When I finished The Last of the Untouchables, I had to tape the first 40 pages back
in. It’s definitely a keeper. I love rummaging through book sales and second
hand stores for titles just like this one. Published in 1962, the books is a
memoir, recounting Paul Robsky’s experiences in Al Capone controlled Chicago
during prohibition. Robsky was specially appointed to a group of federal
prohibition agents created to target Al Capone’s empire.
The book, though short at less than 200
pages, is fantastic. Robsky and Oscar have nothing against alcohol, but they
have plenty of reasons for being against organized crime. Smashing up
distilleries and arresting rum-runners is their job and they do it well.
One of the more amusing incidents is
Robsky’s hunch upon seeing a truck full of rotting cabbage. When they pull the
truck over and discover the liquor in the back, one of the drivers laments to
the other that they should have bought new cabbage and not reused the heads
from their first run.
Most of the book is not as amusing or humorous.
The media dubbed the special unit “untouchable” because they could not be
bought by Capone’s men, as the majority of the Chicago police force was, but
the name is only partly true. Over the years, they discovered three men among
them who had turned and were accepting bribes from the mob in return for
information about when and where the unit would hit.
More than once, Robsky had to kill a man
when a gangster drew a gun. In one particular incident, Robsky winged a
gangster who then fell through a roof, was knocked unconscious and drowned in a
vat of alcohol before the cops could discover him.
The
Last of the Untouchables is entertaining, but chillingly real. The world of
the 1930s may not be our world today, but books like this one bring it back to
life.
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