Tuesday, October 16, 2012

October 2012 Issue of Informer

October 2012 Contents
Editorial

For whatever reason, certain figures in crime history attract an inordinate amount of attention from the public. That attention tends to generate legend. And there probably are more underworld legends about Al Capone than any other criminal.

Capone contributed to the growth of these legends through his public appearances and through his travels. While his criminal empire was based in Chicago, he is known to have visited many locations across the Midwestern United States. He also traveled extensively in his native state of New York and in the nearby states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He visited the West Coast and vacationed in the South, eventually settling in Florida. All the locations he visited during his lifetime – and perhaps a fair number of places he never even heard of – have become homes to Capone history and Capone legend.

In this issue, true crime author Scott Deitche tracks down some of the lingering Capone legends in St. Petersburg, Florida, a Capone retreat where the gangland boss reportedly owned considerable real estate. (Preview) Deitche uncovers the properties and businesses that really have historic connections to Capone and his underworld associates.

Also in this issue We present Part 4 of the Gunmen of the Castellammarese War series. Lennert van‘t Riet, David Critchley and Steve Turner examine Dominic “The Gap” Petrelli, close friend and Mafia sponsor of Joe Valachi. (Preview)

Bill Feather provides an early Mafia membership chart for Tampa, Florida. (Preview)

Edmond Valin studies FBI documents to determine which members of the San Jose and San Francisco Mafias were providing information to law enforcement. (Preview)

In the Warner Files, Richard Warner gives his  recommendations for books about New York organized crime figures. (Preview)

Fifty-six pages, including advertising and cover.

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Capone in St. Pete

October 2012 Contents
Feature article

Al Capone in St. Petersburg
By Scott Deitche

"In January of 2009, a home in the Shore Acres neighborhood of St. Petersburg, Florida, went on sale for $262,000. From the front, the 2,350-square-foot, ten-room house was guarded by two stone lions. Sold for more than half a million dollars at the height of the regional real estate boom a few years earlier, the house entertained some lookers but no buyers. What made the house unique was the claim that it was built by Al Capone for his mother Teresa."

Seven pages, including four photographs, sidebar and one page of notes.

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Gunmen of the Castellammarese War - Part 4

October 2012 Contents
Feature article

Gunmen of the Castellammarese War, Part Four
Valachi's Mafia Sponsor:
Dominick 'The Gap' Petrelli
By Lennert van‘t Riet, David Critchley and Steve Turner

"Dominick 'The Gap' Petrelli’s life was filled with intrigue and risk. More an underworld 'fixer' than a Mafia killer, Petrelli sought to steer a course that maximized his business opportunities while avoiding potentially fatal side-effects. The only of our five Castellammarese War gunmen subjects born in mainland Italy, Petrelli came into the world as Domenico Antonio Francesco Petrella."

Twenty-four pages, including twelve photographs and five pages of notes.

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Identifying Underworld Informants

October 2012 Contents
Column

Identifying Underworld Informants:
Bay-Area informants proved crucial for FBI
By Edmond Valin

Fear of boss Cerrito (above)
caused at least one San Jose
mobster to become an informant.
"By the early 1960s, the FBI had persuaded at least three members of the San Jose, California, Mafia and one member of the San Francisco Mafia to share confidential information. At a time when the FBI’s knowledge of the Mafia was limited, these sources identified members, revealed organizational history and helped the Bureau build a storehouse of Mafia intelligence."

Eight pages, including one photograph and three pages of notes.

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The Warner Files: NY Mobsters

October 2012 Contents
Column

The Warner Files:
Recommended Books on NY mobsters
By Richard N. Warner

"In the last issue, I gave my recommendations for books covering organized crime in New York City. In this one, I want to follow up with works on organized crime figures who operated in New York City. To have a full understanding of the subject, you must have both types of books. Each will be incomplete without the other."

Three and a half pages.

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Tampa Mafia Chart

October 2012 Contents
Mafia Membership Chart

Tampa Mafia Chart
By Bill Feather

Chart provides data on dozens of documented and suspected Mafiosi from the Tampa, Florida, area in the 1920s through the 1940s.

Five pages.

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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Informer shrinks to half-size

A comparison of the new
and old Informer formats.
Beginning with the next issue - due for release shortly - Informer will be printed at half the size of the old format (5.25 inches wide and 8.25 inches tall). The result is a journal that is easy to carry, fits well on a bookshelf and costs considerably less to produce and purchase.

The October 2012 issue will contain features on Al Capone in St. Petersburg, Florida; Castellammarese War gunman Dominic "The Gap" Petrelli; and FBI informants from northern California organized crime families. 

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

July 2012 Issue of Informer

July 2012 Contents
Editorial

On the rare occasions when the underworld of the Milwaukee area receives attention from historians, that attention generally seems focused on regional Prohibition Era rumrunning or on post-Prohibition organized crime. Milwaukee is inevitably depicted as merely a junior partner of the Chicago Outfit.

Indeed, Milwaukee crime history often blurs with that of the Windy City located ninety miles to its south. But Milwaukee has been much more than a satellite in a Capone-centered universe. The Brew City’s crime history is as distinct and rich as the history of the law-abiding, hardworking Americans who have made up the vast majority of its population. There is much of interest and much of value in the study of the region’s criminal past.

In this issue of Informer, we strive to look at Milwaukee and its southeastern Wisconsin region in a different way. Our lead feature, the debut of crime historian Joshua Henze, turns the clock way back to explore the early roots of Milwaukee organized crime. Henze shows that the history of Milwaukee’s Sicilian underworld society rivals that of any northern United States city. (Preview)

Gavin Schmitt follows with an exhaustive examination of decades of Mafia meddling in the history of Fond du Lac’s successful Grande Cheese Company (Preview). Joshua Henze then returns with an article on Milwaukee-area counterfeiting organizations from the early years of the 20th Century (Preview). Bill Feather completes our coverage of southern Wisconsin crime history with an early Milwaukee-Madison-area Mafia membership chart (Preview).

You will also find in this expanded issue:
• Part 3 of the Gunmen of the Castellammarese War series. This installment focuses on Girolamo “Bobby Doyle” Santuccio (Preview).
• Ellen Poulsen’s review of Patrick Downey’s latest work, Legs Diamond: Gangster (Preview).
• In The Warner Files, columnist Richard Warner provides some reading recommendations for those interested in the New York underworld (Preview).
• An obituary of “Goodfella” Henry Hill (Preview).

108 pages including advertisements and cover
Published July 24, 2012

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The Early Milwaukee Mafia

July 2012 Contents
Feature Article

Vito Guardalabene and the
Early Milwaukee Mafia, 1903-1921
By Joshua R. Henze

"Very early on Tuesday morning, May 4, 1920, thirty-eight-year-old Giovanni Guardalabene, older son and successor to aging local Mafia boss Vito Guardalabene, said goodbye to his wife Angela. Giovanni and his taller, slimmer brother Angelo left the home they shared in Milwaukee’s Third Ward Italian district and headed to their city posts as garbage collection inspectors. It was a cool, spring morning of thirty-nine degrees..."

Forty-eight pages including seventeen and a half pages of notes, seven photographs and three maps.

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The Mob and Wisconsin Cheese

July 2012 Contents
Feature Article

The Underworld's Interest
in Wisconsin's Cheese
By Gavin Schmitt

"With the utterance of the term 'Mafia,' many images spring to mind. Few, if any, are related to cheese. However, the history of one highly regarded cheese manufacturer in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, a city about sixty miles northwest of Milwaukee, is entwined with the history of the American Mafia. And the company appears to owe its birth as much to events on the rough streets of Chicago gangland as to the more publicized cheese-making traditions of the small village of Montelepre, Sicily..."

Ten pages including one and a quarter pages of notes and six photographs.

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Milwaukee Counterfeiters, 1908-09

July 2012 Contents
Feature Article

Counterfeiters Captured
in Milwaukee, 1908-09
By Joshua R. Henze

"Defendant Carlo Zarcone rose from his chair in the third-floor U.S. District Courtroom of Milwaukee’s Federal Building, 161 Wisconsin Street. It was noon on January 14, 1909, and Zarcone was about to be sentenced on a counterfeiting conviction. The Sicilian immigrant must have been intimidated by his surroundings. The room’s two-story-high walls were adorned with carved oak panels and Romanesque arches stood over the doors, the windows and the judge’s bench..."

Fifteen pages including six pages of notes and nine photographs.

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Gunmen of the Castellammarese War - Part 3

July 2012 Contents
Feature Article
Third in a series

Gunmen of the Castellammarese War, Part Three
Ex-boxer Girolamo ‘Bobby Doyle’ Santuccio

By Lennert van ‘t Riet, David Critchley and Steve Turner

"Best known to his criminal associates as 'Bobby Doyle,' Santuccio took part in the permanent removals of Masseria allies Joseph Pinzolo, Alfred Mineo and Steve Ferrigno. His later life was something of an anticlimax and, like his wartime contemporaries Domingo and Rannelli, Santuccio died without fanfare..."

Eighteen pages including three pages of notes, eleven photographs and one map.

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Milwaukee Mafia Chart

July 2012 Contents
Mafia Membership Chart

Milwaukee-Area Mafia Chart
By Bill Feather

Chart provides background data on dozens of documented and suspected organized criminals in the Milwaukee area in the 1920s-50s era.

Four pages.

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Book Review: Legs Diamond

July 2012 Contents
Book Review

Legs Diamond bio well-served
by Downey wit, eye for detail
By Ellen Poulsen

"In this targeted biography, Downey perfects his unique style of prose, which points out the ironies of cops, gunmen, molls and the jailhouse through witty one-liners. His writing harkens back to a time when crime books had personality..."

Two and a half pages.

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Obituary: Henry Hill

July 2012 Contents
Obituary

Obituary: Henry Hill

"Henry Hill, whose early life of crime was chronicled in the 1985 book Wiseguy and the popular 1990 film Goodfellas, died June 12, one day after his sixty-ninth birthday. Hill passed away at West Hills Hospital in the West Hills District of Los Angeles, California..."

One page including photograph.

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The Warner Files: New York Reading List


July 2012 Contents
Column

The Warner Files:
A Reading List on the New York Underworld
By Richard N. Warner

"In the previous issue, I gave out some recommendations for books dealing with the Chicago Outfit. In this issue I’m going to pick on New York. There’s considerably more to choose from..."

Two pages.

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Saturday, April 21, 2012

April 2012 Issue of Informer


April 2012 Contents
Editorial

The average Mafia aficionado likely feels that he or she already knows a great deal about New York gangland chieftain Charlie "Lucky" Luciano. Just about everyone knows, for example, that Luciano survived being taken "for a ride" by his rivals, that he was nicknamed "Lucky" as a result of that episode and that he single-handledly revolutionized organized crime in the United States. Just about everyone knows those things; unfortunately none are true. The problem is that much of what is generally believed about the 1930s-era crime boss can be traced to fictional works and a single, terribly suspect Luciano biography.

In this issue, Informer takes a close look at Salvatore Lucania, a.k.a. Charlie Luciano, intending to separate fact from fiction and to establish the real-world details of his life and criminal career. A great deal of the material written about Luciano and his associates since the mid-1970s rests upon an insecure foundation: The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano by Martin Gosch and Richard Hammer.

Though often criticized by historians as the product of Gosch's imagination, The Last Testament has been widely (and inexplicably) accepted as a near-autobiographical telling of Luciano's life story. Quotes from the work have appeared in books about Luciano and his ally Meyer Lansky. Even some who have been vocally critical of Last Testament's contents and Gosch's methods have found it impossible to resist borrowing tales from the book for their own works.

In our featured article, historian Richard Warner explores The Last Testament and the claims of its authors. He compares its contents to the historical record in order to deliver what should be "The Last Word on The Last Testament" (preview).

Thomas Hunt follows up with a Luciano lifetime chronology. While the Gosch-Hammer controversy is noted, "Year-by-year: Charlie Lucky's life" is devoid of Last Testament influence (preview).

Also in this issue, we present the second installment of “Gunmen of the Castellammarese War,” as historians Lennert van ‘t Riet, David Critchley and Steve Turner tell the story of Steve Rannelli (preview); Edmond Valin identifies underworld informants from the Philly Mob (preview); Bill Feather provides an extensive membership chart for the post-Luciano Genovese Crime Family of New York (preview); Richard Warner recommends books on Al Capone (preview); and Patrick Downey discusses gangsters who were sent to watery graves (preview).

One hundred pages. Published April 20, 2012.

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Last Word on 'Last Testament'


April 2012 Contents
Feature Article

The Last Word on 
'The Last Testament'
By Richard N. Warner

"In 1975 the publishing house of Little, Brown and Company released The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano, penned by movie producer Martin A. Gosch and former New York Times journalist and author Richard Hammer. The book became a near-bestseller, and a paperback edition soon was published by Dell....
"Although Last Testament was positively received by the public, it came under heavy fire by journalists who had years specializing in organized crime research. The first negative criticism was offered by New York Times organized crime specialist Nicholas Gage. It was followed by a scathing review from former New York Post writer Tony Scaduto. The harshest criticism, however, came from an official government source – the Federal Bureau of Investigation..."

Twenty-nine and a half pages
Including twelve images and four and a half pages of notes.

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Year-by-year: Charlie Lucky's Life


April 2012 Contents
Feature Article

Year-by-year: 
Charlie Lucky's Life
By Thomas Hunt

"[1926:] Six days after the shooting, Levy and Haffman tell police they know who Levy’s attackers were. Twenty police detectives are sent to round up the men they identify. The following day, Lucania is charged with felonious assault. Also charged are John T. 'Legs' Diamond of the Hotel Empire, his brother Eddie Diamond of the Penn Post Hotel and James Walsh of 345 West Seventieth Street. The suspects are held in connection with the Levy shooting and also questioned about the December 11 incident at Broadway and Fiftieth Street.
"When two of the suspects are brought to Levy’s hotel room for identification, the wounded insurance broker says, 'There’s some mistake. These aren’t the men.' On December 29, Lucania, the Diamond brothers and Walsh are discharged in magistrate’s court."

Twenty-seven and a half pages
Including twenty-four images and five pages of notes.

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Gunmen of the Castellammarese War - Part 2


April 2012 Contents
Feature Article 
Second in a Series

Gunmen of the Castellammarese War, Part Two

A Series of Serious Errors: 
The Underworld Career of Steve Rannelli

By Lennert van`t Riet, David Critchley and Steve Turner.

"While not as mysterious an identity to the public as Sebastiano 'Buster from Chicago' Domingo, Stefano Rannelli was strategically more important to the outcome of the Castellammarese War. His story also gives us insights into the personal life of a Mafia killer during the conflict..."

Twelve and a half pages
Including seven images and three pages of notes.

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Identifying Underworld Informants


April 2012 Contents
Column

Identifying Underworld Informants:
Two 'Made' Members Provided
the FBI with Info on Philly Mob

By Edmond Valin

"...In Philadelphia, the FBI managed to persuade two inducted Mafia members to share confidential information. Their disclosures provided the foundation for the Bureau’s understanding of the Philly Mob. Although FBI documents are carefully crafted to protect the identities of informants, enough clues were left in the documents to make identification of the two Philadelphia informants possible."

Four pages
Including one image and one page of notes.

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Genovese Mafia Chart


April 2012 Contents
Mafia Membership Chart

Genovese Mafia Membership Chart

Bill Feather provides background information on more than 300 members of the Genovese Crime Family active in the 1950s-1960s era.

Seven pages.

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DGIS: Watery Gangland Graves


April 2012 Contents
Column

Dead Guys in Suits:
Some Gangland Victims
Subjected to Soggy Sendoffs

By Patrick Downey

"In the previous Dead Guys in Suits offering, we discussed those unfortunate gangsters who were sent off with a Fahrenheit-451 salute. In this issue, we will take a look at some who were disposed of by use of one of the other elements, water..."

Two and a half pages.

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The Warner Files: Capone Reading List

April 2012 Contents
Column

The Warner Files: 
A Short Reading List for Capone Enthusiasts

By Richard N. Warner

 "Not too long ago in an online Mafia discussion forum, a bunch of us spoke about recommending certain organized crime history books for beginning researchers. Definitely a good idea. So to get things started in this edition of The Warner Files I'm going to throw out some of my recommended titles..."

Two pages.

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A Look Back

April 2012 Contents
Column 

A Look Back 
Historical entries from 100 years ago, 75 years ago, 50 years ago, 25 years ago and 10 years ago.

One and a half pages. 

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Friday, April 20, 2012

Delivery of April 2012 print issue

Print subscribers please note:

Due to its size, the April issue requires some special shipping measures from HP's MagCloud service. The issue should reach U.S. addresses by the first week of May, U.K. addresses by the second week and Netherlands addresses by end of the month.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Informer advertisers to date

We wish to thank the following advertisers who have supported Informer: The History of American Crime and Law Enforcement:

The American Mafia website (www.onewal.com, mafiahistory.us);
Bad Seeds in the Big Apple: Bandits, Killers and Chaos in New York City 1920-1940 by Patrick Downey;
Balls: The Life of Eddie Trascher, Gentleman Gangster by Scott M. Deitche;
Bonnie and Clyde: The Lives Behind the Legend by Paul Schneider;
But He Was Good to his Mother: The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters by Robert A. Rockaway;
The Case Against Lucky Luciano: New York's Most Sensational Vice Trial by Ellen Poulsen;
The Company She Keeps: The Dangerous Life of a Model Turned Mafia Wife by Georgia Durante;
The Complete Public Enemy Almanac by William J. Helmer and Rick Mattix;
Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia by Thomas Hunt and Martha Macheca Sheldon;
The First Family: Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder and the Birth of the American Mafia by Mike Dash;
The First Vice Lord: Big Jim Colosimo and the Ladies of the Levee by Art Bilek;
Gangsters Incorporated website (www.gangstersinc.ning.nl);
King of the Sunset Strip by Steve Stevens and Craig Lockwood;
Knokaround Apparel (www.knockbacks.com);
Knokaround Apparel & Gorilla Convict Publications;
Legs Diamond: Gangster by Patrick Downey;
The Life and Death of Pretty Boy Floyd by Jeffery S. King;
The Mafia and the Machine: The Story of the Kansas City Mob by Frank Hayde;
The MobTours of Niagara Falls;
A Murder in Tulsa: The Sherrill Murder Case & The Rise of the Barker-Karpis Gang by Michael Koch;
On the Rock by Robert Livesey;
On the Spot Journal of Crime and Law Enforcement in the Twenties through the Thirties;
The Origin of Organized Crime in America by David Critchley;
The Rise and Fall of the Dillinger Gang by Jeffery S. King;
Running with Dillinger: The Story of Red Hamilton and Other Forgotten Canadian Outlaws by Edward Butts;
The Silent Don: The Criminal Underworld of Santo Trafficante by Scott M. Deitche;
The Starker: Big Jack Zelig, the Becker-Rosenthal Case and the Advent of the Jewish Gangster by Rose Keefe;
Superthief by Rick Porrello;
Uncle Al Capone by Deirdre Marie Capone.

Informer contributors to date

We wish to thank the following individuals, who have provided articles/research data or granted extended interviews to Informer: The History of American Crime and Law Enforcement:


Ryan Artis, Arthur Bilek, Deirdre Marie Capone, David Critchley, Scott Deitche, Patrick Downey, Justin Dugard, Bill Feather, Sandra Harmon, William J. Helmer, Alex Hortis, Thom L. Jones, Jeffery S. King, Chriss Lyon, Rick Mattix, Arthur Nash, Gregory Peduto, Rick Porrello, Ellen Poulsen, Marina Riggio, Richard Shaw, Martha Sheldon, Steve Stevens and Craig Lockwood, Michael A. Tona, Edmond Valin, Richard N. Warner.

Friday, January 20, 2012

January 2012 Issue of Informer

January 2012 Contents
Editorial

Numerous questions remain about Joseph Profaci and the Brooklyn-based crime family associated with his name. We are left to guess, for example, how Profaci rose to the leadership of the organization, how the independence of the relatively small Mafia clan was secured and how the organization managed to wield a level of influence that far exceeded its apparent numerical strength. In some Mafia histories, the Profaci Family seems to appear instantaneously in Prohibition Era Bath Beach and Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, already with Profaci at the helm and already a major player in underworld events.

While details of the origin of the Profaci Mafia are elusive, in this issue Thomas Hunt strives to provide a foundation for future research by noting Profaci’s kinship and Sicilian hometown ties to underworld figures whose presence in the U.S. predated his own (see preview).

In a collection of biographical essays, Justin Dugard sheds light on a few of the more shadowy figures of the Profaci-Colombo organization (see preview). Dugard also adds a Colombo Crime Family violence timeline (see preview). Bill Feather provides a Colombo Family membership chart (see preview).

Additional Profaci-Colombo coverage includes relevant portions of the House Select Committee on Assassinations report (see preview), an interview with Sandra Harmon, author of Mafia Son (see preview), and a book review of FBI agent Lindley DeVecchio’s book, We’re Going To Win This Thing (see preview).

We also review a new book on James "Whitey" Bulger and other gangsters who have called Boston, Massachusetts, their home, The Boston Mob Guide (see preview).

This issue also marks the beginning of a series of articles by David Critchley on the Gunmen of the Castellammarese War. In the first installment, Critchley examines the enigmatic Maranzano hit man, “Buster from Chicago” (see preview).

Sixty-eight pages. Published January 20, 2012.

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Giuseppe Profaci's Rise

January 2012 Contents
Feature Article
By Thomas Hunt

Giuseppe Profaci steps from obscurity
to leadership of an influential
New York Mafia family

Profaci's Rise

By Thomas Hunt

"Little information exists on the earliest days of the underworld organization known today as the Colombo Crime Family. In some United States Mafia histories, the crime family simply (though somewhat ridiculously) springs to life, already fully grown and with Giuseppe Profaci as its boss, in Prohibition Era Brooklyn. While it is impossible at this time to fill in all of the blanks of the crime family history, it appears that the roots of the Profaci-Colombo organization stretch back to a network of influential families in the region of Villabate, Sicily."

Twelve pages including one and a half pages of notes, a family tree and four images.

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Colombo Family Profiles

January 2012 Contents
Feature Article
By Justin Dugard

Benedetto D'Alessandro,
Simone Andolino,
Vincent Mangano

By Justin Dugard

"...D’Alessandro is believed to have been formally inducted into the Profaci Crime Family by the late 1920s. Like many others in the underworld organization, he had family connections with the Profaci clan going back to Sicily. His first run-in with the law occurred on July 9, 1928, when he was picked up in Baltimore, Maryland, for attempting to fraudulently obtain a motor vehicle title. At the time of his arrest, he gave an alias, Benny Castelli, and claimed residence in Baltimore via a false address. The case ended in acquittal..."

Eight and a half pages including nine photographs.

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Colombo Violence Timeline

January 2012 Contents
Timeline
By Justin Dugard

Colombo Violence Timeline

Summaries are provided for more than forty gangland killings associated with the Profaci-Colombo Crime Family based in Brooklyn, New York.

Four and a half pages.

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Profaci-Colombo Mafia Chart

January 2012 Contents
Membership Chart
By Bill Feather


The January issue includes a Profaci-Colombo crime family membership chart compiled by Bill Feather. The five-page chart lists more than one hundred known and suspected members of the organization from the period of 1950s-1960s, along with birth, death, relationship, rank and other information.

Five pages.

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Congress Examines Profaci-Colombo

January 2012 Contents
Feature Article

Kennedy assassination investigators
turn their attention to Profaci-Colombo

In the late 1970s, as it reexamined the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the House Select Committee on Assassinations explored what it considered to be relevant events in organized crime. Two of those events were the 1971 assassination of crime boss Joseph Colombo and the failed 1962 attempt by Giuseppe Magliocco to eliminate important underworld rivals.

Two pages including one photograph.

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Gunmen of the Castellammarese War- Part 1

January 2012 Contents
Feature Article
First of a Series
By David Critchley

'Buster from Chicago' revealed
to be Sebastiano Domingo

By David Critchley

"Until recently, a prolific Maranzano gunman could be identified only by the mysterious moniker of 'Buster from Chicago.' 'Buster was undoubtedly the number one killer in the Maranzano organization,' Chandler underscored, 'and he drew all the important hits.'"

Nine pages including seven photographs, a family tree and one page of notes.

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Interview: Author Sandra Harmon

January 2012 Contents
Author Interview
By Ryan Artis

'Mafia Son' author
Sandra Harmon

“Greg [Jr.] offered to trade information on [Ramzi] Yousef with the government in exchange for leniency, ultimately providing detailed intelligence on what would eventually result in the September 11 attacks. His warnings were ignored...”

Nine pages

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Review: We're Going To Win This Thing

January 2012 Contents
Book Review
By Thomas Hunt

Peer inside the mind of an
FBI informant-handler

"We’re Going to Win This Thing is billed as 'the riveting front-page news story of an FBI agent falsely accused of ordering four mob hits.' However, what this book mostly is in fact is a disturbing look inside the mind of an FBI informant-handler who spent too much of his career in a legal 'Twilight Zone' and as a consequence may have lost touch with the fundamental principles of right and wrong. The book also provides a window into the shockingly dysfunctional relationships among federal law enforcement and local and federal prosecutors within New York City."

Four pages

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Review: The Boston Mob Guide

January 2012 Contents
Book Review
By Thomas Hunt

A quick-moving tour of
Boston's underworld history

"Inspired by the capture of longtime fugitive racketeer James "Whitey" Bulger, authors Beverly Ford and Stephanie Schorow have assembled a quick-moving 160-page book that puts Bulger into his historic and geographic context. In addition to Bulger and his underworld cronies in the infamous Winter Hill Gang, the authors examine the major players and events in the New England Mafia, as well as various Irish mobs, Jewish crime figures and some other shady characters who have called the Boston region their home."

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Two pages.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Ad: Uncle Al Capone

Uncle Al Capone: The Untold Story from Inside His Family by Deirdre Marie Capone is an intimate biography of the Windy City's most notorious gang boss.



Ad: Legs Diamond - Gangster

Brains, cunning and daring helped Legs Diamond become one of the top gangsters in the East. Treachery, stubbornness, and poor decisions cost him everything: his friends, his money and, finally, his life.



Ad: Origin of Organized Crime in America

David Critchley examines the Mafia recruitment process, relations with criminal societies in Sicily, the role of non-Sicilians in New York's organized crime families, kinship connections, the Black Hand, the impact of Prohibition, and allegations that a "new" Mafia was born in 1931. This book will interest criminologists, historians and all fascinated by the American Mafia.


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