The Devil’s Town

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.