Crooks Kill, Cops Lie: The True Story of the St. Louis Mobster Wars

In the 1970s and 1980s, St. Louis was rocked by a mobster war that caused car bombings from the impoverished north side of the city to the tony suburbs in west county. Richards, a former St. Louis police detective, goes behind the scenes of the elite city police Intelligence Unit and exposes the lies of fellow cops and the crooks who were killing each other. Upset with what he saw, Richards took on his own investigations and ended up with numerous commendations and awards. He uses unusual candor in discribing the inner workings of many of the agencies he worked with, from the Department of Justice to the FBI and includes photos ranging from mugshots to mobsters to crime scenes.

The author is a refugee of the mean streets of East St. Louis, Illinois. He witnessed his first car bombing at the age of 9. He was in the United States Marine Corp at the age of 17. After 4 years he returned to the St. Louis region and became a St. Louis Metropolitan Police Officer. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri St. Louis. He is married with 2 children, lives in Oakville, Missouri and is semi retired.