The Kidnap Years
The Astonishing True History of the Forgotten Kidnapping Epidemic That Shook Depression-Era America

As the author says, the United States had an epidemic of kidnappings in the 1930s. It is interesting to see how kidnappings have changed over time, but that is not covered in this book. Stout covers many of the thirties cases and the victims were mostly adults and sometimes children from wealthy ind......more

This book takes you back to the 1930s and headline making kidnapping cases as it follows them from start to finish. The kidnappings became so common and got so out of hand that something had to be done. It took the death of the Lindbergh baby for a real change in the law to happen. I enjoyed this bo......more

With a book like this there is all kinds of wasted potential. This is a book that could have been great, the subject matter is certainly interesting and the author's exploration of a kidnapping epidemic in the late 20's to the mid 30's, with organized kidnapping gangs, had traumatic results and also......more

A fascinating read that was very well researched. Probably one of the more intriguing true crime books I have read. It talks about the kidnapping epidemic in America during the Great Depression. There are a lot of kidnapping cases (bankers, doctors, oil tycoon, etc) discussed in this book, but it ce......more