Organized Crime
New:
Doing the "Half
Moon Hop" by Robert Walsh
(06/01/2008).
On the eve of giving star witness
testimony against mobster kingpin Albert Anastasia in 1941, Abe "Kid Twist" Reles plunges to his death from his "police protected" suite on the sixth
floor of the Half Moon Hotel on Coney Island. Officially ruled a "suicide,"
the death of the former senior member of Murder Inc. turned canary was, most
certainly, a push, not a hop.
The Raid in Teaneck, the prologue from
Ron Chepesiuk
and Anthony Gonzalez's upcoming book, Superfly: The True Untold Story
of Frank Lucas, American Gangster. (A major movie about Lucas entitled American Gangster and starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe will be
in theaters beginning Nov. 2, 2007.) The book investigates Lucas's life and
criminal career and the claims to fame the movie makes about him. This includes Lucas's relationship with legendary
Harlem gangster Bumpy Johnson, his connection to La Cosa Nostra, the money he
made in the drug trade and the development of the Asian drug pipeline. Lucas's
life as a government informant is also examined. Beginning Oct. 25, 2007,
Superfly can be purchased from the web site
franklucasamericangangster.com. A documentary is also available.
The Chicago Outfit
Makes Its Move: An excerpt from the upcoming book Black Gangsters of
Chicago by Ron Chepesiuk
(9/07/07).
This chapter chronicles how The Outfit, Chicago's
powerful white mafia, moved to take over the lucrative policy racket in the
Windy City's so-called Black Belt in the 1940s.
The Investigation Begins by
Ron Chepesiuk.
(6/20/07)
An excerpt
from Ron Chepesiuk's Drug Lords: the Rise and Fall of the Cali Cartel,
chronicling how the longest running and most important investigation in DEA
history began. Originally published in 2005 in paperback by Milo Books, the
book has been expanded and updated to include information about the
successful completion of the Cali Cartel takedown. It will be available for
purchase this July (2007). For background see Crime Magazine's
The Fall of
the Cali Cartel by Ron Chepesiuk.
Hunting Down Vito Genovese in WWII Italy by
Tim Newark
(06/01/07).
Tim Newark is
the author of the recently published Mafia Allies: the True Story of
America's Secret Alliance with the Mob (Zenith Press). This article is an
adapted extract from that book.
Black Caesar
by Ron Chepesiuk
(02/20/07).
An excerpt from Chepesiuk's new book Gangsters of Harlem: The Gritty Underworld of New York
City's Most Famous Neighborhood, depicting the rise of drug king Frank
Matthews and his jumping bail in 1973.
Updated:
Gerald Ford's Role in the JFK Assassination Cover-Up
by Don Fulsom (11/11/06;
updated 3/12/07).
Warren Commission member Congressman Gerald Ford pressed the panel to change its
description of the bullet wound in President Kennedy's back and place it higher
to make "the magic bullet" theory plausible, enabling the Warren Commission to
conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman. Ford was J. Edgar Hoover's
informant on the commission and did the FBI director's bidding to squelch the
investigation from naming other assassins. When a Dallas County deputy constable
heard shots coming from the nearby grassy knoll, he rushed there to find veteran
CIA asset Bernard Barker, posing as a Secret Service agent. No Secret Service
agents had been assigned to cover the grassy knoll and all accompanied President
Kennedy to the hospital.
The Fall of the Cali Cartel by
Ron Chepesiuk
(10/21/06).
The
sentencing of Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela brought down the world's
most successful drug cartel, but did little if anything to halt the flow of
drugs to the United States.
Carlos Marcello and the Assassination of President
Kennedy by Don Fulsom
(10/16/06).
New Orleans godfather Carlos Marcello – with Jimmy Hoffa
as his bagman – funded Richard Nixon's 1960 presidential bid with $500,000 in
cash stuffed in a suitcase. Later Marcello – known as the Big Daddy of the Big
Easy – would be named a key conspirator in President Kennedy's assassination.
The Mob's
President: Richard Nixon's Secret Ties to the Mafia by
Don Fulsom.
(02/05/06)
By the time he became president in 1969, Richard Nixon had been on the giving
and receiving end of major underworld favors for more than two decades.
Watergate was just the tip of the iceberg.
Turning Point by
Dennis N. Griffin.
(09/15/05)
The introduction
to Griffin's upcoming book entitled The Battle for Las Vegas — The Law vs.
the Mob. The book chronicles the wide-ranging, criminal exploits of Chicago
Outfit enforcer Tony Spilotro, the mobster portrayed by Joe Pesci in the movie
Casino, and law enforcement's belabored efforts to oust the Mafia from
Vegas. It is told in large part by the former FBI agents and detectives who
fought the war against Spilotro and his Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. The
book is scheduled for publication by Huntington Press in early 2006.
The Labs That Made It Snow by
Ron Chepesiuk. (06/15/03)
This is the prologue to the upcoming book
The Bullet or the
Bribe: Taking Down Colombia's Cali Drug Cartel by Ron Chepesiuk, the story
of the rise of the powerful Cali Cartel and the long and often frustrating
campaign that U.S. and international law enforcement waged to take it down. The
book details the cartel’s rise to international prominence and the lifestyles of
its godfathers, its efforts to buy Colombia, its death struggle with legendary
Colombian drug trafficker Pablo Escobar, its brilliant strategy to portray
itself as the kinder, gentler drug cartel from Colombia, and the mistakes that
ultimately led to the crumbling of its well-oiled organization. The book will be
published by Praeger, a member of the Greenwood Publishing Group,
in the fall of 2003.
Part One: The Mysterious Death of CIA Scientist Frank
Olson by H. P. Albarelli Jr.
(12/14/02)
When CIA Scientist Frank Olson plunged to his death from the 10th floor of a New York hotel in 1953, his death was ruled a suicide. Twenty-two years later a special Presidential Commission investigating the CIA's development of potent drugs for use in biological warfare and assassinations revealed shocking new details about Olson’s death. In 1996 Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau opened a new investigation into Olson’s death based on startling discoveries uncovered by forensic sleuth James Starrs that put to lie the CIA’s version of how Olson died.
Part Two: The
Mysterious Death of CIA Scientist Frank Olson by
H. P. Albarelli Jr. (05/19/03)
In 1996, Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau
opened a new investigation into CIA Scientist Frank Olson's 1953 "suicide,"
assigning the case to a special Cold Case Unit staffed by two veteran
prosecutors. Details about the activities and findings of that ongoing inquiry
have never before been revealed. Investigative journalist and writer H.P.
Albarelli Jr. conducted his own seven-year examination into Olson's death. In
Part Two, he reports his findings about one of the U.S. government's greatest
conspiracies and unsolved mysteries.
The
Original Teflon Don: Des Moines's Louis Fratto by Allan
May. (10/23/02)
"Cockeyed Louie" Fratto stared down
three U.S. Senate committees -- Kefauver, McClellan, and Capehart -- by taking
"the Fifth." His 30-year reign as the mob's lead man in Iowa netted
him numerous civic honors, but not one day in jail.
The
History of the Kansas City Family by Allan
May. (Updated
10/10/02)
Other than Tammany Hall in New York, the
Pendergast machine in Kansas City was the most thorough melding of vice and
politics ever seen in the United States. It would not be until the emergence of
the iron-fisted Nick Civella in the mid-1950s –10 years after "Boss
Tom" Pendergast was dead – that Kansas City would take on a more
traditional organized crime structure.
A Set-Up for Murder by Ronald J.
Lawrence. All Jesse
Stoneking had to do was be himself -- look tough and menacing -- to earn the
easiest $25,000 that had ever come his way. For the right-hand man to St. Louis
mobster Art Berne, the job seemed too good to be true. And it was.
Frank Sinatra and the Mob by
J.D.
Chandler. The recent release of Sinatra’s extensive FBI file exposes his
mob connections in voluminous detail, putting to lie Ol’ Blue Eyes’ most
celebrated claim that he did it his way.
The
Brothers Capone by Allan
May. Imagine having the most notorious gangster in U.S. history for a
brother. James, the oldest of the seven Capone brothers, did everything he
could, including changing his name and becoming a Prohibition agent, to distance
himself. He didn’t quite make it. The others lived their lives in Big Al’s
orbit.
The Rat by Allan May.
For 15 years "Willie Boy" Johnson ratted out his mentor John Gotti
and other major New York crime family figures to save his own skin and got away
with it. And then an assistant U.S. attorney, in a turf battle with the FBI,
deliberately blew his cover – and his chances for staying alive.
Chicago’s
Unione Siciliana: 1920 – A Decade of Slaughter
by Allan May. The political feud between Anthony
D’Andrea, the head of Unione Siciliana, and John Powers, the entrenched
alderman of Chicago’s 19th Ward, was a fight to the death.
Part II of
Chicago’s Unione Siciliana: 1920 – A Decade of Slaughter
by Allan May. As president of Unione Siciliana, Mike
Merlo was able to keep the peace among Chicago’s various underworld factions
during the early years of Prohibition. When he died of cancer in 1924, Al Capone
set his sights on taking over control of the Unione and its fabulously
profitable "alky" stills. First Angelo Genna and then Samoots Amatuna
were murdered -- each within six months of taking over the Unione – paving the
way for Capone’s man to become president.
Part
III of Chicago’s Unione Siciliana: 1920 – A Decade of Slaughter
by Allan May. Being the
president of Chicago’s Unione Siciliana was a ticket to the morgue, but that
didn’t stop Tony Lombardo, Capone’s man, and Joe Aiello from wanting that
job more than any other.
Part IV of
Chicago’s Unione Siciliana: 1920 – A Decade of Slaughter
by Allan May.
Joseph Aiello was Al Capone’s most bitter rival. Each wanted control of
Chicago’s Unione Siciliana and the enormous profits its "alky
cookers" generated during Prohibition. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre,
plus the rise and fall of Aiello play out in this final segment of Chicago’s
decade of slaughter.
Phantom of the Ozarks: The Slicker
War by Ronald J. Lawrence. John
Avy, the
"Phantom of the Ozarks," was a "godfather" a century before
his time. His criminal exploits in the 1830s – wholesale thievery,
counterfeiting, murder-for-hire and the political corruption to make it all
possible – marked the most lawless period in Missouri history, making Jesse
James’ gang a few decades later seem mild and inept by comparison. It took a
vigilante group known as the "Slickers" to bring him down.
Vannie Higgins: Brooklyn’s Last Irish Boss by
Allan May. Prohibition spawned greed, and greed in
turn spawned mayhem and murder throughout the underworld. Bootlegger Vannie
Higgins ran booze by seaplane, speedboat, a fleet of trucks and by taxi to his
Brooklyn customers. When he muscled his way into Manhattan, he paid the price
for his greed.
Greed in the Desert: The Murder of
Herbert Blitzstein by Allan May. At 300
pounds, Chicago mobster Herbert Blitzstein looked like a heart attack waiting to
happen. Instead it was three bullets to his head that stopped his heart. As his
profits from loan sharking and auto insurance fraud were piling up in Las Vegas,
crime families in Los Angeles and Buffalo asserted their claim.
Murder For Hire by Ronald
J. Lawrence. Lawyers don’t always confine their differences to the
courtroom. Attorney Joseph Langworthy’s murder was a cold-blooded execution
paid for by an attorney so well connected that the chief of police "lost" all
the evidence in the case for over a year.
Part I of the Leisure Wars: A Reason to Die
by Ronald J. Lawrence. Sonny Spica, the rash
protégé of St. Louis Outfit boss Tony Giordano, was a marked man. Nick Civella
in Kansas City wanted him dead and so did Ray Flynn, the most violent labor
racketeer in St. Louis. The car bomb that killed Spica in 1979 ignited St. Louis’
infamous "Leisure Wars."
Part
II of the Leisure War: The Killing Fields by Ronald
J. Lawrence. Paulie Leisure wanted to control St. Louis’ underworld and he
was prepared to kill anyone who stood in his way. In using car bombs to take out
Tony Giordano protégé Sonny Spica and then Jimmy Michaels, the venerable head
of the Syrian-Lebanese faction, he touched off a bloodbath known as the
"Leisure War."
Boston’s
Mob War by Allan May. The 1984 death of
Raymond Salvatore Loreda Patriarca – who had ruled the well-oiled New England
Crime Family from Providence for the last 30 years – sent Mafia operations in
Boston into a bloody and prolonged free fall.
Murder by Mistake by Ronald J.
Lawrence. The car
bomb that killed Philip J. Lucier – the president of the Continental Telephone
Co. and the father of 11 children – was meant for an attorney whose clients
had swindled a minor New Orleans Mafioso. The FBI misread and mishandled the
case from the beginning. Subsequent federal investigations never produced a
single indictment. Now, 30 yeas later, it seems certain no one will ever be
charged in Lucier’s tragic death.
Frank McErlane and the Chicago Beer War
by Allan May. From 1923 through 1930 the beer
wars raged in Chicago. Frank McErlane – the gangster the Illinois Crime Survey
called "the most brutal gunman who ever pulled a trigger in Chicago"
– stood at the center of this bloody Prohibition Era turf battle.
Stoneking
by Ronald J. Lawrence. Before Jimmy Fratianno made ratting out mob bosses
fashionable, Jesse Stoneking’s testimony against St. Louis mob figures was the
most damaging ever heard in a courtroom. It helped send more than 30 gangsters
to prison. Stoneking was a respected and feared wise guy, a lieutenant to St.
Louis Outfit boss Art Berne and an accomplished thief. When Stoneking was packed
off to prison in 1981, Berne failed to take care of Stoneking’s family as
promised. That disloyalty quickly turned Stoneking into an FBI informant.
The
Guileless Gangster by Allan May.
Charles "Cherry Nose" Gioe was the victim of his own naivete. He
was forthright before the Kefauver Commission and he fatally misread
"Joey" Glimco, Chicago’s top labor racketeer.
Gaetano
Gagliano: The Quiet Don by Allan May. Less
is known about Gagliano – who ruled one of the original "five
families" from 1931 until he died of natural causes in the early 1950s –
than any other mob boss.
Havana
Conference – 1946 by Allan May. Lucky Luciano briefly reestablished himself as
the "boss of bosses" at the mob’s summit in Havana, but before he
could consolidate his power the U.S. government forced the Cuban government –
under threat of a medical-supplies boycott -- to deport him to Sicily. When he
finally did make it back to New York in 1962, his remains were in a coffin.
Frank
Bompensiero: San Diego Hit Man, Boss and FBI Informant by Allan May.
"The Bomp" was the most feared hit man of his era. His specialty was
murdering fellow mobsters. He got away with being an informant for 10 years
until the FBI hung him out to dry. He would die the same way he had lived.
Serving
Up Harry: The Riccobene/Scarfo War by Allan May. "Little Nicky"
Scarfo took over the Philadelphia Mafia in 1981 following the murders of
long-time Philly boss Angelo Bruno and his successor, "Chicken Man"
Testa, but it took a war with Harry Riccobene to consolidate his power.
Johnny
"The Fox" Torrio: The Father of Modern American Gangsterdom by
Allan May. A mentor to Al Capone, a confidante of Lucky
Luciano, Meyer Lansky
and Frank Costello, Torrio even managed to win the begrudging respect of law
enforcement.
Lawrence
Mangano: The Immigrant Who Became Public Enemy No. 4 by Allan May. He’s
obscure now, but "Dago" Mangano was one rung away from the top of the
Chicago Outfit’s ladder in 1944 when hit men pumped some 200 shotgun pellets
and five .45 caliber bullets into him.
The Power Lunch – Mob Style, By Allan
May, When 13 mobsters sat down for lunch at La Stella restaurant in 1966,
authors and journalists began to speculate on the meaning of the meet - and that
speculation continues to this day. The lunch became known as "Little
Apalachin."
Tales
of the Artichoke King, by Allan May, is the
story of Ciro Terranova - believed by some to be the original "Boss of
Bosses" in New York City.
The
Last Days of Lepke Buchalter by Allan May.
Thomas E.
Dewey built a political career around hounding the Jewish gangster Lepke. His
execution in 1944 — the first of a major underworld figure – riveted the
attention of a nation and was in doubt up to the last minute.
Jimmy
McBratney — A Footnote to Mob History, by Allan May. A great deal
of lore now surrounds John Gotti’s meteoric and bloody rise to power, but some
of it is completely erroneous.
The
Silencing of a Radio Crusader by Allan May. Was
Detroit radio crusader Jerry Buckley murdered because he led a successful recall
of the mayor or because he had witnessed a gangland murder? His unsolved case
from 1930 leaves that question open.
Waxey Gordon’s Half Century of Crime,
By
Allan May. Waxey Gordon led a life of
crime during a very long life. Busted for pickpocketing at age 18, he became a
major East Coast bootlegger during Prohibition and the head of a heroin ring
following World War II when he was in his 60s. He was the one Jewish gangster
who seriously rivaled Meyer Lansky, who became his bitter enemy.
Anthony
Giordano: St. Louis Hot Head, by Allan May,
is the story of a St. Louis mob boss who wielded influence not only in St.
Louis, but in all of Colorado. Giordano was an old time gangster with a temper
and was a legend in the Midwest.
"Three Thin
Dimes": The Demise of Larry Fay, by Allan May. Although largely forgotten now, Larry
Fay was a dapper gangster who inspired the movie The Roaring Twenties.
"Sammy
G": Home Town Gangster, by Allan May.
Salvatore
Gingello was the most colorful gangland figure in Rochester’s organized crime
history. His quick rise to fame and sensational ending was characteristic of the
Rochester mob itself.
The
Two Tonys, by Allan May, is the story of two
Kansas City hoods who went to Los Angeles to throw their weight around. This
story, peopled with such characters as Mickey Cohen and Jimmy "The Weasel"
Frattiano, is a page that could have been torn from "L.A.
Confidential."
A
Bug's Life, by Allan May, is the story of
Charlie "The Bug" Workman, who was rumored to have killed 20 men. One
of those 20 men was Dutch Schultz.
Part 1
of "Mad
Sam" DeStefano: The Mob's Marquis de Sade, by Allan
May, is the story of a man many consider to be the most vicious in Chicago
gangster history.
Part
2 of "Mad Sam" DeStefano, by Allan May.
Thomas
Eboli: Down for the Count, by Allan May.
Tommy Eboli ran the Genovese crime family for nine years, and some thought he
nearly ran it into the ground. But it was a drug deal gone sour that ended
his reign as one of the most powerful gangsters in the nation.
Jack Zuta: Angina From The Grave, by Allan May.
The murder of Jake Lingle, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, caused a
firestorm of publicity and fatal problems for Zuta, so unlovely a hoodlum that
his fellow Chicago gangsters despised him.
Murder
on the Day the Pope Came to Town, by Allan
May.
Few writers get to tell about mob hits made on members of their own family. One
writer who had the opportunity was Detective Louie Eppolito of the New York City
Police Department. On the evening of October 1, 1979, the day Pope John Paul II
visited the Big Apple, James Eppolito and his son were killed in Coney Island by
members of the Gambino Crime Family.
Whacked by the Good Guys, by Allan
May. Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci had the shortest tenure of
any of Chicago’s North Side gang leaders. An Italian, he headed a gang that
was dominated by Irish, German and Polish criminals. A mob rarity, he was given
a 21-gun salute at his funeral. But most notably, he may have been the only mob
boss ever to be killed by a law enforcement officer.
Cleveland’s
Sly – Fanner Murders, by Allan
May. The Italian Mayfield Road Mob dominated organized crime in
Cleveland during the latter years of Prohibition. Many members of the gang came
from the Little Italy section located on Cleveland’s East Side and, prior to
prohibition, specialized in payroll stickups. One such bloody stickup,
which resulted in three executions of robbers, has gone down in Cleveland
history.
Late for the Opera:"Samoots" Amatuna,
by
Allan May, is the story of a flashy Chicago gangster
who killed his first man at age 17, then rose to the top of mobsterdom -- only
to find that not only is it lonely at the top, but dangerous.
In
Ghosts of Bader Avenue, Allan May, our organized
crime columnist, examines a perplexing unsolved double murder case from Cleveland.
The Forgotten Man at Sparks:
Crime Magazine's organized crime expert, Allan May, takes a
look at Paul Castellano's underboss, Tommy Bilotti, a man who struck fear in New York
City.
A Sicilian Bedtime Story
by Allan May. Despite what some academics still
contend, it's more fable than fact that Lucky Luciano was behind the massacre of
mob leaders that became known as the Night of Sicilian Vespers.
The
First Shooting of Frank Nitti, by
Allan May, is the true story of how this infamous gangster was
almost murdered by a Chicago detective.
The
Tortured Soul of Ann Coppola by Allan May. Mob
informant Joey Cantalupo once stated in a video documentary that organized crime
members "like to keep their wives at home, barefoot and pregnant."
Mike Coppola handled things quite differently. He liked his wives to be bloodied
and beaten and, if a threat to him, dead. Each of Coppola’s two wives died at
a relatively young age. One from murder, the other from suicide.
"Dandy"
Phil Kastel was a little-known partner of organized crime heavyweights
such as Frank Costello and Arnold Rothstein. Allan
May illuminates Kastel in a way that gives you a
feel for the ever-changing face of organized crime.
The Wandering Jew, a/k/a Jacob
"Yasha" Katzenberg played a minor role in the history of organized crime, yet he
helped bring down some major mobsters and then disappreared forever. Story by Allan May.
Arnold Rothstein is
one of those legends that hang on the tip of the tongue -- "Don't tell me, don't tell
me, I know who he is." In "The Last
Hours of Mr. Big," Allan May tells us not only who Rothstein was,
but why the Big Guy finally shot craps.
Undying
Loyalty, by Allan May. In August 1943,
Thomas A. Aurelio stood at the threshold of a dream. After nine years as an
assistant prosecutor and 12 as a judge in New York City, he was about to be
elected to a seat on the Supreme Court for the State of New York. Then Aurelio,
in a wiretapped conversation, was overheard swearing his undying loyalty to
gangster Frank Costello.
Part
I: The
History of the Race Wire Service by Allan
May: Mont Tennes and the Birth of the Race Wire. Virtually
everyone who has ever been to a race track has used the Daily Racing Form, a
newspaper that provides comprehensive information on horse races at tracks
around the country. In this first of a three-part series, Allan May tells
the rich, mob-filled history of that small newspaper - so vital to gamblers
across the nation.
Part II: The History of the Race Wire
Service,
by Allan May. The rise of
the Annenbergs. The great Annenberg publishing dynasty that controlled the Daily
Racing Form, The Philadelphia Inquirer and TV Guide for
decades produced the fortune that allowed Walter Annenberg to establish and
endow the prestigious M. L. Annenberg Schools of Communication at the University
of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California in honor of his
disgraced father, a major player in Capone’s underworld.
Part III: The History of the Race Wire
Service, by Allan May. Tthe
conclusion of Allan May's three part series on the rise and fall of the
notorious race wire service.
