MORALS COURT: For a Jazz Age gambling czar, what is ambition's true payoff?

MORALS COURT is the gripping Prohibition era saga of ambition, corruption, and a blurry line between business leaders and criminals.In 1923, a New York mobster sends Sam Tilden, his strategy whiz, to Pittsburgh to launch a numbers gambling operation. Partnered with the city’s most powerful racketeer, Sam uses political clout and payoffs to shield his empire from the newly established Morals Court.Success brings a chauffeured limousine lifestyle and notoriety, with city newspapers dubbing him the “slot machine and numbers czar of Allegheny County.” His rise also provokes threats from a resurgent Ku Klux Klan and a rival mobster. Throughout, Sam is torn between the love of two women, while nagging questions about his moral compass emerge through an improbable friendship with a nightclub owner and a back-room advisory role to the Governor.As the Roaring Twenties fade into the Great Depression, the pressure mounts for Sam to resolve his priorities. Inspired by the author’s discovery of his grandfather’s hidden past,Morals Court features actual events and personalities that shape Sam’s life and influence his reckoning. Read more