stealing horses and graduated to robbing banks and
trains.
The Dalton Gang is most famous for the
simultaneous 1892 robberies of two banks in broad daylight in Coffeyville,
Kansas. The gang, consisting of “Grat,” Bob and Emmett Dalton, Bill Power and
Dick Broadwell, was recognized by the townspeople, who armed themselves and
began a shootout with the notorious outlaws as they left the banks. The epic
gunfight left eight men dead, including four of the five members of the Dalton
Gang.
Mr. Clavin, a fine Wild West historian, writes of
the connection and rivalry between the infamous James Gang and the Dalton Gang
and the relentless pursuit of the Dalton Gang by Deputy U.S. Marshal Bill
Tilghman and other lawmen.
There is perhaps no villain more
despicable in American history than Benedict Arnold, who betrayed Gen. George
Washington and went over to the British in the Revolutionary War. As Jack Kelly
notes in his outstanding book about the traitor, “God Save Benedict Arnold: The
True Story of America’s Most Hated Man,” Arnold was a brilliant soldier in
Washington’s Colonial Army, leading victories at Fort Ticonderoga, Quebec and
Saratoga.
Mr. Kelly describes the battles well and
depicts Arnold as a fearless military officer and leader. He covers the life
story of Arnold (1741-1801), describing his life as the son of a merchant
trader and background as a merchant, trader and commercial sea captain prior to
joining the Continental Army.
One can almost sympathize with Arnold
when reading about how poorly the Continental Congress treated the bold and
severely wounded soldier and how others took credit for his military successes.
Mr. Kelly tells us that Arnold had a special relationship with George
Washington, who was impressed with Arnold as a soldier. The general and future
president was deeply hurt when Arnold defected to the British.
The New York Post offers an
excerpt from a new book on the capture and death of the notorious Boston gangster Whitey
Bulger.
The leader of Boston’s Winter
Hill Gang and No. 1 on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, Whitey Bulger was indicted
for 19 counts of murder, racketeering, narcotics distribution and extortion.
But it was his 16-year flight from justice on the eve of his arrest that made
him a legend. In this exclusive excerpt from the new book “Hunting Whitey: The Inside Story of the Capture & Killing of
America’s Most Wanted Crime Boss,” authors Casey Sherman and Dave
Wedge reveal how the notorious Bulger finally got caught . . .
On the night of May 1, 2011,
people around the world heard the news about the death of Osama bin Laden at
the hands of US Special Forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Then-President Barack
Obama made the announcement, interrupting a nationally televised baseball game
between the Mets and the Phillies:
“Tonight I can report to the
American people and to the world, the United States has conducted an operation
that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who’s
responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children,”
he declared.
In Santa Monica, at Barney’s
Beanery on the Third Street Promenade, bar patrons broke into cheer; “USA,
USA,” they shouted. At the popular Santa Monica pub Britannia, one grizzled
barfly hoisted his mug in the air. “The bastard’s dead. I’ll drink to that!”
Inside apartment 303 at the
Princess Eugenia Apartments, James “Whitey” Bulger sat in his living room with
his girlfriend Catherine Greig, watching the announcement with a mixture of
pride and dread. The patriotic side of Bulger was elated to learn that members
of SEAL Team 6 had sent the terror mastermind back to his maker with a bullet
above his left eye. But bin Laden’s death also meant that Bulger, 81, was now
number one on the FBI’s list of most-wanted criminals. He knew the pressure to
find him would intensify.
Paul Davis is a writer who covers crime. He has written extensively about organized crime, cybercrime, street crime, white collar crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, the military, espionage and terrorism. His 'Crime Beat' column, which covers crime news, crime issues and crime prevention in South Philadelphia, appears weekly in the South Philly Review, and his 'On Crime' column, which covers crime in the Greater Philadelphia region, appears weekly at Philly Daily and Broad and Liberty. He is also a longtime contributor to Counterterrorism magazine and writes their online 'Threatcon' column, which covers crime, espionage and terrorism. Paul Davis' crime fiction appears in American Crime Magazine. His work has also appeared in the Washington Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia Weekly and other publications. As a writer, he has attended police academy training, gone out on patrol with police officers, accompanied detectives as they worked cases, accompanied narcotics officers on drug raids, observed criminal court proceedings, visited jails and prisons, and covered street riots, mob wars and murder investigations. He has interviewed police commissioners and chiefs, FBI, DEA, HSI and other federal special agents, prosecutors, judges, public officials, WWII UDT frogmen, Navy SEALs, Army Delta operators, Israeli commandos, military intelligence officers, Scotland Yard detectives, CIA officers, former KGB officers, film and TV actors, film writers, directors and producers, journalists, novelists and true crime authors, gamblers, outlaw bikers, and Cosa Nostra organized crime bosses. Paul Davis has been a student of crime since he was a 12-year-old aspiring writer growing up in South Philadelphia. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy when he was 17 in 1970. He served aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Kitty Hawk during the Vietnam War and he later served two years aboard the Navy harbor tugboat U.S.S. Saugus at the U.S. floating nuclear submarine base at Holy Loch, Scotland. He went on to become the civilian administrative officer of a Defense Department command in Philadelphia, where he oversaw security, safety and other programs for the command's military and civilian employees, and served as an investigating officer, while working part-time as a newspaper crime reporter and columnist. He retired in 2007 after more than 37 Navy/DOD years of service and became a full-time writer. From 1991 to 2005 he was a producer and on-air host of "Inside Government," a public affairs interview radio program that aired on Sunday mornings on WPEN AM and WMGK FM in the Philadelphia area. You can read Paul Davis' crime columns, crime fiction, book reviews and news and feature articles on this website. You can read his full bio by clicking on the above photo (by Brittany Davis-Pearson). And you can contact Paul Davis at pauldavisoncrime@aol.com.
