Crime, Corruption & Politics in Hull: The Rise and Fall of Boss Smith's Old Ring (American Chronicles)

Galluzzo, John

ISBN 10: 1596291265 / ISBN 13: 9781596291263

Published by The History Press, 2007

About this Item

shelf wear, paperback Used - Good 2007 All purchases support Project HOME - ending homelessness in Philadelphia.

Seller Inventory # BN02-000059

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Crime, Corruption & Politics in Hull: The Rise and Fall of Boss Smith's Old Ring (American Chronicles)
• Publisher: The History Press
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1596291265
• ISBN 13: 9781596291263
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

If you lived in Hull, Massachusetts, during the first four decades of the twentieth century, you were susceptible to two forces: the political machinations of Boss John Smith and the vitriolic editorial columns of Hull Beacon publisher Floretta Vining. Smith ran the town with an iron fist through fixed elections, padlocked town meetings, kickbacks, graft and bribes. Vining reported on it all and fought it like no other Progressive Era woman could, using newsprint space to lash out at girls who chewed gum in public and small boys who made too much noise at night, and calling for old men over sixty years of age to simply be put to sleep. Hull Times contributor and local historian John Galluzzo brings back the days of Vining and Smith, of steamboats and trains, of Paragon Park and the grand hotels of Nantasket Beach. In this accessible history, the reader gets a ringside seat to some of the most heated political battles in the history of the South Shore, fought in town halls and occasionally spilling into the streets of the once quiet and peaceful Hull Village.

About the Author

John Galluzzo is the author of more than 35 books on the history and nature of Massachusetts, the northeast and the Coast Guard. He writes for the Hull Times, Scituate Mariner, and South Shore Living on a regular basis, devoting his full-time energies to the South Shore Natural Science Center where he is director of education.