Release of Book of Fred “Killer” Burke: The Hunt for the Most Dangerous Man Alive
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Green City Historical Preservation is proud to announce the latest release of Chriss Lyon’s new book Fred “Killer” Burke The Hunt for the Most Dangerous Man Alive. Chriss was able to take the information and stories she received from everyone who came to meet with her at Green City’s 4th of July Celebration last summer on July 4, 2024. We are very thankful for the stories they shared that were passed down from their family and relatives to pass onto future generations.
Fred “Killer” Burke: The Hunt for the Most Dangerous Man Alive is an updated special edition of the original novel, A Killing in Capone’s Playground: The True Story of the Hunt for the Most Dangerous Man Alive, which won a National Indie Excellence Award for True Crime in 2016. Having received substantial new details and photographs since its first release in 2014, Lyon felt that a new version of this heartfelt true story needed to be told.
“Bloody Chicago” was the name given to America’s most corrupt city after the grotesque scene that left seven humans embedded into masonry walls and oil-slickened concrete. Two Thompson submachine guns did the majority of the damage but the masterminds behind the St. Valentines Day Massacre escaped. Ten months later on December 14, 1929, St. Joseph, Michigan Police Officer Charles Skelly working a routine traffic crash came face to face with a killer. Shots were fired, the assailant escaped, and the dying Officer Skelly identified his murderer before taking his last breath. The trail led to a home in Stevensville, Michigan, where authorities found an arsenal of weaponry, over $300,000 worth of stolen bonds, bulletproof vests, and two Thompson submachine guns. The hideout belonged to Fred Burke, a highly sought suspect in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and now the most wanted man in the nation.
The “backwash of bloody Chicago” had made its way into the rural neighborhoods of Southwestern Michigan and Northern Indiana. Citizens who turned a blind eye to crime, helped create “Capone’s Playground,” an environment abundant in all that is illegal and immoral.
Using never before published police reports, interviews with family members of key witnesses, and leading experts, historian Chriss Lyon establishes the foundation for what would develop as a haven for gangsters from the onset of the Prohibition Era through to the mid-twentieth century, while revealing new information about the eventual capture of notorious gangster Fred “Killer” Burke in Green City, Missouri.
Chriss Lyon is a retired public safety professional and historian, who has not only walked the beat, but shot the most famous Thompson submachine guns in the world, all while documenting and researching the historic era of the “The Roaring Twenties.” Using techniques of forensic genealogy combined with investigative research, she has been able to uncover little known facts about the people and events surrounding the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, revealing them at presentations at schools, museums, genealogical, and historical societies. Her passion in Prohibition-era gangsters, maritime, and aviation history as well as historical weather has afforded opportunities to write articles for various magazines and journals and assist other authors with historical research. A graduate of Grand Valley State University’s Film/Video School, Chriss began working behind the scenes at CNN Headline News but now is out in front of the camera.
Contact Information: Chriss Lyon
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