Just one more thing...

October 2023 issue contents - Columns

‘Butcher’ wasn't from the Five Points

Hollywood relocated notorious ruffian

By Thomas Hunt

Due in large part to Martin Scorsese’s popular 2002 film, Gangs of New York, many have mistaken impressions of Lower East Side gangland history. One of the movie’s (many) distortions was putting character William “Bill the Butcher” Cutting in command of a Civil War Era, Tammany­-employed, Five Points­-based gang of American­born thugs.

The Cutting character from Scorsese’s movie was based on the real “Bill the Butcher” Poole and had a number of similarities with Poole (possibly including the single disabled eye). However, Poole wasn’t around during the Civil War. And he certainly was not a Five Points underworld chief. He wasn’t from there. He wasn’t known to have spent any time there. According to some biographies, he wasn’t even originally from New York...

Book page count: twelve pages.
Magazine page count: six pages.
Source list.

Learn more about Informer's October 2023 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.

October 2020 issue contents - columns

Just One More Thing:

Discrepancies, distortions, deceptions

By Thomas Hunt

"While a good amount of the Nicola Gentile story has been verified as factual, the different versions of the story contain some glaring inconsistencies, some exaggerations and some outright falsehoods. Following the release of the published book, Vita di Capomafia, the FBI in February, 1964, compared that volume with the Bureau’s own translation of an earlier Gentile manuscript. The official comparison revealed a few inconsequential differences..."

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Just One More Thing: 'Butsey' Morelli

October 2016 issue contents
columns

Just One More Thing

On the trail of 'Butsey' Morelli

by Thomas Hunt

"Those seeking information on long-time Providence, Rhode Island, rackets boss Frank 'Butsey' Morelli have likely encountered the few short mentions in former mobster Vincent Teresa's autobiography and very little else. Morelli was an important figure in the development of the New England Mafia, and he was an especially long-tenured chieftain over the Providence underworld, but he was not a cooperative historical figure."

Three pages, two images

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Just One More Thing: Publishing Bias

November 2014 Issue Contents
Column

Just One More Thing:

Tackling an old bias

By Thomas Hunt

"For a very long time - too long a time - serious underworld histories and more superficial popular culture approaches to the subject of organized crime have been built upon a pronounced regional bias. That slanted foundation appears to be the result of a conclusion by traditional publishing companies that the largest markets for organized crime works (and regionally focused works in general) exist in New York City and Chicago, and to a lesser degree in Los Angeles..."

5 pages.

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Books: Motor City Hit Man

October 2013 contents
Column

Just One More Thing
By Thomas Hunt

Review: Diary of a Motor City Hit Man

"In Diary of a Motor City Hit Man, author Christian Cipollini expertly crafts the intriguing story of Chester Wheeler Campbell's life and criminal career. Campbell was a freelance killer, who worked for various narcotics outfits in the Midwest and was for a time considered the most-feared man in Detroit. The narrative springs from a detailed description of a single, random event, the 1975 near-collision of Campbell's rented Oldsmobile with a Keego Harbor, Michigan, patrol car..."

Six and a half pages.

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Return of 'The Last Testament'

July 2013 Contents
Column

Just One More Thing

Just when you think it's safe

to go back to the bookstore

By Thomas Hunt

"It is not especially surprising that Enigma Books is hawking a new (released last month) reprint of The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano. I can’t pretend to understand Luciano hero worship or the desire to plunk down a dozen dollars for snake oil in book form. But I do understand the actions of Enigma Books and Last Testament’s surviving coauthor Richard Hammer: The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano has made money before and could make money again. And what could be wrong with that? Writers and publishers are in business to make money..."

Two pages.

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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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Just One More Thing: Mafia's End in 1884

July 2011 Contents
Column
By Thomas Hunt

Mafia's death-knell
sounded in 1884
"I was poking around in online newspaper archives recently, when I happened to find what may be the earliest published prediction of the Mafia's demise. We are accustomed to such talk today. With every large-scale arrest and every successful prosecution of Mafiosi, journalists suggest that the criminal society is on the verge of extinction..."

Three pages.

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