About this item
A New York Times BestsellerForeword Reviews INDIEFAB Book of the Year Winner in True CrimeDetroit, mid-1930s: In a city abuzz over its unrivaled sports success, gun-loving baseball fan Dayton Dean became ensnared in the nefarious and deadly Black Legion. The secretive, Klan-like group was executing a wicked plan of terror, murdering enemies, flogging associates, and contemplating armed rebellion. The Legion boasted tens of thousands of members across the Midwest, among them politicians and prominent citizens - even, possibly, a beloved athlete.Terror in the City of Champions opens with the arrival of Mickey Cochrane, a fiery baseball star who roused the Great Depressions hardest-hit city by leading the Tigers to the 1934 pennant. A year later he guided the team to its first championship. Within seven months the Lions and Red Wings follow in football and hockey - all while Joe Louis chased boxings heavyweight crown.Amidst such glory, the Legions dreadful toll grew unchecked: staged "suicides," bodies dumped along roadsides, high-profile assassination plots. Talkative Dayton Deans involvement would deepen as heroic Mickeys Cochranes reputation would rise. But the ballplayer had his own demons, including a close friendship with Harry Bennett, Henry Fords brutal union buster. Award-winning author Tom Stanton weaves a stunning tale of history, crime, and sports. Richly portraying 1930s America, Terror in the City of Champions features a pageant of colorful figures: iconic athletes, sanctimonious criminals, scheming industrial titans, a bigoted radio priest, a love-smitten celebrity couple, J. Edgar Hoover, and two future presidents, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. It is a rollicking true story set at the confluence of hard luck, hope, victory, and violence.
About the Author
I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit. When I was a boy, my Uncle Clem -- a Bohemian spirit with unfulfilled literary dreams -- began giving me books that he loved and hoped would inspire me to write: books by Hemingway, Steinbeck, Thomas Wolfe, and others from the American canon of the '20s, '30s, and '40s. He wanted me to be a novelist.
Instead, I became a journalist and co-founded The Voice newspapers in Michigan, before going on to teach at the University of Detroit Mercy and to write nonfiction books.
My uncle died before my first book was published. Although he hoped I would write fiction, he would have appreciated these books, particularly the ones that mentioned him. I'm now at work on several projects, including a memoir about our relationship.
If you'd like to know more, check out my website at www.tomstanton.com or friend me through Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/home.php? ref=home) . I'd enjoy hearing from you.
Thanks for checking out my Amazon page.
