Book Review: Harry King (Boxman)

"Harry King: A Professional Thief's Journey" by Harry King and William J. Chambliss was an exceptional book and a rare find. It details the life of a professional thief, specifically a professional safe cracker, and the ins and outs of his underground world. The book has been written and arranged by William Chambliss from a series of recorded interviews with Harry King and it is written much in the same voice that one could imagine Harry speaking in. The text also reads easily, Harry's "spoken voice" is simple dialog, although redundant at times and full of slang. The book is set  from 1910 to 1960, mostly in Western North America between San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle, which should adequately frame the technologies and culture at the time. Through this book, King and Chambliss provide amazing insight into one man's serious and professional take on a very taboo subject, being a full time criminal. I read an updated paperback copy retitled Harry King, which I paid ~$10 for on Amazon and read over the course of two weeks. Overall, I give the book 6 out of 10 stars, for being a fun and insightful read, albeit not well organized or succinct in its word choice. I recommend it to those interested in criminology, psychology, and American history. It's an excellent look into the practical underworld of traditional crime, something that is still closely related to hacking and infosec. The book is actually used as required reading in several college level psychology and criminology courses. I really appreciate how serious Harry takes his profession, from being an apprentice for nearly three years, to taking on other mentees and partners, and always learning new techniques from them over the years. Like most of my reviews, the following are the chapters of the book, which is also how Harry lays out the life cycle of a heist:

Chapter 1: Becoming a Thief
Chapter 2: The Mark
Chapter 3: The Caper
Chapter 4: The Rackets
Chapter 5: The Theif's World
Chapter 6: The Thief and The Law
Chapter 7: The Joint
Chapter 8: Rehabilitation
Chapter 9: The Journey's End

I appreciate how Harry details his tradecraft, from casing a place to all of the tips that go into making a successful robbery. I like how the book dispels a lot of rumors of the business out of the gate, such as the majority of safe crackers do not break the combo to get in, but rather circumvent the safe through explosives, burning it, prying it, or puncturing it. Harry was a safe cracking expert but didn't personally dabble in many other areas of professional crime, however he had many friends and delt with many of the other players in the criminal underworld. I enjoyed how Harry described many of the other types of professional thieves, such as finger men, stickup men, car thieves, con-men, counterfeiters, pickpockets, boosters, fences, and pimps. I also appreciate how blunt Harry is on his view of "law abiding society" and "thieves society" stating that there is more honor among thieves than "square johns". Harry vividly describes the relationships in the thieving underworld, how in the old days people would specialize and form trust groups between individuals. The relationships between independent thieves and the loyalty they would show each other as a community was awesome. They would also leverage these connections and each other's specialties to form teams or help each other out for various heists. One of the big differences between the developed East Coast and the relatively undeveloped West Coast at the time, was the phenomenon of organized or syndicated crime vs the independence of crime on the West Coast. Harry further describes how some thieves would get a salary or benefits to perform heists on behalf of larger groups or individuals, showing how more organized outfits would find and salary skilled professionals. I really like how Harry admits that all thieves have to accept the eventuality that they may get caught and have to pay consequences, i.e. jail time. Although Harry goes into detail on techniques to beat the heat, or mitigate the consequences through a series of bribes or knowing the right people. Harry also talks about how thieves have their own language or forms of communication, such that they can use these coded languages to speak out in the open. In fact, Harry uses tons of slang throughout the book that includes terminology from his field and time, giving the book a very authentic feel. The following is an interview with criminologist William Chambliss, who not only talks about his work with Harry but also discuses the advancements to the field of criminology and sociology over the past few years.