The Fallen and Forgotten ($10 from all books sold goes directly back to our mission)

The buried story of the largest shootout and massacre of law-enforcement officers in history. For a few days, this was the nation’s biggest story, commanding headlines from coast to coast. It was the subject of conversation on every radio station throughout the country. And then it wasn’t. The story takes place in the heart of the Great Depression. It was the Gangster Era, Prohibition and a time when criminal elements were often sympathized with and glamorized, in a misguided notion that their crimes were nothing more than robbing from the rich to help the poor. These criminals were not updated Robin Hoods, despite their portrayals in the press. They were crooks, thugs, petty thieves, murderers, cowards, mobsters, and pitiful low-life excuses for human beings. Criminals such as Pretty Boy Floyd, Al Capone, Fred Baker, and the deadly duo of Bonnie and Clyde were romanticized and turned into folk heroes. Everything changed on January 2, 1932, when the nation experienced the brutal execution of the most law-enforcement officers at one time, an infamous distinction that still stands today. Never before or since have so many officers been killed in a single shootout. At the time, America was horrified, angry, and desperate for justice. The hunt for the depraved killers responsible for the massacre created one of the largest manhunts the United States has ever seen. Two of the killers, while surrounded by the Texas Rangers fulfilled their suicide pact. The case was closed and over in three short days. Immediately following the murders, this tragic story was headline news coast to coast, broadcast with blaring urgency by radio stations, and featured in huge front-page, stop-the-presses stories in every newspaper in the nation. But, within mere weeks, it seemed to have been forgotten. As such a horrific story, the media let fall under the radar as it was too frightening for the American public to ponder. Among the murdered officers was Springfield, Missouri Chief of Detectives Tony L. Oliver, great-grandfather of author Tony LaVine. The financial suffering that the surviving families, like the Olivers, endured, would not be all in vain. As a result of this tragedy, benefits were established throughout the nation for survivors of the fallen. Police pensions and life insurance were born. This is a story that every person in the country needs to know and remember. Such human sacrifices should never be forgotten or taken for granted. The Fallen and Forgotten precedes several other untold historical stories to come from the author.