Feature 12

November 2024 issue contents

Valachi and the FBI

rechristened the Mafia

J. Edgar Hoover

The Federal Bureau of Investigation hesitated to join U.S. law enforcement’s battle against the Mafia underworld network. The Bureau refused even to recognize the existence of the secret criminal society until circumstances left it no option. FBI did not fully engage organized crime until, with Joseph Valachi’s televised assistance, it had rebranded the syndicate...

7 magazine pages / 13 book pages.
Images, endnotes.

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Feature 13

November 2024 issue contents

DOJ vs FBI

Government agencies squabbled over the release of Valachi's information

Robert Kennedy and J. Edgar Hoover

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and its parent Department of Justice had very different ideas of what to do with informant Joseph Valachi and the organized-crime data he provided. In a feud that lasted a year, each agency worked to block and undermine the other and eventually made its own secret publicity arrangements...

8 magazine pages / 14 book pages.
Sidebar articles on Courtney Allen Evans, Miriam Ottenberg
Images, documents, endnotes.

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When Youngstown became 'Bombtown'

November 2022 issue contents - Feature

Shotgun murder leads to car-bombings of rackets leaders

By Edmond Valin

"The 1960 shotgun murder of racketeer Sandy Naples triggered a car-bombing campaign in Youngstown’s underworld that killed hoodlums Vincent DeNiro, Billy Naples and Charles Cavallaro. The violence overwhelmed local law enforcement. United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy dispatched the FBI to take control of the investigation. Despite the deployment of massive resources to the case, federal agents discovered there were no easy answers..."

Book page count: Twenty-six pages, including three and a half pages of notes and eleven images.

Magazine page count: Thirteen pages, including one and a half pages of notes and ten images.

Learn more about Informer's November 2022 issue.

October 2020 issue contents - Analysis

Analysis:

Agencies were slow to use Mafia revelations

Nicola Gentile in context

By David Critchley

"Having explored the great historical value of Gentile’s life story, we end this issue with an examination of the impacts of the Gentile exposures on law enforcement and criminal justice policies. Gentile’s account of life in his Onorata Società or Cosa Nostra never achieved prominence in either field, though known to scholars since the 1960s. We attempt to understand why his published experiences did not have the real-world impact they deserved..."

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What acquaintances revealed about Maranzano

August 2019 issue contents
Features

What was revealed about Maranzano

by those who actually knew him?

Magaddino

Several Maranzano contemporaries wrote autobiographies that included descriptions of Maranzano and his actions. Another close associate of Maranzano discussed him at length within range of an FBI listening device, resulting in a fourth authoritative source on the Prohibition Mafia leader.

A rough draft of Nicola Gentile’s memoirs may have been the first of these to reach U.S. authorities. But Gentile’s story would not be released to the public until it was published in Italy in 1963 under the title, Vita di Capomafia. In the same year, Americans were spellbound by the testimony of Mafia turncoat Joseph Valachi. At the government’s urging, Valachi composed his own autobiographical work, The Real Thing, which became source material for The Valachi Papers by Peter Maas, released in 1968. In between those Mafia memoirs, in 1965, the FBI benefited from electronic surveillance of the Niagara Falls headquarters of western New York Mafia boss Stefano Magaddino.

The public received another large dose of Maranzano information in 1983, when Joseph Bonanno’s autobiography, A Man of Honor, was published by Simon and Schuster.

Eleven pages including eight images and one page of notes.

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Book reviews, announcements

November 2018 issue contents
Books

Reviews for Behind the Murder Curtain by Bruce Sackman, Michael Vecchione and Jerry Schmetterer: Ghost: My Thirty Years as an FBI Undercover Agent by Michael R. McGowan and Ralph Pezzullo.

Announcements for Inspector Oldfield and the Black Hand Society, Carmine the Snake, Chasing Dillinger.

Five pages including five images.

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August 2017 issue of Informer

August 2017 contents
Editorial

This issue's "cover story" is an excerpt from Dock Boss, scheduled for release this summer by Barricade Books. Dock Boss, the story of Eddie McGrath and the mobsters who controlled New York City's West Side waterfront, is the first book-length project by crime historian Neil G. Clarke (Preview).

Also in this issue:

•  Lennert Van`t Riet and David Critchley provide a groundbreaking history of Frank Zito's little-known but influential Springfield, Illinois, Mafia organization (Preview).
•  Justin Cascio explores the career and family connections of the "Capitano," Angelo Di Carlo, who held key underworld positions on both sides of the Atlantic (Preview).
•  Edmond Valin digs through government records to discover the identity of a Bonanno Family informant (Preview).
•  Bill Feather provides details on the founding of twenty-nine United States Mafia organizations (Preview).
•  Richard Warner reviews books on an axe-wielding killer, the origins of street gangs and revered New York law enforcement officer Joseph Petrosino (Preview).
•  In The Warner Files, Richard Warner outlines recent changes in the Chicago Outfit (Preview).

[REMINDER: The Scribd online document-sharing service recently made the business decision to shut down the Scribd Store, one of Informer's electronic edition distribution channels since fall of 2010. At this time, the MagCloud/Blurb service is the sole distributor of Informer print and electronic editions.]

104 Pages

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Frank Zito and the Springfield Mafia

August 2017 contents
Features

Frank Zito

and the little-known

Mafia of Springfield

By Lennert Van`t Riet and David Critchley

"Little attention has been paid to the smaller Mafia families of the United States. Collectively, these overlooked organizations helped to give Cosa Nostra its national range and eventually justified the use of U.S. federal law enforcement power to combat organized crime. The crime family of Springfield, Illinois, is one such entity. Its criminal enterprises were typical of Mafia families, springing from prohibitions against such 'victimless' crimes as bootlegging and gambling and including episodes of violence..."

Thirty-nine pages, nineteen images, endnotes.

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William Dara, informant for Feds

August 2017 contents
Features

Indentifying Underworld Informants:

Bonanno member

in South Florida

aided federal agents

By Edmond Valin

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation has relied on member-informants to help investigate U.S. Mafia organizations ever since Joseph Valachi began to 'talk.' Mobsters who secretly turn against 'La Cosa Nostra' are in a position to give the FBI access to the history and activities of crime groups that is hard to equal. Some like Valachi testify in court and become household names, but most remain unknown to the public and to the organization itself..."

Ten pages, four images, endnotes.

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June 2015 Issue of Informer

June 2015 Issue Contents
Editorial

Often neglected in discussions of United States Mafia history, Calabrian-American organized criminals take center stage in this issue of Informer. Our feature article is a biography of Albert Anastasia, researched and written by Lennert van`t Riet, David Critchley and Steve Turner. The bloody early years of Calabria-born Anastasia’s underworld career and his supervision of the activities of the Murder Incorporated enforcement arm are the focuses of the piece. (Preview)

In a much lengthier-than-usual column at the back of the issue, Thomas Hunt considers the possibility that the Calabresi themselves formed an extensive criminal network in the U.S. and Canada before they were absorbed into the American Mafia’s Sicilian dominated crime families in the early years of the Prohibition Era. (Preview)

Also in this issue:

• Edmond Valin clears up the questions of how, when and why the American Mafia became known as “La Cosa Nostra,” and he shows that Mafiosi themselves were strongly influenced by the official nomenclature of J. Edgar Hoover’s Federal Bureau of Investigation. (Preview)
• Richard N. Warner examines the ironic role played by America’s white racism (and Hoover’s FBI) in the founding and growth of African American street gangs. (Preview)
• Warner also reviews Gary Krist’s most recent work, Empire of Sin. (Preview)

We expect that our regular readers already have noticed our change in format — a return to the full magazine size we formerly used from September 2008 through June 2012. While there were benefits to the more compact “digest” size we used from October 2012 through November 2014, the move back to a full magazine format was made due to the same irresistible force that lies behind all changes in the publishing world: the publisher likes it better.

Seventy-six pages, including covers and six pages of advertisements.

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How 'Mafia' became 'La Cosa Nostra'

June 2015 Issue Contents
Feature article

How ‘Mafia’ became ‘La Cosa Nostra’

by Edmond Valin

"In the early 1960s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) developed information that indicated the criminal organization commonly known as the Mafia was in fact called La Cosa Nostra by its members. Mafia turncoat Joseph Valachi would go on to make La Cosa Nostra (LCN) a household name through testimony at the McClellan Hearings in 1963. Some critics at the time said the new term was 'fabricated,' since no one else in law enforcement had ever heard of it. Now, declassified FBI documents can show how this obscure Italian phrase entered the lexicon of American crime..."

Thirteen and a half pages, including six and a half pages of endnotes, an appendix and a sidebar article.

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January 2014 Issue of Informer

January 2014 Issue Contents
Editorial

This periodical began back in September of 2008 as a sort of experiment. Readers and researchers appeared to have an appetite for solid, factual information on crime history, and writers of that history appeared to need a reliable means of getting their work to the public. But no one really knew if there was enough reader-appetite or writer-material to keep a quarterly journal going. 

The last five-plus years have been a pleasant surprise. Informer has benefited from a large and loyal readership and from a steady flow of quality article contributions. We are proud to note that we have helped disseminate numerous finds of historic importance, that we have established a reputation for excellent research and fine writing and that we have never missed a scheduled deadline (in fact, issues of Informer have always been released before their due dates). With the exception of a single scheduled break last January, Informer has churned out a new issue every quarter-year.

Maintaining the production pace for Informer hasn’t been easy. The publication has but one “employee” (whose time and energies are divided among a number of projects). After twenty-one issues, the moment has arrived to adjust that pace. In the future, the release of Informer issues will not be dictated by the calendar but by the quantity and quality of submitted materials. As articles become available, special issues of Informer will be scheduled, with announcements made through the Informer website and through Facebook and Twitter accounts. To describe this new publication policy, we borrow from the Latin terminology of the pharmacy profession: Informer will be published pro re nata (p.r.n.), as the need arises.

We understand that some readers and writers may not find this an ideal situation, but we hope they will understand that it allows Informer to continue to fulfill its purposes while permitting its sole employee to pursue some different challenges.

In this issue of Informer:

• Thomas Hunt pushes aside popular "Miracle of Brooklyn" legends to look at what really happened to the twice-stolen, twice-returned Regina Pacis crowns (PREVIEW).
• Lennert van`t Riet, David Critchley and Steve Turner examine the ascent of powerful Mafia boss Vito Genovese (PREVIEW).
• Bill Feather provides data on more than 100 known and suspected Detroit Mafia members active in the 1930s-50s (PREVIEW).
• Informer ventures back fifty years to explain a problem encountered by the Warren Commission that gave rise to multiple JFK conspiracy theories (PREVIEW).

116 pages including cover and advertisements.

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"Miracle of Brooklyn"?

January 2014 Issue Contents
Feature Article

A Brooklyn parish sacrifices for peace

but experiences pain and bloodshed

The Regina Pacis crowns

By Thomas Hunt

"Holy items dedicated to lasting world peace played an ironic role in tumult and violence within a Roman Catholic parish in Brooklyn. The items were a pair of precious jeweled crowns, blessed by the Pope, and fastened to a mural at the Regina Pacis Votive Shrine of St. Rosalia’s Parish. The crowns were twice stolen from the shrine and twice returned. The thefts caused widespread anguish, resulted in several arrests, and were linked to at least one gangland murder and the start of a long and bloody rebellion inside a Brooklyn-based crime family..."

Forty-two pages including seven and a half pages of notes and twenty-three photographs.

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Fifty Years Ago: Warren Commission

January 2014 Issue Contents
Feature Article

Oswald and the FBI

Lee Harvey Oswald

"Late in January of 1964, the President’s Commission on the Assassi-nation of President Kennedy (the Warren Commission) wrestled in executive session with a particularly troubling issue. There had been reports that the late Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of President John F. Kennedy, had been on the payroll of the Federal Bureau of Investigation..."

Fifteen pages including two pages of notes.

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January 2014 issue preview

Here's a peek at the cover of the January 2014 issue of Informer. Scheduled release date is Jan. 27 (but it probably will be available earlier).

Contents:

• Brooklyn's twice-stolen and twice-returned Regina Pacis jeweled crowns, 
• The ascent of Neapolitan Vito Genovese within the traditionally Sicilian Mafia, 
• 50 years ago - Warren Commission considers Oswald's alleged relationship with the FBI, 
• Detroit Mafia membership chart,
• More.

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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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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October 2011 Issue of Informer

October 2011 Contents

Though Gaspare Messina was one of a very small number of American Mafiosi ever to occupy the position of boss of bosses, few remember his name today. There are a number of reasons—including timing, background and overshadowing by more dynamic and tragic figures—that even true crime aficionados have found Messina forgettable.

In the lead feature in this issue, Richard Warner helps make Messina memorable by exploring his origin, his reign in New England, his brief tenure as supreme arbiter of the American Mafia and his quiet retirement in a Boston suburb (preview).

Acquaintances reportedly believed Tommy Carroll was always destined for a violent end. A gangster and bank robber, Carroll lived life on the edge, as he partnered with better known outlaws like “Baby Face” Nelson and John Dillinger. Carroll is the focus of Jeffery S. King’s feature article in this issue (preview).

Informer returns to the New England Mafia for its third feature, the initial article in Thomas Hunt’s series on Providence-based crime boss Raymond “the Man” Patriarca (preview). Also in this issue: Bill Feather provides a membership chart for the early Profaci/Colombo Crime Family (preview). Ed Valin takes another look at the FBI informants in the Chicago Outfit (preview). Patrick Downey deals with gangster combustion (preview). Richard Warner follows up on his July column by addressing additional J. Edgar Hoover rumors (preview). Thom L. Jones tells readers how an interest in sea otters sparked many years of research into the Mafia (preview). Informer reviews Al Capone and His American Boys by William Helmer (preview).

Seventy-six pages. Published October 13, 2011.

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Warner Files: More Hoover myths... or maybe not

October 2011 Contents
Column
By Richard N. Warner

"In the last issue we dealt with some false claims made by Anthony Summers in his book Official and Confidential. Summers also suggested that Hoover may have had black ancestry and was a secret part-African American who “passed” to advance in the white world."

Two and a half pages.

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July 2011 Issue of Informer

July 2011 Contents

Crime historians have puzzled for decades over FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s long denial of the existence of organized crime. Following the Apalachin Mafia convention of 1957 and Joe Valachi’s revelations in the early 1960s, Hoover and his Bureau joined the war on organized crime. Hoover, however, never explained his earlier reluctance , and various theories—some baseless and cruel—have emerged to fill the void in the historical record.

In this issue, author Alex Hortis shares with us a recently discovered handwritten Hoover memo from 1970 that serves as a window into the director’s earlier position (preview). Hortis and Informer columnist Richard Warner (preview) double-team many of the myths that have circulated about Hoover.

The New England Crime Family receives special attention in this issue. We begin with Part 1 of Richard Warner’s history of the Mafia in Boston (preview). A look at some of the better known underworld meeting places on Federal Hill in Providence, Rhode Island (preview), and Bill Feather’s New England Mafia Membership Chart (preview) follow.

In his first article for Informer, historian Ed Valin puts together historical clues to track down two of the FBI’s best confidential informants (preview).

Author Patrick Downey devotes his quarterly Dead Guys in Suits column to a discussion of siblings eliminated by their underworld rivals (preview). Then, in the issue’s final pages, Informer editor/publisher Thomas Hunt looks at an extremely early prediction of the Sicilian Mafia’s demise (preview).

Fifty-six pages. Published July 22, 2011.

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