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A Knight of Another Sort - Prohibition Days and Charlie Birger by Gary DeNealn 1913 Charlie Birger began his career as a bootlegger, supplying southern Illinois with whiskey and beer.  He was charismatic, with an easygoing manner and a cavalier generosity that made him popular.  The stuff of legends, he was part monster, part Robin Hood.  In the early days, he would emerge from his restaurant/saloon in tiny Ledford in Saline County with a cigar box full of coins and throw handfuls in the air for the children.  Echoing the consensus on Birger, an anonymous gang member called him "enigmatic," noting that "he had a wonderful quality, a heart of gold.  There in Harrisburg sometimes he'd support twelve or fifteen families, buy coal, groceries....[But] he had cold eyes, a killer's eyes.  He would kill you for something somebody else would punch you in the nose for."
     Drawing from the colorful cast of the living, the dead, and the soon-to-be-dead--a state shared by many associated with Birger and his enemies, the Shelton gang--DeNeal re-creates Prohibition-era southern Illinois.  He depicts the fatal shootout between S. Glenn Young and Ora Thomas, the battle on the Herrin Masonic Temple lawn in which six were slain and the Ku Klux Klan crushed, and the wounding of Williamson County state's attorney Arlie O. Boswell.  As the gang wars escalated and the roster of corpses lengthened, the gangsters embraced technology.  The Sheltons bombed Birger's roadhouse, Shady Rest, from a single-engine airplane.  Both Birger and the Sheltons used armored vehicles to intimidate their enemies, and the chatter of machine gun fire grew common.
     The gang wars ended with massive arrests, trials, and convictions of gangsters who once had seemed invincible.  Charlie Birger was convicted of the murder of West City mayor Joe Adams and sentenced to death.  On April 19, 1928, he stood on the gallows looking down on the large crowd that he had come to see him die. "It's a beautiful world," Birger said softly as he prepared to leave it.

Gary DeNeal is the publisher and editor of Springhouse magazine.  He is a lifelong resident of southern Illinois.

Updated with new material and
newly-discovered photographs.
304 pages, 72 b & w illustrations
Paper, $19.95
Cloth, $35.00

E-mail:  books@springhousemagazine.com
The Insanity File: The Case of Mary Todd LincolnThe Insanity File: The Case of Mary Todd Lincoln, Mark E. Neely, Jr., and R. Gerald McMurtry, paper $19.95, 220 pp., illustrated
All Anybody Ever Wanted of Me Was to Work: The Memoirs of Edith Bradley RendlemanAll Anybody Ever Wanted of Me Was to Work: The Memoirs of Edith Bradley Rendleman, Edited by Jane Adams, paper, $19.95, 240 pp., illustrated
Personal Memoirs of John H. Brinton: Major and Surgeon U.S.V., 1861-1865Personal memoirs of John H. Brinton: Major and Surgeon U.S.V., 1861-1865, John H. Brinton, paper, $16.95, 384 pp.
Army Life of an Illinois Soldier: Including a Day-to-Day Record of Shermsn's March to the SeaArmy Life of an Illinois Soldier: Including a Day-to-Day Record of Sherman's March to the Sea, Charles W. Wills, paper, $16.95, 440 pp.
A History of the Ninth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, with the Regimental RosterA History of the Ninth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, with the Regimental Roster, Marion Morrison, paper, $15.95, 152 pp., illustrated
The Great Cyclone at St. Louis and East St. Louis, May 27, 1896The Great Cyclone at St. Louis and East St. Louis, May 27, 1896, Compiled and Edited by Julian Curzon, paper, $19.95, 422 pp., illustrated
Stagecoach and Tavern Tales of the Old NorthwestStagecoach and Tavern Tales of the Old Northwest, Harry Ellsworth Cole, Edited by Louis Phelps Kellogg, paper, $19.95, 382 pp., illustrated
A Woman's Story of Pioneer IllinoisA Woman's Story of Pioneer Illinois, Christiana Holmes Tillson, Edited by Milo Milton Quaife, paper, $16.95, 232 pp.
"Black Jack": John A. Logan and Southern Illinois in the Civil War Era"Black Jack": John A. Logan and Southern Illinois in the Civil War Era, James Pickett Jones, paper, $16.95, 360 pp
The Outlaws of Cave-in-RockThe Outlaws of Cave-In-Rock, Otto A. Rothert, paper, $15.95, 368 pp.
Illinois Hiking and Backpacking TrailsIllinois Hiking and Backpacking Trails, Revised Edition, Walter G. Zyznieuski and George S. Zyznieuski, paper, $16.95, 392 pp., illustrated
A Nickel's Worth of Skim Milk: A Boy's View of the Great DepressionA Nickel's Worth of Skim Milk: A Boy's View of the Great Depression, Robert Hastings, paper, $13.50, 168 pp.
A Penny's Worth of Minced Ham: Another Look at the Great DepressionA Penny's Worth of Minced Ham: Another Look at the Great Depression, Robert Hastings, paper, $13.50, 114 pp.
Freedom's Champion: Elijah LovejoyFreedom's Champion: Elijah Lovejoy, Paul Simon, paper, $19.95, 240 pp.
Land Between the Rivers, The Southern Illinois CountryLand Between the Rivers, The Southern Illinois Country, Henry Dan Piper, C. William Horrell, and John W. Voigt, paper, $19.95, 208 pp.
Meaningful Connections by Harry W. Stonecipher.  Join the author, an emeritus professor at SIU-C, as he connects the pieces of his life and shares his insights and memories of growing up in Southern Illinois, of combat in the Southwest Pacific during WW2, of a career in newspaper publishing and as a journalism teacher. 234 pages. Cloth, $9.95.
Steal-Easy, My Home Town by John M. Brewer.  A memoiric history of Crab Orchard, Illinois. Illustrated with photographs. Softbound, $10.00.
Saline County Illinois Soldiers of the Civil War by Don Boyd. Recorded are 1,398 soldiers who were either residents of Saline County when they entered the Army or who are buried in the county, includes their names, regiments, residences, casualties, battles, ranks, and burial places when known.  Township maps are included to help the reader find the cemeteries. Cloth, $25.00.

Before Mark Twain:
A Sampler of Old, Old Times on the
Mississippi
Edited by John Francis Mc Dermott
sampler of delightful and informative stories and descriptions of the kaleidoscopis life of the Mississippi before Mark Twain wheeled up and down the waterway. One encounters technicalBefore Mark Twain discussions concerning the typs of crafts that plied the river, the dangers faced from 'sawyers,' 'planters,' explosions, storms, and sometimes shifty scoundrels that terrified passengers on the great river boats. One also reads descriptions of famous towns along the river, including Natchez and New Orleans, but also stretching upriver to St. Louis and up the Ohio to Louisville and Cincinnati.-
Journal of Mississippi
     In these thirty-sseven pieces of memorabilia, rare reprints from diaries, journals and materials published in the days before Mark Twain, we [find] a superb treasure of river life. -Fresno Bee

Paper, 332 pages, 32 illus., $16.95
History 31st Regiment Illinois
Volunteers
Organized by John A. Logan
W.S. Morris, J.B. Kuykendall, and L.D. Hartwell
New Forward by John Y. Simon
he Story of John A. Logan's famed 31st Regiment Illinois Volunteers, told by three veterans, follows the regiment from the battles of Belmont, Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, Kenesaw Mountain, and Atlanta through the March to the Sea and into North Carolina. "Few regiments," notes historian John Y. Simon in the foreward, "fought longer or more fiercely, suffered more casualties, or won more victories.
     The 31st became a prime component in Grant's western campaigns, fighting for the first time at Belmont, Missouri. In February of 1862, the 31st foiled Confederate general Gideon J. Pillow's dramatic escape from the Union siege at Fort Donelson. Although this is often listed as one of the proudest moments for the 31st, casualties ran high (fifty-eight killed), with Logan so severely wounded that at first he was reported dead. Logan's valor at Fort Donelson won him promotion to brigadier general.

Paper, 244 pages, 28 illus., $16.95
Tales and songs of
Southern Illinois
Collected by Charles Neely
irst published in 1938, this lively collection of over 150 tales and songs runs the gamut from joy to woe, from horror to humor. In forming the collection, Charles Neely required only that the tales and song--whether home grown or transplanted from the great body of world lore--had taken root somehow in the area of southern Illinois known as Egypt.
     Notable tales include "Bones in the Well," "A Visit from Jesse James," "The Dug Hill Boger." Songs include "Hog and Hominy," "The Belleville Convent Fire," "Shawneetown Flood," and "The Death of Charlie Birger."

Paper, 270 pages, 2 illus., $19.95

 

 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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