The Tri-State Gang in Richmond: Murder and Robbery in the Great Depression

by Selden Richardson

Overview

The 1930s was a tough decade, one made even tougher by Prohibition. During this lawless time in American history, a group of criminals called the Tri-State Gang emerged from Philadelphia and spread their operations south, through Baltimore to Richmond, wreaking bloody havoc and brutally eliminating those who knew too much about their heists. Once termed the "Dillingers of the East," Robert Mais and Walter Legenza led their men and molls on a violent journey of robberies, murders, and escapes up and down the East Coast. Join historian Selden Richardson as he recounts the story of this whirlwind of crime and how it finally reached its climax in Richmond.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781540224507
Publisher:	History Press Library Editions
Publication date:	05/29/2012
Pages:	226
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Selden Richardson is a Richmond native who writes and lectures about the city's architecture and history and is the author of Built by Blacks: African American Architecture and Neighborhoods in Richmond (The History Press, 2008). He holds master's degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Richmond and is the former archivist for Architectural Records at the Library of Virginia. Richardson lives in Richmond with his wife, Karri; their daughter, Lelia; and an obstreperous golden retriever named Wyatt.

Table of Contents

Foreword Harry Koliatz 5

Preface 7

Acknowledgments 9

Chapter 1 The Valley and the Jail 13

Chapter 2 Walter Legenza 19

Chapter 3 Robert Mais 27

Chapter 4 The Murder of Madelyne Whelton 37

Chapter 5 The Club Forest 46

Chapter 6 Heist on Broad Street 52

Chapter 7 Escape from Richmond 60

Chapter 8 Returned to Richmond 72

Chapter 9 Legenza on Trial 82

Chapter 10 Mais on Trial 92

Chapter 11 The Next Move 102

Chapter 12 Jailbreak 114

Chapter 13 The Fallout 122

Chapter 14 Crime Spree in Philly 128

Chapter 15 On the Run 137

Chapter 16 End of the Road 149

Aftermath and Epilogue 169

Notes 183

Index 207

About the Author 223

Editorial Reviews

2015-10-26
Richmond, Virginia, native and noted historian Richardson (Built by Blacks: African-American Architecture and Neighborhoods in Richmond, 2008) vibrantly captures the essence of the infamous Tri-State Gang and how his hometown briefly morphed into a mob town. In swift prose and exacting detail, Richardson revisits America's gangster days in the 1930s, focusing on a particularly elusive group of gun-toting criminals who terrorized the East Coast. Richardson also impressively sets the grim scene in 1931 Richmond, a once-prosperous area now ravaged by the Great Depression and Prohibition, circumstances that sparked criminal activity borne out of financial desperation in the region. A criminal triumvirate—Walter Legenza, a sharp-featured, sociopathic felon; his younger bootlegger sidekick, Robert Mais; and Mais' sweetheart, Marie McKeever—wreaked bloody havoc across Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia as the core of the notorious Tri-State Gang. They collaborated on a series of lucrative robberies and ushered in a wave of gangsterism from their hideout in a Goochland nightclub. Their first serious offenses were the coldblooded murders of 23-year-old Madelyne Whelton and a Federal Reserve Bank mail truck driver. Witnesses popped up amid the senseless bloodshed, which Richardson narrates with breathless precision, and Legenza and Mais were identified as main perpetrators in the gang's illicit activities. While both were embroiled in dramatic court proceedings, their club sanctuary exploded and burned to the ground; eventually, both were sentenced to the electric chair. The gangsters attempted one last fight for freedom in a prison shootout and a daring jailbreak. Months later, with expert work by police detectives, both men were eventually recaptured and executed in 1935, Legenza remorselessly "surrounding himself with a fog of aliases, half-truths, and outright lies, even with only hours to live." Richardson, who seems to have taken great pleasure in poring over the events, offers fascinating details about those personally affected by the Tri-State Gang's wave of violence. Black-and-white photographs of the nightclub, its subsequent ruin, and various other locales are generously sprinkled throughout the text, adding new shades to the history. Richmond-area readers and true-crime enthusiasts will find much to savor in this rousing, vivid report on a shocking crime spree.

Kirkus Reviews