Terror in the City of Champions: Murder, Baseball, and the Secret Society that Shocked Depression-era Detroit

by Tom Stanton

Overview

A New York Times Bestseller
Foreword Reviews' INDIEFAB Book of the Year Winner in True Crime

Now in paperback, the critically acclaimed New York Times Bestseller about a championship city haunted by a deadly wave of racist terror

Detroit, 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. Award-winning author Tom Stanton has written a stunning tale of history, crime, and sports.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493030583
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	08/01/2017
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	147,246
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Tom Stanton is the author of several nonfiction books, among them the critically acclaimed memoir The Final Season and the Quill Award finalist Ty and The Babe. A longtime journalist, he teaches at the University of Detroit Mercy. Stanton co-founded and edited the suburban Detroit Voice newspapers, winning state and national press awards, including a Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan. He and wife Beth Bagley-Stanton live in New Baltimore, Michigan.

Table of Contents

Prologue xi

Part I Something Afoot, 1933-1934

Mickey and Dayton 3

A Friend Disappears 15

Spring in Lakeland 16

Major-General Bert 22

A Future Together 30

The Bee Is Buzzing 32

Neither Threats Nor Bribes 36

It Hurt for Days 43

The Little Stone Chapel 52

The Superstitious Schoolboy and His Gal 60

Happy Rosh Hashanah, Hank 69

Oh, Those Dean Boys 77

The Attorney down the Street 87

Part II Grand Plans, 1935

A New Year 101

Mr. Hoover, Investigate 103

Harry's Caravan 113

The Radio Priest 121

The Killing of Silas Coleman 128

Worries 135

Unwanted Attention 145

Zero Hour 153

Louis vs. Baer 159

World Champions 165

Amid the Joy, Punishment 178

The Pastor Who Said No 182

Uncle Frank 189

Come to Detroit, Lindbergh 192

Part III Joy and Terror, 1936

Cape Closed 203

City of Champions 214

Rumors 222

Poole and Pidcock 230

Secrets 236

Black Legion Hysteria 244

Frenzied Nerves 255

Dayton Dean and the Negro Reporter 257

The Captain 260

Wyoming 267

The Cover-Up 270

Epilogue 277

Acknowledgments 283

Notes 285

Bibliography 309

Index 315

About the Author 329

Editorial Reviews

(starred review) A veteran journalist uses a variety of lenses to illuminate the dark story of the Black Legion, an association of murderous (white) domestic terrorists who briefly thrived in the upper Midwest. Stanton unfolds the history of the Legion gradually, always keeping it in the social, cultural, and economic context of the area where it was born and grew.... First-rate reporting and a seminar in how to employ context in investigative and historical journalism.

(Starred Review) If you're looking for a book that combines sports, crime, and history in one package, look no further.... For fans of books about baseball, Depression-era American History, and crime nonfiction, this book is a must-read.

[A] head-turning tale of the generally forgotten Black Legion terrorist group and Detroit in the 1930s.

Glittering triumphs cover up a sordid racist conspiracy in this lively vignette.... Swerving between hysterical excitement and hysterical fear, the city embodied the roiling socioeconomic and ideological currents of the 1930s.... a cauldron of racial tensions, police brutality, and strife between management and workers.

Stanton's masterly prose is thoroughly engaging from cover to cover.

"Once in a blue moon, a city bears witness to the best and the worst of times. Such was Detroit's fate more than a generation ago as the Tigers, Lions and Red Wings reached new sports heights while the Black Legion too often ruled the night. It's a great tale and Tom Stanton has done a marvelous job telling it."
--Tim Wendel, author of Summer of '68

"Today, Detroit is a shadow of its former self. This fascinating book reveals what an astonishing place it formerly was. Eight decades ago, it was a boiling cauldron of social extremism, extravagant criminality, and athletic excellence. Readers of this book have a new understanding of the city and the Thirties."
--George F. Will

"Tom Stanton's absorbingly detailed work entwines the best and the worst of Detroit during the Depression. Readers will find themselves cheering the sports heroes and rooting against the Black Legion, a fascinatingly bizarre bunch whose sudden leap into the headlines inspired a wave of national hysteria. Stanton has deftly recreated one of the most farfetched episodes of the Motor City's never-dull past."
--Richard Bak, author of Detroitland and Joe Louis: The Great Black Hope

"With the racist Black Legion spreading evil and the rambunctious Detroit Tigers bringing joy, Detroit's seemingly eternal forces of darkness and light coexist in this captivating slice of American history."
--David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story and When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi

Praise for Tom Stanton's previous books

"Stanton has an eye for the novelistic detail that captures the drama of Aaron's drive to the record." -The New York Times Book Review

"Engaging...The real story here...is of the trials this wondrous player endured on the way to his big moment." -Sports Illustrated

"Powerful...Baseball books rarely reach the heights of Stanton's...Excellent." -Chicago Tribune

"As splendid as a sunny spring day at the ballpark. ... Stanton's writing is seamless." -Publishers Weekly, starred review

"What's better than talking baseball?...Stanton's got it all here, the real stuff." -Elmore Leonard

"A beautiful gem of a book: tender, perceptive, compassionate, funny, and wise." -Lawrence S. Ritter, author of The Glory of Their Times

"Those who don't understand say baseball is only a game. Those who run and play it sometimes act as if it's only a business. By now, maybe they're right. But for a long time, something else was true. That something else is what Tom Stanton is getting at here." -Bob Costas

From the Publisher

(Starred Review) If you’re looking for a book that combines sports, crime, and history in one package, look no further…. For fans of books about baseball, Depression-era American History, and crime nonfiction, this book is a must-read.

Booklist

[A] head-turning tale of the generally forgotten Black Legion terrorist group and Detroit in the 1930s.

Us News and World Report

(Starred Review) If you’re looking for a book that combines sports, crime, and history in one package, look no further…. For fans of books about baseball, Depression-era American History, and crime nonfiction, this book is a must-read.

Booklist

04/18/2016
Glittering triumphs cover up a sordid racist conspiracy in this lively vignette of the Motor City in its heyday. Swerving between hysterical excitement and hysterical fear, the city embodied the roiling socioeconomic and ideological currents of the 1930s. Journalist Stanton (The Final Season) narrates the mid-1930s transformation of the lackluster Detroit Tigers into World Series contenders under charismatic catcher and manager Mickey Cochrane, a story replete with colorful, superstitious players and ninth-inning drama. (Simultaneous championships for the Lions, the Red Wings, and Detroit boxer Joe Louis add to the epic.) Providing counterpoint is the saga of the Black Legion, a Klan-inspired Midwestern secret society that despised African-Americans, Catholics, Jews, immigrants, leftists and union organizers. Despite comic-opera trappings—members pledged to sign their names in blood at nighttime ceremonies—the group, which included politicians, police officers, and prosecutors, was a menace; it plotted to assassinate political opponents, committed several murders, carried out bombings and arson, and conspired to gas synagogues and contaminate ethnic neighborhoods with typhoid germs. The smushed-together halves of Stanton’s book don’t really articulate well, but they combine to form a vivid portrait of Depression-stricken Detroit, a cauldron of racial tensions, police brutality, and strife between management and workers. Photos. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Today, Detroit is a shadow of its former self. This fascinating book reveals what an astonishing place it formerly was. Eight decades ago, it was a boiling cauldron of social extremism, extravagant criminality, and athletic excellence. Readers of this book have a new understanding of the city and the Thirties.

George F. Will

06/01/2016
A city rich with history, Detroit is widely known for its sports teams, including the Tigers (baseball), Red Wings (hockey), and Lions (football). For Detroit, the 1930s was a period of corruption, crime, sports, and murder. It was also the era of the notoriously racist "klan like" group called the Black Legion. Stanton (The Final Season) has written an engaging piece that highlights this darkened time. Stanton's masterly prose is thoroughly engaging from cover to cover. Chronicling baseball legends such as Mickey Cochran and Hank Greenberg, Stanton offers engrossing stories that are filled with historical gems. He contrasts the awful crimes committed by the Black Legion with accounts of the Tigers, Red Wings, and Lions, who all won championships during this decade. The author further follows Joe Louis, one of boxing's most famous stars, who made his debut in 1932. VERDICT Packed with fascinating background, this work will be enjoyed not only by fans of Detroit sports, but all sports enthusiasts.—Gus Palas, Ela Area P.L., Lake Zurich, IL

Library Journal

★ 2016-03-17
A veteran journalist uses a variety of lenses to illuminate the dark story of the Black Legion, an association of murderous (white) domestic terrorists who briefly thrived in the upper Midwest. Stanton (Journalism/Univ. of Detroit; Ty and the Babe: Baseball's Fiercest Rivals, 2007) unfolds the history of the Legion gradually, always keeping it in the social, cultural, and economic context of the area where it was born and grew: the territory around western Lake Erie. Although the author tells us about the horrors perpetrated by the Legion (whippings, intimidations, murders), he follows other stories closely: the rise of boxer Joe Louis and the phenomenal year of 1935 for Detroit's professional athletic teams—the Tigers, Lions, and Red Wings all won championships. Stanton gives the Tigers the most attention, especially their player-manager, catcher Mickey Cochrane, a ferocious competitor who eventually crumbled into a nervous breakdown. Hank Greenberg, the first Jewish baseball star, also is often front and center. And there are cameos for a couple of future U.S. presidents (football star Gerald Ford, courted by the Lions, and Ronald Reagan, a broadcaster at the time). It's evident throughout that the author assiduously researched his project; he seems to have read every newspaper and magazine account of the events and to have walked the blood-soaked ground (he ends with a visit to a relevant cemetery). Stanton is also quite clear about the corrosive political and law enforcement corruption that enabled the Black Legion to commit their atrocities without much blowback. "Numerous city figures and their followers belonged," he writes, "including a councilman, police officers, and fire officials. Their biases spread along a spiteful scale from serious…to silly." In 1936, however, a group of diligent cops began investigating and arresting, and the whole house of cards toppled very quickly—though, as Stanton points out, many murders remain unsolved and crime scenes uninvestigated. First-rate reporting and a seminar in how to employ context in investigative and historical journalism.

Kirkus Reviews