The Devil’s Town: Hot Springs During the Gangster Era

In The Devil’s Town, Philip Leigh, a rising star among American historians, tells the unique and colorful story of the small resort city of Hot Springs, Arkansas—how it became a theater for New York and Chicago mobs during the gangster era. This is a richly detailed tale of a significant part of Southern history— exploitation of a people’s poverty, crime, evasion of law, and local and state corruption. The author names names, some of them of national importance including, among others, Frank Costello, Al Capone, Myer Lansky, Jelly Nash, Nick the Greek, Thomas Dewey, J. Edgar Hoover, and presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, and Clinton. *** Even as an author of four Hot Springs books, The Devil’s Town entertainingly amplified insight into my hometown -Ray Hanley, author of A Place Apart: A Personal History of Hot Springs *** Comments on Southern Reconstruction Leigh’s Southern Reconstruction is a refreshing anecdote to politically acceptable versions of the story. * Leigh’s latest work Southern Reconstruction is an excellent study of a critical and too often misunderstood part of American history. It is a no nonsense tour de force…. * I applaud Philip Leigh, and think his book will be historographically significant …