Locations linked with Maranzano

August 2019 issue contents
Features

Locations linked with Maranzano

By Thomas Hunt

Salvatore Maranzano did a fair amount of traveling in his lifetime. Starting out in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, he is known to have lived and worked in the cities of Palermo and Trapani. He visited Havana, Cuba, and Miami, Florida; owned a farm in Ontario, Canada; and at various times had addresses in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Buffalo and Dutchess County, New York.

This article attempts to pinpoint as well as possible the locations of importance in Maranzano’s life and career and to show their significance.

Eight and a half pages including seven images and two and a half pages of notes.

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June 2015 Issue of Informer

June 2015 Issue Contents
Editorial

Often neglected in discussions of United States Mafia history, Calabrian-American organized criminals take center stage in this issue of Informer. Our feature article is a biography of Albert Anastasia, researched and written by Lennert van`t Riet, David Critchley and Steve Turner. The bloody early years of Calabria-born Anastasia’s underworld career and his supervision of the activities of the Murder Incorporated enforcement arm are the focuses of the piece. (Preview)

In a much lengthier-than-usual column at the back of the issue, Thomas Hunt considers the possibility that the Calabresi themselves formed an extensive criminal network in the U.S. and Canada before they were absorbed into the American Mafia’s Sicilian dominated crime families in the early years of the Prohibition Era. (Preview)

Also in this issue:

• Edmond Valin clears up the questions of how, when and why the American Mafia became known as “La Cosa Nostra,” and he shows that Mafiosi themselves were strongly influenced by the official nomenclature of J. Edgar Hoover’s Federal Bureau of Investigation. (Preview)
• Richard N. Warner examines the ironic role played by America’s white racism (and Hoover’s FBI) in the founding and growth of African American street gangs. (Preview)
• Warner also reviews Gary Krist’s most recent work, Empire of Sin. (Preview)

We expect that our regular readers already have noticed our change in format — a return to the full magazine size we formerly used from September 2008 through June 2012. While there were benefits to the more compact “digest” size we used from October 2012 through November 2014, the move back to a full magazine format was made due to the same irresistible force that lies behind all changes in the publishing world: the publisher likes it better.

Seventy-six pages, including covers and six pages of advertisements.

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Anastasia - 'Lord High Executioner'

June 2015 Issue Contents
Feature article

The bloody underworld career of Albert Anastasia

‘Lord High Executioner’ 

of the American Mafia

by Lennert van`t Riet, David Critchley and Steve Turner

"Albert Anastasia must be counted among the most violent and ruthless American Mafia bosses. As director of a Brooklyn band of gunmen known popularly as 'Murder Incorporated,' Anastasia was implicated in a staggering number of 1930s-era homicides. His activities earned him the news media nicknames 'Lord High Executioner' and 'Mad Hatter'..."

Thirty-six and a half pages, including five and a half pages of endnotes and thirty-three images.

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November 2014 Issue of Informer

November 2014 Issue Contents
Editorial

The January 1947 escape of nine inmates from Brooklyn’s aging Raymond Street Jail added to the facility’s reputation as a “Swiss cheese” prison. Alarmed New Yorkers paid close attention to law enforcement efforts to round up the escapees and demanded that a more modern institution be built to hold Brooklyn prisoners. However, the public’s short attention span permitted long construction delays for what ultimately turned out to be an undersized facility, and the deteriorating Raymond Street building remained in use for sixteen more years. In this issue, Thomas Hunt examines the 1947 escape and other sensational escapes from Raymond Street and outlines the series of official missteps that grew the prison’s “Swiss cheese” reputation (PREVIEW).

For a time, it must have seemed to law enforcement officials that they were battling the ghosts or doppelgangers of “Pretty Boy” Floyd and Adam Richetti. Jeffery S. King looks at the lives, careers and deaths of bank robbers and cop-killers George McKeever and  Francis McNeiley (PREVIEW).

Also in this issue:

• An excerpt from Christian Cipollini’s new book, Lucky Luciano: Mysterious Tales of a Gangland Legend (PREVIEW).
• Richard N. Warner concludes his Warner Files series on Religion and the Mafia (PREVIEW).
• Ryan Artis reviews The Mob and the City by C. Alexander Hortis (PREVIEW).
• Thomas Hunt discusses a traditional publisher bias and reviews The Milwaukee Mafia by Gavin Schmitt and Lucky Luciano: Mysterious Tales of a Gangland Legend by Christian Cipollini (PREVIEW).

76 pages, including covers and advertisements.

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Brooklyn's 'Swiss Cheese Prison'

November 2014 Issue Contents
Feature

Unlearned lessons permit 1947 breakout

from the old Raymond Street Jail

Nine escape Brooklyn’s

“Swiss cheese prison”

By Thomas Hunt

"Anthony DiGiovanna approached the guard at Raymond Street Jail’s gate on Ashland Place and handed him a couple of slips of paper. The slips had been signed by the Brooklyn district attorney and granted attorney DiGiovanna access to two clients held within the jail, Joseph Caiazzo and Christopher 'Spud' Elsis. It was just before one o’clock in the afternoon of January 2, 1947..."

33 pages including 4 pages of notes and 24 photographs

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November 2014 issue preview

Here's a peek at the cover of the November 2014 issue of Informer. Scheduled release date is Nov. 17 (but it probably will be available earlier).

Contents:

• Nine escape from Brooklyn's "Swiss cheese" jail,
• Police battle "Pretty Boy" Floyd's double,
• Excerpt from Lucky Luciano: Mysterious Tales of a Gangland Legend,
• Warner Files: Religion and the Mafia, Part 3,
• Book reviews of The Mob and the City by C. Alexander Hortis, The Milwaukee Mafia by Gavin Schmitt, Lucky Luciano: Mysterious Tales of a Gangland Legend by Christian Cipollini.

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January 2014 Issue of Informer

January 2014 Issue Contents
Editorial

This periodical began back in September of 2008 as a sort of experiment. Readers and researchers appeared to have an appetite for solid, factual information on crime history, and writers of that history appeared to need a reliable means of getting their work to the public. But no one really knew if there was enough reader-appetite or writer-material to keep a quarterly journal going. 

The last five-plus years have been a pleasant surprise. Informer has benefited from a large and loyal readership and from a steady flow of quality article contributions. We are proud to note that we have helped disseminate numerous finds of historic importance, that we have established a reputation for excellent research and fine writing and that we have never missed a scheduled deadline (in fact, issues of Informer have always been released before their due dates). With the exception of a single scheduled break last January, Informer has churned out a new issue every quarter-year.

Maintaining the production pace for Informer hasn’t been easy. The publication has but one “employee” (whose time and energies are divided among a number of projects). After twenty-one issues, the moment has arrived to adjust that pace. In the future, the release of Informer issues will not be dictated by the calendar but by the quantity and quality of submitted materials. As articles become available, special issues of Informer will be scheduled, with announcements made through the Informer website and through Facebook and Twitter accounts. To describe this new publication policy, we borrow from the Latin terminology of the pharmacy profession: Informer will be published pro re nata (p.r.n.), as the need arises.

We understand that some readers and writers may not find this an ideal situation, but we hope they will understand that it allows Informer to continue to fulfill its purposes while permitting its sole employee to pursue some different challenges.

In this issue of Informer:

• Thomas Hunt pushes aside popular "Miracle of Brooklyn" legends to look at what really happened to the twice-stolen, twice-returned Regina Pacis crowns (PREVIEW).
• Lennert van`t Riet, David Critchley and Steve Turner examine the ascent of powerful Mafia boss Vito Genovese (PREVIEW).
• Bill Feather provides data on more than 100 known and suspected Detroit Mafia members active in the 1930s-50s (PREVIEW).
• Informer ventures back fifty years to explain a problem encountered by the Warren Commission that gave rise to multiple JFK conspiracy theories (PREVIEW).

116 pages including cover and advertisements.

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January 2014 issue preview

Here's a peek at the cover of the January 2014 issue of Informer. Scheduled release date is Jan. 27 (but it probably will be available earlier).

Contents:

• Brooklyn's twice-stolen and twice-returned Regina Pacis jeweled crowns, 
• The ascent of Neapolitan Vito Genovese within the traditionally Sicilian Mafia, 
• 50 years ago - Warren Commission considers Oswald's alleged relationship with the FBI, 
• Detroit Mafia membership chart,
• More.

January 2012 Issue of Informer

January 2012 Contents
Editorial

Numerous questions remain about Joseph Profaci and the Brooklyn-based crime family associated with his name. We are left to guess, for example, how Profaci rose to the leadership of the organization, how the independence of the relatively small Mafia clan was secured and how the organization managed to wield a level of influence that far exceeded its apparent numerical strength. In some Mafia histories, the Profaci Family seems to appear instantaneously in Prohibition Era Bath Beach and Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, already with Profaci at the helm and already a major player in underworld events.

While details of the origin of the Profaci Mafia are elusive, in this issue Thomas Hunt strives to provide a foundation for future research by noting Profaci’s kinship and Sicilian hometown ties to underworld figures whose presence in the U.S. predated his own (see preview).

In a collection of biographical essays, Justin Dugard sheds light on a few of the more shadowy figures of the Profaci-Colombo organization (see preview). Dugard also adds a Colombo Crime Family violence timeline (see preview). Bill Feather provides a Colombo Family membership chart (see preview).

Additional Profaci-Colombo coverage includes relevant portions of the House Select Committee on Assassinations report (see preview), an interview with Sandra Harmon, author of Mafia Son (see preview), and a book review of FBI agent Lindley DeVecchio’s book, We’re Going To Win This Thing (see preview).

We also review a new book on James "Whitey" Bulger and other gangsters who have called Boston, Massachusetts, their home, The Boston Mob Guide (see preview).

This issue also marks the beginning of a series of articles by David Critchley on the Gunmen of the Castellammarese War. In the first installment, Critchley examines the enigmatic Maranzano hit man, “Buster from Chicago” (see preview).

Sixty-eight pages. Published January 20, 2012.

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Giuseppe Profaci's Rise

January 2012 Contents
Feature Article
By Thomas Hunt

Giuseppe Profaci steps from obscurity

to leadership of an influential

New York Mafia family

Profaci's Rise

By Thomas Hunt

"Little information exists on the earliest days of the underworld organization known today as the Colombo Crime Family. In some United States Mafia histories, the crime family simply (though somewhat ridiculously) springs to life, already fully grown and with Giuseppe Profaci as its boss, in Prohibition Era Brooklyn. While it is impossible at this time to fill in all of the blanks of the crime family history, it appears that the roots of the Profaci-Colombo organization stretch back to a network of influential families in the region of Villabate, Sicily."

Twelve pages including one and a half pages of notes, a family tree and four images.

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A Look Back

Vol. 2, Issue 3, July 2009 Contents
A Look Back

100 years ago:
A New York Barrel Murder suspect is shot to death in Connecticut.

75 years ago:
A future New York crime boss is arrested for robbing a store.

50 years ago:
A Brooklyn racketeer and his female companion are killed.

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