Terror in the City of Champions

Detroit 1936: In a city abuzz over its unrivaled sports success, baseball fan Dayton Dean is arrested for murder. Though said to have a childlike intelligence, Dean possesses a vivid memory and a hunger for attention. He gives police a story about a secret Klan-like organization called the Black Legion, responsible for countless murders, floggings, and fire bombings. The Legion has tens of thousands of members in the Midwest, among them politicians and notable citizens-even, possibly, a beloved Detroit athlete. When Dean's revelations explode, they all seek cover. Terror in the City of Champions opens with the December 1933 arrival of fiery catcher-manager Mickey Cochrane, who rouses the Great Depression's hardest-hit city from despair by leading the Tigers to the pennant. A year later, he brings the city its first world championship. Within a seven-month span, the Tigers, Lions, and Red Wings win a World Series, NFL title, and Stanley Cup-all while Joe Louis chases boxing's heavyweight crown. Amidst the optimism, Dayton Dean unpacks the Legion's dreadful activities: bodies dumped along roadsides, elaborate apparent suicides, torture victims who refuse to speak, and high-profile assassination plots. Dean's involvement in the Legion parallels Cochrane's heroic rise. But the ball player has his own demons, including a close friendship with Harry Bennett, Henry Ford's brutal union buster. Award-winning author Tom Stanton's stunning work of history, crime, and sports, weaves together the terror of the Legion with the magnificent athletic ascension of Detroit. Richly portraying 1930s America, and featuring figures like Louis, the country's most famous black man; Jewish slugger Hank Greenberg; anti-Semitic Henry Ford; radio priest Father Coughlin; and J. Edgar Hoover, Terror in the City of Champions is a rollicking true tale set at the confluence of hard luck, hope, victory, and violence.