In 1933, John Dillinger, public enemy number one captures the fancy of depression America. He becomes a hero as he robs ten banks over the course of a year. Jails don't seem to hold him as he escapes from the seemingly impossible containment area that prisons are supposed to be. Since banks seem only to foreclose during that era, people worship Dillinger as a modern day Robin Hood. He becomes more heroic by the day as the flamboyant criminal turns the FBI and other law enforcement officials into the Keystone Cops, that is until that fatal day when the Lady in Red sets him up to die in a heroic shoot-out.

THE STORY OF JOHNNY D is a fabulous biography that more than just highlights the life, especially the last year, of John Dillinger. The book places his rise to fame inside a period piece that shows why Johnny D is popular and bankers and FBI agents are not. Dillinger's genuine exploits read like an Errol Flynn tale adding to the Depression Era feel. Arthur Winfield Knight, author of THE SECRET LIFE OF JESSE JAMES, makes biographies as much fun to read as the TV series makes them to watch.

Harriet Klausner