Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN: 9781400054725
ISBN: 1400054729
Label: Three Rivers Press
Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 464
Publication Date: 2008-08-26
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Release Date: 2008-08-26
Studio: Three Rivers Press

They called it Satan’s Circus—a square mile of Midtown Manhattan where vice ruled, sin flourished, and depravity danced in every doorway. At the turn of the twentieth century, it was a place where everyone from the chorus girls to the beat cops was on the take and where bad boys became wicked men; a place where an upstanding young policeman such as Charley Becker could become the crookedest cop who ever stood behind a shield.

Murder was so common in the vice district that few people were surprised when the loudmouthed owner of a shabby casino was gunned down on the steps of its best hotel. But when, two weeks later, an ambitious district attorney charged Becker with ordering the murder, even the denizens of Satan’s Circus were surprised. The handsome lieutenant was a decorated hero, the renowned leader of New York’s vice-busting Special Squad. Was he a bad cop leading a double life, or a pawn felled by the sinister rogues who ran Manhattan’s underworld?

With appearances by the legendary and the notorious—including Big Tim Sullivan, the election-rigging vice lord of Tammany Hall; future president Theodore Roosevelt; beloved gangster Jack Zelig; and the newly famous author Stephen Crane—Satan’s Circus brings to life an almost-forgotten Gotham. Chronicling Charley Becker’s rise and fall, the book tells of the raucous, gaudy, and utterly corrupt city that made him, and recounts not one but two sensational murder trials that landed him in the electric chair.


From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Very Interesting
Comment: Very interesting. Learned a lot about a subject of which I'd never heard. I recommend the audiobook.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A great narrative of a hot topic
Comment: I have read many turn of the century historical tomes by Erik Larson and others and have found that some suffer from less than interesting topics (in the context of the era), an expansive and disjointed narrative, or simply not enough detail.

Satan's Circus does a very good job of mitigating these pitfalls. The book covers much more than just Charles Becker. Exposing the birth and reign of New York's police corruption, the sinister power of Tamany Hall, and a cast of interesting characters the book delivers on nearly all fronts while answering the question of Charles Becker's guilt.

Overall, I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in police history, New York history, or Tammany Hall. It's a long but worthy read. Not as good as Devil in the White City but better than Sin in the Second City you won't be disappointed.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: An interesting and thorough account
Comment: I listened to this book on CD and found the story fascinating. I'd never heard of Charley Becker or Satan's Circus but the story is certainly worth hearing if only to disclose potential pitfalls in the justice system and ensure that history doesn't repeat itself. Dash provides lots of context for the story and the amount of detail indicates the level of thought and research that went into this book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: An okay book...
Comment: I started reading this book and shortly after starting it I put it down. I went back to it a few months later and finished it. Well researched and written, although I had nothing but contempt for the police officer about whom the book is written. At times, the characters become confusing, but it is a decent read, nothwithstanding the distasteful nature of the police officer profiled in the book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Too Much Detail and Not Enough Editing
Comment: This is my third book by Mike Dash and while the other two seemed to move in a flowing manner, this one was more halting and jerky. Many times in reading along, Dash jumps to another part of the story and leaves you wondering what happened. At other times he reiterates something already mentioned as if it was new.

What I found most disconcerting was Dash's inability to keep a straight timeline. In one paragraph he will mention two situations, with the time frame reversed (i.e. something happens in 1914 and then something like it in 1912). There are so many tangents and diversions (each in a short choppy paragraph) that it's hard to keep track of what's going on.

Was Becker guilty? No. Was he railroaded? Yes. Had he done enough in his prior life to be caught up in this travesty? Yes. Did he do other things that should have gotten him executed? Probably. So did he deserve what he got in the end? Not really.

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