Hitler's fateful transition from ambitious demagogue to Europe's most vicious tyrant occurred on an ordinary Saturday - June 30, 1934 - through a little-known event that would come to be called "The Night of the Long Knives." Paul Maracin has painstakingly pieced together the scattered and intentionally obscured elements of this fascinating story of deceit, intrigue, and mass murder that has as yet received little attention from historians. This is the story of the events leading up to that awful night, and its most horrifying effects.