(1948), a memoir by Elmer L. Irey with William J. Slocum; Secret File (1969) by Hank Messick, a thorough study of the IRS Intelligence Division with Messick’s usual unsubstantiated, gratuitous smearing of Eliot Ness; Treasury Agent—The Inside Story (1958) by Andrew Tully, which explores the Capone, Lindbergh and Waxey Gordon cases; and Where My Shadow Falls (1949), a memoir by FBI man Leon Turrou, who calls into doubt the reliability of Jafsie Condon as an eyewitness.
The portrayal of Edgar Cayce is based on material in Edgar Cayce—Mystery Man of Miracles (1956) by Joseph Millard; also consulted were My Life with Edgar Cayce (1970), David E. Kahn as told to Will Oursler, The Psychic Detectives (1984), Colin Wilson, and A Prophet in His Own Country—The Story of the Young Edgar Cayce (1974), Jess Steam. Cayce’s involvement in the Lindbergh case is drawn from the aforementioned Theon Wright book and The Outer Limits of Edgar Cayce’s Power (1971), by Edgar Evans Cayce and Hugh Lynn Cayce, as well as photocopies of transcripts of his actual psychic “readings” and related correspondence. (Although I report only one, Cayce did several readings on the Lindbergh case.)
The story of the fictional character Harlan Jensen’s search for his identity is patterned upon that of Harold Olson, as reported in Wright and Scaduto, including Mr. Olson’s latter-day tracing of the route Edgar Cayce described.
Hundreds of newspaper articles (from the Tribune, Daily News, Herald-American and other Chicago papers, as well as the New York Times and the Virginia Pilot and the Ledger Star) served as source material for Stolen Away. A number of “true detective” magazines of the day proved helpful, including Daring Detective, Startling Detective Adventures and True Detective Mysteries. Among magazine articles that proved useful were “Did They Really Solve the Lindbergh Case?” by Craig Thompson, Saturday Evening Post, March 8, 1952; “The Baby Is Found…Dead!” by Allan Keller, American History Illustrated, May 1975; “The Story of the Century” by David Davidson, American Heritage, February 1976; and “Did the Evidence Fit the Crime?” by Tom Zito, Life, March 1982.
I am also indebted to the anonymous authors of the Federal Writers Project guides on the states of Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Michigan and Virginia, as well as the massive volume on Washington, D.C.; all of these appeared in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
A number of books dealing with organized crime were helpful: The Don (1977), William Brashler; Captive City (1969), Ovid Demaris; Capone: The Life and World of Al Capone (1971), John Kobler; Roemer: Man Against the Mob (1989), William F. Roemer, Jr.; The Mobs and the Mafia (1972), Hank Messick and Burt Goldblatt; The Legacy of Al Capone (1975), George Murray; Barbarians in Our Midst (1952), Virgil W. Peterson; Encyclopedia of American Crime (1982), Carl Sifakis; The Mafia Encyclopedia (1987), Carl Sifakis; Syndicate City (1954), Alson J. Smith; and Murder, Inc. (1951), Burton B. Turkus and Sid Feder.
A few other hooks deserve singling out: Ransom Kidnapping in America, 1874–1974 (1978), Ernest Kahlar Alix; Facts, Frauds, and Phantasms (1972), Georgess McHargue; Twelve Against Crime (1950), Edward D. Radin; Courtroom (1950), Quentin Reynolds; and The Snatch Racket (1932), Edward Dean Sullivan.
And fedora tips to: Abdullah Balbed and the information staff of the Indonesian Embassy; Bosler Free Library, the Boyd F. Spahr Library, Dickinson College (especially Sue Norman and Steve Rehrer) and the Cumberland County Historical Society; all of Carlisle, Pennsylvania; Barbara Gill of the Historical Society of Berks County, Reading, Pennsylvania; the New Jersey Journal, Elizabeth, New Jersey; Elizabeth, New Jersey, Public Library; the Union County Historical Society, Elizabeth, New Jersey; the Reading, Pennsylvania, Public Library; and the Ezra Lehman Memorial Library, Shippensburg University, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania.
When all the debts have been paid, or at least acknowledged, one remains: this book could not have been written without the love, help and support of my wife, Barbara Collins. And without trying at all, my son Nathan— who was six years old when this book was written—provided poignant inspiration.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo Credit: Bamford Studio
Max Allan Collins has earned fifteen Private Eye Writers of America “Shamus” nominations, winning for his Nathan Heller novels, True Detective and Stolen Away, and receiving the PWA life achievement award, the Eye. His graphic novel, Road to Perdition, which is the basis of the Academy Award-winning film starring Tom Hanks, was followed by two novels, Road to Purgatory and Road to Paradise. His suspense series include Quarry, Nolan, Mallory, and Eliot Ness, and his numerous comics credits include the syndicated Dick Tracy and his own Ms. Tree. He has written and directed four feature films and two documentaries. His other produced screenplays include “The Expert,” an HBO World Premiere. His coffee-table book The History of Mystery received nominations for every major mystery award and Men’s Adventure Magazines won the Anthony Award. Collins lives in Muscatine, Iowa, with his wife, writer Barbara Collins. They have collaborated on seven novels and numerous short stories, and are currently writing the “Trash ‘n’ Treasures” mysteries.
