Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the World

Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the World is by Clifton R. Wooldridge. The front of the book lists 20,000 arrests made, 12,900 convictions on state and city laws, and 200 penitentiary convictions. The front of the book speaks of an army of 600,000 criminals at war with society and religion, and of the devil and the grafter and how they work together to deceive, swindle and destroy mankind.

The book says that in 1896 Wooldridge's fiercest fight came when he arrested George Kinnucan in his saloon at 435 Clark street, and that a dozen roughs, henchmen of Kinnucan, came to the saloonkeeper's rescue. The officer is described as knocked down and beaten unconscious, yet managing to hang on to his revolver. The book relays Mr. Pinkerton's recollection that one night in 1873, at Chicago, on his way home, he saw Walter Sheridan, "Philly" Pearson and Charlie Hicks on a street car. The book describes "The Store" as the most famous place in Chicago in those days, the rendezvous of all the sporting men, politicians and denizens of the underworld in Chicago.