Breaking Blue
Written by Timothy Egan
Narrated by Malcolm Hillgartner
4/5
()
About this audiobook
In 1935, the Spokane police regularly extorted sex, food, and money from the reluctant hobos (many of them displaced farmers who had fled the midwestern dust bowls), robbed dairies, and engaged in all manner of nefarious crimes, including murder. This history was suppressed until 1989, when former logger, Vietnam vet, and Spokane cop Tony Bamonte discovered a strange 1955 deathbed confession while researching a thesis on local law enforcement history.
Bamonte began to probe what had every appearance of widespread police crime and a massive cover-up whose highlight was the unsolved murder of Town Marshall George Conff. The fact that many of those involved, now in their 80s and 90s, were still alive made it imperative that Bamonte unravel this mystery. The result is Breaking Blue, a white-knuckle ride through institutional corruption and cover-up that vividly documents Depression-era Spokane and an extraordinary case that few believed would ever be brought to light.
Timothy Egan
TIMOTHY EGAN is a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter and the author of eight other books, most recently The Immortal Irishman, a New York Times bestseller. His book on the Dust Bowl, The Worst Hard Time, won a National Book Award for nonfiction. His account of photographer Edward Curtis, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher, won the Carnegie Medal for nonfiction. He writes a biweekly opinion column for the New York Times.
More audiobooks from Timothy Egan
The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lasso the Wind: Away to the New West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Winemaker's Daughter Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Breaking Blue
Related audiobooks
Public Enemies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Butch Cassidy: The True Story of an American Outlaw Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Good Heist: The Inside Story of the Biggest Single Payday in the Criminal History of the Northeast Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Murder in the Heartland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Boston Strangler Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead Run: The Murder of a Lawman and the Greatest Manhunt of the Modern American West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Year of Dangerous Days: Riots, Refugees, and Cocaine in Miami 1980 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Alligator Candy: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finders Keepers: The Story of a Man who found $1 Million Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Norco '80: The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Man Who Played with Fire: Stieg Larsson's Lost Files and the Hunt for an Assassin Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Marauders: Standing Up to Vigilantes in the American Borderlands Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hastened To the Grave: The Gypsy Murder Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dannemora: Two Escaped Killers, Three Weeks of Terror, and the Largest Manhunt Ever in New York State Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Death in Belmont Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood and Money Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mad City: The True Story of the Campus Murders That America Forgot Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Blue on Blue: An Insider's Story of Good Cops Catching Bad Cops Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Man with the Black Valise: Tracking the Killer of Jessie Keith Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Rope: A True Story of Murder, Heroism, and the Dawn of the NAACP Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Plain Sight: The Kaufman County Prosecutor Murders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Colony: Faith and Blood in a Promised Land Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scarface and the Untouchable: Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the Battle for Chicago Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Strangers on a Bridge: he Case of Colonel Abel and Francis Gary Powers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5He Killed Them All: Robert Durst and My Quest for Justice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanished at Sea: The True Story of a Child TV Actor and Double Murder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Murder For You
Our Little Secret: The True Story of a Teenage Killer and the Silence of a Small New England Town Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In the Name of the Children: An FBI Agent's Relentless Pursuit of the Nation's Worst Predators Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Conviction: The Untold Story of Putting Jodi Arias Behind Bars Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5While Idaho Slept: The Hunt for Answers in the Murders of Four College Students Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind Is Designed to Kill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The I-5 Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Shoes: The Sensational Depression-Era Murders That Became My Family's Secret Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood on Their Hands: Murder, Corruption, and the Fall of the Murdaugh Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unanswered Cries: A True Story of Friends, Neighbors, and Murder in a Small Town Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ghosts That Haunt Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maniac: The Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daughter's Deadly Deception: The Jennifer Pan Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Serial Killer Files: The Who, What, Where, How, and Why of the World's Most Terrifying Murderers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Obsession: The FBI's Legendary Profiler Probes the Psyches of Killers, Rapists, and Stalkers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Rip in Heaven Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Written in Bone: Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Trigger: Narratives of the American Shooter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Angel Makers: Arsenic, a Midwife, and Modern History’s Most Astonishing Murder Ring Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Man Who Played with Fire: Stieg Larsson's Lost Files and the Hunt for an Assassin Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensics Lab--The Body Farm--Where the Dead Do Tell Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Breaking Blue
62 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sometimes the "good old days" weren't so good! Egan takes the masters thesis on the unsolved murder of a law enforcement officer in northeastern Washington state in 1935, melds in the unyielding pursuit by the 1980's sheriff of Pend Oreille County, and it results in a fascinating story of crime, police corruption and limited redemption.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An engrossing non-fiction historical account of a 1935 murder in the inland northwest. It recounts the troubled times of the depression and it's lawlessness, the immoral state of affairs of law enforcement, and the troubled yet noble psyche of a local sheriff pursuing justice. There is also the recognition that immorality comes back to haunt. The author inspired me to learn more about my region's history.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A great book, especially if you are familiar with the area. This gives a great look at the "great depression" . We have lots of material enlightening us about the corruption in law enforcement in cities like Chicago and New York but with this you realize that no place was immune.