If you are looking for a great historical read you can’t go wrong with Jeffrey D. Simon’s The Bulldog Detective. It is said that there are eight million stories in New York, the 'Naked City.' Simon’s biography of the Damon Runyon-type, larger-than-life character William Flynn is certainly one of those stories, lost in the dustbin of early 20th-century history until now. His story makes for even more compelling, relevant, and entertaining reading in the first quarter of the 21st century. It will hold your interest from beginning to end."
The Bulldog Detective is a turn-of-the-century true-life American crime story that has it all – spies, Mafia thugs, corrupt police, assassination attempts, and an affecting family saga to boot. I was hooked from the first page and kept reading through the night. William J. Flynn was a forgotten hero until Jeffrey D. Simon ‘discovered’ him. But thanks to Simon’s compelling book, this great American sleuth and his many exploits will finally receive the recognition they amply deserve."
It’s amazing that until now we’ve not had a biography of William J. Flynn. Policeman, spy-hunter, pulp author and all-round showman, he is one of the liveliest characters onstage in early twentieth-century America. Jeffrey D. Simon has told the story of his colorful life with both care and verve.”
In Simon's Bulldog Detective, Flynn has at last received a full-length biography worthy of his consequential and controversial career."
The Bulldog Detective is the inspirational story of William Flynn, a forgotten American patriot and hero. Readers will be enthralled with the story of the September 16, 1920 terrorist attack on Wall Street, the worst act of domestic terrorism until the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. As a former Director of the United States Secret Service, I thoroughly enjoyed this riveting account of our Nation's, and of the United States Secret Service's war against the mafia, spies, and terrorism.”
Incredibly well written. Simon transforms the reader into the detective that Flynn was without sacrificing historical accuracy or academic rigor. The Bulldog Detective is a tour de force that awakens us to a 20th-century first mover in the secret service, war on the mafia, espionage in WWI and the FBI. It is a shame that Orson Welles is not alive to play the lead in the movie. That would have pleased Flynn and done him justice.”
If you are looking for a great historical read you can’t go wrong with Jeffrey D. Simon’s The Bulldog Detective. It is said that there are eight million stories in New York, the 'Naked City.' Simon’s biography of the Damon Runyon-type, larger-than-life character William Flynn is certainly one of those stories, lost in the dustbin of early 20th-century history until now. His story makes for even more compelling, relevant, and entertaining reading in the first quarter of the 21st century. It will hold your interest from beginning to end." – Bill Bratton, former NYPD and LAPD Commissioner
“The Bulldog Detective is a turn-of-the-century true-life American crime story that has it all – spies, Mafia thugs, corrupt police, assassination attempts, and an affecting family saga to boot. I was hooked from the first page and kept reading through the night. William J. Flynn was a forgotten hero until Jeffrey D. Simon ‘discovered’ him. But thanks to Simon’s compelling book, this great American sleuth and his many exploits will finally receive the recognition they amply deserve." – Howard Blum, New York Times-bestselling author of American Lightning and Dark Invasion
“It’s amazing that until now we’ve not had a biography of William J. Flynn. Policeman, spy-hunter, pulp author and all-round showman, he is one of the liveliest characters onstage in early twentieth-century America. Jeffrey D. Simon has told the story of his colorful life with both care and verve.” – Adam Hochschild, New York Times-bestselling author of American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis
"Jeffrey D. Simon has created a fascinating visit to America’s past. We often forget that America and American crime stories were just as brutal and cunning a hundred years ago as they are today. In the era that Simon vividly relives, real Lawmen did not have the benefit of today’s technology to guide them. Instead, they had to rely on grit, tenacity, and intelligence to get the job done! Secret Service Agent William J. Flynn was just that man." – A.T. Smith, Deputy Director, U.S. Secret Service, (Ret.)
“Incredibly well written. Simon transforms the reader into the detective that Flynn was without sacrificing historical accuracy or academic rigor. The Bulldog Detective is a tour de force that awakens us to a 20th-century first mover in the secret service, war on the mafia, espionage in WWI and the FBI. It is a shame that Orson Welles is not alive to play the lead in the movie. That would have pleased Flynn and done him justice.” – Richard L. Sandor, Aaron Director Lecturer in Law & Economics, The University of Chicago Law School, and Chairman & CEO, Environmental Financial Products
“In Simon's Bulldog Detective, Flynn has at last received a full-length biography worthy of his consequential and controversial career." – C. Alexander Hortis, author of The Mob and the City
2023-10-24
An informative biography of an effective, little-known New York City police detective who ran the early Secret Service before it became the agency to protect presidents.
Simon, the author of The Alphabet Bomber and Lone Wolf Terrorism, unearths the fascinating story of a determined and, by most accounts, incorruptible detective who garnered national fame for his ability to take down counterfeiters, Mafia members, and terrorists. Born to working-class parents, William Flynn (1867-1928) toiled as a jack-of-all-trades before joining the Secret Service in 1897. “After years of persistence,” writes the author, “he was finally on the career path he’d dreamed about as a child.” The service was then focused on tracking counterfeiters, who were rampant at the time. “I think it was the romance of the counterfeiter’s life that made me lean toward this branch of criminology,” Flynn wrote. After Flynn brought down the “Sausage Man,” who was passing counterfeit $5 bills at butcher shops, and cracked the notorious Morello–Lupo counterfeiting ring, Mayor William J. Gaynor tagged him to become second deputy commissioner of the NYPD. He radically reorganized the structure of the department to mirror rigorous Scotland Yard standards. Appointed to run the national Secret Service just as World War I broke out, he remained largely in New York City, where he targeted German saboteurs. Eventually, notes Simon, he became disenchanted by the bureaucracy, and he left the force in 1917. For two years, he ran the incipient FBI, then called the Bureau of Investigation, but he could not solve the Wall Street bombing of 1919, got caught up in the Palmer raids (led by a young J. Edgar Hoover), and left the BI to start his own detective agency. His detective magazine, Flynn’s, delineating his many exploits, was hugely popular even after his death.
A terrific feat of research that unearths a valiant crime fighter.
