Read the article on Dopey Benny Fein; so good. It had to be because it was written by Rose Keefe. Who as I said before is wonderful. It's funny how in a lot of history accounts Benny Fein is written off. But really he just became more involved with garment manufacturing and stealing. Funny how stealing doesn't get the respect from mafia historians that it should. They write Bugs Moran off for the same reason. A yegg is a yegg...
There's a great mug shot of James Clark, of the Michigan City prison break, in the story on handsome Jack Klutas. The Klutas story is good in substance, but really needs better editing. Youse no Ise caint stand lousy graimer!
Any way this journal is great because it gives the reader shorter articles about subjects that won't necessarily ever get books written about them. For the person interested in pre-WWII crime there isn't anything else like it that I've found.
8 comments:
Gee, this is an interesting looking publication.
Yeah can't wait to read it...
More coming up on James Clark in the near future (probably the Winter issue). Got a great piece by Robert Winter -- who probably knows more about Depression-era outlaws than anyone else -- on both James Clarks, the Michigan City Clark and the one in Oklahoma who worked with Bailey, Underhill and Bob Brady. Will be some surprises there. And a gem of a Prohibition story from Rose Keefe.
Fall issue is tentatively planned to be themed around Pretty Boy Floyd.
Most of the article written by Lori Hyde was stolen from someone who donated the material to the public Library in Sterling, Illinois, and she passed it off as her own research.
While I want everyone to feel free to comment on what I've written in my Blog (agree or disagree with me) Please don't use the Blog as a forum to trash someone else. Honest criticism is fine, but if you have want to be a critic please own your comments.
I for one am not going to accuse Lori Hyde or anyone else of stealing anything. Some of the material in Hyde's article I've also found myself in Iowa newspapers and I'm sure that other researchers have also discovered other things independently. The photo of Klutas's grave was taken by Illinois newspaperman Dan Churney (author of the book Capone's Cornfields) and is properly credited to him. I know that Lori, like all of us, networks with other researchers and it may or may not be that she failed to properly credit someone. If so, I'm sure it was just an oversight. She did provide sources tho which meet the documentation criteria of On the Spot. If someone else has uncovered the same information independently I don't think Mrs. Hyde can be faulted for this.
I should probably have added that I don't care for anonymous critiques either. And I hope Lori Hyde or anyone else is not dissuaded from contributing to future issues of On the Spot either by the complaints from the earlier unsigned critic. Meantime, Fall issue, a whole issue themed around Pretty Boy Floyd, is at the printer now and will be in the mail in a few days.
Very upsetting that I had been accused of stealing 'someone' elses info. Everyone received credit, libraries and so on. I tried not to leave anyone out. I paid out a great deal of money for microfilm copies from the Sterling library...they were a huge help and I gave them credit in the article. Now if someone 'donated' to this library then why isn't that person listed by them?
That is not my fault and I shouldn't be condenmed for it.
The purpose is we all want to learn.
Makes me want to go out and start a bombfire with my Harry Pierpont research before someone accuses me of stealing that also.
Post a Comment