In the days prior to the rise of the FBI, it was actually surprisingly common to find entire towns i

In the days prior to the rise of the FBI, it was actually surprisingly common to find entire towns in the United States that acted as safe havens for various criminals, bank robbers and gangsters that were wanted in other parts of the country.One famous example of this being St. Paul in Minnesota, which operated on the principle that as long as you’re not committing crimes WITHIN the city you were allowed to spend your time and loot there while you wait for the heat to die down back where you committed your original crime.It was under this rule that enabled multiple infamous figures from the era, including the John Dillinger, Al Capone, Baby Face Nelson, and Ma Barker and her sons to all live in the town at one point or another.The source of this odd arrangement came about by the “The O'Connor Layover Agreement”, a layover from the early 20th century police chief John J. O’Connor plan to have detectives placed at the Union Depot and send anyone they deemed to be a potential criminal back out town in order to keep crime rates down.Perhaps unsurprisingly, this system proved to be both popular among residents (considering the loose definition of what a “potential criminal”) looked like and massively open to corruption, as residents would vouch for out of towners they insisted were good guys which naturally led to all out bribery as cops were just paid by crooks on arrival to enter the city.While crime rates within St Paul remained low, the Agreement was tolerated, but perhaps unsurprisingly, the arrangement that began with police corruption was eventually brought to a close with police corruption, when it was eventually revealed that one time Police Chief Thomas Brown had actually participated in the kidnapping of a local brewer in 1933 and a St Paul banker in 1934 respectively.Eventually with the growth of interstate law enforcement, cities that ended up becoming heavily intertwined with crime became less common, but didn’t entirely vanish. For example, Ohio’s Youngstown was likewise heavily entrenched by the Mob from the 1930s through to the 70s, but unlike St Paul’s relative peace Youngstown eventually became known as Crimetown, USA or Bombtown due to the rapid spike in assassinations and bombings in the 60s and 70s.Likewise Alabama’s Phenix City (yes, it’s spelt like that) also gained a reputation for crime and vice between the 30s and 50s that led to it gaining the nickname “Sin City“, with most city officials openly being bribed for their positions. By the 50s Phenix City’s reputation was so bad that General George Patton once threatened to bulldoze the place with tanks due to the amount of soldiers going there from the nearby army base only to promptly get drunk, beaten up, and robbed by the locals. -- source link

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