Download Terror in the City of Champions: Murder, Baseball, and the Secret Society That Shocked Depression-Era Detroit AudioBook Free
Detroit, mid-1930s: In the city abuzz over its unrivaled athletics success, gun-loving baseball supporter Dayton Dean became ensnared in the nefarious and deadly African american Legion. The secretive, Klan-like group was performing a wicked plan of terror, murdering opponents, flogging affiliates, and contemplating equipped rebellion. The Legion boasted thousands of members across the Midwest, among them politicians and visible people - even, possibly, a precious athlete. Terror in the town of Champions opens with the arrival of Mickey Cochrane, a fiery baseball celebrity who roused the Great Depression's hardest-hit city by leading the Tigers to the 1934 pennant. A year later he guided the team to its first tournament. Within seven weeks the Lions and Red Wings follow in soccer and hockey - all while Joe Louis chased boxing's heavyweight crown. Amidst such glory, the Legion's dreadful toll grew unchecked: staged "suicides", body dumped along roadsides, high-profile assassination plots. Talkative Dayton Dean's engagement would deepen as heroic Mickey Cochrane's reputation would climb. But the ballplayer had his own demons, including a close a friendly relationship with Harry Bennett, Henry Ford's brutal union buster.
