As gripping as it is prescient, Gangbuster is the first-ever
history of the battle waged by one rookie District Attorney, Philip Van
Cise, against the KKK, organized crime, and government corruption at the
highest levels throughout the 1920s. One century later, in the face of
contemporary society's divisiveness and fearmongering politics, the
personal courage of this maverick's battle against underworld figures
and a mainstream white supremacist movement is more relevant and
inspiring than ever.
At the height of the roaring 1920s, the ex-frontier town of Denver,
Colorado, emerged from the postwar boom as the future of the American
city. But the slick façade of progress and opportunity masked a murky
stew of organized crime, elaborate swindles, and widespread government
corruption. One man risked everything to alter the course of history.
Rookie district attorney Philip Van Cise was already making national
headlines for a new brand of law enforcement. Employing military
intelligence tools he'd developed during the Great War--wiretapping,
undercover operatives, communication intercepts--Van Cise crippled the
criminal empire of Lou Blonger, an ex-lawman who had risen from petty
scam artist to master of the Big Con. But Van Cise had even darker, more
malevolent forces on his radar.
The Ku Klux Klan had emerged as a shockingly mainstream middle-class
movement, employing anti-immigration scare tactics, encouraging
vigilantism, and instigating culture wars, all while claiming to protect
true American values. Van Cise saw the toxic ideology for what it was: a
new version of the Big Con sold as populism. Utilizing his pioneering
surveillance techniques, Van Cise was determined to expose the Invisible
Empire from within.
Gripping and exhaustively researched, this prescient chronicle of Philip
Van Cise's spectacular career as a feared gangbuster taking on organized
crime, the KKK, and corruption at the highest levels of government is a
cautionary tale that mirrors our tumultuous times.
