Free State of Galveston polls in 2008 and 2010 indicate this sentiment may be changing. Indeed gambling aboard cruise ships leaving from Galveston is now commonplace. Though this era in Galveston's history has not received a great deal of attention in popular culture (compared, for example, to Al Capone's Chicago), there has been some popular fiction and true crime story-telling centered on the era. Some notable examples include the novels "Under the Skin" by James Carlos Blake, "No Greater Deception: A True Texas Story" by Sydney Dotson, "Galveston" by Suzanne Morris, and "Overlords" by Matt Braun, as well as the anthology "Lone Star Sleuths:
Galveston Island would hold until nearly the end of the 19th century. Galveston for a time before the American Civil War was the largest cotton shipping port in the world and the second-largest port for immigration in the United States. In the mid-19th century, it was a major port of entry for the many Germans who entered the state. During the Civil War, the Union army seized control of the island from the South for a few months during early 1863. Confederate forces commanded by John B. Magruder expelled them from the island, and the Confederates controlled it for the remainder of