About this item
Providing the inspiration and source material for the upcoming HBO series produced by Academy Award–winning director Martin Scorsese and Emmy Award–winning screenwriter Terence Winter, this riveting and wide-reaching history explores the sordid past of Atlantic City—forever a freewheeling town long-dedicated to the fast buck—from the city's heyday as a Prohibition-era mecca of lawlessness to its rebirth as a legitimate casino resort in the modern era. A colorful cast of powerful characters, led by “Commodore” Kuehnle and “Nucky” Johnson, populates this stranger-than-fiction account of corrupt politics and the toxic power structure that grew out of guile, finesse, and extortion. Atlantic City's shadowy past—through its rise, fall, and rebirth—is given new light in this revealing, and often appalling, study of legislative abuse and organized crime.
About the Author
practiced law for thirty years and was a New Jersey Superior Court trial judge for thirteen years. In addition to his award-winning Boardwalk Empire, Johnson is also the author of award-winning The Northside: African Americans and the Creation of Atlantic City (November 2010) and Battleground New Jersey: Vanderbilt, Hague, and Their Fight for Justice (December 2014) . Johnson's courtroom experience makes him uniquely qualified to tell this story, set in the last days of the "wild west" in Los Angeles. Darrow's Nightmare: Los Angeles 1911-1913 is Johnson's fourth book.
