Satan's Circus: Murder, Vice, Police Corruption, and New York's Trial of the Century

Nearly five million men and women have served the United States as police officers. Only one has been executed for murder. Critically acclaimed author Mike Dash brings to life the scandalous tale of Charley Becker.

Charley Becker was a New York police lieutenant widely reviled in the first decades of the twentieth century as "the crookedest cop who ever stood behind a shield." Becker began his career in New York's Tenderloin district, a twenty-eight-block strip notorious for its seedy late night activities. After making a series of high-profile arrests, Becker and his "strong-arm squad" were lauded for their success in stamping out vice throughout Manhattan. But the shooting of a casino proprietor in 1912 unfolded into the most sensational murder case New York had ever seen when Becker was charged with the killing, and corruption within the system was illuminated.

Critically acclaimed author Mike Dash brings to life the scandalous tale of Charley Becker, a New...