The Wicked City Chicago From Kenna To Capone

The Wicked Cityis an account of Chicago's vice, crime, capitalism, and corruption from Pierre the Mole, who sold whiskey to the Indians, through Jonny Torrio and Al Capone, who bootlegged a Great Lake's worth of booze during the Roaring Twenties. Chicago's drive for wealth and power in this fifty-year span are evoked through the spirited accounts of the careers of its leading tycoonssuch as Charles Yerkes, Marshall Field, George Pullman, and Big Bill Thompsonand its leading gangsters: the Terrible Gennas, Jim Colosino, Dion O'Banion, Diamond Joe Esposito, Johnny Torrio, and Al Capone. The Chicago portrayed here is raw, real, and vital; its raucousness, lawlessness, ebullience, and greed become poetic.

Curt Johnson has published five novels and over sixty short stories, including selections of the O. Henry Prize Stories and Best American Short Stories. In addition, he has edited four anthologies of fiction and published four books of nonfiction. He lives in Chicago.