Underworld #2

When Ma Beamus decides to mold her children into a ruthless criminal empire, she trains Joe, Lou, and Betty in everything from marksmanship to getaway driving—turning petty theft into armed robbery and murder. Years later, after graduating to kidnapping, the Beamus gang snatches a man named Haven for ransom, but their success sets them on a collision course with the F.B.I. This brutal true-crime tale from 1948 shows how a mother's twisted ambition transforms her family into one of the era's most wanted gangs.

Connie Farrar's beautiful face has been her greatest weapon—and her most dangerous liability. From a reckless schoolgirl who talked a boy into stealing a car, she's become the notorious Angel Face, a cold-blooded schemer whose looks have gotten her out of trouble time and again, right up to a murder charge she shouldn't have beaten. But when she decides the only witness to her crime is expendable, her luck finally runs out.

When crook Moran plans a midnight heist on wealthy Mrs. Wallingford's apartment, he enlists his partner and recruits young Muggsy to steal car tires for quick getaways—but the juvenile delinquent's night of petty theft puts him directly in the path of a cop, setting off a chain of violence that will test whether crime really pays. Set in 1948 Pittsburgh, this hard-boiled tale shows how one criminal scheme can spiral out of control when the streets get crowded.

In 1948's "The Human Gorilla," a brutal criminal known by that very name launches a reign of terror that begins with a senseless act of violence fifteen years before the main story unfolds. What follows is a rampage of robberies and assaults across the West Coast, as the vicious thug leaves a trail of destruction—and bodies—in his wake, taunting police at every turn. The authorities close in on this skull-shattering menace, but stopping someone as remorseless and savage as the Human Gorilla will demand everything they have.