Western Reserve Historical Society enabled me to 'see' black Cleveland of the thirties: ' Somebody, Somewhere, Wants Your Photograph': A Selection from the Work of Allen E. Cole (1893–1970), Photographer of Cleveland's Black Community (1980). Several books not specifically about Cleveland were also helpful: Black Metropolis, St. Clair Drake and Horace R. Clayton (1945); Harlem: Negro Metropolis, Claude McKay (1940); There Is a River (1981), Vincent Harding; The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1964), as told to Alex Haley; and Drylongso: A Self-Portrait of Black America, John Langston Gwaltney (1980). Also, my thanks to Mary Kent Blandin, who shared with George Hagenauer her early reminiscences of the numbers game.
A much appreciated source of information on countless Cleveland subjects is the massive volume The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, compiled by David D. Van Tassel and John J. Grabowski (1987), a project of Case Western Reserve University. How I wish I had had this wonderful research tool when I was writing the previous three Eliot Ness novels.
The major research source for this book, however, was the files of various Cleveland newspapers of the day, including (especially) the black newspaper the Call and Post, which covered many key events ignored by the white Cleveland press. A number of books and magazine articles have been consulted as well.
'A Mafia Family Legacy,' a December 1985 Cleveland Magazine article by Stephen Sawicki, provided helpful background about the Mayfield Road gang, as did its companion piece, 'The Lonardo Papers' by Edward P. Whelan.
Four Against the Mob (1961), by Oscar Fraley, the co-author with Ness himself of The Untouchables (1957), despite its minor fictionalizing and constant name changes, remains a helpful basic source.
A number of excellent articles about Ness have been written by Cleveland journalists. Undoubtedly the best, and probably the single most helpful source to me, is the article by Peter Jeddick, collected in his Cleveland: Where the East Coast Meets the Midwest (1980). Also excellent is the article 'The Last American Hero,' by George E. Condon, published in Cleveland Magazine (August 1987); Condon's book Cleveland: The Best Kept Secret includes a fine chapter on Ness as well, 'Cleveland's Untouchable.' Also helpful is the unpublished article written in 1983 for the Cleveland Police Historical Society, 'Eliot Ness: A Man of a Different Era,' by Anthony J. Coyne and Nancy L. Huppert. So is an article by FBI agent George W. Arruda, 'Eliot Ness-Revisited,' published in the May 1988 Investigator. And extremely valuable is the unpublished, twenty-two-page article written by Ness on his Capone days, prepared as background material for co-author/ghost writer Fraley on The Untouchables.
Librarian Rebecca McFarland of the Rocky River Public Library, Rocky River, Ohio, was kind enough to send me a copy of the text of her well-researched and useful presentation, 'Eliot Ness: The Cleveland Years,' for which I thank her.
Other books referred to include Mexico: An Extraordinary Guide (1971), Loraine Carlson; All the Best in Mexico (1944), Sydney Clark; Yesterday's Cleveland (1976), George E. Condon; Scientific Investigation and Physical Evidence (1959), Leland V. Jones; Crime in America (1951), Estes Kefauver; Mexico (1973), Jack McDowell; The Silent Syndicate (1967), Hank Messick; Cleveland-Confused City on a Seesaw (1976), Philip W. Porter; The Mafia Encyclopedia (1987), Carl Sifakis; Promises of Power (1973), Carl B. Stokes; Organized Crime in America (1962), Gus Tyler.
I would like to thank my father, Max A. Collins, Sr., for sharing with me his reminiscences of his experiences as a white officer with a black crew in the Navy during World War II.
I would also like to thank my friend Tom Horvitz, who has on numerous occasions shared with me his expertise about his native city, for this as well as the previous Eliot Ness novels. Tom also lent me his last name for the composite character, Mo Horvitz, who has figured in all four Ness novels to date, in varying degrees.
Finally, I would like to thank my agent Dominick Abel; and, of course, my wife Barbara Collins, whose love, help, and support make the work possible.
