The Irish O’Malley Gang represented the final installment of America’s great 1930s depression-era “Super Gangs” following in the footsteps of both the John Dillinger and “Ma” Barker/Karpis Gangs. The final version of the outlaw band was the result of the merging of two separate and unique criminal enterprises, one deriving from a rural environment, the second urban in nature. Their story involved a small cadre of hard-nosed underworld hoodlums joined by an army of thrill-starved gangster molls and criminal associates, which eventually evolved into a loosely-knit organization. It’s members drifted across the Midwest committing a national headline grabbing kidnapping and several brutal murders as well as looting a dozen banks. Law enforcement dubbed the lawless band the most highly disciplined and efficient of the day. Their bank raids were well-planned and conducted in precise clockwork fashion. Not until the final months of the group’s existence did investigators, including J. Edger Hoover’s vaunted G-Men, connect the dots and conclude a single group initially dubbed “The Midwest Bank Robbers” was behind the epidemic of bank heists. On realizing this fact, Hoover’s boys began tracking the group like the hound and the hare. But, track them they did and with deadly efficiency.

R. D. Morgan once again has captured the spirit, as well as the details, of crime and violence in depression-era Oklahoma. See more or order a copy at our online store.