Audiobook9 hours
Terror in the City of Champions: Murder, Baseball, and the Secret Society that Shocked Depression-era Detroit
Written by Tom Stanton
Narrated by Johnny Heller
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
Detroit, mid-1930s: In a city abuzz over its unrivaled sports success, gun-loving baseball fan Dayton Dean became ensnared in the nefarious and deadly Black Legion. The secretive, Klan-like group was executing a wicked plan of terror, murdering enemies, flogging associates, and contemplating armed rebellion. The Legion boasted tens of thousands of members across the Midwest, among them politicians and prominent citizens-even, possibly, a beloved athlete.
Terror in the City of Champions opens with the arrival of Mickey Cochrane, a fiery baseball star who roused the Great Depression's hardest-hit city by leading the Tigers to the 1934 pennant. A year later he guided the team to its first championship. Within seven months the Lions and Red Wings follow in football and hockey-all while Joe Louis chased boxing's heavyweight crown.
Amidst such glory, the Legion's dreadful toll grew unchecked: staged “suicides,” bodies dumped along roadsides, high-profile assassination plots. Talkative Dayton Dean's involvement would deepen as heroic Mickey Cochrane's reputation would rise. But the ballplayer had his own demons, including a close friendship with Harry Bennett, Henry Ford's brutal union buster.
Terror in the City of Champions opens with the arrival of Mickey Cochrane, a fiery baseball star who roused the Great Depression's hardest-hit city by leading the Tigers to the 1934 pennant. A year later he guided the team to its first championship. Within seven months the Lions and Red Wings follow in football and hockey-all while Joe Louis chased boxing's heavyweight crown.
Amidst such glory, the Legion's dreadful toll grew unchecked: staged “suicides,” bodies dumped along roadsides, high-profile assassination plots. Talkative Dayton Dean's involvement would deepen as heroic Mickey Cochrane's reputation would rise. But the ballplayer had his own demons, including a close friendship with Harry Bennett, Henry Ford's brutal union buster.
Author
Tom Stanton
Tom Stanton is the author of four books, including the memoir The Final Season, winner of the Casey Award. A former Knight-Wallace Fellow, he published weekly newspapers and taught journalism at the University of Detroit Mercy before becoming an author. His stories have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times. He and his wife live in New Baltimore, Michigan, and have three sons.
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Reviews for Terror in the City of Champions
Rating: 3.928571464285714 out of 5 stars
4/5
28 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In 1935 Detroit teams won the World Series, the Stanley Cup, and the NFL championship. This won the city the nickname of City of Champions. At the same time a shadowy organization called the Black Legion was gaining members in Southeast Michigan. Similar to the Klan, the Black Legion was anti-immigrant, anti-labor union, and also opposed to Blacks and Jews in the area. They intimidated people into joining the Legion once they had attended a first meeting and taken an oath. This is a very interesting look at Detroit in the middle 1930s.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If you are into history of the depression years, sports and crime this is the riveting book for you. I am into two of those, history and crime though not sports and it was still riveting for me. Terror in the City of Champions opens with the arrival of Mickey Cochrane, a baseball star who roused the Great Depression’s hardest-hit city by leading the Tigers to the 1934 pennant. Not something the Tigers have become accustomed to. A year later he guided the team to its first championship. Within seven months the Lions and Red Wings follow in football and hockey—all while Joe Louis chased boxing’s heavyweight crown.Amidst such glory, the Legion’s dreadful toll grew unchecked: staged “suicides,” bodies dumped along roadsides, high-profile assassination plots. Talkative Dayton Dean’s involvement would deepen as heroic Mickey’s Cochrane’s reputation would rise. But the ballplayer had his own demons, including a close friendship with Harry Bennett, Henry Ford’s brutal union buster. Award-winning author Tom Stanton weaves a stunning tale of history, crime, and sports. Richly portraying 1930s America, Terror in the City of Champions features a pageant of colorful figures: iconic athletes, sanctimonious criminals, scheming industrial titans, a bigoted radio priest, a love-smitten celebrity couple, J. Edgar Hoover, and two future presidents, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. It is a riveting true story set at the confluence of hard luck, hope, victory, and violence..