A Knight of Another Sort: Prohibition Days and Charlie Birger

Shawnee Classics

by Gary DeNeal, Jim Ballowe (Foreword)

In 1913 Charlie Birger began his career as a bootlegger, supplying southern Illinois with whiskey and beer. He was charismatic, with an easygoing manner and a cavalier generosity that made him popular. The stuff of legend, he was part monster, part Robin Hood. In the early days, he would emerge from his restaurant/saloon in tiny Ledford in Saline County with a cigar box full of coins and throw handfuls in the air for the children. Echoing the consensus on Birger, an anonymous gang member called him "enigmatic," noting that "he had a wonderful quality, a heart of gold. There in Harrisburg sometimes he'd support twelve or fifteen families, buy coal, groceries. . . . [But] he had cold eyes, a killer's eyes. He would kill you for something somebody else would punch you in the nose for."

Drawing from the colorful cast of the living, the dead, and the soon-to-be-dead—a state shared by many associated with Birger and his enemies, the Shelton gang—DeNeal re-creates Prohibition-era southern Illinois. He depicts the fatal shootout between S. Glenn Young and Ora Thomas, the battle on the Herrin Masonic Temple lawn in which six were slain and the Ku Klux Klan crushed, and the wounding of Williamson County state's attorney Arlie O. Boswell. As the gang wars escalated and the roster of corpses lengthened, the gangsters embraced technology. The Sheltons bombed Birger's roadhouse, Shady Rest, from a single-engine airplane. Both Birger and the Sheltons used armored vehicles to intimidate their enemies, and the chatter of machine gun fire grew common.

The gang wars ended with massive arrests, trials, and convictions of gangsters who once had seemed invincible. Charlie Birger was convicted of the murder of West City mayor Joe Adams and sentenced to death. On April 19, 1928, he stood on the gallows looking down on the large crowd that had come to see him die. "It's a beautiful world," Birger said softly as he prepared to leave it.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Crime

376 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[Walt]

Probably the best biography of Birger.

[Daniel Borcky]

What an amazing read. DeNeal really wears his passion for Southern Illinois history on his sleeve, but doesn't let that blind him to the facts of it. This book was presented as a story, from beginning to end, but has all of the sources cited in order to back it up. As a resident of the area, I was fascinated, appalled, bemused, angry, and perplexed by the people who populated my community before me. I highly recommend this book to anyone with a fascination, not just in Illinois history, but in the history of organized crime and prohibition as well.

[Kat]

Very Good Telling Of Little Known History

I never would have have known about Charlie Berger if I had not read this book. And while it is very good at describing the way life was lived before the depression years, it is a bit long in too many details. But it is very interesting about a little known part of the country I didn’t know existed.

[Buck Hales]

One of the first books I read about Southern Illinois after I moved to Carbondale. DeNeal really captures Southern Illinois of the 1920s when the gangs, the KKK, the labor unions were all at war. Birger was the last man to be publically hanged to death in Illinois in 1928, right here in beautiful downtown Marion. If you are interested in regional lore, this is a must addition to your reading. coincidentally, Gary DeNeal is the father of Hugh and Brian DeNeal of Woodbox Gang fame.

[James Wazorick]

My father cut school to attend the hanging, which was the last public hanging in the state. If you enjoyed this book, find a copy of Paul Angle's "Bloody Williamson", which covers the period of violence in Southern Illinois from the 1880s to 1940.

[Carolyn]

I read this b/c my great aunt spoke of the day he was hung in the town square. She remembers him. I think they say this was the last public hanging.

[Betsy Phillips]

This book should be a movie. Very academic, but very fun. If you're from Southern Illinois, especially, grab this.