Iowa native Betty Brandt Passick has authored four books including two award-winning historical crime novels about northeast Iowa. Her first novel, Gangster in Our Midst, tells the factually-inspired story of Chicago mobster Louie La Cava’s arrival in the author’s hometown of Fairbank (called “Oxbow” in the book) in the early 1920s. During the sixty-minute talk, Passick takes attendees on a deep dive into the story of La Cava and his mafia family, along with other notorious gangsters operating in the Midwest during the 1920s-30s. Attendees are also invited to share their gangster stories.