John J. Binder is a faculty member at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He received a PhD. from the University of Chicago. He is the author of The Chicago Outfit, which details Chicago's gang past from the 1900 to 2003. He is also the author of Al Capone's Beer Wars and Philadelphia Organized Crime in the 1920s and 1930s. He has served as the president of the Merry Gangsters Literary Society. He has served as an advisor to A&E's biography Al Capone and History Channel's St. Valentine's Day Massacre.