The Bootlegger: A STORY OF SMALL-TOWN AMERICA

by John E. Hallwas

Overview

This extraordinary account of a struggling midwestern coal town profiles small-time bootlegger Kelly Wagle, whose mysterious career—and suspected involvement with two unsolved murder cases—had a profound and lasting impact on his community. In unraveling the process by which Colchester, Illinois, lost its grip on the American promise, John Hallwas reveals this remote corner of the Midwest as a true reflection of the quintessential American experience.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780252068447
Publisher:	University of Illinois Press
Publication date:	05/13/1999
Pages:	312
Sales rank:	1,140,780
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

John  E. Hallwas is a professor of English and at the Western Illinois University in Macomb. He is the author or editor of twenty books on Illinois history and literature.
 

Editorial Reviews

"With its rich detail, fast narrative pace, and robust sources, The Bootlegger succeeds as a satisfying work of social history, a gripping true-crime tale, and a powerful examination of how relentless change altered one rural American town." —Cleveland Review of Books

From the Publisher

The title of this book should have been Small-Town America: The Story of a Bootlegger, because the town of Colchester, Ill., is the real subject and the bootlegger merely a character in the pageant of Colchester's history. A coal-mining community in the 19th century, Colchester became so imbued by death that inhabitants began to see a mysterious "Woman in Black," an embodiment of the town's deepest anxieties. But the mines weren't the only place to die a violent death; drinking, gambling, and prostitution created a subpopulation of criminals and murderers, including Kelly Wagle, the bootlegger who was remembered by some as a philanthropist, others as a practical joker, still others as a remorseless killer, and who was gunned down by a rival hooch peddler in 1929. Significantly, the Woman in Black disappeared after all the coal was mined out and other, safer industries took over, though she came back in the 1920s to preside over the violence that accompanied the failed experiment of Prohibition. Today Colchester is "a bedroom community for the county seat, a place to retire to where nothing much happens, and a gasoline stop." Its history is a reminder that, if the past sometimes seems more colorful, that's because it was more terrible. Evidently life is so sleepy in Colchester these days that not even the Woman in Black goes there anymore. 33 photos, 5 linecuts. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Hallwas (English, Western Illinois Univ., Macomb), author of many books on Illinois history, presents a fascinating hybrid work mixing a biography of bootlegger Kelly Wagle with a history of his town of Colchester, IL. Over 1000 folks showed up for Wagle's funeral, out of a population of about 1300, a testament to his fame and the curiosity aroused by his gangland-style slaying. This deeply interrelated history reveals a rich understanding of rural, Midwestern America in the early 20th century, the impact of coal mining on a town's economy, the widespread ambivalence toward 1920s Prohibition, and the fascination with the gangster lifestyle of a small-town hood. Hallwas's splendid work thematically compares with Anthony Lukas's uneven Big Trouble (LJ 5/15/97) but is much more focused and accessible. Readers will enjoy this slice of American life and will understand the townspeople's complicated view of their most famous resident. An obvious choice for Illinois libraries and highly recommended for academic and larger public libraries.--Dale F. Farris, Groves, TX

Library Journal