Gangster Squad: Covert Cops, the Mob, and the Battle for Los Angeles
From its title, you might think this is a quickie tie-in to the forthcoming Josh Brolin and Sean Penn movie. But, in fact, it’s a detailed, exciting account of the LAPD’s special “gangster squad” from its formation in the mid-1940s to the late ’50s, including the trial of legendary mobster Mickey Cohen. Lieberman, a longtime newspaperman, has a real flair for his material, telling the story like he was writing a big-shouldered, fedora-wearing crime novel (“Gus Wunderlich looked like a dolt with his snaggletooth grin and one of the squarest noggins ever seen on a human being”). He’s writing about a very different time, too, one in which the difference between good guys and bad guys was so blurred as to be, in some cases, entirely theoretical, a time when cops could be every bit as tough, mean, and violent as their foes. Full of action and drama, with fully realized, real-life crime fighters and villains, the book is a sure-fire hit for fans of Untouchables-style true crime, as well as for James Ellroy devotees. --David Pitt--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.