Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties

"Vivid, laconic, and crisp. The bodies fall like dominoes, and every word sounds like it was shot from a gun. And as you might expect from Lesy, the photographs are extraordinary." ?Luc Sante

Things began as they usually did: Someone shot someone else. So begins a chapter of Michael Lesy's disturbingly satisfying account of Chicago in the 1920s, the epicenter of Murder in America. Just as Lesy's first book, Wisconsin Death Trip, subverted the accepted notion of the Gay Nineties, so Murder City exposes the dark side of the Jazz Age. Revisiting seventeen Chicago murder cases?including that of Belva and Beulah, two murderesses whose trials inspired the musical Chicago?Lesy's sharp, fearless storytelling makes a compelling case that this collection of criminals may be progenitors of our modern age.

Autorentext

Michael Lesy is one of America's leading photographic scholars. His books include Wisconsin Death Trip, Murder City, Angel's World, and Long Time Coming. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he teaches literary journalism at Hampshire College.

Klappentext

Michael Lesy's disturbingly satisfying account of Chicago in the 1920s—the epicenter of murder in America—could be fiction, but it's not. "Things began as they usually did: Someone shot someone else.” So begins a chapter of this sharp, fearless collection from a master storyteller. Revisiting seventeen Chicago murder cases—including that of Belva and Beulah, two murderesses whose trials inspired the musical Chicago—Michael Lesy captures an extraordinary moment in American history, bringing to life a city where newspapers scrambled to cover the latest mayhem. Just as Lesy's book Wisconsin Death Trip subverted the accepted notion of the Gay Nineties, so Murder City exposes the tragedy of the Jazz Age and the tortured individuals who may be the progenitors of our modern age.