Author of Terror in the City of Champions comes to Grosse Pointe

The Friends of the Grosse Pointe Library presents an author talk with Tom Stanton, author of Terror in the City of Championson Thursday, October 6th at 7 pm at the Grosse Pointe Unitarian Church (17150 Maumee, Grosse Pointe 48230) This is a free event. Space will be limited, please register online at http://gplibraryfriends.org or call the Friends at 313.343.2074 x 204. Copies of the book will be for sale at the event by Pages Bookstore.

Terror in the City of Champions, by Tom Stanton, is a unique blend of American history, sports, and true crime set at the confluence of hard luck and hope, victory and violence. In the mid-1930s, Detroit reigned as the City of Champions. Within a six-month span, the Tigers, Lions, and Red Wings won a World Series, NFL title, and Stanley Cup -- a major-sports trifecta achieved by no other American city before or since -- and it happened as undefeated local boxer Joe Louis was becoming a national sensation. Detroit grew almost delirious, the string of victories providing a sweet diversion from the Great Depression. But beneath the jubilance, a nefarious plague was spreading unchecked. A wave of mysterious crimes had police baffled: bodies dumped along roadsides, suspicious suicides, bombings of homes and halls, assassination plots. All were the work of the Black Legion, a secret terrorist organization that flourished in Detroit until the summer of 1936, when one murder (and the loose lips of a gunman) led to its unraveling.