[AnAmericanMother]

Nah, E St. Louis has ALWAYS been a bad place - gangsters, drugs, illicit alcohol, lots of gunfights.

Years ago I learned a long 19th c. ballad about an East St. Louis badman named Brady, who was shot in a barroom thereabouts.

Brady went to Hell, lookin' mighty curious.
Devil says, "Where ya from?" - "East St. Louis."
"Well take off your coat and step right this way,
'Cause I been expectin' you every day."

Brady, why didn't you run?
Brady, you shoulda run.
Brady, why didn't you run
When you seen Black Duncan with his Gatling gun?

Apparently they've gone from personal violence to obstruction of justice in the interim, though . . .

[misharu]

Well, while my grandmother was not a ganster moll, she did enjoy going to the honky tonks on the Meramec River in Valley Park during Prohibition!