Jack Kelly

Jack Kelly is a noted author who writes both novels and nonfiction. His most recent book, Gunpowder--Alchemy, Bombards, and Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive That Changed the World, was released in 2005.

Articles by this Author

A History of Poker, November/December 2006 | Vol. 57, No. 6

The very American career of the card game you can learn in 10 minutes and work on for the rest of your life

Criminal, October 2003 | Vol. 54, No. 5

Mafia Souvenirs, April/May 2003 | Vol. 54, No. 2

From Connected to Collected

The Most Dangerous Institution, August/September 2002 | Vol. 53, No. 4

For nearly a hundred years, the FBI has been fighting for America, and its discipline and professionalism have often been at odds with its shadowy, extra-legal tactics.

How America Met the Mob, July/August 2000 | Vol. 51, No. 4

Organized crime? Mafia? A lot of people, including J. Edgar Hoover, said it was mere folklore, until one day in 1957 when an alert New York state trooper set up a roadblock in a small town. What followed was low comedy with high consequences.

The American Fireworks Fetish, July/August 1997 | Vol. 48, No. 4

What lasts a couple of seconds, ravishes the eye, and calms the soul? Americans have known since 1608.

Rescue Squad, May/June 1996 | Vol. 47, No. 3

TODAY, NEARLY HALF a million men and women serve two-thirds of the country in a crucial volunteer service that began only recently, and only because a nine-year-old boy had witnessed a drowning.

Gangster City, April 1995 | Vol. 46, No. 2

During a single decade, Chicago invented modern organized crime and saw John Dillinger, the most famous of the hit-and-run freelancers, die in front of one of its movie houses. For those who know where to look, quiet streets and sad buildings still tell the story of an incandescent era.

"WEB ONLY STORIES" BY THIS CONTRIBUTOR

Why Today Is an Anti-American Holiday in Panama

Panamanians gather in the streets after the riots in 1964. (Michael Rougier/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images) Few Americans know that January 9 is a national holiday in Panama, and even fewer know why. Today is Martyrs’ Day—commemorating an outbreak of violence between Panama and the United States…

The Miranda Decision, 51 Years Later

. . . Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. That mantra, a Supreme Court justice once estimated, is familiar to two billion people around the world, mostly from its regular recitation in television crime dramas. Of all the rights guaranteed under our Constitution, no…

Martin Luther King’s Big Surprise

Martin Luther King Jr. addresses a crowd from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963. On August 28, 1963, at a mass gathering on the Mall in Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a speech that would become a beacon of the civil rights movement and that historians would rank…

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