OPINION:
I’ve recently read and enjoyed three interesting historical true crime books. They cover Wild West bank robbers, a notorious traitor, a movie star and her gangster boyfriend.
Tom Clavin has written excellent books about Texas Rangers, Wild Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson, all of which I’ve covered here. His latest book, “The Last Outlaws: The Desperate Final Days of the Dalton Gang,” is about three of the four Dalton brothers and their gang, who began stealing horses and graduated to robbing banks and trains.
The Dalton Gang is most famous for the simultaneous 1892 robberies of two banks in broad daylight in Coffeyville, Kansas. The gang, consisting of “Grat,” Bob and Emmett Dalton, Bill Power and Dick Broadwell, was recognized by the townspeople, who armed themselves and began a shootout with the notorious outlaws as they left the banks. The epic gunfight left eight men dead, including four of the five members of the Dalton Gang.
Mr. Clavin, a fine Wild West historian, writes of the connection and rivalry between the infamous James Gang and the Dalton Gang and the relentless pursuit of the Dalton Gang by Deputy U.S. Marshal Bill Tilghman and other lawmen.
There is perhaps no villain more despicable in American history than Benedict Arnold, who betrayed Gen. George Washington and went over to the British in the Revolutionary War. As Jack Kelly notes in his outstanding book about the traitor, “God Save Benedict Arnold: The True Story of America’s Most Hated Man,” Arnold was a brilliant soldier in Washington’s Colonial Army, leading victories at Fort Ticonderoga, Quebec and Saratoga.
Mr. Kelly describes the battles well and depicts Arnold as a fearless military officer and leader. He covers the life story of Arnold (1741-1801), describing his life as the son of a merchant trader and background as a merchant, trader and commercial sea captain prior to joining the Continental Army.
One can almost sympathize with Arnold when reading about how poorly the Continental Congress treated the bold and severely wounded soldier and how others took credit for his military successes. Mr. Kelly tells us that Arnold had a special relationship with George Washington, who was impressed with Arnold as a soldier. The general and future president was deeply hurt when Arnold defected to the British.
Although Mr. Kelly does not excuse Arnold’s treason, he offers a fair account of his paradoxical character.
Actress Lana Turner, the young girl discovered at a drugstore counter who went on to become a bombshell movie starlet, is the star in Casey Sherman’s “A Murder in Hollywood: The Untold Story of Tinseltown’s Most Shocking Crime.”
The book covers Turner’s tragic upbringing, and her later rise in Hollywood. Mr. Sherman covers her difficulties with movie moguls and her many affairs with leading actors and others associated with the movie business. The book emphasizes her poor taste in men, including her long, contentious affair with Johnny Stompanato, a con artist, gigolo, blackmailer and gangster associate of Mickey Cohen, the leading mob boss in Los Angeles.
Along with Turner’s life, the book also covers the lives of Stompanato and his fellow gangster Cohen. Cohen and Stompanato first thought to blackmail Turner until Stompanato fell hard for her. The book describes the violent rise and fall of Mickey Cohen, the former boxer and strong-arm hoodlum who ruled Hollywood until he was sentenced to prison for tax evasion.
Readers of Hollywood fan magazines saw Lana Turner shine as a movie star with a happy home life with her beautiful young daughter. Still, the magazines did reveal her explosive romantic life with Stompanato. Stompanato was possessive of Turner, and he was extremely jealous and had a violent temper.
Stompanato went to England, where Lana Turner was filming “Another Time, Another Time,” and confronted the actress and her young leading man, Sean Connery. When Stompanato pulled a gun on Connery, the future James Bond knocked the gun away and punched the gangster, dropping him to the floor.
As the book recounts, Turner tried to break away from Stompanato, but he always managed to pull her back in. Stompanato was later stabbed to death by Turner’s 14-year-old daughter as the gangster was beating the actress.
• Paul Davis’ On Crime column covers true crime, crime fiction and thrillers.
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The Last Outlaws: The Desperate Final Days of the Dalton Gang
Tom Clavin
St. Martin’s Press, 288 pages, $30.00
God Save Benedict Arnold: The True Story of America’s Most Hated Man
Jack Kelly
St. Martins, 320 pages, $29.00
A Murder in Hollywood: The Untold Story of Tinseltown’s Most Shocking Crime
Casey Sherman
Sourcebooks, 304 pages, $27.99
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