King of HeistsKing of Heists
King of Heists is a spellbinding and unprecedented account of the greatest bank robbery in American history, which took place on October 27, 1878, when thieves broke into the Manhattan Savings Institution and stole nearly $3 million in cash and securities—around $50 million in today’s terms. Bringing the notorious Gilded Age to life in a thrilling narrative, J. North Conway tells the story of those who plotted and carried out this infamous robbery, how they did it, and how they were tracked down and captured.
The robbery was planned to the minutest detail by criminal mastermind George Leonidas Leslie—a society architect and ladies’ man whose double life as the nation’s most prolific bank robber led him to be dubbed the “King of the Bank Robbers.” The New York Times proclaimed the 1878 heist “the most sensational in the history of bank robberies in this country.”
An absorbing tale of greed, sex, crime, betrayal, and murder, King of Heistsblends all the richness of history with the thrills of the best fiction.
In the biggest bank robbery in American history, thieves stole about three million dollars from Manhattan Savings Institution in 1878. Here, Conway (English, U. of Massachusetts in Dartmouth and Bristol Community College) recounts the robbery within the context of the industrial and economic growth of the Gilded Age and individuals such as John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, President Grant, and "Jubilee" Jim Fisk. He describes the thieves who carried out the robbery, how they did it, and how they were tracked down and captured. He details how architect George L. Leslie planned it, how he was never caught, and his double life as a bank robber, with discussion of his robberies of Ocean National Bank in 1869 and the Northampton robbery in 1876, which led up to the crime. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Reading like a suspense novel, the riveting true account of the greatest bank robbery in American history examines how criminal mastermind George Leonidas Leslie planned and executed a heist at the Manhattan Savings Institution and stole nearly $3 million in cash and securities.
An absorbing tale of greed, sex, crime, betrayal, and murder, King of Heists blends all the richness of history with the thrills of the best fiction.
Examines how criminal mastermind George Leonidas Leslie planned and executed a bank robbery at the Manhattan Savings Institution in 1878 and stole nearly three million dollars in cash and securities.
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- Guilford, Conn. : Lyons Press, 2009/08/04
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