Selectively Lawless: The True Story of Emmett Long, an American Original

This biased, poorly sourced biography of Emmett Long, an obscure Depression-era career criminal who associated with better known murderers such as Pretty Boy Floyd, from Dunnington (What a Life!), Long’s nephew, appears to be wholly derived from stories told to him by Long and by Long’s daughter. His account presents conversations from decades ago as if they had been transcribed contemporaneously, and downplays Long’s history of violence, which included several murders. It begins with Long’s birth in Oklahoma in 1904 to a family of sharecroppers, and traces his evolution from cardsharp and moonshiner to bank and train depot robber. He committed his first murder—of a game warden, whose corpse was buried in an unmarked grave in the woods—in his 20s to protect the location of a still. Risible prose (“Many a fork hung in the air, their steaming-hot cargo turning cold, suspended inches from their digestive destinations”) is a further negative. Despite Dunnington’s efforts, few readers will be persuaded that Long’s religious epiphany toward the end of his life is any evidence of personal redemption that might counterbalance his years of lawlessness and killing. True crime fans can easily give this one a pass. [em](Nov.) [/em]