Author's note -- Prologue: 'Almost boys' -- Part One, Going to war (1933). The snatch racket -- 'What do you mean by ham, Mr. Purvis?' -- A hood like Robin Hood -- Long day's journey into night -- Bloodbath -- 'They got through with the papers' -- Paradise found -- 'This splendid denouement' -- Breaking free -- 'It's Miller!' -- Part Two, Getting their men (1934). Too much sun -- A victim's duty -- Crossing the rubicon -- New partners in crime -- 'Something mysterious and questionable about these parties' -- 'Goodbye Billie' -- The darkest hour -- 'All we got was the gang molls' -- 'To stop the outlawry' -- A war on many fronts -- 'The officers do not expect to take either alive' -- Cast changes -- 'Once more unto the breach' -- 'The help of a good man' -- 'We are the heroes today' -- 'I emptied my gun' -- New leadership -- Part Three, Winning the war (1935-1936). 'It is the place' -- 'What the hell is he crying for?' -- Mopping up -- Hunting Karpis -- 'We were the g-men' -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Selected bibliography -- Illustration credits -- Index

"J. Edgar Hoover was the face of the FBI. But the federal agents in the field, relentlessly chasing the most notorious gangsters of the 1930s with their own lives on the line, truly transformed the Bureau"--