Public Enemies [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Brian Burrough has taken alot of time to set the record straight about several major criminal gangs in the 1930s. John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, "Baby Face Nelson" and other criminals traveled primarily through the central U.S., robbing and murdering along the way. Local police deparmtents were either powerless to stop them or were so corrupt they wouldn't do anything. Into this situation stepped the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Investigation. (It was named the Federal Bureau of Investigation -- the F.B.I.-- later.) It's agents were not the highly-trained agents we see today. J. Edgar Hoover and his agents had to learn along the way; they get the job done, but mistakes are made as the criminals are rounded up. Be prepared to see the criminals in a new light: Bonnie and Clyde, for example, are nothing like the 1960s movie. The real Bonnie & Clyde were nothing but sociopaths who murdered at the drop of a hat.

If you have liked Burrough's other efforts (Barbarians at the Gate, Vendetta, and Dragonfly) you will enjoy Public Enemies. If you haven't read any of his previous works, get this book and you will be happy to have read it!

This book, although fairly long, was hard to put down. My father, a provincial police officer from the 50's to the 70's, often talked about John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson and Machine Gun Kelly. Seeing the movie Public Enemies got me interested. It's easy to see how these criminal characters captured the public's attention in their day.

The book progresses chronologically through the years 1933 and 1934. As a result it can be a little hard to follow at times. It is a huge cast of characters which includes the above mentioned as well as Bonnie and Clyde. However, it is interesting how the lives of many of these criminals sometimes intersected. So the chronological treatment probably makes sense, at least in the historical perspective. Burrough explains in his introduction that he himself was amazed about all this criminal activity over these two years and how it led to the formation of the FBI. He theorizes that the advent of fast V8 automobiles was as important a factor as the poverty of the depression. This book is interesting from both a historical and a sociological perspective.

Some of the previous reviewers seem to take a pro law enforcement stance. In actuality, law enforcement probably was fairly weak at the time and hampered by the technology of the day. You can imagine the Dillinger/Nelson gang robbing a local bank and speeding out of town in a new V8 Ford while the local sheriff runs over to crank up his Model T. The book does appear reasonably well researched relying on both previously written books and FBI documents. He seems to have tried to cross reference details and dates. I've learned to not trust everything I read and expect that most authors will introduce some colouration into a tale.

Fascinating reading and highly recommended.

Bryan Burrough's Public Enemies is just another thinly veiled effort-fashionable these days, to diminish the FBI, but now at the expense of the reputation of one of its icons, Melvin Purvis.

Burrough apparently read Purvis's autobiography, American Agent and at times paraphrases it almost to the point of plagiarism, but then twists the scenarios to fit his purpose. Burrough even adds dialogue and emotion to some of the characters where it would be impossible for him to know what they said or thought. But it makes a nice story.

Burrough nearly gushes over the bad guys, referring to the murderous John Dillinger as the "Muhamad Ali of the Depression-era." Hardly an intelligent or realistic comparison; in a very real sense these gangsters, even given the tenor of the times, were the equivalent of today's domestic terrorists. Dillinger should be more likened to Timothy McVeigh.

When Little Bohemia-type police incidents happen today they are replayed countless times on every network and popular police video programs. News helicopters circle repeatedly overhead capturing the gun play as black uniformed SWAT teams cordon off the area, set up road blocks and move in for the final confrontation. That's the standard Burrough holds Purvis and his men to in 1934, forgetting that even the very first SWAT team was over three decades in the future-L.A. in the late sixties. Federal law enforcement and police tactics in general had a long road ahead, yet Burroughs all but ignores that America was barely out of the Old West and the Jesse James era and minimizes what Purvis and his men faced; almost nonexistent communications, poor vehicles, poorer roads, limited manpower and dreadfully thin intelligence. Yet they had to bravely and quickly respond; and they did.

Burrough's reporting even totally distorts the demise of Dillinger: Purvis was in the alley with Dillinger as he was shot three times, and true to his own strong character had instructed his men that none of the agent's involved would claim credit for getting Dillinger. Purvis did not like sensationalizing death-he wanted to see criminals in prison. Burrough also ignores the countless other bank robbers and kidnappers-a list much too long to include here, who were brought to justice as a direct result of Purvis's bravery and leadership, not the least of which was another most wanted killer, Pretty-boy Floyd. Purvis was the quintessential G-Man.