• Blogs
• Bookmark/Share
• Contact Us

Press Release: June 17, 2010

National Archives at Kansas City

Award-winning journalist Jonathan Eig to discuss Get Capone: The Secret Plot that Captured America’s Most Wanted Gangster

Kansas City, (MO)…The National Archives at Kansas City will host award-winning author Jonathan Eig on Thursday, July 15, at 6:30 p.m. for a discussion on his new book Get Capone: The Secret Plot that Captured America’s Most Wanted Gangster. Eig will be available to sign copies of his book after the discussion. A 6:00 p.m. reception will precede the event. In addition, attendees are encouraged to view the exhibition Mugged!: Facing Life at Leavenworth prior to the discussion.

Alphonse Capone moved to Chicago in 1920 without the notion that he would one day become America’s Public Enemy No.1. Get Capone: The Secret Plot that Captured America’s Most Wanted Gangster dives deep into the world of the notorious crime boss. Get Capone not only details the fall of Capone, but his rise to control and how he maintained it. Eig traces Capone’s career from his beginnings as a small time Brooklyn hoodlum to his virtual control of the underworld in 1920s Chicago before he was thirty years old. Capone made a fortune bootlegging during Prohibition, eventually extending his reach to racketeering, gambling, and other mob-controlled activities. Ruthless in exercising his power, he evaded criminal charges for his actions, in large part because of the fundamental corruption of Chicago’s law enforcement. Capone would become a national celebrity, igniting the ire of President Hoover. Get Capone presents information that was found in newly discovered personal and government documents including new theories such as - did Capone really have anything to do with St. Valentine’s Day Massacre? Filled with astonishing new information that will change the familiar story, Get Capone offers a fascinating, riveting account of an iconic American figure.

Jonathan Eig is a former writer and editor for the Chicago bureau of The Wall Street Journal and the former executive editor of the Chicago magazine. Eig is the author of two highly acclaimed New York Times best sellers, Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig, and Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Season. Luckiest Man won the Casey Award for the best baseball book of 2005, and Opening Day was selected as one of the best books of 2007 by the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Sports Illustrated. He has appeared on The Daily Show with John Stewart, NBC’s Today Show, CNN, NPR, and frequently lectures across the United States. He currently lives in Chicago, half a mile from the site of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, with his wife and children.

Copies of Get Capone: The Secret Plot that Captured America’s Most Wanted Gangster will be available for purchase at The Kansas City Store at the National Archives. Following the program Eig will be available to sign copies of his books. For more information or to make a reservation call 816-268-8010 or register by emailing: kansascity.educate@nara.gov.

The National Archives at Kansas City is one of 13 facilities nationwide where the public has access to Federal archival records. It is home to more than 50,000 cubic feet of historical records dating from the 1820s to the 1990s created or received by nearly 100 Federal agencies. Serving the Central Plains Region, the archives holds records from the states of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The facility is located at 400 West Pershing Road, Kansas City, MO 64108. It is open to the public Tuesday - Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for research, with the exhibits open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call 816-268-8000 or visit us online.

# # #

NREA 10–31

Top of Page