Tiger Girl And The Candy Kid: America's Original Gangster Couple by Glenn Stout


Tiger Girl And The Candy Kid: America's Original Gangster Couple
Title : Tiger Girl And The Candy Kid: America's Original Gangster Couple
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0358067774
ISBN-10 : 9780358067771
Language : English
Format Type : Hardcover
Number of Pages : 384
Publication : First published March 30, 2021

The true Jazz Age tale of America's first gangster couple, Margaret and Richard Whittemore

Before Bonnie and Clyde there were Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid—smarter, more successful and better looking.

In the wake of world war, a pandemic, and an economic depression, Margaret and Richard Whittemore, two love-struck working-class kids from Baltimore, reached for the dream of a better life. The couple headed up a gang that in less than a year stole over one million dollars' worth of diamonds and precious gems—over ten million dollars today.

Margaret was a chic flapper, the archetypal gun moll, partner to her husband's crimes. Richard was the quintessential bad boy, whose cunning and violent ambition allowed the Whittemores to live the kind of lives they'd only seen in the movies. Along the way he killed at least three men, until prosecutors managed a conviction. As tabloids across the country exclaimed the details of the couple's star-crossed romance, they became heroes to a new generation of young Americans who sought their own version of freedom.

Set against the backdrop of the Roaring Twenties' excesses, acclaimed author Glenn Stout takes us from the jailhouse to the speakeasy, from the cabarets where the couple celebrated good times to the gallows where their story finally came to an end—leaving Tiger Girl pining for a final kiss.

Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid is a thrilling tale of rags to riches, tragedy and infamy.


Tiger Girl And The Candy Kid: America's Original Gangster Couple Reviews


  • Robyn

    HEY!!!!

    HEY!!!

    I love you, Kid... I can't live without you.... oh why won't they let me press my lips to you?

    Want to read something that is amazing?
    Based on history?
    Based on hours and hours of research?
    A great love story?
    Full of action, drama, and a real shoot 'em up?
    A full view into the 'hands off' period of American Corrections?

    THIS IS IT!!!! What is the matter with you guys? This is one of the best books I have read this year!
    Super fast-paced, engrossing, and engaging... told by one of the best storytellers ever.

    Before America's sweetheart criminal couple, there was another one... Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid or Richard Whittemore and his wife, Margaret Whittemore, both from Baltimore. They raised hell in the midwest and eastern coast. The problem is that while wanted, they were smooching with the highbrow populations, drinking, and partying during prohibition. These weren't your stupid criminals, these guys were the Oceans 11 of their day. It is an AMAZING read, I promise.

    5 stars and a RECOMMENDATION for this book, in fact, 5 recommendations.

    Happy Reading!

  • Kelley

    Received from the author

    Researched and written by the author over a period of 15 years, this reads like a movie! The Jazz Age comes alive from the opposite side of the tracks as Jay Gatsby. This book is fast paced, incredibly immersive and plain fascinating. I am first in line when a movie is made because it seems a perfect plot!

    Richard and Margaret Whittemore married young and wanted all that the Roaring '20s offered to others. They were kids from nowhere Maryland that had futures that would lead them nowhere. These kids had nothing and would continue in the tradition unless something changed. Richard was in trouble from the beginning, in and out of reform school, small bits of time for small time crimes. Doing time, however, leads criminals to meet criminals and soon the gang was meeting. With Richard's ferocity and brawn and the brains of others the gang was almost a foregone conclusion.

    Way before Bonnie and Clyde there were "Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid". They led the country's original band of gangsters. The book chronicles their crimes and passions. While the robberies were going well, Richard and Margaret lived the high life that they had seen as unobtainable. Now, it was theirs for the taking--literally robbing banks and jewelers with several murders as well. They had it all; cars, cash, clothes. They could hang out and party all night with the rich and entitled of New York. They saw it as their right to have everything they wanted. Why not? The entire world was corrupt--politicians, police, all those in power.

    The gang was finally taken down and accused of robberies and murders in Buffalo, New York City, Cleveland and Baltimore. Watching the police at work is sickeningly fascinating. The press, hungry for a story, dubbed the couple "Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid" and from there the legend grew. Crowds of people would gather each day to get a glimpse of the Kid. When he said he would rather hang than allow his wife to spend any time in jail, he became the romanticized version of a criminal. All the kids wanted to be like them and the media played right into their sympathies.

    I don't read much non-fiction, but I had previously read, "The Trudy Ederle Story, Young Woman and the Sea" by this author and I'm hooked! His books are well-researched and written with a nod to the times. Reading "Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid" used the language of the times to carry the story forward.

    I recommend this book with no reservations! You will undoubtedly enjoy it and pass it on. I can't wait to pass it on to friends!

    I've also had the pleasure of listening to this author do a couple of presentations and he never disappoints. In fact, many of our library patrons said he's the best presenter they've heard.

  • Jade

    Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid is the type of books that sweeps you off your feet. Roaring 20's? Check. Young mesmerizing gangsters? Check. Grand love story? Check. Here, we get the whole 1920's fantasy package, the beginning of romancing crime.

    When I picked this up, I hadn't entirely realized this was 100% true crime! I thought it had to be part fiction. BUT NO! This is so incredible. Throughout the book, we follow the Whittemore gang, led by Richard Whittemore. This guy does a lot of small crimes, which lands him in and out of jail from his teenhood on. Then, we witness how he slowly grows a criminal network, fully organized, with clear goals. All along, as we watch events unfold, there is one constant : the love Richard Whittemore and his girlfriend Margaret have for each other. Through robberies, murders, jailbreaks, etc. the two are always by each other's side, which totally makes the story seem emotional. Such a strong love!

    And this is how the whole fantasy of gangsters came to be. I find this incredible! Honestly, in this book, the destiny of the gang escalates quickly, and a lot happens to make people feel invested in the Whittemore's story. I get why they were on the papers, and the public kind of rooted for them. Still, as a 2021 reader, I'm grateful the author was able to capture all those moments from the Whittemore gang and bring all the characters back to life, almost 100 years later. Everything felt so vivid, and I got so invested in the events!

    I truly enjoyed the way the author managed to keep some objectivity in the book, not taking anyone's side, be it the police or the gang. It also focused a lot on the facts, which I always enjoy, while still keeping the right amount of storytelling to keep the reader entertained.

    Speaking of facts, I was AMAZED to see the amount of sources for this book!! Around 30% of the book is just a compilation of all the books, articles, etc. the author used to give us this story. I am in awe someone went through all that to recreate the fascinating lives of the Whittemore gang.

    All in all, this is a great account of the life of those people who chose to live without concessions, as richly as they could, as fast as they could. If you enjoy that era, or Bonnie and Clyde type of romance and stories, you must definitely pick this up.

  • Rose

    It took me a second to get into it, but once I did, it really read like a Netflix true crime docuseries.

  • Maryann Larucci-Troche

    I really enjoyed this book especially because these were real people and their story. The author did a phenomenal job in his research about the Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid aka Margaret and Richard Wittemore. I am quite surprised that it was not these two people we were watching movies about instead of Bonnie and Clyde. The number one question I find myself really wondering is why am I such a fan of these characters who did nothing but rob people and kill when necessary?? Richard and Margaret had a fan base more than a movie star would have. Why? I was heart-broken for Margaret losing her husband and not being allowed to touch or kiss him to say good-bye. I didn't want Richard to die, yet he was hung and that broke my heart as well. This is a great story of true events.

  • isabel. ☾

    A gangster story with a gritty style— in some respects this felt like classic Americana.

    I may be this book's number #1 fan. I thoroughly enjoyed it so much so that I didn’t want it to end. I reached the last few pages and put it down, briefly, refusing to let it end.
    The story of how I picked this book up was fairly random, it was standing on display at my local library and because both the cover and title were intriguing, I checked it out on my way out. I flipped through and thought, “how bad could it be?” —well little did I know how good this book could be. Thank you to whoever placed it out on display that day, what a wonderful treat.

    With such detailed research and illustrative writing I don't think Hollywood could ever do this book justice in it's entirely.

    I have absolute admiration for the author’s ability to use his vocabulary in such a beautifully expressive way that paints such a lively picture of a time period. I’ve never lived through the 1920s but after reading this I feel I have been given a glimpse behind the curtain.

    I could have done without some of the authors own personal comments/remarks that I believe were narrative embellishments. However, they more often than not, didn’t overshadow the story and mostly acted as prompts that pulled questions and curiosity from the reader.

    I also appreciated how the author was able to balance and acknowledge the dramatic and over-sensationalized version the newspapers had given while carefully retelling the story in today’s world.
    Some of these most “basic” societal problems, questions and outcomes still exist today. Wounds that have scabbed over, bleed out again and overflow, filling discussion rooms of the current time.
    To question whether the systems in place do more harm than good is always essential and if nothing else this book is a friendly reminder of that. Keeping in mind the corruption and frequent misuse of power that lives and breathes all around us. Is a corrupt policeman/politician/rich man, any better than a criminal? In some ways while their lives may be in some regards parallel usually they end with opposite outcomes.
    I do wish that the author delve more into his own interest in the story and what truly captured his desire to write it and his obvious and strong dedication to revive this tale.
    But overall the story really drew me in and was very fascinating. 

    This is my first introduction to the true crime genre and I was not disappointed. I believe even those who do not regularly enjoy this genre will like this read.
    I am dreading returning this book to my library. I do wish I owned a copy, haha!

  • Ari Pérez

    A fast read, yet well researched account of the early days of organized crime and the infamous lives of their members.

    After World War II, the disparity between rich and poor was exacerbated by the lack of employment and the recently implemented Prohibition. It is in these circumstances that young troublemaker Richard and Margaret Whittemore were ‘forced’ to choose the path of easy money and short life. Author Stout focused on these two characters — now almost unknown — to show one side of the criminal underworld of the Jazz Age. Without many opportunities in their native Baltimore, the couple decided to indulge in jewelry robberies and, in an age where the Bertillon identification system and fingerprints — not to mention DNA — were barely in their infancy, such acts were easier to carry out without being recognized. The Whittemore couple, nicknamed by the press Candy Kid and Tiger Girl, would lay the groundwork for the way the press would approach criminal celebrities— Bonnie and Clyde, afterward— elevating their protagonists’ short infamy in exchange for selling more newspapers. The faithful description of the times is far from what F. Scott Fitzgerald would write in his Great Gatsby, and it’s proven here that for every rich man there were hundreds of Whittemores looking for making an easy buck by risking their lives and killing one or two guys in the process. Not only does Stout describe the lives of both in surprising detail — given the very little personal information available — , but he also writes extensively about how Baltimore and New York were at that time, how prisons were run, the impact of the media in terms of criminals coverage and how the courts behaved at the time. A life as eventful and eye-catching as Whittemore’s would also need good prose to do it justice and Stout displays a flowery vocabulary, using slang and expressions of the time, giving the sensation to the reader that he is reading a hard-boiled novel. Whether their criminal lives were a product of their environment and times, or simply a pathological penchant for lawlessness, Stout shows an unbiased view, but no less entertaining.

    Born from the lower strata and risen to a position where they could rub shoulders with the wealthy, this forgotten couple is revived with an almost cinematic writing that goes well in hand with those who lived fast and furiously. ~

  • Holly Brazier

    This book is brilliant it reads through like a just like a novel but it is all shockingly true! Richard Whittmore was one very hard and dangerous man who in the end got to big for his own boots, thought he was untouchable which led to his downfall. A very interesting story that is just as fascinating as Bonnie and Clyde. Its surprising that this Tiger girl and Candy kid were forgotten so quickly but the author of this book has brought the story back to life through extensive research.

  • Walt

    The story of the Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid reminds me of Maugham's short story, The Lotus-Eater, where a young man cashes in his savings way too early so he can enjoy a few years of pleasure, telling everyone that when the money runs out...he will kill himself. Tiger Girl and Candy Kid also represent such rampant hedonism. They enjoyed about one year of bliss before the money ran out.

    Stout's research into their story is telling. The archives in Buffalo, NY; Baltimore, MD; and the Department of Justice are empty. Lost, destroyed, gone. The bulk of his research is through newspaper articles. He examined a lot of stories and compared coverage, especially of the trials. He must have done some genealogical work too, of which his references are not well cited. The writing is repetitious, flowery, and nearly as sensational as the newspaper writers of the 1920s. The fluff significantly added page length to the book without adding much else. He rounded off the story with a lot of incidental information about the 1920s.

    Richard Reese Whittemore was a petty criminal in 1910s-1920s Baltimore. His story could be found a thousand times over. He was a self-centered, violent criminal with no remorse. He may have had some charisma. Stout makes a good case that he held sway over fellow gang members. But the gang members themselves are not too impressive. The Whittemore Gang was not Ocean's Eleven. One gang member was readily identifiable from a distance. Another bizarrely came out of hiding to go into the lion's den, to "help his friends," only to quickly turn state's evidence when arrested. The Kraemer Brothers appear to have been the brains behind the gang. Stout tries to present background on them; but they were much too mysterious. However, this reviewer thinks they were far more interesting to the story than either the antihero or the heroine.

    Coming together ca. April 1925 and running through March 1926, the gang held up several major jewelry dealers in New York's Diamond District. What set them apart from other gangs was the methodical planning and the daring of such crimes in a district swarming with uniformed and plain-clothes officers. Jake Kraemer organized some spectacular robberies. Whittemore managed the lesser members of the gang. Maybe that was why he was the leader.

    Tiger girl? She hardly fit in. Stout makes a case that she was a gun moll, a tough-talking accomplice who hid the guns, relayed messages, and shared the good times with her husband, Whittemore. Based on Stout's research, it seems probably that she actively held up Ortman's Cafe in 1925. But apart from this one instance, Stout could not find much of a criminal inclination to her. She enjoyed the wealth that crime brought her. But she also must have known or feared how it would end. Married to Whittemore in 1921, he went to prison almost immediately after their wedding. In 1925 he was barely out of prison when he went back in. He killed the guard, for whose murder he was later executed, and escaped. For that one brief year that he was a fugitive, he enjoyed the high life of a master criminal. Then the music stopped.

    It appears that the press dubbed her the Tiger Girl though there was little that set her apart from any other gang moll. Nearly half of the book chronicles Whittemore's two trials. The first, in Buffalo, was a circus designed to elevate the ambitions of the prosecutor. He wanted the case elevated to make himself look good. It backfired on him. Whittemore's lawyer won the battle in the press by ensuring Tiger Girl was always there and supporting her man. Whittemore too smiled happily for the cameras and played the loving celebrity husband. Quite possibly, were it not for the prosecutor, "America's original gangster couple" would not have gained any fame. When railroaded in Baltimore for murdering the prison guard, the setting was starkly different.

    Stout stands by his sources. He does not make too many leaps or analyzes his sources too thoroughly. The only stories he briefly dissected were those written by Whittemore himself. Stout was careful to publish as little of those stories as possible. Readers see next to nothing of Whittemore's own words. Stout sweepingly dismisses them as self-serving rubbish always blaming someone else. Stout tells his readers that he has compared newspaper coverage to present the most thorough story of the couple. But there are obvious holes. The most glaring is his coverage on how the police found the gang. Relying on one story from the Brooklyn Times Union, Stout would have readers believe that the police in Cleveland tipped off their New York counterparts to follow a suspicious character - someone not wanted in Cleveland for any crime. And the New York counterparts decided to assign a team of detectives to follow a suspicious character around New York, just to see what he was up to....The more likely story is revealed in the epilogue when Leon Kramer gets out of prison and visits the gang's fence. He steals thousands of dollars from him before publicly murdering him with a machine gun. It is somewhat astounding that Stout did not connect those dots, or he chose not to present them.

    Overall, it is a dry book. It should have been smaller. The trial coverage was much too drawn out. The flowery writing used to buffer the early chapters appear whimsical. Otherwise, Stout presented a fascinating picture of rags to riches. He captures the hedonism of the 1920s among the young people. He shows Whittemore as the petty criminal thug. He makes Tiger Girl more sympathetic. Widowed in 1926 she remarried in 1929 and appears to have led an honest life until her death. Stout claims that he reached out to her family for material; but was gently rebuffed. This is no glamorous story of Al Capone or Babe Ruth. This is the story of two people struggling to rise out of poverty and enjoy a crazy era. Many people can relate to Tiger Girl, if not the sweet-talking Candy Kid. What would you give up for a year of high life?

  • Sally Kruger

    A fellow reader described this book "like reading a movie." I agree, but I also envisioned it as a limited series documentary. (I've watched several recently on Netflix.) The action and adventure of TIGER GIRL AND THE CANDY KID is perfect for the big screen, and hopefully, it will make it there at some point. I think a documentary would also be warranted due to the vast amount of research material centered around the 1920's and the array of other criminal elements connected to and compared to Margaret and Richard Whittemore.

    The immediate comparison is Bonnie and Clyde. The title proclaims Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid to be "America's Original Gangster Couple" which places them above the infamous Bonnie and Clyde. This colorful pair fell in love as teens with life goals involved living the high life. That meant simple menial work wasn't going to do the job, but the life of crime might provide what they wanted.

    Author Glenn Stout, known for his sports writing, takes his readers for a wild ride with the outlaw couple. Robberies involving cash and massive amounts of diamonds and other jewels is highlighted by prison breaks and armed chases that resulted in murders, mayhem, and more. This riveting read will have readers diving into the couple's exploits and no doubt looking for more information on this fascinating period of history.

  • Debra Pawlak

    I received an advance reading copy (ARC) of this book from NetGalley.com in return for a fair review. This was an excellent book that tells the true story of Margaret (Tiger Girl) and Richard Whittemore (Candy Kid) who, for a brief time, lived a lavish lifestyle on the wrong side of the law. Set in the Roaring Twenties, this married couple went on a crime spree that included jewelry heists, murder and prison breaks. Margaret mostly hid guns and made deliveries while her husband handled the rough stuff. He had a record from the time he was a youth and while incarcerated fell in with a bad crowd. When Whittemore was arrested and sentenced to death, the young couple became media darlings. She was the beautiful gun moll and he was the bad boy who had stolen her heart. Before Bonnie and Clyde and before gangsters became Hollywood heroes, the Whittemores made news around the country and captured the public's interest despite his violent crimes. Author Glenn Stout is a fine writer who is quite thorough in his research. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in this era and the people who lived in it. A fine read!

  • Jean-Luc

    In "Tiger girl and the Candy boy" Glenn Stout gives us with brio, the opportunity to discover the lives of Margaret & Richard Whittermore, a flamboyant Maryland couple known today as the Bonnie & Clyde of their time, two lives on the wrong side of the law and the impact their criminal behavior had on the American psyche of the prohibition era.
    Finally, it was much more that the biography of two American love birds on a relentless crime spree that I found captivating in this brilliantly researched book, but Mr. Stout's fascinating portrait of the American Roaring Twenties, a restless nation on the move, buffeted between a WWI it never really wanted to enter and a Great Depression that will change its destiny once & for all during the inter war period. This book is definitely a winner!

    Many thanks to Netgalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for giving me the opportunity to read this wonderful book prior to its release date

  • Carmen

    Fascinating and thoroughly researched, this book has an incredible amount of detail considering how long ago these events occurred and how little has been written about the subjects. This is a great read for anyone that enjoys true crime or american history. One thing that slightly put me off was the author's characterization of Whittemore as a man playing the role of tough guy - even til the end. Frankly, this exhaustive catalog of the man's misdeeds served more, imo, to show that this was far from an act; Whittemore was a hardened criminal to his core.

  • Paul Barrett

    Tiger Girl and The Candy Kid is an engaging look into notoriety during the Jazz age. Glenn Stout, the author paints and engrossing picture of one of the first celebrity couple criminals that captured the imagination of the nation. Beyond the tow primary antagonists, Margaret and Richard Wittemore, the book opens your eyes to the excesses fueled by the prohibition the the resulting corruption throughout law enforcement and politics.

    The Wittemores and their compatriots began in Baltimore but their crime spree and gang travel through Philadelphia, Cleveland, Buffalo, and of course New York. The portrait of the times and places is engrossing.

    If you are a fan of Erik Larson or Hampton Sides, you’ll enjoy this tale.

  • Gloria

    Before Bonnie and Clyde there was Tiger Girl and the Candy kid. This is the true story of their life and times. Very interesting.

  • Lisa Tangen

    Brilliant telling of a little-known story (at least to me). Audio version is spectacular.

  • Alicia

    I needed a little more from the narration in terms of storytelling. There is plenty of research and Stout's focus is on telling you the story of an OG couple who were 'ride or die'. And for as awe-inspiring their lives were when they came together and began robbing and stealing, Stout wanted to lead with that and let the rest follow, hoping the simple intrigue would propel the reader forward.

    In a sense that's true, I wanted to know their backgrounds, how they came together, the time period, and their eventual unraveling, but it read like a textbook of history and facts about their life without some of the voice of the writer to demonstrate his motivation in telling the story. I wanted his spark to ignite the reading alongside the provocative tale of 'tiger girl' and 'candy kid'.

    I'll certainly recommend the story because it is an indulgent look at the time especially when it came to crime and punishment, but it wasn't a fast-paced action adventure.

  • Jeff

    3.75 stars. The blurb on the dust jacket was misleading about “America’s First Gangster Couple” — “Before Bonnie and Clyde were Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid”. Chronologically, that is very accurate.

    But the book is 95% about the Kid, because as stated in the final Author’s Notes, little was known about Margaret because 1) she didn’t do anything illegal before marrying Richard (left school early to work at the phone company), 2) newspapers at the time, either through sexism or the newness of females being even remotely involved with gangs, very rarely made the news, and 3) in the 20s, a gun moll literally meant being associated with a gangster. So, Bonnie Parker, she was not.

    But, thanks to the times, every major city had 8-10 newspapers, so the author culled them into a fairly good story.

  • Alecia

    I would rate this 3.5 stars. This was a very well-researched true crime bio of a criminal couple who were precursors to Bonnie and Clyde. Set in the Jazz Age, the environment is as much a character as Tiger Girl (Margaret Whittemore) and the Candy Kid (Richard Whittemore). These two captured the imagination of the public, becoming tabloid headlines and representing star-crossed lovers to a public thirsty for perceived representations of freedom.

    Of course, the reality of the crimes were starkly different from the romantic headlines. Richard killed at least three men while committing many burglaries. And the reader knows how his short life ends, early on in the book. But it is a very interesting tale set against a Roaring Twenties backdrop.

  • Neal Fandek

    Good, evocative exploration of a strange time and strange place in history, Baltimore, NYC, Cleveland and Buffalo in the 1920s -- but what time and place in America is not strange? This gangster couple, says the author, were the template for gangster couples. That I doubt: I'm pretty sure you can find people like this in the 1600s. He also expends a lot of ink on the hedonism of the 20s, how this couple just craved all the good things in life now and didn't care how they got it, how law enforcement often looked the other way even collaborated with criminals, and how justice is for the rich only -- again, when has this never been true in America? It's even more true today.

    Still, a good read and good look at the Roaring 20s.

    (The 2020s are roaring too, but not in the same way!)

  • Kristine

    Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid by Glenn Stout is a free NetGalley ebook that I read in mid-March.

    Stout goes all-in on the narrative, injecting even the smallest detail, moment, and choice with life; the couples' appearances, gang activity, ways of fitting in, escapes, stolen collateral, incarceration, and punishment, all sprinkled with direct quotes. The drawback? A lot of romanticism - typical for a precautionary story of this kind, but a lot, nonetheless.

  • Barbara

    Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid is much a story of the Roaring Twenties as it is a true crime novel. Richard and Margaret Wittemore were two lovestruck, moral-less kids who were seduced by the glamour of the Jazz Age and became the first celebrity couple. Without them, we wouldn’t have gun mols and those great gangster movies of the 1930s. A great read for history and true crime buffs.

  • Bonnie

    This book scared the daylights out of me! True crime isn’t my genre. Bonnie & Clyde were amateurs compared to this power couple. You should read it.

  • Cherie

    The first thing that caught my attention was the cover. Once I read the synopsis I was intrigued. I had no idea that Bonnie and Clyde were not the first gangster couple. With all the stories and coverage that surrounded them, I just assumed they started the new trend in crime. It is a nonfiction book and I know that there is the idea that books like these are more often than not a bit dry and boring especially when they are not so much in the words of the people they are about. This review is a bit long and that is because I want to give you (a possible future reader) an idea of what this story entails without giving too much away.

    I want to start off by saying how much I appreciated the background of both Richard and Margaret Whittemore as it has been said many times when looking for a reason someone turned a life of crime many will point to their upbringing. From the first page, we see that while neither one of them grew up living on the streets like so many (especially in the cities) at the time they were not rich. The families had established themselves in the community through hard work over a period of years. In fact, both of them knew one another since they were small children, and lived no more than a block or two from one another. I think one of the biggest differences between their upbringing is the loss that Richard experienced in his family which I'm sure contributed to future choices. To say that their status and family losses alone contributed to what eventually landed them in newspapers everywhere would be wrong.

    I must point out that while the story centers around the doomed couple a considerable amount of text is used to set up not only the different settings in which stores and people were robbed, the rules and laws of those times, and the scenes of where the trials took place but to the time itself. It was an age that marked the end of a strict and rigid Victorian period and ushered in an era that threw all previous rules/traditions out of the window. There was more skin being shown, loud music with risky dancing, parties, and most definitely alcohol that was largely fueled by the prohibition. It's important that we understand what this transition meant and that it too played a part in what happened and how it would change the country to where it is today. The author takes pains to include as much detail as possible, connecting it to our world today and ideas of how we see gangsters and the age of Jazz without it coming off as a list of ingredients on the back of the cereal box. Included are even a few pages of pictures which I really think help connect our lovebirds to a face as well as some of the other key players. I cannot tell you how many times throughout the book I would stop at certain points to go back to the photos. When there wasn't a photo I looked up the internet for one. I really wanted to see the people and the places as they were at that time and see if the look matched the person.

    From the beginning to the end we see what led up to the rise and fall of not only the Whittemore couple but the circle of people they worked in order to fuel a fast and loose lifestyle that drove so many other young people of the time. Richard and Margaret just gambled a little bit harder and longer tempting fate. While Bonnie and Clyde are known for leading the authorities on shootouts and losing their lives in one, Margaret and Richard along with their gang used long-term planning and deception in their quest to stay one step ahead of everyone else.

    I did take a break from the book a few times because there were times when I felt a bit overwhelmed with all the information some of which I had not known before starting this book. I felt it was good to step away and mull everything over even at times going back and reading previous pages or chapters. I can only imagine the number of hours spent researching for this book as the author explains in the last few pages how little survived from the period whether it had been destroyed on purpose or by accident. There are 45 pages of notes alone that give credit for all the quotes as well as providing more detail/description for some of them. Without this, I don't think the story of Tiger Girl and Candy Kid could have been told the way it deserves to be.

    I definitely recommend that you give this book a shot especially if you have an interest in not only history but the period and its influence on the generations that came after.

  • Ray

    Glen Stout's book, "Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid", tells a story of America's original gangster couple, living a life of crime well before the more infamous "Bonnie and Clyde". The story begins over a hundered years ago, and it's interesting to take a look back at how life in America evolved to what we live today. The main characters, Richard and Margaret Whittemore, lived through World War I, high unemployment and economic hardship, the Great Depression, prohibition, flapper girls, the Roaring Twenties, and like today, an era of a pandemic (The so-called Spanish Flu). It was a time without a safety net for society, and in tough economic times such at those, life could be tough.

    It was interesting to read about how Prohibition Laws were widely ignored, and as a result it became easy for many to feel it was "OK" to flaunt those laws as well as many others. And those who ran afoul of laws and got caught up in the legal system had none of the help citizens today may have. There were no Miranda rights, no court appointed lawyers, and prison guards could be as corrupt as the prisoners. It was also interesting to see how news media evolved from then to now. The first Tabloid newspapers began, and sensational crime stories became popular.
    This led to something of a hero worship phenomenon in which the criminal became more popular than the police.

    So it was in this era in which the book takes place. The "Candy Kid", Richard Whittemore, was a product of juvinile reform schools, and those facilities were long on punishment and short on rehabilitation. Not unlike today, prisons often were a breeding ground and training center for criminals, and reform and rehabilitation were mostly an afterthought. The the criminal justice system made a better criminal out of the Candy Kid.