The Gangs of Chicago: An Informal History of the Chicago Underworld by Herbert Asbury

A City’s Underworld From Early Vice To Prohibition

Good Condition - Light rubbing and small scuff marks on the black back cover, minor corner and edge wear, light spine creasing.

Herbert Asbury traces the growth of Chicago's criminal world from the city's early years to the Prohibition era. His informal history follows the districts, establishments and personalities that helped give the city its notorious reputation, moving through gambling, prostitution and violent crime. Figures such as Mickey Finn and H. H. Holmes appear alongside the gang leaders whose names became inseparable from Chicago, including Big Jim Colosimo, Johnny Torrio and Al Capone. Asbury brings together accounts of individual criminals with a broader portrait of the urban conditions around them. The result is a vivid survey of vice, ambition and rivalry in a city whose underworld became part of its public identity.