In my first American Crime blog I wrote about Bryan Burrough’s book Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI and the upcoming Michael Mann film based on the book.

Burrough writes about Herman K. Lamm, who pioneered the casing of banks: observing bank guards, alarms and tellers. He also gave specific roles to gang members, such as the lookout, the getaway driver, the lobby man and the vault man. Lamm also devised the first “gits,” or getaway maps and plans.

Lamm was killed in a shoot-out in 1930, but two of his men taught John Dillinger his system in an Indiana prison.

Burrough states that three innovations of the age aided the bank robbers in the 1930s: the Thompson submachine gun, introduced after WWI, which outgunned the local lawmen; the new automobile models with reliable, powerful V-8 engines, which allowed the outlaws to outrun the local lawmen; and the interstate highway, which lawmen could not use beyond their local jurisdiction. Bank robbery was not yet a federal crime.

Burrough makes the point that after the crime surge of the 1920s, symbolized by Chicago gangster Al Capone, there began a public debate over the need for a federal police force. The rise of kidnappings and bank robberies fueled the debate, as did the “Kansas City Massacre,” where, in an attempt to free a criminal cohort in federal custody in front of Union Railway Station, gang members opened up on FBI agents and local lawmen.

An FBI agent was killed, along with two Kansas City detectives and an Oklahoma police chief, as well as the prisoner they were trying to rescue. The hunt for the Kansas City killers, the Dillinger manhunt, Machine Gun Kelly’s kidnapping of Charles Urschel and the Barker-Karpis gang’s kidnappings of Edward Bremer and William Hamm, are all well covered in Burrough’s book.

Burrough also recounts the many failings of Melvin Purvis, whom the press of the day loved, and he writes about FBI Inspector Samuel P. Cowley, who although not as well known as Purvis, was placed over Purvis by J. Edgar Hoover. Cowley, a desk man who failed to qualify on the pistol range, would go on to shoot it out with Baby Face Nelson, both of them later dying from the gunfire exchange.

The hunt for the public enemies of the 1930s made a star of Hoover, and although he later greatly abused his authority, I believe he should be credited for creating one of the world’s most efficient law enforcement agencies. He also helped to diminish the “Robin Hood” image of vicious, murdering criminals.

But having said that, I’m thankful that Bryan Burrough has written a fact-based book that shatters the many myths about this fascinating period of history. I hope the upcoming film will be equally as good as the book.

This is Part II of a two-part series. To read Part I, click here.

Paul Davis also writes an espionage blog for GreatHistory.com. Visit his web site.

About the Author: Paul Davis has been a student of crime and espionage 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 and served on an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War. He performed security work as a young sailor and later as a Defense Department civilian employee. As a writer he has covered crime, espionage, terrorism and the military for newspapers, magazines and Internet publications.

Related Articles Depression-Era Public Enemies vs. the FBI, Part I Due Dillinger: A Look Back at America’s Classic Bankrobber, Part I Due Dillinger: A Look Back at America’s Classic Bankrobber, Part Two Gangster Chic: Crazy Joe Gallo and the Mad Ones Philly Mob Files: Mobsters, Molls and Murder, Part III

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