Rating: 
Summary: Don't Be Misled By Nitpickers
Review: Claimed to be both non-fiction and have been painstakinly researched, this book lacks documentation and is subject to excessive errors... Given the caprice and vanity that's interwoven in the publication, this makes for a painstaking read...
Rating:
Summary: Terrific new angle on the Dillinger story
Review: Ellen Poulsen has done a terrific job generating new material and a fresh angle on the Dillinger story. This is a great book, very readable. Her passion for the subject matter comes through on every page.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Call This Anything But A Great Book!
Review: Ellen Poulsen's "Don't Call Us Molls" is one of the best Dillinger books I've ever read--and I've read 'em all! A long overdue, well written, and amazingly researched study of the women of the gang. Feminist writing? Maybe it's just told from the feminine viewpoint by a woman author. Is that too hard to understand? As for the reviewer who claims Poulsen misrepresents Sheriff Lillian Holley as an unfairly treated scapegoat in the Crown Point affair, well he makes an adequate point that Lillian was in charge and the responsibility was hers but that point is pretty much nullified by the fact that Sheriff Holley and District Attorney Robert Estill (who also unjustly received much of the blame for Dillinger's escape) were among the few at Crown Point who weren't paid off. This is history at its best, folks! Read for yourself and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Call Us Molls-Women Of The John Dillinger Gang
Review: I have to say this is one of the best books on the "30's Outlaw ERA" I've read. I found more photos I haven't seen before and learned a ton of new facts. It was very refreshing to read about the women who loved these bad guys. This is a book that was way overdue. Ellen Poulsen did her homework and then some. I highly recomend this book. It is in important addition to any crime library. I know it is for mine.
Rating: 
Summary: Lefty says "The molls got gambs"
Review: If you like those old 30's gangster films with five-and-dime actors gushing lines like "Oh yeah Lefty, whaddya gonna do about it?", you'll probably enjoy "Don't Call Us Molls." The author, whose crime reporting experience in a New York city tabloid is almost legendary, has put together a book of classic scenes about the greedy, challenged and capricious flappers who wanted jewelry and attention from guys who both picked them up with second-hand emotions and threw them out like yesterday's papers. These babes all had "nothin' goin' except to prison" or the poor house; they abandoned their children, families and even the men they originally desired, ending their lives haunted by bad dreams and sorrowful memories.This stark bit of melodrama is interpreted in distinctive pulp imagery and style throughout the book. Their faces "reveal cautious trepidation," their adventures pass "in the droning of ... cars" and their nights "offer strange blackness" says the author. Marie Comforti "more closely resembled Dracula" but she sure could make this gang of tomcats drop their guns for an opportunity to jump in her lap and purr. And, after blood flows like wine at a Robespierrian birthday bash, "death was driving Viola Carroll to necrophilia" but "she settled for a photograph and a bull session." The molls lack the glamour of movie starlets, but they're perfect entertainment for a Saturday night special trip to the silver screen. While the academician and historian may find these scenes and dialogs a bit too incredible to suspend disbelief regarding what is and isn't fact, suffice it to say, this book is not only the publisher's best seller, it is also one amazing black and white movie that was never made.
Rating:
Summary: The Ladies aren't Tramps!
Review: It's been rare that the female element in the Prohibition and Outlaw era underworlds has been given more than a cursory examination. (Well, Bonnie Parker and Arizona 'Kate' Barker might have been the only exceptions, but what are two out of hundreds?) Ellen Poulson's excellent work gives the women of the Dillinger gang their long overdue place in the historical spotlight, without canonizing them as long-suffering martyrs or making excuses for them. Poulson made good use of solid research and personal interviews in order to describe the private lives of Mary Kinder, Evelyn Frechette, Pat Cherrington, Opal Long, and their contemporaries; fascinating detail and previously unknown facts make this book a must for any crime library.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Call Them Molls, Call them Relatives...
Review: There had been whispers within the family of a moll, but only a name was bandied about. The connection was unknown for decades. So, after a call from my sister-in-law as she was watching a PBS documentary about Dillinger and heard the family name of one of the Molls involved with the Dillinger Gang, I set out to find out the truth about our ancestor. Where did she belong? Who was she in reality? As I was carefully tracing through time and compiling my genealogical data and supporting documentation, I found Ms. Poulsen's pre-publication publicity for this book and was intrigued as no other publication gave more than a passing thought to the women who traveled with and loved the men of the Dillinger Gang. As a genealogist, I require as much proof of the facts as are possible to aquire. This often requires many hours and months of investigation of surrounding circumstances which are not necessarily part of the actual story. After aquiring the facts of our relative and her relation to the family, I purchased this wonderful volume. I found that it was very accurate and closely followed the facts which I had independently found, while bringing a personality and reality to the figures of these ladies. It brought the era alive and made my ancestors real to me with a brilliance and talent that I have come to admire in Ms. Poulsen. After purchasing my copy and reading it, I bought one for every member of the family--and of course my sister-in-law whose phone call on that fateful day sent me down the winding path that eventually crossed this wonderful book. Each one of the family were like me--they just could not put this book down until they had consumed the last sentence of this wonderful morsel. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading an accurate fact based book by a writer whose craft keeps one riveted and unable to put it down, taking all of those two dimensional facts and skillfully weaving them into three dimensional figures.
Rating:
Summary: If you like the inane, this is your book
Review: This book called Don't Call Us Molls is about ... molls. That about sums up this book: illogical, poorly written, and unprofessional. At the end of it all, it's not just a question of who cares, but why did I waste my time. It's not feminist scholarship; it's a rationalization for dependancy.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting history
Review: This is a very interesting book in many respects, as it focuses
on the women of the Dillinger Gang, and some associated gangs,
and the author does give us many new facts and figures. However, as everyone has pointed out who has read this book,
there are also many distortions and errors of fact, and the
errors are so numerous they really distract from the finished
product.
The author says she researched the book for 15 years, and at
times, it seems evident, but then a series of errors will show
up, and it looks like the whole thing was thrown together in
a very few weeks. So either the author was very sloppy in her
research and writing, or else some editor was asleep when attempting to do that job.
There are some fascinating and new photos in the book, and they
alone make looking this over worthwhile. For the serious student of crime in the '30s, this shouldn't be missed.
As the title suggests, the main focus here is on the various
women connected to the gang members, and we learn some little
details that tell us a lot. For example, as evidence of the
poor background of these women, the author recites that all those women had bad teeth, and they were frequently seeking
money for dental work. And since they came from broken homes,
and a very poor, uneducated background, they, as a group, had
little going on in their lives; they truly had drab lives, so
that is the main reason why the latched onto these gangsters.
Although their future looked grime, at least it was exciting,
and they were drawn to a life more exciting than they had ever
known. And they got it. As John Dillinger's last real girl
friend, "Billie," stated in her old age, "I've lived a hell of
a life."
The author's feminist leanings get her off the track when she
tries too hard to defend Lake County (Indiana) Sheriff Lillian
Holley, who ran the Lake Co.Jail when Dillinger escaped with his
"wooden gun" trick. She was blamed, and she properly accepted
the blame because she was the official in charge of the entire
operation; she wasn't railroaded or made the scapegoat by a bunch of women-hating men as the author suggests.
But it is all the factual errors, relating to geography, place
names, the names of players and characters, some of the dates,
etc., that let us down here and reduce the rating of this book.
But a definite interesting read for those serious students of
crime.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting history
Review: This is a very interesting book in many respects, as it focuses
on the women of the Dillinger Gang, and some associated gangs,
and the author does give us many new facts and figures. However, as everyone has pointed out who has read this book,
there are also many distortions and errors of fact, and the
errors are so numerous they really distract from the finished
product.
The author says she researched the book for 15 years, and at
times, it seems evident, but then a series of errors will show
up, and it looks like the whole thing was thrown together in
a very few weeks. So either the author was very sloppy in her
research and writing, or else some editor was asleep when attempting to do that job.
There are some fascinating and new photos in the book, and they
alone make looking this over worthwhile. For the serious student of crime in the '30s, this shouldn't be missed.
As the title suggests, the main focus here is on the various
women connected to the gang members, and we learn some little
details that tell us a lot. For example, as evidence of the
poor background of these women, the author recites that all those women had bad teeth, and they were frequently seeking
money for dental work. And since they came from broken homes,
and a very poor, uneducated background, they, as a group, had
little going on in their lives; they truly had drab lives, so
that is the main reason why the latched onto these gangsters.
Although their future looked grime, at least it was exciting,
and they were drawn to a life more exciting than they had ever
known. And they got it. As John Dillinger's last real girl
friend, "Billie," stated in her old age, "I've lived a hell of
a life."
The author's feminist leanings get her off the track when she
tries too hard to defend Lake County (Indiana) Sheriff Lillian
Holley, who ran the Lake Co.Jail when Dillinger escaped with his
"wooden gun" trick. She was blamed, and she properly accepted
the blame because she was the official in charge of the entire
operation; she wasn't railroaded or made the scapegoat by a bunch of women-hating men as the author suggests.
But it is all the factual errors, relating to geography, place
names, the names of players and characters, some of the dates,
etc., that let us down here and reduce the rating of this book.
But a definite interesting read for those serious students of
crime.
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