Editor's Page

Rick "Mad Dog" Mattix, Editor-in-chief of On the Spot, is the co-author (with William J. Helmer) of Public Enemies: America's Criminal Past, 1919-1940 and The Complete Public Enemy Almanac. He has also authored numerous articles on 20s and 30s crime and contributed chapters to Tracie Hill's Thompson, The American Legend: The First Submachine Gun and the expanded edition of Dillinger: The Untold Story by G. Russell Girardin and Helmer. Mattix considers himself primarily a researcher rather than a writer and has contributed photos, interviews, and research materials to the former John Dillinger Historical Museum, to other authors, and to various television and radio programs. He lives in Bussey, Iowa with his wife and chief creative editor, Linda. This page is basically an excuse for him to indulge in monthly excursions into gangster history or whatever he feels like putting on it.

Okay, damnit, I'm back. Our Fall 2007 issue, themed around Pretty Boy Floyd, was of course a big hit, some say the best we've done yet, and marks the completion of  On the Spot's first year of operation. We'll likely be doing other single-themed issues from time to time and have ones in the planning stages on the FBI (2008 is their centennial year, though they've only had the name since 1935) and on one tentatively titled "Ladies of the Underworld" which will include some of the standard and lesser known gun molls, gun gals, and "black widows of crime" along with maybe the likes of policy queen Stefanie St. Clair and celebrated madams and hookers such as Polly Adler and Vivian Gordon. In updates to Yer Editor's often less-than-thrilling adventures, the lovely Linda and I were trapped by an icestorm for a couple of days in Joplin, Missouri after a successful four author joint booksigning at Bob Wolfe's Always Buying Books at 5357 North Main Joplin (great & popular store with literally thousands of books on hand on every conceivable subject imaginable). Joining Mattix and The Complete Public Enemy Almanac in this adventurous enterprise on December 8, 2007 were authors Jim Knight (Bonnie and Clyde: A Twenty-First Century Update), R.D. Morgan (The Tri-State Terror: The Life and Crimes of Wilbur Underhill and others), and Mike Koch (The Kimes Gang), plus there were surprise guest appearances by Verla Geller, grandniece of Ma Barker, and Pam Tippet, granddaughter of Edna "The Kissing Bandit" Murray. It was a fun gig anyhow and the Gang before and after found the time to visit the Joplin gravesites of Wilbur Underhilll and Harvey Bailey, the Bonnie and Clyde house at 3347 Oak Ridge Drive (owned by Reverend Phillip McLendon and now available for overnight stays to small groups), and the former Oronogo, Missouri bank once robbed by the Barrow Gang. R.D. was taking advance orders for his new book Taming the Sooner State: The War Between Lawmen and Outlaws, 1875-1941 which I've seen and heartily recommend to all crime historians. Of course by now many have seen the History Channel documentary Crime Wave: 18 Months of Mayhem which is based on Bryan Burrough's book Public Enemies (soon to be made into a major motion picture starring Johnny Depp as Dillinger and Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis). Airing in January 2008, the program featured commentary by Burrough and many other crime historians including some of the regular OTS contributors such as Morgan, Ellen Poulsen, Bill Helmer, and Yer Editor. It was two years in the making and had some very noticeable flaws and major omissions but was still one of the best cable-TV crime documentaries I've seen. But back to OTS. Coming up in the Spring issue are great articles by Brian Beerman on the 1934 murder of Kansas City mob boss John Lazia, by Bob Bates on train robber Roy Gardner, by Laura James on lovely gun gal Toni Jo Henry (also the subject of a future movie), by Sandy Jones and Bob Fischer on the Bonnie and Clyde ambush, by Jones and Ellen Poulsen on the Dillinger Terraplane, and much more, including exciting news regarding the new National Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington, D.C. Slated for our Summer and Fall issues is our first two-part story, a fascinating piece by Mafia experts Tom Hunt and Mike Tona on the early history of the Pittsburgh Mafia family and the 1932 killing of boss John Bazzano. That's enough for now. Along with Morgan's book (and of course -- Shameless Plug -- The Complete Public Enemy Almanac), currently available, watch for these other great books soon to come: The Love Pirate by Laura James (one of my favorite crime historians and the proprietor of CLEWS: The Historic True Crime Blog, Laura's first book deals with the 1924 murder of the wildly wicked Dr. Zeo Zoe Wilkins and looks like it just might win Zoe's celebrated mouthpiece Jesse James Jr. his own place of infamy in crime annals, right alongside his bandit father); The Mafia and the Machine: The Story of the Kansas City Mob by Frank R. Hayde; Ma: The Life and Times of Ma Barker and Her Boys by John Koblas; The Starker: Big Jack Zelig, the Becker-Rosenthal Case, and the Advent of the Jewish Gangster by Rose Keefe; Bad Seeds in the Big Apple: Bandits, Killers, and Chaos in New York City, 1920-1940 by Patrick Downey. And of course there's lots more but you're not gonna hear about it, damnit, unless you subscribe to On the Spot Journal for the very best in historical crime reporting. Yerz, Rick Mattix p.s. It's of no great interest to most, I'm sure, but I now have full possession of Helmer's stuffed buzzard!