Rating: 
Summary: "Don't shoot, G-men!"
Review: Anyone wishing to learn the unvarnished truth about the origin and expansion of the FBI need look no further than this book. It is an excellent, well-written work about the War on Crime initiated by the Federal Government in 1933-34 that turned the FBI from a bumbling group of college men into the professional establsihment it is today. The book doesn't gloss over the FBI's initial failures, and their attempts to cover up their mistakes, but it does show that the agents learned their trade "on the job", and ultimately triumphed, even if often their success came about by accident. We are given thorough histories for the initial "public enemies" of the '30s: Machine Gun Kelly, Pretty Boy Floyd, John Dillinger, etc.. My only quibble was that the book followed a strict time line and often that approach was confusing as it shifted back and forth among the criminals. However, I learned to keep the characters straight, and that helped quite a bit. Anyone interested in this subject, and this period of our nation's history, will thoroughly enjoy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Untouchables?
Review: Between mid June 1933 and the end of 1935 Americans were caught up in the war on crime. J. Edgar Hoover's FBI were trying to rid the country of criminals whose names we still recognize today.....John Dillenger, Bonnie and Clyde,Baby Face Nelson,Alvin Karpis,Ma Barker and her boys. The Lindbergh kidnaping had left a deeply shaken nation, and Hoover wanted his department to lead the way to a new crime free era. Hoover's men didn't carry guns,they investigated. That set them at adistinct disadvantage to the gangsters, they carried guns and were willing to use them. Set against the backdrop of the Depression, Byran Burrough introduces us to a group of unforgettable persons,stripping away myth. Interestingly, Hoover, himself is responsible for many of the myths that sprang up about the G men. These G men were mostly
college educated, mixed with some seasoned lawmen who shared the visionof a national bureau designed to stamp out crime. Some were more driven towards self promotion(Melvin Purvis's legend takes a beating)which was in direct competition with Hoover's need to micro manage and claim the glory.
Familiar crime figures are given faces(not the most attractive bunch)and their backgrounds are fleshed out.The emergence of the planned bank robbery,with getaway car and lookouts raised the stakes. Many of these criminals shared loose ties and often you find members of one gang involved in another's scheme. In a somewhat telling moment Bonnie Parker, when asked what she wanted the public to know about her
replied "I don't smoke cigars". As crimes are carried out, these gangs seem to get away, almost at will. The FBI are slow on the trail, hampered by local police(often corrupt)and their own infighting and unwillingness to check tips and follow up leads. As the public humiliation grows,the bureau begins to catch some lucky breaks and more seasoned lawmen come on determined to stop the lawlessness.The bureau
as we now know it began to develop in those months.Thoroughly
researched, Public Enemies not only captures the times but accurately portrays the drudgery both a life of crime and a life chasing crime. Some old stories weather the closer look....Dillinger's betrayal by the woman at the movie theater. Some are new.....Hoover insisting on "arresting" Alvin Karpis after being embarrassed in congressional hearings. A must read for anyone who grew up on "The Untouchables" and old gangster movies.
Rating:
Summary: The Real Story of '30s Gangsters-Not the Hollywood Version
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: Even More Fascinating Than the Myth
Review: Bryan Burrough does a superb job of simultaneously debunking myths while at the same time creating an even more fascinating story. In Public Enemies, the author examnies the crime wave of 1933-34, focusing on Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, the Barker-Karpis Gang, Bonnie and Clyde, Machine Gun Kelly, and Pretty Boy Floyd. He demonstrates how these criminals and their respective crime sprees built the reputation of the FBI and, in essence, created the force as was known for decades afterwards. The book is a wonderful read and the author even manages to make the seemingly endless stream of bank robberies individually interesting. The ineptness of the beginning attempts of law enforcement to come to grips with the crime wave is beautifully wrought as is all the networks of connections between the varioujs criminals. A delightful book that captures a fascinating time.
Rating: 
Summary: Burrough misses the mark
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Great Perspective of a Misrepresented time
Review: Found this book to be fascinating. Loved the use of the timeline approach. Having lived 50 miles from Little Bohemia and listening to my father talk about the gangster era, it dispeled my thought that this was a decade of violence vs. 1 year. The book shows the the development of a professional FBI and all the ups and downs attendent with this development. It also showed the criminals in a balanced light, even bad people do good deeds.
Rating:
Summary: outstanding history
Review: Here is a book that deserves careful study--and reads so much like a really well-made documentary that we don't feel like it's work at all! Written with obvious enthusiasm and a clear, crisp tone, the author's style is so well-crafted that we don't notice it--he never gets in the way of his subject. The subject is fascinating, historically significant, and presented in a manner that never "gives away" the ending, as this master of non-fiction slowly reveals the remarkable growth of the FBI during a time in U.S. history that was ruled by fear of the mobs--and glamour of renegade criminals. Perfectly conceived and written with panache.
Rating:
Summary: a pretty good remake of a great classic
Review: It was about thirty years ago that I read Toland's Dillinger Days, a delightful book. I read it again about 7 years ago and it still held my attention. Burrough's book seems to be more detailed with a lot of newly discovered facts but all the time I was reading it I felt that it was a rehash of the same things talked about in Toland's book. Unless you are a real crime buff and you've read Dillinger Days, you may want to pass on this book....otherwise, it's a great book, well written and educational about a period of American history that the MTV generation probably doesn't have a clue it ever existed.
Rating:
Summary: A difficult topic for a single book
Review: Public Enemies was an ambitious undertaking by Burrough because to satisfy the often encyclopedic-minded history buff with a book that discusses every big-name criminal in the early thirties, as well as the genesis of the FBI, is a tall order indeed.
So how did the author handle it? Perhaps in the most logical way -- chronologically. This approach is somewhat difficult for the reader. One day you are in North Texas with one set of characters. Not with just the criminals, but their cronies, victims, and others, ALL of whom have names. Then you're in Northern Indiana two days later with 5-15 others, then a week later you're in Eastern Kansas with a dozen others. You do this with seven or eight groups and then start all over again. For the first third of the book, your head might well be spinning as you try to parse out who's who, anticipating that you'll need the information later, which indeed you will.
As luck would have it, as you progress, people start getting killed off and some of that settles down.
By the time you work through the period, you WILL know who all these people were, their geneses, and their fates. And after all, that's why you read it, right?
It is also great to get a flavor for the state of law enforcement, economic conditions, and cultural aspects that allowed these notorious characters to spawn and flourish.
That said, I found the book's treatment of the birth of the FBI, and of Hoover, quite uninteresting. But that is not why most of us picked up this book. We want Public Enemies, and this book delivers on that part of the promise.
Rating:
Summary: Triumph of research and story telling
Review: Reading "Public Enemies" is to be transported to the United States of the 1930's. The country seemed peopled with colorful, if ultimately dangerous, criminals like John Dillinger, Bonnie & Clyde and Pretty Boy Floyd and their more anonymous counterparts in law enforcement.
Author Bryan Burroughs re-creates the times, the language, the attitudes, the mores as he tells the story of the rise and fall of celebrity criminals. This is one of those works of non-fiction that is awe inspiring for the breadth and depth of its research alone. That the author is a good storyteller adds to the books magic.
One of the more striking realizations from reading "Public Enemies" was how much the movies of the time and immediately after actually captured the talk and manner and actions of these famous criminals and the fates that awaited them.
Also noteworthy is the transformation of the FBI and others in law enforcement from a bumbling bunch of Keystone Cops to an efficient crime fighting force. The first half of the book is replete with bungled arrests, leads not followed and daring escapes under the very noses of the law.
Some may feel that Burroughs goes into excessive detail in following the daily paths of the criminals. But this reader was fascinated and enjoyed the ride. Prior to "Public Enemies" I knew little about the charismatic Dillinger and didn't know my Pretty Boy Floyd, from my Baby Face Nelson from my Machine Gun Kelly. Now I'm well acquainted with these characters and those who pursued them.
If one can temporarily ignore the cost in lives and resources inflicted by these criminals their stories is as the best of fiction, with daring deeds, colorful characters, shootouts and ultimate justice.
Burroughs places the people and events in context of the times and reveals how the successful killing and capture of these very public enemies led to the rise of the FBI and its director J. Edgar Hoover. This is not a particularly flattering portrait of Hoover (frankly, I don't think he deserves one). Seen in a far better light are the anonymous agents and police who put in considerable time and their lives on the line in pursuit of the public enemies.
This is an awesome book with an appeal to those already well versed in the times and events and those seeking an introduction to them.
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