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Valachi issue is coming together

Much of the Valachi-focused 2024 issue of Informer is already in place. There's still about a month to go before the articles deadline of Aug. 30 and two months before the advertising deadline of Oct. 1. The issue will be released on or before Nov. 1. (It looks like this will be a very hefty issue.)

Caution: Video below contains still news images of scenes of gangland violence.

Valachi betrays his oath

Joseph Valachi described his Mafia induction ceremony to a Senate subcommittee. His testimony was broadcast on television in the autumn of 1963. (Video has been edited.)

"This is my doom. This is the promise I'm breaking...
Even if I talked, I should never talk about this.
And I'm doing so."

Joseph Valachi is the focus of the next issue of Informer, scheduled for release in November of 2024.

Sixty years ago: 'The Real Thing'

Sixty years ago...

In May 1964, the FBI distributed to its field offices an English translation of an early version of Nick Gentile's personal Mafia history, Vita di Capomafia. (This version apparently was from a manuscript prepared by Gentile many years before an edited and updated Vita was published in Italy near the end of 1963. See our October 2020 issue for more information.)

Perhaps inspired by that informative Gentile work, the U.S. Department of Justice in June 1964 persuaded its Mafia informant Joseph Valachi to begin writing his own autobiography. Valachi penned a revealing and often bitter memoir of more than a thousand pages, which he called, The Real Thing.

Valachi's handwritten manuscript was typed up by Justice Department staff and became source material for The Valachi Papers by Peter Maas. The manuscript is held by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Information is available at jfklibrary.org. The document's text is available online through the American Mafia History website, mafiahistory.us.

Joseph Valachi will be the focus of the November 2024 issue of Informer: The History of American Crime and Law Enforcement.

Valachi's world to be 2024 focus

Informer's autumn 2024 issue will focus on the personalities, events, locations, murders and betrayals in the treacherous world of Joseph Valachi.

The issue release is scheduled for Nov. 1, 2024. The articles submission deadline is Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. The advertising deadline is Oct. 1, 2024.

If you're interested in contributing your work to this issue or in purchasing an advertisement, let us know as soon as possible.

Informer columnist composes first book

Justin Cascio, who regularly contributes "Mafia Genealogy" columns to Informer, is the author of the just released book, In Our Blood: The Mafia Families of Corleone. The book is available now through Amazon in hardcover, paperback and ebook editions (links below).

While the Mafia criminal society is traditionally viewed as a hierarchical organization, Cascio argues that Mafia networks are largely based on kinship ties. 

Cascio, who publishes his own Mafia Genealogy website in addition to his frequent Informer contributions, devoted years of research into his first book-length project. He notes that pivotal figures in Mafia history, including present-day mafiosi, have direct genealogical ties to one another and to the earliest recorded gangs in Corleone, Sicily. In addition to bloodline and marriage connections, some mafiosi also linked through the significant religious/family role of godparent. 

Cascio discusses dozens of gangland figures in the United States and Sicily as he analyzes family-based networks that include thousands of individuals. Along the way, he tackles some of the lingering questions about the Mafia: How old is the criminal society? Where was it formed? How did it spread from Sicily to the U.S.?

For the benefit of researchers, Cascio has provided references supporting his assertions. The hardcover and paperback editions of In Our Blood weigh in at 390 pages. The Kindle ebook is rated by Amazon at a print length of 532 pages. 

October 2023 issue of Informer

 October 2023 issue contents - Introduction

The gangster breeding ground

Journalists Craig Thompson and Allen Raymond in 1940 wrote that “...the lower East Side of Manhattan in the first twenty years of the twentieth century was the greatest breeding ground for gunmen and racketeers, since risen to eminence, that this country has ever seen...” (Gang Rule in New York)

Conditions in the pre-Prohibition twentieth century Lower East Side certainly fueled an explosion in gangs and racketeering. Such underworld giants as Meyer Lansky, Louis “Lepke” Buchalter and Salvatore “Charlie Luciano” Lucania were products of that overcrowded and hard environment. But that was just a small part of the area’s exciting and often bloody underworld history...

In this issue, Informer presents a collection of articles representing the seedy and bloody gangland history of the Lower East Side. Material spans many decades of Manhattan’s history. Here's what we have inside:

    • Not long after the end of the Civil War, the area became home to a network of professional thieves and thugs, known as the Whyos. Probably more of a loose association than a gang, the Irish-American outlaws picked pockets, rolled drunks and attacked police officers. See "End of the Whyos."

    • A single historic photograph has preserved the squalor and peril of Lower East Side tenement neighborhoods. Take a closer look at "Bandits' Roost."

    • Few in New York's history acquired worse reputations than John McGurk, proprietor of a dance-hall/saloon that became known as Suicide Hall. See "John H. McGurk and Bowery's 'Suicide Hall.'" 

    • Towering over the pre-Prohibition Manhattan underworld was Edward “Monk” Eastman. The gangland legend managed to win the esteem of his home city through wartime heroism, only to be murdered outside a speakeasy. See "The death and life of hoodlum/hero Eastman."

    • An 1890s Italian-American racketeer residing on the Lower East Side may have been the first boss of the Mafia in New York, possibly the leader of the Mafia in the entire U.S. See "NYC's first Mafia boss?"

    • When an Italian-American gang leader adopts an Irish name, confusion is a likely result. We try to set the record straight on "Paul Kelly" Vaccarelli. See "Italian gang chief with an Irish name."

    • Sai Wing Mock, faction leader during bloody “Tong Wars” in Manhattan's Chinatown, was thought dead at least a couple of times before he actually passed away. See "Sai Wing Mock and the New York 'Tong Wars.'"

    • Before becoming a California Mafia boss, Frank Lanza got wealthy in Manhattan businesses. See "Perspective: Lanza's NY firms may have been Mafia fronts."

    • Gang leader “Johnny Spanish” Mistretta and his family appear to have embraced a false backstory, causing problems for historians. See "Mafia genealogy: In search of 'Johnny Spanish.'" 

    • A rich future in racketeering was molded in Meyer Lansky's childhood on the Lower East Side. See "Racketeering future was molded in young Lansky's neighborhood."

    • Enough blood was spilled on Second Avenue during a fourteen-year period to warrant renaming the road, “Death Avenue.” See "'Death Avenue,' 1910-1924."

    • A 1960s government report on narcotics law violators provided biographical and criminal information of just over two dozen racketeers from the Lower East Side. See "1964 narcotics report included mobster bios."

Eleven sidebar articles deal with these subjects: Gambling; Eastman's killer Jeremiah W. Bohan; Mafia HQ on Mott Street; The Pelham and Irving Berlin; Sirocco and Tricker; Torrio and Vanella; Bellantonis of Broome Street; "Mutty," "Lucy" and "Kitty"; "Dutch" Goldberg; "Gurrah," "Lepke," "Curly" and "Bugsy"; "Red" Levine.

A few other items in this issue do not directly relate to the underworld history of the Lower East Side: 

    • Interesting background information has come to light on two attendees of the 1928 Mafia convention in Cleveland. See "Mob history: New facts about two 1928 conventioneers."

    • Eight recently released and soon-to-be-released books are announced. See "Books."

    • Perhaps the most famous of Lower East Side gang bosses (made famous by Hollywood) wasn't really one at all. See "Just one more thing: 'Butcher' wasn't from the Five Points."

This issue is available in seven formats. Use the table below to determine the appropriate format for you. Clicking a seller logo will take you to the related preview/purchase website.

Type	Identifier	Dimensions	Color?	Seller	Price (USD)
MAGAZINE LAYOUTS
Print Magazine	ISSN: 1943-7803	8 1/4" x 10 3/4" 174 pg incl covers	Yes	MagCloud	$42.80
PDF EMagazine1	ISSN: 1944-8139	N/A	Yes	MagCloud	$10.951
BOOK LAYOUTS
Print Hardcover2	ISBN: 9798859895656	6" x 9" 370 pages	No	Amazon	$27.85
Print Paperback3	ISBN: 9798859876655	6" x 9" 370 pages	No	Amazon	$19.83
Kindle EBook4	ASIN: B0CH26LB4L	N/A	No	Amazon	$9.95
EPUB EBook5	GGKEY: 15L2PWLZWP4	N/A	No	GooglePlay	$9.95
AUDIOBOOK
Audiobook6	GGKEY: 48QRTHAQBHN	8hrs:32mins	N/A	GooglePlay	$12.95
Print hardcover and paperback books are indexed. Ebooks are text searchable. 1 - PDF emagazine is free with print magazine purchase. Viewable online or with Acrobat Reader. 2 - Print hardcover also has ASIN: . 3 - Print paperback also has ASIN: . 4 - Kindle device or Kindle reader software required. 5 - EPUB device or reader software - such as Calibre - required. 6 - Abridged audiobook created through Google Beta program.

Historic photograph

October 2023 issue contents - Photograph

Bandits' Roost

By Thomas Hunt

The alley known as “Bandits’ Roost” once snaked between tenements on Mulberry Street and Baxter Street. The address of 59½ Mulberry Street was associated with the alley after 1888 – this was the address of a “landlocked” building occupying the center of the alley. The alley sat a short distance north of the “Five Points” intersection within a block known as Mulberry Bend...

Book page count: five.
Magazine page count: three.
Images: three.
Source list.

Learn more about Informer's October 2023 issue.

Early gang

October 2023 issue contents - Features

End of the Whyos

Irish-American gang terrorized the Lower East Side

By Thomas Hunt

Soon after Captain John McCullagh took command of police in the busy Manhattan ward historically known as “the Bloody Sixth,” he supposedly stated, “Either the Whyos or I must go from this precinct.”

Dan Driscoll

The remark reportedly occurred early in 1884, but McCullagh probably said no such thing

then or ever. The words were first noted in print some years after they were allegedly spoken. A syndicated article included them late in 1891, and the New York Daily Tribune revived the statement in 1896. By then, the Whyos gang already had gone, and McCullagh still was leading the police of the precinct.

Whether McCullagh made the statement or not, he certainly made the breakup of the Whyos a priority...

Book page count: twenty five.
Magazine page count: fourteen.
Images: twelve.
Timeline.
Endnotes.

Learn more about Informer's October 2023 issue. 

Profiting from despair

October 2023 issue contents - Features

John H. McGurk and Bowery's ‘Suicide Hall’

By Thomas Hunt

An early Paul Kelly hangout and the place where bouncer Thomas McManus earned his “Eat­-’Em-­Up-Jack” nickname, “Suicide Hall” was an infamous Bowery dive operated between 1895 and 1902 by John H. McGurk...

Book page count: fourteen.
Magazine page count: seven.
Images: three.
Sidebar articles: one.
Endnotes.

Learn more about Informer's October 2023 issue.

Monk Eastman

October 2023 issue contents - Features

The death and life of hoodlum/hero Eastman

By Thomas Hunt

Once infamous as a titan of lower Manhattan gangland, Edward “Monk” Eastman was transformed into a uniquely American military hero through his valiant overseas performance during the Great War. Not long after Monk’s victorious return to his old stamping grounds, as he attempted to find a suitable role for himself in early Prohibition Era New York, he was murdered. The end of his life, like so many of the noteworthy incidents in his underworld career, occurred within the confines of the Lower East Side and following a drunken argument in a bar...

Book page count: forty nine.
Magazine page count: twenty six.
Images: fifteen.
Sidebar articles: one.
Endnotes.

Learn more about Informer's October 2023 issue.