I remember first hearing of starlet Virginia Rappe and her death connected to silent film comedian, Roscoe Arbuckle, in a communications class at Auburn University. It was fascinating stuff, the kind of material that made you sit up and actually listen. As the story went, this waif of a woman was brought into a wild Hollywood party and crushed by the man called "Fatty" by millions of fans. Well . . this wasn't really the truth. But I guess you need to read Devil's Garden if you want to find out the real story. One of the many things during my research into her death that fascinated me was that most books about her only showed one image -- a pretty old-fashioned-looking photo of her wearing a big hat and looking like an old Victorian woman . . . it was that image that always gave me trouble trying to relate to her and the times . . . the dawn on the Jazz Age. I could not marry the image of the woman with the time. Thanks to the internet and original newspapers from 1921, I was able to locate dozens of photos of Virginia Rappe. She wasn't a spinster looking broad, but rather a very beautiful woman who's now best remembered as the victim in the first scandal in Hollywood history. I found this video on youtube that is a pretty good slide show of Virginia if you're interested.

One of the great films of the Depression is on at 7 tonight on Turner Classic Movies. Gold Diggers of 1933 features one of the most stunning, haunting scenes of that period with Joan Blondell singing "Remember My Forgotten Man." The whole dreamlike sequence, showing Blondell coming into contact with veterans marching in breadlines as they'd been shuffled off to war, is one of the great images in all of cinema. How's that for a rec? I love the movie so much, it has a prominent scene in Infamous as George and Kathryn Kelly are waiting for the big ransom drop in a Kansas City movie palace. Catch the moment when the man reaches for the spent cigarette. Absolute genius. A longer essay on the movie can be found here. And check out the political origin of the song from the Roosevelt campaign and how it became an anthem of the Depression.

I haven't talked about White Shadow in a while. My fifth novel was a real breakthrough for me. It was the first book after my Nick Travers stories and the first time I'd written about a true event.



For those of you who haven't read the novel, the story centers on the violent death of former Tampa, Florida kingpin, Charlie Wall. Wall was the old guard of Tampa, the man the superstitious Latins called the "White Shadow'' because of his protection of the ethnic neighborhoods. But after Prohibition and the war years, ole Charlie was pushed aside by the Tampa mafia, most notably Santo Trafficante, Sr. It's rumored that his son Santo Jr. called the hit.


Right before White Shadow was released in '06, I visited Tampa and Charlie's house where he was killed in April, 1955. For years, I've meant to post these photos to my website. But here, for the first time, you can see the room and the home where the infamous mob hit took place. A new trade paperback version of the novel is out in December featuring a brand-new behind-the-story on the murder.

One of the best experiences I had while writing my new novel, Infamous, was going back and watching films from the early 1930s. I was no stranger to many of these films. Some are my favorite movies of all time: It Happened One Night, The Thin Man, Baby Face. But to get the feel for the movies that shaped -- and were shaped by the American psyche of the time -- I was introduced to a whole new list. Some of the films make big appearances in the novel such as Gold Diggers of '33 and Gabriel in the White House. This month Turner Classic Movies is showing many of the known gems and some hidden classics, too. And they're not just sticking to the films made in in the period but about the Depression, too. O, Brother Where Art Though? and Paper Moon are two classics made about the perido. There's no doubt our current economic crisis has us thinking back up on the '30s. While I was writing last year and earlier this year, I often got confused whether I'd read a story from '33 or that week. The headlines really blurred. If only Hollywood could turn back the clock, too. A complete schedule can be found here.

When I'm researching the past, I've found one of the best sources is just a click away on ebay. I've bought incredible pieces of history from old Tampa, 1920s San Francisco, and on Phenix City, Alabama back when it was the "Wickedest City in America." Right now, I'm working on a screenplay based on my novel Wicked City and recently went back to ebay searching for old postcards of motels from that era. Within the long list of items selling for a few bucks was a wooden box filled with ivory gaming chips that's said to have belonged to famed Phenix City gamber, Pete Hargett. Pete was one of the major criminals and gamblers in Phenix City in the '40s and '50s. According to the seller, he was gunned down by the local sheriff. Now it was actually Pete's brother -- Guy Hargett -- who was killed by Assistant Sheriff Albert Fuller in '49. If you've read Wicked City, you'll understand why the police shooting has always been a little suspicious. But the story accompanying the box -- on sale for a mere $2,5000 -- is worth a look.