The Mob in Youngstown, Informer's November 2022 issue, is scheduled for release on Nov. 1, but preorders for its ebook and audiobook editions are being accepted now. Visit any of the links below to learn more:
Saturday, October 22, 2022
Monday, October 10, 2022
Advertisements in 2022 issue
November 2022 issue contents - Advertisements
Here's a look at the advertisements run in the November 2022 issue of Informer, scheduled for release on November 1. (Ads are not included in the audiobook format.) The ads are shown in color format (as seen in the magazine and e-magazine editions) and grayscale format (book and e-book editions). Click any ad to link to the related website.
Friday, October 7, 2022
New! Audiobook edition ready for preorder
>>> Prerelease discount through Oct. 30 <<<
Thanks to Google auto-narration technology, Informer's November 2022 issue, The Mob in Youngstown, will be available as an audiobook. Informer is not due to be released until Nov. 1, 2022, but the audiobook can be preordered now at a special prerelease discount through Google Play Books.
The audiobook runs a total of 10 hours and 22 minutes and includes all the same major articles presented in the magazine and book editions. (Short, unrelated filler material has been omitted, and some text edits were introduced to improve the flow of the narration.)
Sunday, October 2, 2022
Preorder the ebook editions
Informer's November 2022 issue, The Mob in Youngstown, will be formally released on November 1, 2022, but ebook editions of the issue can be preordered now. Two ebook varieties are available:
KINDLE - A Kindle-compatible ebook can be preordered through Amazon.com.
EPUB - An EPUB-compatible ebook can be preordered through Google Books.
The list price for each is $9.95. Ebook content is essentially the same as the magazine, e-magazine and print book editions of the issue, which are not yet available. (Page layouts differ among the formats. Magazine and e-magazine editions contain color graphics. Print book editions contain indexes.)
Sunday, September 4, 2022
Thank you to our article contributors
With the articles deadline for the November 2022 (Mob in Youngstown) issue now in the rearview, we are ready to begin work on designing, proofing and indexing the pages of the issue. However, we first want to take a moment to gratefully acknowledge the contributions of writers/researchers James Barber, Justin Cascio, Margaret Janco, Thom L. Jones, Michael A. Tona and Edmond Valin.
It looks as though the issue will be a large one, closing in on 200 pages for the print magazine format and about 375 for the print book format.
The issue's advertising deadline is September 30, 2022. The scheduled release date is November 1, 2022.
Tuesday, April 26, 2022
Informer 2022 issue focus is Youngstown OH
Informer's next issue (November 2022) will focus on organized crime in the Youngstown, Ohio, area - including nearby communities in western Pennsylvania. If you're working on something related to the subject and would like it considered for publication in this issue, please email me ASAP at informerjournal@gmail.com.
The articles deadline is September 1, 2022. Ads must be in place by September 30, 2022. The issue will be released - once again in magazine, print book and e-book formats - on November 1, 2022.
Monday, September 27, 2021
October 2021 issue of Informer
October 2021 issue contents - Editorial
Editorial:
Mafiosi of the West Coast
Our look at mobsters who set up shop on America's West Coast begins with excerpts from a fact-based crime noir by J. Michael Niotta PhD. These excerpts relate to the escape to California of New York gangsters - a young Jack Dragna and his cousin Ben Rizzotto - implicated in the 1914 murder of wealthy Manhattan poultryman Barnett Baff (PREVIEW). This is Dr. Niotta's first article in Informer. A brief biography of Baff is provided as a sidebar.
Dragna and Rizzotto also make appearances in Justin Cascio's study of the legendary “San Pedro Gang” and Corleone Mafia transplant Sam Streva (PREVIEW).
The San Francisco gangland murder of Nick DeJohn, found stuffed into the trunk of his car in 1947, and that killing's possible relationship with Chicago's so-called “Cheese War” are considered by Thomas Hunt (PREVIEW). The article is accompanied by a sidebar story on early Chicago shootings linked with the DeJohn family and by a collection of other car-involved murders of crime figures who settled in California.
Michael O'Haire reveals that San Francisco crime boss Francesco Lanza played important roles in the development of the Mafia in Colorado (PREVIEW). Lennert van 't Riet explores connections between the early San Francisco and New Orleans Mafia organizations, focusing on 1898 murder victim Francesco DiFranchi (PREVIEW).
In addition to the California-related material, we look into reports of another, “other Gentile family” (PREVIEW) and Jeffery King describes the career of Reinhold Engel, who led “one of the cleverest and most efficient” bank robbery gangs (PREVIEW).
In our “Just One More Thing” column, Thomas Hunt considers the rare appearance of law enforcement officers on United States postage stamps (PREVIEW). This issue also includes “Hundred Years Ago” notes on a crime boss desperate to leave the country and the murder of a St. Louis political boss, as well as a new book announcement for Rogues' Gallery about the Gilded Age revolution of policing in New York City.
| Type | Identifier | Dimensions | Color? | Seller | Price (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MAGAZINE LAYOUTS | |||||
| Print magazine | ISSN: 1943-7803 |
8 1/4" x 10 3/4" 96 pages |
Yes |  MagCloud |
$25.50 |
| PDF e-magazine1 | ISSN: 1944-8139 |
N/A | Yes | MagCloud |
$9.49* |
| BOOK LAYOUTS | |||||
| Print paperback | ISBN4: 9798474567648 |
6" x 9" 160+ pages |
No |  Amazon |
$14.95 |
| Kindle e-book2 | ASIN: B09FYJKJZS |
N/A | No |
Amazon |
$9.49 |
| EPUB e-book3 | GGKEY: L7A1ZTHWFGN |
N/A | No |  GooglePlay |
$9.49 |
|
1 - PDF document reader - such as Acrobat Reader - required. 2 - Kindle device or Kindle reader software required. 3 - EPUB device or reader software - such as Calibre - required. 4 - Print paperback also has ASIN: B09FS72B7G. * - PDF e-magazine is free with print magazine purchase. |
|||||
Plain text links:
Mafia spreads its 'talons'
October 2021 issue contents - Feature
Sam Streva and the 'San Pedro gang'
By Justin Cascio
Future Los Angeles Crime Family boss Jack Dragna was born in Corleone, Sicily, and grew up in Giuseppe Morello’s Mafia territory in East Harlem, New York. After the 1914 Mafia murder of chicken magnate Barnett Baff in New York, alleged conspirators Jack Dragna and Ben Rizzotto fled to Los Angeles. A year later, they and Sam Streva were charged with extorting a prosperous Long Beach rancher... Who was this Sam Streva? What was his connection to Dragna and Rizzotto?...
See what else is in Informer's October 2021 issue.
Nick had Cleveland kin
October 2021 issue contents - Editorial
Editorial 2:
Another, other Gentile family
In our October 2020 issue, we discussed the "other family" of Nicola Gentile, the Mafia leader who penned a tell-most autobiography in 1963. There may be more to that story...
See what else is in Informer's October 2021 issue.
Transcontinental mafiosi
October 2021 issue contents - Feature
Trail of blood
Mafia murder of Barnett Baff linked Corleone, East Harlem and the ghettos of Los Angeles
By J. Michael Niotta, PhD
This particular case remains pertinent to the early history of the Mafia in America for several reasons: it involves the relatively undocumented youthful activities of two future crime family bosses, Gaetano Reina and Jack Dragna; it sheds light on the inner workings of New York’s Italian gangs amid a power struggle following the imprisonment of Mafia leaders Giuseppe Morello and Ignazio Lupo; and, lastly, it highlights a link between East Coast and West Coast Mafia clans...
See what else is in Informer's October 2021 issue.
Chicago Outfit 'hit' in San Fran?
October 2021 issue contents - Feature
Was DeJohn a victim of 'Cheese War'?
Claim: criminals' curd conflict caused California casualty
By Thomas Hunt
R.A. Thayer of 3004 Laguna Street noticed the automobile parked in front of his home on Thursday, May 8, 1947. It was a car built to be noticed. The 1946 Chrysler “Town and Country” convertible had a deep Royal Maroon finish with plenty of chrome accents. The doors and trunk area of the six-passenger “woody” were framed by varnished white ash wood inset with darker mahogany panels...
Sidebar articles:
- Early Chicago shootings involving DiGiovannis
- Golden State often unfriendly to transplanted mobsters
See what else is in Informer's October 2021 issue.
Linking Golden State and Centennial State
October 2021 issue contents - Column
Family History:
San Francisco boss Lanza held key role with Colorado's Mafia
By Michael O'Haire
After years of researching my grandfather's stories, I have reached some stunning conclusions about my family's role in Black Hand rackets of southern Colorado and about the evolution of the early Mafia in the United States. Most recently, I discovered that Francesco Lanza, best known as an early leader of the Mafia in San Francisco, traveled between New York and Colorado since at least 1916 and worked with first known Colorado Mafia boss Pellegrinio Scaglia to organize Sicilian-American Black Hand criminals...
See what else is in Informer's October 2021 issue.
Golden City-Crescent City connection
October 2021 issue contents - Feature
New Orleans connection to San Francisco Mafia
The death and the life of Francesco DiFranchi
By Lennert van 't Riet
The American Mafia, which in its heyday included about two dozen distinct “families,” provides a textbook case for independent crime cells operating under a single banner by means of collaboration in unlawful activity and strong personal and social connections. The San Francisco Mafia, never one of the nation's more active organizations, appears to have had few criminal collaborations with other families but did establish meaningful links with mafiosi across the United States...
See what else is in Informer's October 2021 issue.
Bank heists
October 2021 issue contents - Feature
Reinhold Engel
Forgotten leader of a big-time robbery gang
By Jeffery S. King
In the late 1920s and early 1930s the Reinhold Engel gang was “one of the cleverest and most efficient gangs of bank robbers”... At the time of his 1932 arrest, the forty-seven-year-old Engel was a debonair leader, who had connections with a Prohibition Era liquor syndicate in Toledo, Ohio...
See what else is in Informer's October 2021 issue.
Cops on stamps a sticky subject
October 2021 issue contents - Column
Just one more thing...
Police rarely appear on U.S. postage
The context of our few law enforcement-related stamps
By Thomas Hunt
A stamp collector would not need much of an album to accommodate all of the United States stamps honoring professional law enforcement. A single album page would be more than enough space. Police officers very rarely appear on U.S. postage. Their presence can be observed on just a couple of stamp issues through nearly one hundred and seventy five years of postal history...
See what else is in Informer's October 2021 issue.
Friday, September 24, 2021
Multiple formats for October 2021 issue
Paperback, EPUB e-book offered
The October 2021 issue of Informer will be offered in 6-inch by 9-inch trade paperback and popular e-book formats, in addition to its usual standard 8.25-inch by 10.75-inch printed magazine and e-magazine formats. The additional options were first offered in 2020 and proved to be popular.
 |
| Comparison of paperback and magazine cover sizes |
Paperback and Kindle-compatible e-book versions will be available through Amazon.com. EPUB-compatible e-book will be available through Google Play Books. These formats will have monochrome (black and white) interiors. Grayscale images will be placed at the conclusion of articles.
The printed magazine and PDF-format e-magazine versions, available through MagCloud, will have color interiors, with grayscale and color images incorporated into the page design.
The paperback will be a lower cost print option, retailing for about $14.95 (USD), while the magazine will be sold for $25.50 (USD). All electronic versions are expected to retail for about $9.49 (USD).
Watch for announcements of the issue's release.
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