'The shadowy Gangster Squad was formed in 1946 with eight men operating out of two rusted old Fords. They had no office and made no arrests -- the idea was to remain invisible. By the time I met Sgt. Jack O'Mara, most of the early members were dead, so I set out to find the survivors.' Based on the hugely popular Los Angeles Times column 'LA Noir: Tales from the Gangster Squad', this is the dark-hearted true story of a group of men cleaning up the mean streets of post-War America. From hundreds of interviews with the original members of the team, Paul Lieberman stitches together the story of Jack O'Mara, his dangerous colleague Jerry Wooters ('the killer cop, that's what they called me') and their anything-goes war with arch-criminal Mickey Cohen and his budding rival Jack 'The Enforcer' Whalen. A tale of stake-outs, shoot-outs and even the famous Black Dahlia murder case, this is ice-cool narrative non-fiction at its best -- and the basis for a huge Warner Brothers film of the same name, starring Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Emma Stone.
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 the Hardcover edition.
Review
“Robert Petkoff’s young, assertive tone propels these real-life stories, and he has a knack for characterizing the blunt-talking cops as well as the streetwise gangsters” – AudioFile Magazine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
About the Author
Paul Lieberman is a former Nieman Fellow at Harvard who went on to work for twenty-four years as an editor and writer for the LA Times. He spent a year covering the Los Angeles riots and its aftermath as part of the team that won a Pulitzer Prize. He now lives in Westchester County, New York.
