The Face of Death

About the Book

The Whyos Gang spilled more blood and spread more terror in the big cities than any western outlaw could imagine.

The Henessey murder captured the national headlines and made the term "Mafia" a household word.

During the 'Roaring Twenties' the United States experienced one of its worst crime periods. It was a time of rampant violence spawned by the Volstead Act, more commonly known as "Prohibition."

The Face of Death chronicles the history of crime in the United States, from the roots of the Mafia and big city gangs to Bonnie and Clyde.

About the Author

Omus Sours

The author was born on September 28, 1919, in the small town of Seminole, Oklahoma. His father worked as a mule skinner hauling oil field pipe for a firm by the name of Farley. His mother washed clothing for the oil field workers while his father skinned mules for the Farley firm. During the depression in 1928, his father was forced to leave the oil fields and find other employment. He found other work in the cotton fields five miles south of Temple, Oklahoma. The family settled there and the author grew up and attended high school there. It was known as the old Cobb Place. Times were tough and he wore his grandmother's shoes to school during the school week and gave them back to her to use at the end of the school day.

In 1942, he enlisted in the U. S. Navy and served 20 years. During his tour in service he served on submarines, battleships, cruisers and Special Forces.

After getting out of the service, he attended Louisiana State University and studied law and received credits in criminology and penology. He then served fourteen years with the Department of Public Safety and Corrections for the State of Louisiana. During his employment with the State of Louisiana, he was raised to the rank of Lieutenant in corrections and worked at Angola State Penitentiary and Wade Correctional Center. While at Angola State Prison, he worked on Death Row and in the Death House. He helped execute the first prisoners to be put to death in the Electric Chair at Angola, Louisiana after the death penalty was reenacted in Louisiana.

Mark Bishop

This author was born October 30, 1951, in Stephenville, Texas. His family moved back to Arkansas shortly after his birth and he first attended school in northwest Arkansas in the small town of Winslow in Washington County.

His father was a minister and the family moved several times as he grew up. He attended school in Havana, Arkansas and also Plainview Arkansas where he graduated from high school in 1969.

Some years later he attended and graduated from a mortuary college in Dallas, Texas. He and a partner now own and operate four funeral homes in southeast Arkansas.