On a sunny September morning in 1930, six men entered the Lincoln National Bank in Nebraska’s capital city armed with shotguns and Thompson submachine guns. In eight minutes, they emerged with more than 2.7 million dollars, the largest take of any bank heist in history.
     A nationwide search for the bandits would lead them to gangland Chicago, and toward the same criminals who committed the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. The investigation would eventually go all the way up to the infamous chief of Chicago crime himself, Al Capone.
     Most surprising of all, the money was returned. Why it was given back has been a mystery that has been kept secret for decades, and digs deep into the heart of Capone and his organization.
     The Great Heist explores these events through the dynamic characters involved, including Max Towle, the Nebraska attorney who ran the rackets in Lincoln much like Capone ran them in Chicago, US Attorney Robert Van Pelt, whose squeaky clean ethics made him the polar opposite of Towle, Gus Winkeler, one of Capone’s favorite gangsters who was set to inherit much of the criminal empire, the Secret Six, a group of millionaires who dedicated their wealth to ending organized crime in Chicago, and many others who had a large effect on history, even if they have been overlooked by it.

Biographical Information

     Jeff McArthur grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska where he began writing at a very young age. He became fascinated with movies as a teenager and began making them at 15, going on to New York University for college where he studied film, TV, and radio. In New York he worked with the comedy group The State, with PBS, and several others, before moving out to Los Angeles in 1995.
     Jeff continued to work in the film industry for 15 years, working on various films and making a few of his own, including the documentary The Forgotten Grave and the horror film Stolen Souls.
     He turned to book writing with the premier of his novel The Table of Truth in 2011.  He followed that up with the critically acclaimed book about his grandfather, Pro Bono - The 18-Year Defense of Caril Ann Fugate.  He learned about the story of The Great Heist from that same grandfather, who worked with several of the attorneys involved in the case.  McArthur is presently working on a book about Al Capone's long lost brother,Two Gun Hart, who was a prohibition officer in Nebraska.
Title: The Great Heist

Author: Jeff McArthur

Publisher: Bandwagon Books

Publication Date: October 13, 2013

Retail Price: 9.95 (Paperback) / 3.99 (Kindle)

ISBN: 1493532693

Pages: 200