Clifton R. (Clifton Rodman) Wooldridge

author

Clifton R. (Clifton Rodman) Wooldridge

1854–1933

A Chicago detective turned his years on the force into vivid, sensational crime writing. His best-known books promise a firsthand look at corruption, vice, and police work in the city’s roughest era.

1 Audiobook

Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the World

Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the World

by Clifton R. (Clifton Rodman) Wooldridge

About the author

Remembered as Clifton R. Wooldridge, he was a Chicago police detective and writer born in 1854 and died in 1933. Library records for his work identify his full name as Clifton Rodman Wooldridge.

Wooldridge is best known for Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the World, a memoir-style account built around his police career in Chicago. He also wrote The Devil and the Grafter: And How They Work to Deceive, Swindle and Destroy Mankind, continuing his interest in crime, fraud, and the darker side of city life.

His books belong to that fascinating borderland between memoir, true crime, and social warning. For listeners interested in early Chicago history, policing, and the dramatic storytelling of the period, his work offers a striking voice from inside the world he described.