Assassination gone wrong? Things get wild in Miami.
About the series ...
HISTORY BEHIND THE MYSTERY is a series of video shorts featuring Mystery Writers’ of America GrandMaster, Max Allan Collins, as he walks us through the research he did into the events, historical figures, and conflicts that form the foundation of TRUE NOIR: The Assassination of Anton Cermak.
Max also gives us some insights into the decisions he made as the author and creator of the Nathan Heller Casebooks.
New episodes appear the Wednesday following each new episode of TRUE NOIR.
COMING January 29, 2025
In this episode of the “History Behind The Mystery” series, Creator/Producer Creator/Producer Max Allan Collins sets the stage for the assassination of the mayor of Chicago at a 1933 political rally at Bayside Park in Miami. A “madman” takes five shots at President-Elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt and fatally wounds Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak in the process.
It’s a wild tale, but just how much of it – the way it’s depicted in TRUE NOIR: The Assassination of Anton Cermak – is true?
Max lays it all out and explains some conspiracy theories turn out to be true … and quite consequential. It’s all part of the research behind the episode “Welcome to Miami, Mr. President” – the sixth chapter of the 10-episode, immersive audio drama, TRUE NOIR: The Assassination of Anton Cermak.
TRUE NOIR: The Assassination of Anton Cermak is an audio drama set in Chicago at the end of the Prohibition Era (in the early 1930s) and tells the story of private eye Nathan Heller as he tracks down the killer of the Mayor of Chicago at a political rally. But this isn’t your ordinary assassination. Mayor Anton Cermak was in a nearly constant power struggle with organized crime in his city … and he played just as dirty.
Check out more episodes of this series ...
Assassins, executions, show trials and TRUE NOIR!
Max Allan Collins takes aim at the trials of Cermak’s killer, Giuseppe Zangara, and noted Chicago mobster Frank Nitti. He also provides insights into how this chapter of Nathan Heller’s first mystery defines the heroic detective in the future.
Things get a little “spicy” when Nate goes to Tower Town.
Max Allan Collins explains why he takes Nate Heller in a direction so often avoided by other noir detectives – into the arms (and bedroom) of a virgin paramour.
Max takes a deep dive into TRUE NOIR’s 4th chapter.
Creator Max Allan Collins provides some background on how “The Outfit” operated during the Prohibition Era in Chicago and gives us a deeper look into “Tower Town”
Heller’s holidays aren’t so great in TRUE NOIR’s third chapter.
Max Allan Collins provides some insights into the characters and events referred to in “Merry Christmas, Mr. Heller”