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Books
For a cheap, fun read try the children's paperback "Al Capone and his Gang" by Alan MacDonald and Philip Reeve - one of the "Dead Horrible" series.
Films
Obviously there are lots of gangster films, and everyone's got their favourites, but for the look of costumes and a variety of settings (not just Chicago) first have a look at these: "Matewan", "The Untouchables", "Road to Perdition" and "Last Man Standing".
Links
For most of my obscure wargaming obsessions the web isn't much use, but for crime in the USA in the 1920s and '30s it's really good. Here are the best sites I've found so far:
- http://members.fortunecity.com/moran9/id59.htm
- - great site about Al Capone with lots of pictures and brief biographies of his associates and enemies.
- http://www.bugsmoran.net/
- - all about Bugs Moran
- http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/gang/purple/1.html
- - big site with lots of information about crime bosses and organisations. This link will take you to the story of Detroit's "Purple Gang".
- http://www.gangrule.com/
- - great site with lots of mugshots. Particularly good on the period immediately before Prohibition (the era of the "Moustache Petes").
- http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvcoal/wars.html
- - a history of the violent West Virginia coal mine wars of the early 1920s, including the almost unbelievable Battle of Blair Mountain. This is the period of the gunfight at Matewan.
- http://texashideout.tripod.com/bc.htm
- - a wonderful Bonnie and Clyde site with more photos of the pair than you ever thought existed, including some nice colorised ones.
- http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historic_us_cities.html
- - lots of period maps of US towns, from Aberdeen, Washington, in 1917 to Youngtown, Ohio, in 1920.
- http://www.walkervilletimes.com/prohibition.html
- - the Prohibition period along the USA/Canada border.
- http://www.blackmask.com
- - downloadable books including hundreds of pulp novels - and some Dashiell Hammett.
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