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  • The Dillinger Days

  • Written by: John Toland
  • Narrated by: Grover Gardner
  • Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (16 ratings)

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The Dillinger Days

Written by: John Toland
Narrated by: Grover Gardner
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Publisher's Summary

For 13 violent months in the 1930s, John Dillinger and his gang swept through the Midwest. The criminals of the Depression robbed almost at will, as the Indiana State Police had only 41 members, including clerks and typists. Dillinger's daring escapes at Crown Point jail or through the withering machine gun fire of FBI agents at Little Bohemia Lodge, along with his countless bank robberies, excited the imagination of a despondent country. He eluded the lawmen of a half-dozen states and the growing power of the FBI, earning him the dubious honor of Public Enemy Number One and captivating Americans to the present day. His brief but significant career is vividly chronicled here in extraordinary detail, as is the entire outlaw era of Baby Face Nelson, Bonnie and Clyde, Ma Barker, and Machine Gun Kelly. John Toland conducted hundreds of interviews; his research took him through 34states, into the cells where Dillinger was confined, and into every bank he robbed.

The Dillinger Days is the inside account of a desperate and determined war between the law and the lawless, a struggle that did not end until a unique set of circumstances led to Dillinger's bloody death outside a Chicago movie house.

©2017 John Toland (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
True Crime United States
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Profile Image for Langer MD

Information-packed. Poorly Oriented

This book isn't quite sure what it wants to present. Historian John Toland exhaustively researches this book - filling it with eyewitness testimony, police interviews, and courtroom transcripts - but there are far too many examples of crimes and criminals from 1930s America. Consequently it feels like he's trying to paint his picture of chaotic lawlessness by presenting scrupulously accurate biographies.. while providing *single* criminal events to inform them (he discusses such figures as Ma Barker, Bonnie & Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Machine Gun Kelly with remarkable precision but questionable accuracy). This book consequently comes across as a superficial survey dressed up as an in-depth exposé.
Fortunately, John Dillinger serves as an exemplar for Toland's theme of anarchy during the crime wave of the Depression.. so Toland concentrates his considerable talents on the enigmatic "gentleman-gangster". The author punctiliously documents his subject's childhood/crimes/stints in prison/co-conspirators, the text is liberally-sprinkled with excerpts from letters written by Dillinger himself, and the author's insights are perceptive. There are so many names and locations that it's occasionally hard to follow, but most of 'The Dillinger Days' is, in fact, captivating.

The narration from Grover Gardner is reasonably good but unspectacular. His rate of reading is positively glacial (I found playback at 1.25X was the most comfortable speed), but Gardner's diction, timbre, cadence, and tone are creditable. The performance neither adds nor detracts from the quality of the production.

Each of the criminals/criminal gangs referenced in this book are worthy of extensive biographies on their own - and there are, indeed, excellent books available on each of them. An aggressive editor likely could have convinced Toland to limit this project to the life & crimes of John Dillinger - and it would have improved the book markedly.

As it stands, I rate it 7 stars out of 10.
As a free offering, it is well worth a download, but I wouldn't spend money on this somewhat scatterbrained effort if they asked for it.

[ATTN PRODUCERS: The sheer number of names and dates in this book are overwhelming. An accompanying PDF would improve this product considerably]

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