Gangbuster
One Man's Battle Against Crime, Corruption, and the Klan
by Alan Prendergast
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Pub Date Mar 28 2023 | Archive Date Apr 04 2023
Kensington Books | Citadel
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Description
“Set against the backdrop of 1920s Denver, this colorful real-life legal thriller spotlights crusading district attorney Philip Sidney Van Cise. …. Rollicking yet scrupulously researched, this is an entertaining tribute to a brazen crimefighter.” Publishers Weekly
As gripping as it is prescient, Gangbuster is the first-ever history of the battle waged by one rookie District Attorney, Philip Van Cise, against the KKK, organized crime, and government corruption at the highest levels throughout the 1920s. One century later, in the face of contemporary society’s divisiveness and fearmongering politics, the personal courage of this maverick’s battle against underworld figures and a mainstream white supremacist movement is more relevant and inspiring than ever.
At the height of the roaring 1920s, the ex-frontier town of Denver, Colorado, emerged from the postwar boom as the future of the American city. But the slick façade of progress and opportunity masked a murky stew of organized crime, elaborate swindles, and widespread government corruption. One man risked everything to alter the course of history.
Rookie district attorney Philip Van Cise was already making national headlines for a new brand of law enforcement. Employing military intelligence tools he’d developed during the Great War—wiretapping, undercover operatives, communication intercepts—Van Cise crippled the criminal empire of Lou Blonger, an ex-lawman who had risen from petty scam artist to master of the Big Con. But Van Cise had even darker, more malevolent forces on his radar.
The Ku Klux Klan had emerged as a shockingly mainstream middle-class movement, employing anti-immigration scare tactics, encouraging vigilantism, and instigating culture wars, all while claiming to protect true American values. Van Cise saw the toxic ideology for what it was: a new version of the Big Con sold as populism. Utilizing his pioneering surveillance techniques, Van Cise was determined to expose the Invisible Empire from within.
Gripping and exhaustively researched, this prescient chronicle of Philip Van Cise’s spectacular career as a feared gangbuster taking on organized crime, the KKK, and corruption at the highest levels of government is a cautionary tale that mirrors our tumultuous times.
Advance Praise
“Set against the backdrop of 1920s Denver, this colorful real-life legal thriller spotlights crusading district attorney Philip Sidney Van Cise. …. Rollicking yet scrupulously researched, this is an entertaining tribute to a brazen crimefighter.” Publishers Weekly
“Gangbuster is a compelling, deeply reported narrative history that shows how the principled actions of an elected official, against the odds, can help stanch corruption and thwart racist forces infecting a great American city.”- James Neff, author of Vendetta: Bobby Kennedy Versus Jimmy Hoffa
“Alan Prendergast has captured Van Cise’s bold life and clamorous times with imagination, verve, and razor-sharp reportorial instincts—illuminating a corrupt and dangerous urban netherworld that's fascinating to read about, but one that also resembles, in all too many ways, American city life today." —Hampton Sides, bestselling author of Blood and Thunder and Ghost Soldiers
“One heroic American’s battle against the forces of darkness and hate. As important today as the day it happened. Vividly told. Essential reading.” —Michael Benson, Author, Gangsters vs Nazis
Marketing Plan
*Advance Reading Copies
*National and Regional Publicity Campaign
*National and Regional Advertising Campaign
*Author tour including in-person and virtual events with bookstores, libraries, and historical societies
Available Editions
EDITION | Other Format |
ISBN | 9780806542126 |
PRICE | $28.00 (USD) |
PAGES | 372 |
Available on NetGalley
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