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. 

This issue is available in five formats. Seller logos link to preview/purchase sites. (Sept. 27 note: The issue is being released earlier than scheduled, but we were limited in our ability to move up the release date. We regret that Amazon Kindle downloads will not be available until Sept. 29.)

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:

• MagCloud - print and PDF electronic magazine formats (color).
• Amazon - print paperback and Kindle e-book formats (B&W).
• Google Play Books - EPUB e-book format (B&W).

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.

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.

 

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.