Asbury: 'Chronicler of Sin'

April 2013 Contents
Feature article

An informal biography of Herbert Asbury

America's 'Chief Chronicler of Sin'

By Thomas Hunt

"It has been fifty years since Herbert Asbury, journalist, editor and author, passed from this world at the age of seventy-three, leaving behind both a collection of regional crime histories that would fill a fair-sized bookshelf and a vast army of readers hungry for more. His works, published and republished over the years, often have been derided by the academics as 'popular' history. Asbury personally acknowledged the claim but clearly preferred the term 'informal history.'"

Twenty pages, including two and a half pages of notes and twelve photographs.

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Gunmen of the Castellammarese War - Part 5

April 2013 Contents
Feature Article

Gunmen of the Castellammarese War, Part Five 

A lifetime of tangling with the law:

Salvatore 'Sally Shields' Shillitani

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

Salvatore Shillitani

"The fifth and final chapter of our series Gunmen of the Castellammarese War features the life of Salvatore Shillitani, better known as 'Sally Shields.' More than the others mentioned in the series, Shillitani’s life after the Castellammare War was one of incarceration and bending to penitentiary rules. In the criminal world, he was a failure. How Shillitani enrolled in such a life is unclear, but one factor may have been the bad examples he received from relatives..."

Twenty-four pages, including four pages of notes and thirteen photographs.

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Lucchese Mafia Chart

April 2013 Contents
Mafia Membership Chart

Lucchese Crime Family

Membership Chart, 1910s-1940s

By Bill Feather

More than one hundred documented and suspected members of the Lucchese Crime Family active in the period of the 1910s through the 1940s.

Four pages.


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Identifying Underworld Informants: Two Gambino Informants

April 2013 Contents
Column

Identifying Underworld Informants

Two Gambino informants had very different fates

By Edmond Valin

Carmine Lombardozzi

"On July 11, 1963, two men wearing makeup disguises entered a Brooklyn florist shop and fired five bullets into its owner before escaping. Shot dead was forty-year-old Gambino Family soldier Alfredo 'Freddie the Sidge' Santantonio. It didn’t take investigators long to figure out why. Nearly eighteen months earlier, Santantonio and two criminal associates were sentenced to eight years in prison for trying to sell stolen bonds. But unlike his accomplices, Santantonio never saw the inside of a cell. When Colombo Family member and informant Gregory Scarpa was asked at the time about the murder, he told the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 'it was common talk in Brooklyn that [Santantonio] was killed because he was cooperating with the government.'”

Fourteen and a half pages, including six and a half pages of notes and two photographs.

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The Warner Files: God and the Mafia

April 2013 Contents
Column

The Warner Files

God and the Mafia

By Richard N. Warner

"In 1969, Gordon Hawkins published an influential article in The Public Interest called 'God and the Mafia.' The point of the article is that it takes a leap of faith to believe in organized crime, a similar amount of faith to what Hawkins believed is required to believe in God. In 1969 many scholars had doubts in the existence of organized crime (meaning the Mafia or Cosa Nostra) just as they had doubts in the existence of God..."

Two and a half pages, including one photograph.

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Book Review: 'Mafia Summit'

April 2013 Contents
Book review

Just One More Thing

Review: 'Mafia Summit'

By Thomas Hunt

"When a review copy of Gil Reavill’s new book, Mafia Summit: J. Edgar Hoover, the Kennedy Brothers, and the Meeting that Unmasked the Mob (Thomas Dunne Books), arrived not long ago, I immediately opened it – as is my general custom with underworld histories – to the back. I am always hopeful that a book related to Mafia history will be of long-term use, and the material in the final pages is crucial..."

Seven and a half pages, including one photograph.

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In the News

April 2013 Contents
Column

In the News

U.S. District Court Judge Denise Jefferson Casper was randomly selected in March to preside over the upcoming federal racketeering trial of 83-year-old James “Whitey” Bulger...

One half page.

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100 Years Ago

April 2013 Contents
Column

100 Years Ago

Amadeo Buonomo, believed to be a henchman of East Harlem gang leader Aniello “Zopo” Prisco, is shot at close range...

One half page.


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Glimpse of April issue cover

Here's a sneak peak at the cover of April's issue of Informer. (The 80-page issue has a publication date of April 29.)

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Informer hiatus

After seventeen consecutive quarterly issues, Informer is taking a short break this winter. Publication of the journal will resume in spring 2013.

Note: All seventeen issues remain available in print and electronic format through HP's MagCloud service. (Electronic issues are priced at $5 or less and are free with each purchase of the corresponding print issue.) Click here to preview.

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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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