Terror in the City of Champions

8 sound discs (approximately 9 hr., 30 min.)

English language

Published Dec. 7, 2016 by Tantor.

ISBN:: 978-1-5159-1545-4

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.

Terror in the City of Champions opens with the arrival of Mickey Chochrane, a fiery baseball star who roused the Great Depression's hardest-hist city be leading the Tigers to the 1934 pennant. A year later he guided the team to its first championship. Within seven months the Lions and Red Wings follow in football and hockey—all while Joe Louis chased boxing's heavyweight crown.

Amidst such glory, the Legion's dreadful toll grew unchecked: staged "suicides," bodies dumped along roadsides, high-profile assassination plots. Talkative Dayton …

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.

Terror in the City of Champions opens with the arrival of Mickey Chochrane, a fiery baseball star who roused the Great Depression's hardest-hist city be leading the Tigers to the 1934 pennant. A year later he guided the team to its first championship. Within seven months the Lions and Red Wings follow in football and hockey—all while Joe Louis chased boxing's heavyweight crown.

Amidst such glory, the Legion's dreadful toll grew unchecked: staged "suicides," bodies dumped along roadsides, high-profile assassination plots. Talkative Dayton Dean's involvement would deepen as heroic Mickey Cochrane's reputation would rise. But the ballplayers had his own demons, including a close friendship with Harry Bennett, Henry Ford's brutal union buster.

2 editions

Jim Fulner reviewed Terror in the City of Champions by Tom Stanton

Am ingesting take on forgotten history

3 stars

This was an interesting story. I'm surprised that I have never heard of the Black Legion prior to listening to this audio book, particularly considering how much of my adult life I have spent in metro Detroit. But the author himself indicates he similarly didn't find people who knew about it doing his research in the 'burbs.

I kept expecting there to be more of a connection between the legion and the Tigers, but there really wasn't. It really could have been two different books, one about the championship season(s) of Detroit and one on the Black Legion, but it was somewhat interesting trying to tie the two histories told concurrently, just as they would have been in real life, but how many other historical events could have been tied in too.

This was an interesting story. I'm surprised that I have never heard of the Black Legion prior to listening to this audio book, particularly considering how much of my adult life I have spent in metro Detroit. But the author himself indicates he similarly didn't find people who knew about it doing his research in the 'burbs.

I kept expecting there to be more of a connection between the legion and the Tigers, but there really wasn't. It really could have been two different books, one about the championship season(s) of Detroit and one on the Black Legion, but it was somewhat interesting trying to tie the two histories told concurrently, just as they would have been in real life, but how many other historical events could have been tied in too.

Subjects

Black Legion
Murder
Baseball
Professional sports -- History
Murder, united states
Detroit (Mich.) -- history