Pistoleros y terrorismo en la España de Alfonso XIII: Especímenes del hampa española (1914 1936)

What connection linked a mysterious French lady to a fugitive murderer? How did a handcuffed mugger manage to outwit the Civil Guard in the middle of the street? And why was a German spy able to control the Spanish police from an office on Las Ramblas? Pistoleros y terrorismo en el reinado de Alfonso XIII (Gunmen and Terrorism in the Reign of Alfonso XIII) allows us to delve into a period as unknown as it is sinister: a Spain where contract killings, police corruption, and international espionage were mixed with employer terrorism and brutal repression of the working class. It was a time when guns spoke louder than words. With the steady hand of a storyteller and the rigor of a historian, Gerardo Muñoz Lorente reconstructs the network of hidden alliances between criminals, corrupt police chiefs, spies, and military officers, from the halls of the court to the most dangerous streets in the country. We will meet such fascinating figures as the charismatic bandit Pellicoco, the sinister police commissioner Bravo Portillo, the false baron Köening, and the ultra-conservative Milans del Bosch, who cross paths with anarchist leaders such as Ángel Pestaña, willing to pay with prison--and with lead--for his fight for workers' rights. We will also discover how the feared Black Band was formed, how false flag attacks were planned, what role foreign powers played in urban espionage, and how newspapers and courts were manipulated to silence the truth. A chilling and meticulously documented work that reveals how, long before the Civil War, Spain was already a veritable battlefield. Real events, as incredible as they are true, that read like the best novels.