In this riveting retelling of “G-men” arresting or killing perpetrators of the country’s most violent crimes, learn how the investigations led to clues for the Charles Lindbergh kidnapping case, the Kansas City Massacre, the raids by John Herbert Dillinger and his gang, “Killer” Kinnie Wagner’s murder spree, and more.
Izzard Ink handled professional production and launch strategy—positioning the book across major retailers and helping it become a top-70 bestseller on Barnes & Noble, reach #2 in the Apple Books store, and hit Amazon bestseller status.
Machine guns in big-city streets. Kidnapped millionaires vanishing across state lines. Nazi agents slipping into America under cover of darkness. Long before crime dramas and streaming series, these were the real cases that forged the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
True Stories from the Files of the FBI takes readers inside that world, drawing on official reports and first-hand accounts from the Bureau’s early years. Originally published to introduce Americans to the work of the FBI, this collection follows agents as they track the kidnappers in the Lindbergh baby case, confront the gunmen behind the Kansas City Massacre, break the Duquesne spy ring—the largest Nazi espionage network uncovered on U.S. soil—and hunt Public Enemy No. 1, John Dillinger, across a country gripped by Depression-era lawlessness.
Between manhunts, the book shows how the FBI itself took shape: building vast fingerprint files, pioneering crime-lab forensics, recruiting a new generation of college-educated agents, and coordinating national security as war and espionage swept the globe. A new foreword by Paul B. Skousen frames these cases for modern readers, highlighting how the Bureau’s motto—“Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity”—was tested against gangsters, saboteurs, and an anxious public trying to decide whom to trust.
Reading like a fast-paced thriller but drawn entirely from real investigations, True Stories from the Files of the FBI is perfect for fans of true crime, law-enforcement history, and classic American storytelling—offering a front-row seat to the battles that turned a little-known Justice Department division into one of the world’s most famous investigative agencies.
Category: Non-Fiction
Release date: April 23, 2014
Page size: 6″ x 9″
Word count: 44,104
Estimated page count: 174
W. Cleon Skousen (1913-2006) is best remembered as a national bestselling author, speaker, and teacher who lectured in every state and province in North America, and in more than sixty countries worldwide. He was a student of history and a scholar of law, specializing in the principles of freedom, the U.S. Constitution, economics, and ancient history and scriptures.
Skousen was invited to write a new constitution for Canada and the proposed United States of Latin America, and he published a model constitution that could be adopted by nations everywhere. He served in the FBI for sixteen years, as Chief of Police in Salt Lake City for four years, and as a university professor for ten years. He was a prolific writer and produced three national bestsellers: The Naked Communist, The Naked Capitalist, and The 5000 Year Leap. Eight of his books were used as college texts, and several were translated and published in other countries.
His seminars on the Constitution have been taught to several million people across the U.S., and among his students were dozens of U.S. senators and representatives, two Supreme Court justices, and several presidential candidates. He believed knowledge and understanding were key to maintaining a free country, and he spent his entire adult life opening up complex issues for deeper understanding by students and audiences all around the world.
Skousen was born in Canada and returned to the U.S. with his family at age ten. He spent two years in Mexico and two years in England, then graduated from San Bernardino College in California and received his JD from George Washington University Law School. He was admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and before the District Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. Skousen and his wife, Jewel Pitcher of San Bernardino, California, are the parents of 8 children, 50 grandchildren, and more than a 150 great-grandchildren.
True Stories from the Files of the FBI captures the history of landmark criminal cases with riveting, quick-read storytelling- a must for every crime reader’s most wanted book list.
True Stories from the Files of the FBI is an amazing book to read. A lot of history, a lot of detail, a lot to learn.
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