The General
Irish Mob Boss
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In a twenty-year career marked by obsessive secrecy, brutality, and meticulous planning, Martin Cahill, a k a, The General, netted over 40 million pounds. His criminal record included assassination, kidnapping, bombings, and one of the world's largest art and gold heists! He was untouchable and fiercely loyal to his gang. Loved by the common man, his personal battle with the police made him a living legend. But Martin Cahill not only refused to respect the police, he refused to pay tribute to the IRA. And unlike the police who had to follow the letter of the law in their battle to bring down Ireland's most wanted, the IRA played by their own rules.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Irish charm and gangland violence come together in this engrossing biography of Dublin godfather Martin Cahill. Irish journalist Williams recounts Cahill's rise from poverty to infamy as Ireland's most notorious crime boss, dubbed"the General" for his audacious and meticulously planned robberies. Cahill was a brutal thug (he literally crucified one underling he suspected of having crossed him) but also devoted lover (to his wife and her sister), a pillar of the slum communities where he grew up, and, as his fame for his spectacular jewelry and art heists grew, something of a folk hero. Combining thorough research and well-paced storytelling, Williams brings to life Cahill's exploits, his long war of wits with the often inept Irish police, and the clannish underworld where criminal gangs, IRA commandos, Protestant paramilitaries and police officials conducted their battles on weirdly intimate terms. Along the way he paints a picture of Dublin's social transformation in the 1970s and 80s, as an epidemic of heroin and guns, fueled by the conflict in Northern Ireland, brought big-city crime to its formerly safe and sleepy streets. Blending lurid picaresque and off-hand sociological insights, this is a stylish and thoughtful addition to the true-crime canon. Photos.
