So I have.
As for the Century of Progress, it was held over for another year. And when they finally closed the fair down, crowds swarmed the lakefront to watch the demolition crews dismantle the City of Tomorrow. Last to go was the east tower of the Sky Ride. On Saturday. August 31, 1935, two hundred thousand people were on hand to watch the biggest crash since Wall Street. Engineers had placed seven hundred and fifty pounds of Thermit explosive in boxes wired to the north legs of the structure, and at the appointed time Rufus Dawes pushed the button and "the great tower" fell.
It made quite a racket.
/ Owe Them One
Because of the inconsistencies in "nonfiction" books about the gangster era in Chicago, and the tendency of history books to dismiss Zangara as "a demented bricklayer who failed to assassinate FDR." I went back to the newspaper files of the Tribune, The Daily News and other Chicago papers of the day. as well as the Miami Herald and News, where eyewitness accounts of such events as the shooting at Bayfront Park, and lengthy accountings of testimony at the Zangara and Nitti trials, were at variance with "history's" version of the events in question.
Nevertheless, this is a work of fiction, and a few liberties have been taken with the facts, though as few as possible- and any blame for historical inaccuracies is my own, reflecting, I hope, the limitations of my conflicting source material and the need to telescope certain minor events to make for a more smoothly flowing narrative.
Several hardworking people helped me research this book, primarily George Hagenauer, whose contributions include helping develop the family history of the Hellers; discovering the Nydick killing in the newspaper files, a related case not touched upon in any of the nonfiction books covering the Nitti shooting/Cermak assassination; and uncovering a massive scrapbook on the Century of Progress, which allowed me to "go" to the fair. George is a lifelong resident of Chicago, and he- and Mike Gold, another Chicagoan who is a Chicago history buff with an eye for detail- provided invaluable help and support. Jay Maeder, of the Miami Herald, was similarly helpful. If I have re-created any sense of Chicago in the 1930s- or, in Jay's case, Miami in the 1930s- much credit must go to them. Jim Arpy, of the Quad City Times, shared his expertise (and files) with me. Also helpful was retired police reporter
(of the Davenport Democrat and Quad City Times) Paul Conway, as were Rick McQuire and Dave Lund of WOC-TV. My friend and frequent collaborator, cartoonist Terry Beatty, also lent his support and help to this project (and the loan of another Century of Progress scrapbook/diary, kept by his grandmother when she attended the fair). And I'd like to thank Dominick Abel, my agent; Tom Dunne, my editor, and his associate. Ellen Loonam; Rick Marschall, who when he was editor at Field Enterprises encouraged me to do a story about a private eye in the '30s period; Bob Randisi, who encouraged me to do a story about a private eye. period; and Sarah Lifton, another former editor of mine, who seems to make a habit out of being in my corner.
Thanks are also due to Donald E. Westlake and Mickey Spillane, for more reasons than just the moral support they lent during the writing of this novel.
Photos selected by the author for use in this edition are courtesy the Chicago Historical Society7 (Maxwell Street, General Dawes, Water Tower, Al Capone, Hooverville, and Barney Ross); other photos are courtesy the Miami Herald, the Chicago Tribune, and UPI; the Bayfront Park, 1983, photo was taken by Marice Cohn, staff photographer with the Miami Herald. Remaining photos have been selected from the personal collections of George Hagenauer, Barry Luebbert, and the author. Efforts to track the sources of certain photos have been unsuccessful; upon notification these sources will be listed in subsequent editions.
Literally hundreds of books and magazine and newspaper articles have been consulted in researching True Detective. I am particularly indebted to the anonymous authors of the Federal Writers Project volumes on the states of Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Iowa, all of which appeared in the late '30s: also helpful were several University of Chicago sociological studies, including From the Gold Coast to the
Slum (1929) and Chicago Police Problems (1932). A few other books deserve singling out: A Corner
of Chicago (1963). Robert Hardy Andrews; Al Capone (1930). Fred D. Pasley; The Bootleggers (1961), Kenneth Allsop; Boss Cermak of Chicago (1962), Alex Gottfried; Captive City (1969), Ovid Demaris; Chicago Confidential (1950), Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer; Dining in Chicago (1931), John Drury; The Dry and Lawless Years (1960), Judge John H. Lyle; Four Against the Mob (1961), Oscar Fraley; George Raft (1974), Lewis Yablonsky; The George Raft File (1973), James Robert Paris with Steven Whitney; Headquarters (1955), Quentin Reynolds; Maxwell Street (1977), Ira Berkow; Mayors, Madams, and Madmen (1979), Norman Mark; No Man Stands Alone (1957), Barney Ross and Martin Abramson; That Man Dawes (1930), Paul R Leach; The Twenty Incredible Years (1935), William H Stuart; The Underworld of American Politics (1932), Fletcher Dobbins; The Untouchables (1957), Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley; Where's the Rest of Me? (1965), Ronald Reagan and Richard G. Hubler; and Winchell (1971): Bob Thomas.
When all the debts have been paid, or at least acknowledged, one remains: this book could not have been written without the constant help and support of my wife, partner, and toughest (and best) critic, Barbara Collins.
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