New book chronicles 'bloodiest gang' in U.S.

PEORIA, Ill. -- The Parkway Tavern on Farmington Road is not a point of interest for most out-of-town visitors, but it is for author Taylor Pensoneau of New Berlin.

"Right there is where an assassin hiding in the underbrush shot Bernie Shelton as he was about to get into his car in July of 1948," said Pensoneau, standing in the bar's parking lot and pointing to a spot on the asphalt.

"Bernie would later die of his wounds in St. Francis Hospital. His death was the last hurrah for the notorious Shelton gang, and it literally blew the lid off the financial linkage between the illegal gambling industry and the state government."

Pensoneau, 61, is the author of "Brothers Notorious: The Sheltons," published in November. It chronicles the legendary Southern Illinois gangsters from their beginnings as poor farm boys in Wayne County through their reign as "America's bloodiest gang," an appellation bestowed on them by the Saturday Evening Post. The Shelton brothers were bullies who became infamous for bootlegging, illegal gambling, labor racketeering and gang wars.

The book was a natural for the former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter, who served 12 years as the Illinois political reporter for the newspaper.

"When I was a boy growing up in Belleville, all people talked about was World War II, FDR, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Shelton gang," Pensoneau recalled.

Always heard stories

As a young reporter, Pensoneau worked with veteran reporters who had covered the Sheltons' criminal exploits and shared stories about the gang with their younger colleague. Many of their stories are in the book, which took Pensoneau four years to research and write. His research included archival material in newspaper files and libraries and personal interviews with a Shelton family member.

The author left the Post-Dispatch in 1978 to work for the Illinois Coal Association in Springfield. Today, he is the association's president.

This is the third book Pensoneau has written. He co-authored "Dan Walker: The Glory and the Tragedy" with Bob Ellis. He also wrote "Governor Richard Ogilvie: In the Interest of the State," which the Chicago Sun-Times called one of the 10 most notable political books of 1997.

"My goal in life was to have my name on a book," Pensoneau said. "I now have three. But this one was the most fun to write. Learning about the Shelton gang has been a lifelong passion with me."

His book presents the personal side of Carl, Earl and Bernie Shelton and captures the lawlessness of the Sheltons' reign from the Roaring '20s through the heyday of gambling in the 1940s.

"When the Sheltons rode highest in downstate Illinois, few would dare to spit on the sidewalks of towns where they held sway, such as East St. Louis and Peoria, without permission from a Shelton," Pensoneau wrote.