Read an Excerpt
Everyone in this book got caught for doing something; most were guilty, some were not. A handful had trials, others were hunted down, and a few were framed. A large number had second chances that they didn’t take.
Whether cheating on a test or plotting to kidnap the president, no one likes to get caught. Billy the Kid, Blackbeard the Pirate, and everyone else in this book line up to a unique time in history. As Robert Kennedy said, “Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves.” There would be no Al Capone without Prohibition, no Anastasia impostor without the Russian Revolution, and no Joan of Arc without the Inquisition, because you can be sure if Joan of Arc lived today, no one would accuse her of being a witch. The times made the people, and the people made history.
This group of characters was more likely to murder, cheat, and hoard prize money than do good, but whatever they did, it put them on the map. In some way or another, they sparked the imagination and broke free of the pack with their catchy names and noteworthy deeds.
Gangsters, con artists, thieves, spies, and assassins—whether they were a force of change, entrapped by the narrow-minded, or just in the wrong place at the wrong time, they were all caught. Why read about these folks since their stories are unlikely to turn up on a school test? Because they changed history and made the world not only a more fascinating place, but a place that requires criminal forensics, mug shots, fingerprinting, ballistics, and DNA testing.
Caught! is full of history you can almost use.
