The History of the Mafia

The History of the Mafia
Author: Nigel Cawthorne
Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
Total Pages: 371
Release: 2011-07-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1848583842

The Mafia began on a small island in the Mediterranean, Sicily. It grew to become a major political force in Italy, while its tentacles penetrated every aspect of life in the United States. Through drugs, it spread its influence to Britain, Canada and Australia. And through the gangster movies of Hollywood, including The Godfather and Goodfellas, it permeates popular culture. The History of the Mafia is full of blood-chilling characters, from Al Capone, who ran Chicago during Prohibition, and hitmen Louis Lekpe and Alberto Anastasia who founded Murder, Inc, to Totò Riina, 'boss of bosses', John Gotti, 'the Teflon don', and Bernardo 'The Tractor' Provenzano, who hid out from the law in a farmhouse for 43 years... These were extraordinary men who lived through extraordinary times. The History of the Mafia tells the story of their lives, their families, their codes, their crimes and their cold-blooded murders. A long and enthralling tale, drenched in blood and scored with betrayal.

Mafia Crimes

Mafia Crimes
Author: Al Cimino
Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2017-06-23
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1788284178

Organized crime is perhaps the most fascinating phenomenon of our time. From Al Capone, who boldly claimed his bootlegging activities were a public service, to the flamboyant Teflon Don, the criminals of the underworld have garnered headlines and captured our imagination with their violent and extravagant lifestyles. Mafia Crimes is an absorbing introduction to the mob's most influential personalities - their lives, loves and terrible crimes. It also provides and in-depth history of the role of the Mob in Sicily and America. For anyone who wants to know the truth about organized crime and understand the violent forces that have shaped it over the last century, this book is an indispensable guide.

American Mafia

American Mafia
Author: Thomas Reppetto
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 478
Release: 2016-06-07
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1250125596

"Reppetto's book earns its place among the best . . . he brings fresh context to a familiar story worth retelling." —The New York Times Book Review Organized crime—the Italian American kind—has long been a source of popular entertainment and legend. Now Thomas Reppetto provides a balanced history of the Mafia's rise—from the 1880s to the post-WWII era—that is as exciting and readable as it is authoritative. Structuring his narrative around a series of case histories featuring such infamous characters as Lucky Luciano and Al Capone, Reppetto draws on a lifetime of field experience and access to unseen documents to show us a locally grown Mafia. It wasn't until the 1920s, thanks to Prohibition, that the Mafia assumed what we now consider its defining characteristics, especially its octopuslike tendency to infiltrate industry and government. At mid-century the Kefauver Commission declared the Mafia synonymous with Union Siciliana; in the 1960s the FBI finally admitted the Mafia's existence under the name La Cosa Nostra. American Mafia is a fascinating look at America's most compelling criminal subculture from an author who is intimately acquainted with both sides of the street.

The Mafia and the Machine

The Mafia and the Machine
Author: Frank Hayde
Publisher: Barricade Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 9781569804438

The story of the American Mafia is not complete without a chapter on Kansas City, MO. The 'City of Fountains' has popped up in The Godfather, Casino and The Sopranos, but many aren't aware that Kansas City is key in the history of organised crime. Events unfolding in this city affected the fortunes of all the 'families' and shaped the entire underworld. In The Mafia and the Machine, author Frank Hayde ties in every major name in organised crime - Luciano, Bugsy, Lanksy - as well as the corrupt Kansas City police force.

American Mafia: Chicago

American Mafia: Chicago
Author: William Griffith
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2013-10-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1493006045

Everyone knows stories about the American Mafia and its varied forms of crime, from racketeering to stock manipulation to murder. American Mafia: Chicago explores the Windy City, strolling through its neighborhoods and imagining scenes from the past—telling the stories of the men, women, and families and revealing the events behind the legends and the history of the families' beginnings and founding members. Featuring the most fascinating stories from the early days, when loosely-organized, incredibly secretive gangs terrorized neighborhoods with names like Little Hell, through the mob’s headiest years, when Al Capone and his men pretty well controlled the city, American Mafia: Chicago offers tantalizing glimpses into the era when Chicago was ruled by gangs with their ever-twisting allegiances and tangled webs of relationships. Most of the buildings are gone now. But the stories are still there, if you know where to look.

The Mob and the City

The Mob and the City
Author: C. Alexander Hortis
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2014-05-06
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1616149248

Forget what you think you know about the Mafia. After reading this book, even life-long mob aficionados will have a new perspective on organized crime. Informative, authoritative, and eye-opening, this is the first full-length book devoted exclusively to uncovering the hidden history of how the Mafia came to dominate organized crime in New York City during the 1930s through 1950s. Based on exhaustive research of archives and secret files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, author and attorney C. Alexander Hortis draws on the deepest collection of primary sources, many newly discovered, of any history of the modern mob. Shattering myths, Hortis reveals how Cosa Nostra actually obtained power at the inception. The author goes beyond conventional who-shot-who mob stories, providing answers to fresh questions such as: * Why did the Sicilian gangs come out on top of the criminal underworld? * Can economics explain how the Mafia families operated? * What was the Mafia's real role in the drug trade? * Why was Cosa Nostra involved in gay bars in New York since the 1930s? Drawing on an unprecedented array of primary sources, The Mob and the City is the most thorough and authentic history of the Mafia's rise to power in the early-to-mid twentieth century.

Mob Rules

Mob Rules
Author: Louis Ferrante
Publisher:
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2015-02-26
Genre:
ISBN: 9780241972601

The average Mafia don knows more about effective leadership than a trunkful of Fortune 500 CEOs. For all the mob's well-deserved reputation for violence and immorality, its most successful members have always been remarkably astute businessmen. Former mobster Louis Ferrante reveals their surprisingly effective management techniques and explains how to apply them in any legitimate business.As an associate of the Gambino Family, Ferrante pulled off some of the biggest heists in U.S. history before the age of twenty-one, netting millions of dollars. His natural talent for management led bosses like John Gotti to rely on him. Now he offers time-tested Mafia wisdom, such as:* Three can keep a secret (if two are dead): Build trust with your colleagues.* You don't always need a gun to hit a target: Lead people without force.* It's never personal: When circumstances demand it, never hesitate to pull the trigger.Ferrante brings his real-life experience to the book, offering fascinating insights into Mafia behavior and sharing behind-the-scenes episodes almost as outrageous as those occurring on Wall Street every day.Louis Ferrante is a former Mafia associate and heist expert who served eight and a half years in prison after refusing to incriminate members of the Gambino family. He now lectures around the country to at-risk teens and other groups, and hosts an American TV series called Inside the Gangsters' Code.

A Complete History of the Mafia

A Complete History of the Mafia
Author: Jo Durden-Smith
Publisher:
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2007
Genre: Mafia
ISBN: 9780760791950

Traces the organization's history back to its origins in the nineteenth century.

Gangsters and Organized Crime in Buffalo

Gangsters and Organized Crime in Buffalo
Author: Michael F. Rizzo
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2012-06-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 161423549X

Take a tour of Buffalo, NY's mobster and mafia history. Local mob expert reveals gangsters' stories, hangouts and more. Buffalo has housed its fair share of thugs and mobsters. Besides common criminals and bank robbers, a powerful crime family headed by local boss Stefano Magaddino emerged in the 1920s. Close to Canada, Niagara Falls and Buffalo were perfect avenues through which to transport booze, and Magaddino and his Mafiosi maintained a stranglehold on the city until his death in 1974. Local mob expert Michael Rizzo takes a tour of Buffalo's mafia exploits everything from these brutal gangsters' favorite hangouts to secret underground tunnels to murder.

Mafia Summit

Mafia Summit
Author: Gil Reavill
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2013-01-22
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1250021103

The true story of how a small-town lawman in upstate New York busted a Cosa Nostra conference in 1957, exposing the Mafia to America. In a small village in upstate New York, mob bosses from all over the country—Vito Genovese, Carlo Gambino, Joe Bonanno, Joe Profaci, Cuba boss Santo Trafficante, and future Gambino boss Paul Castellano—were nabbed by Sergeant Edgar D. Croswell as they gathered to sort out a bloody war of succession. For years, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had adamantly denied the existence of the Mafia, but young Robert Kennedy immediately recognized the shattering importance of the Apalachin summit. As attorney general when his brother JFK became president, Bobby embarked on a campaign to break the spine of the mob, engaging in a furious turf battle with the powerful Hoover. Detailing mob killings, the early days of the heroin trade, and the crusade to loosen the hold of organized crime, this momentous story will captivate fans of Gus Russo and Luc Sante. Reavill scintillatingly recounts the beginning of the end for the Mafia in America and how it began with a good man in the right place at the right time. “The best, and best-written, true-crime story I’ve ever read. It’s as suspenseful, detailed, racy, and knowing as a novel by Hammett or Chandler.” —Howard Frank Mosher, award-winning author of North Country “A close investigation into the crime bosses’ upstate New York summit and its grisly aftermath, Reavill’s book accurately recreates one of the golden eras of American organized crime.” —Publishers Weekly