So begins a chapter of Michael Lesy's disturbingly satisfying account of Chicago in the 1920s, the epicenter of Murder in America. Just as Lesy’s first book, , subverted the accepted notion of the Gay Nineties, so exposes the dark side of the Jazz Age. Revisiting seventeen Chicago murder cases—including that of Belva and Beulah, two murderesses whose trials inspired the musical —Lesy's sharp, fearless storytelling makes a compelling case that this collection of criminals may be progenitors of our modern age.