In this richly detailed account of mass media images, David Ruth looks at Al Capone and other'invented' gangsters of the 1920s and 1930s. The subject of innumerable newspaper and magazine articles, scores of novels, pulp books and plays, and hundreds of Hollywood movies, the gangster was a compelling figure for Americans preoccupied with crime and the social turmoil it symbolized. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.