Novedades

The “Wild West” gunfighter is such a stock figure in our popular culture that some dismiss it all as a corny myth, more a product of dime novels and B movies than a genuinely important American history. In fact, as Bryan Burrough shows us in his dazzling and fast-paced new book, there’s much more below the surface. For three decades at the end of the 1800s, a big swath of the American West was a crucible of change, with the highest murder rate per capita in American history. The reasons behind this boil down to one word: Texas.

Serial Car Thieves unfolds across multiple chapters, each peeling back layers on the individuals, gangs, systems, and societal factors that drive this phenomenon. Law enforcement’s painstaking surveillance and wiretaps painted a vivid picture of organized crime in motion, exposing how deeply entrenched the problem had become. The book explores the “chop shop economy,” where stolen cars disappear in hours through illicit dismantling and VIN-switching schemes. Corrupt mechanics, middlemen, and insurance fraud networks collaborate to erase paper trails, making recovery difficult and the ...