New ads in 2026 issue

The November 2026 issue of Informer, "Organized Crime in Las Vegas Nevada," will feature some advertisements not previously seen on its pages. The ads - reduced in resolution from their printed versions - are shown below. The advertisement images are linked to advertiser websites or Amazon book sales pages (affiliate links).

 

Vegas issue contents are set

Informer's November 2026 issue will include more than a dozen carefully researched feature articles and insightful columns, all relating in some way to the subject of Organized Crime in Las Vegas Nevada. 

Issue contents:

• "Kicked out of L.A., they kickstarted Vegas"; 
• "Siegel's casino role may have been overstated"; 
• "Persons of interest in Bugsy's 1947 murder"; 
• "Historic whodunit: Weighing the theories of the 1947 Siegel slaying"; 
• "Lansky, Dragna feud over Las Vegas 'wire'"; 
• "Giorgetti empire stretched from NorCal to Las Vegas"; 
• "Botched mob hit bares NY boss's Trop interest"; 
• "Riviera Hotel wiretap exposes CIA-Mafia plot"; 
• "'Sunshine' deal reveals casino skim"; 
• "Grandma, what's a junket?"; 
• "'Casino' shows decline of Mob rule in Sin City"; 
• "A small step for mankind but a giant step for us"; 
• Additional odds and ends.

Magazine format front cover.

Issue contributors: Thomas Hunt, J. Michael Niotta PhD, Eric Dezenhall, Matteo Galante, W.R. Wilkerson, Flats, Justin Cascio, Larry Henry.

Article details and issue preview and purchase information will be provided at the time of release, now expected for November 16, 2026.

The issue will be published in magazine (likely priced at $29.20), PDF e-magazine ($8.99 or free with print magazine purchase), hardcover book ($26.40), paperback book ($18.50) and e-book ($10.95) formats. (Note: These prices reflect our best guesses at the moment and may need to be changed.) We intend for the e-magazine and e-book formats to be text-searchable. The hardcover and paperback books will have subject indexes.

Vegas issue set for Nov. 20 release

Informer's 2026 issue, focused on organized crime in Las Vegas, is scheduled for release by November 20, 2026. (We'll see if we can beat that by a few days.)

 

The articles deadline is September 25.

The advertising deadline is October 16.

 

Considering Vegas issue in 2026

A new issue of Informer for 2026 is currently under consideration. The issue most likely would focus on the organized crime history of Las Vegas, Nevada.

If you are interested in contributing an article to a Las Vegas-focused Informer issue, please let me know through an email to informerjournal@gmail.com. Please be specific about the article subject, the sources you intend to use and your own background, if any, in research and writing.

Thanks!

- T.

MobHistory on Substack

 I am sorry to announce that, due to a variety of factors including competing commitments and recent (now apparently resolved) health concerns, there is no plan to produce an issue of Informer for 2025.

 I am hopeful that Informer readers will find my newest (a bit more casual / far less demanding) venture, MobHistory on Substack, to be suitable as a substitute at least in the short term. 

 

Kindle version cracks top-100 lists

The Kindle edition of Informer's November 2024 issue, The Treacherous World of Joseph Valachi, has become a top-100 seller in two Amazon.com categories: Biographies of Organized Crime and History of Mid-Atlantic U.S.

Click here to learn more about this issue.

November 2024 issue of Informer

November 2024 issue contents

The Treacherous World
of Joseph Valachi

A rare primary source into Castellammarese War-era Mafia history, Joseph Valachi also described the early gangland of East Harlem, Manhattan and the Bronx, and provided a unique soldier-level view of New York-area organized crime from Prohibition to Apalachin. An early FBI informant, Valachi was the focus of a best-selling book and a popular movie, as well as televised Senate testimony and a lengthy autobiography. Yet, a great deal of the true Valachi story has remained untold. 

Now, 60 years after Valachi put pen to paper to tell his story, a team of historians from around the globe is revealing long hidden aspects of his life and investigating the individuals who influenced him.

Contributors to the issue: Thomas Hunt (U.S.), Steve Turner (U.K.), Fabien Rossat (France), Jon Black (U.K.), Thibaut Maïquès (France), J. Michael Niotta PhD (U.S.), Thom L. Jones (New Zealand), Patrick Downey (U.S.), Ellen Poulsen (U.S.).

This Informer issue features articles on various phases of Valachi's existence in and out of "cosa nostra," bios of those who played important roles in his life and background of his time and place. The issue is illustrated with photos, documents and maps. 

In addition to Informer's traditional print and electronic magazine formats, this issue is available in hardcover, paperback and ebook formats.The magazine and e-magazine editions total about 260 pages, and the book editions are about 500 pages. The available formats are compared in this table.

This issue is available in six 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" 262 pg incl covers	Yes	MagCloud	$62.00
PDF EMagazine1	ISSN: 1944-8139	N/A	Yes	MagCloud	$20.00*
BOOK LAYOUTS
Print Hardcover2	ISBN5: 9798340925138	6" x 9" x 1.5" 500 pages	No	Amazon	$32.95
Print Paperback2	ISBN6: 9798340935007	6" x 9" x 1.25" 500 pages	No	Amazon	$24.75
Kindle EBook3	ASIN: B0DJD793GL	N/A	No	Amazon	$15.75
EPUB EBook4	GGKEY: EYCX505E9B9	N/A	No	GooglePlay	$15.75
1 - PDF document reader - such as Acrobat Reader - required. 2 - The printed books are indexed. (Ebooks/Emagazines can be searched.) 3 - Kindle device or Kindle reader software required. 4 - EPUB device or reader software - such as Calibre - required. 5 - Print hardcover also has ASIN: B0DJX7678D. 6 - Print paperback also has ASIN: B0DJXBBZ2F. * - PDF e-magazine is free with print magazine purchase.

Issue contents

Introduction: Betrayal ranks among the worst emotional wounds in the human experience. The pain of betrayal probably impacts every person's life to some degree. But in Joseph Valachi's life story, betrayal became a strong and recurring theme...

This section runs 5 magazine pages / 8 book pages.
It includes a map, an image, endnotes.

The issue contains the following articles and columns (click for additional information):

• Growing up Valachi 
• The Murder Stables (Jon Black)
• Mafia minor leaguers (Thibaut Maïquès)
• Mystery victims 
• How a mafioso is 'made' (J. Michael Niotta PhD)
• 'Little Apples'; big lie (Patrick Downey)
• Killing of off-dury officer linked to Valachi kin (Thomas Hunt, Ellen Poulsen)
• Valachi and women 
• Valachi and 'the French Connection' (Fabien Rossat)
• Murder by Mistake 
• Was Valachi insane? 
• Valachi and the FBI rechristened the Mafia 
• DOJ vs FBI 
• Testimony was 'a mixed bag' 
• Minor characters in the Valachi epic (Hunt, Steve Turner)
• Elusive Crime Figures (Hunt, Turner)
• Getting the story printed 
• End of Days (Thom L. Jones)
• Valachi's exit 
• Last will and testament of Joseph Valachi 
• Marie Jackson mysteries remain 
• Valachi's life: the motion picture 
• Historians review 'Valachi papers' movie
• New books

Feature 1

November 2024 issue contents

Growing up Valachi

East Harlem boy becomes Mafia soldier

As the newborn “Giuseppe Vilacio” took his first breath in autumn 1903, his East Harlem community was home to an already substantial and still growing population of first- and second-generation Italian Americans...

18 magazine pages / 34 book pages.
Includes sidebar articles on New York Catholic Protectory; Anthony Valachi; John Valachi; Filomena, Maddalena, Antonetta Valachi.
Map, documents, images, endnotes.

Click for more information on this Informer issue.

Feature 2

November 2024 issue contents

The Murder Stables

By Jon Black

A menacing maze of run-down structures played a significant role in the East Harlem childhood of Joseph Valachi. The structures, built and rebuilt over time from discarded building debris, packing crates and old sheet iron, stood at the corner of First Avenue and East 108th Street. They included junk and rag collection shops, wagon storage and other business uses. At the heart of the ramshackle complex was a boarding stable infamous for criminal activity. Due to its presence, the cluster of shacks acquired an evil reputation and became collectively known as the “Murder Stables”...

10 magazine pages / 17 book pages.
Map, images, endnotes.

Click for more information on this Informer issue.

Feature 3

November 2024 issue contents

Mafia minor leaguers

East Harlem gangsters became 'mobbed up'

By Thibaut Maïquès

Pushed by poverty and peers, by about 1920 young Joseph Valachi was engaged in gang crime. He was excluded as many of his contemporaries graduated into regional racketeering. The pressure of the underworld conflict known as the Castellammarese War caused a Mafia organization to induct Valachi late in 1930...

5 magazine pages / 10 book pages.
Images, sources.

Click for more information on this Informer issue.

Feature 4

November 2024 issue contents

Mystery victims

Two killed due to underworld deal were not identified by Valachi

Consiglio

Two rebel groups in the New York area joined forces against the reigning Mafia boss of bosses in 1930. But before they did so, they needed to prove commitment to their shared cause by murdering two men. Valachi described the arrangement in his autobiography but did not identify the victims...

4 magazine pages / 7 book pages.
Image, endnotes.

Click for more information on this Informer issue.

Feature 5

November 2024 issue contents

How a mafioso is 'made'

Comparing underworld induction ceremonies of different times and places

By J. Michael Niotta, PhD

By the time Joe Valachi bared all in front of television cameras for Arkansas Senator John L. McClellan and his subcommittee in October of 1963, the agencies working “Italian crimes” in America already had a fair amount of intel on the Mafia, including versions of the criminal society’s induction ceremony...

5 magazine pages / 10 book pages.
Images, sources.

Click for more information on this Informer issue.

Feature 6

November 2024 issue contents

'Little Apples'; big lie

We weren't told the truth about Valachi's early Mafia murder contract

By Patrick Downey

Reggione

Having survived both the Castellammarese War and the purge of Salvatore Maranzano’s faithful that followed, by the fall of 1932, Joe Valachi was settling into Mafia life. As a new member of a crew run by Anthony Strollo, aka Tony Bender, he became safely entrenched in the Mafia organization headed by Charlie “Lucky” Luciano (Salvatore Lucania) and his underboss Vito Genovese. Through The Valachi Papers, we learn that Joe received his first Luciano Crime Family murder contract via Bender that autumn. The victim was twenty-one-year-old hoodlum Michael Reggione, nicknamed Little Apples, who hung around a coffee shop on East 109th Street...

4 magazine pages / 7 book pages.
Images, documents, sources.

Click for more information on this Informer issue.

Feature 7

November 2024 issue contents

Killing of off-dury officer linked to Valachi kin

By Thomas Hunt with Ellen Poulsen

Officer Loreto

The killing of off-duty New York Police Officer Alfred Loreto in the summer of 1950 occurred in a Bronx neighborhood familiar to Joseph Valachi and may have resulted from the criminal ventures of Valachi’s brother-in-law Giacomo “Jack” Reina...

6 magazine pages / 12 book pages.
Images, sources.

Click for more information on this Informer issue.

Feature 8

November 2024 issue contents

Valachi and women

Through his teen years and early adulthood, Valachi avoided serious romantic entanglements, feeling shame over his poor living conditions and the crimes he was committing in an effort to remedy them. Around his mid-twenties, he began to more highly value his bonds with women. While fidelity was never his strong suit, he formed a series of meaningful connections with women...

5 magazine pages / 10 book pages.
Images, endnotes. 

Click for more information on this Informer issue.

Feature 10

November 2024 issue contents

Murder by mistake

Saupp was fatally beaten because he physically resembled a mobster

Though reportedly involved in thirty-three homicides, Valachi generally denied committing killings with his own hands. The one murder he admitted to performing himself, the vicious beating death of prison inmate John Joseph Saupp, was said to be the result of a mistake...

11 magazine pages / 16 book pages.
Images, endnotes.

Click for more information on this Informer issue.