Alvin Karpis

Ennemi public n°1

Public Enemy Number One

The Alvin Karpis Story

August 13, 2020

Narrative

344 pages

140 × 200 mm

8,90 €

978-2-3588-7659-9

Translation from American English by Janine Hérisson

“La manufacture des légendes” collection

United States, 1930s. As a child, Alvin Karpis was already dreaming of adventure, freedom and easy money: the great American dream, the outlaw version! As soon as he knows how to hold a gun, he robs, kidnaps... He is loyal in friendship, nomadic by necessity. Obsessed with the feds, he plays cat and mouse with the FBI and becomes “Public Enemy No. 1”, the first in history to bear this title and the only one who won’t die. This book is the story of this criminal life as romantic as the best detective story.

The author

Born in 1907 in Canada, Alvin Karpis became in the 1930s in the United States the infamous leader of the Barker-Karpis Gang, one of the most formidable gangster associations of the time. He remained in power until 1936, when he was arrested and became the longest-serving state prisoner at Alcatraz. Released in 1969, he wrote his autobiography before going into exile in Spain, where he died in 1979 in troubled circumstances.

Press

“With Alvin Karpis, a certain form of criminality will disappear forever. Technology, the modern methods of the police force have overcome it. This young and innocent America, full of opportunities, full of violence, has fundamentally changed, marking the end of the romantic era of outlaws.”

BBC.

Strong points

A true crime book along the lines of American desperado or Tokyo Vice.

An addictive tale of Al Capone, Bonnie & Clyde, Baby Face Nelson...

A completely revised translation of this book published in 1972 in the Série Noire and long since out of print.