When James Moore joined the ATF in 1960, it was an arm of the Internal Revenue Service with one job: to catch the Mafia bootleggers whose distilleries cheated Uncle Sam of millions in tax revenue. During his twenty-five years of service, Moore saw the organization shift to enforcing of gun laws, be reborn as a separate bureau, and take on bombings and arson cases that most law officers wrote off as impossible to solve.

Moore's personal, from-the-hip history spans the long-running war against dons and drug dealers and covers agents' daring infiltration of the Ku Klux Klan, Hell's Angels, and other violent groups. He reveals the cutting-edge forensics work that helped crack the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombings and also provides an insider account of the raid on the Branch Davidians at Waco. Finally, Moore discusses the ATF's rivalry with the FBI and the political power games that impede the government's ability to fight crime.

| Cover Title Copyright Contents Introduction 1. It Was in the Bleak December 2. Three Detectives 3. Gentlemen Don't Boast 4. End of a Hundred-Year War 5. New Battlefields 6. New Ammunition for the Government Gun 7. Attacking Terrorism 8. Underworld Armorers 9. "Unsolvable Crimes" 10. Ladies and Gentlemen in White Coats 11. The Birth of a Bureau 12. Strike Force 13. Significant Criminals 14. Fire 15. The Circus 16. The Spring of '81 17. A Wonderful Plan to Kill ATF 18. The Un-Terrorists 19. Déjà Vu 20. Waco 21. Fallout Afterword A Endnotes B ATF Mission Statement C Job Description, ATF Special Agent D Sample Page: ATF Explosive Incident Report E Special Material re FBI F Facts/History re Proposed Merger of Treasury Investigative Bureaus G History of ATF Name Changes H Federal Firearms Licensed Dealers I Miscellaneous Studies and Statistics J Value of the Gun Control Act of 1968 Back Cover |"A straight-on, behind-the-scenes look at one of the most effective federal agencies, told by a veteran ATF agent with 25 years' experience chasing mobsters, contract killers, hate groups, and gun nuts. If it were a novel, it would be promoted as 'action-packed thriller,' but it's real life, folks. . . . The ATF has given invaluable assistance in helping convict members of the Mafia, KKK, and Hell's Angels, and its crime labs have helped crack the Oklahoma City and World Trade Center bombings, but you'd never know it, and all most of us can remember about them is their part in the tragedy at Waco."—Tom Elliott, The Mensa Bulletin
|James Moore is the author of Official Secrets.