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).

California Mob is focus of new issue

The October 2021 issue of Informer will focus on the Mafia in California. (It will include some other items as well.)
We want to thank these writers for contributing their work: J. Michael Niotta PhD, Justin Cascio, Michael O'Haire, Lennert van 't Riet and Jeffery King.
The issue - the thirty-first published since 2008 - should be available for purchase within a month. Here's a sneak peek at the issue cover.

Informer No. 31 set for October

The next issue of Informer will be released October 4, 2021.

The articles deadline is August 2. Please contact the editor as soon as possible if you're working on something you intend to submit. (For this issue, we're especially interested in crime and law enforcement history articles with a California connection.)

The advertising deadline is September 6. Camera-ready ads and payments must be received by that date. A rate/policy sheet is available upon request. As usual, special ad pricing is available to authors of crime history books seeking to publicize their works.

Contact:
informerjournal@gmail.com

Origins of U.S. Mafia families

August 2017 contents
Features 

Origins of U.S. Mafia families

By Bill Feather

"In his book The Last Testament of Bill Bonanno: The Final Secrets of a Life in the Mafia, Bill Bonanno revealed that there had been a Cosa Nostra family in Birmingham. This was a shock to many researchers. Bonanno stated that in the mid-1930s the family asked the Mafia Commission for permission to disband. The reason given was that surviving members were too old..."

Fourteen pages, one map, notes.

Preview / purchase electronic and print editions through MagCloud.

Vol. 3, No. 3: July 2010

Vol. 3, No. 3, July 2010
Issue Contents

Since the American Civil War, Louisiana underworld organizations have exhibited the ability to project their influence far beyond the state’s borders. Mafiosi from the Pelican State have left their marks on the criminal histories of Florida’s Gulf coast, central and eastern Texas and southern California. In this issue of Informer, we illustrate this point through three very different feature articles.

We lead off with Richard N. Warner’s in-depth look at Vito DiGiorgio, the earliest known boss of a united southern California Mafia (preview). Warner pays special attention to DiGiorgio’s rise through the Mafia of southern Louisiana and his continued reliance on a New Orleans powerbase until his May 1922 assassination.

Thomas Hunt follows with a look at the Piranio-Civello Mafia of interior Texas (preview). That organization, too, had roots in Louisiana. The Piranio family migrated to Dallas from the Shreveport area, and the Civellos moved into Texas from East Baton Rouge.

The final article, by Thomas Hunt and Martha Macheca Sheldon, deals with the earliest known Mafia War in the United States (preview). That conflict was fought by Palermo– and Messina-oriented factions in New Orleans during the Reconstruction Period. Surprisingly, even at that early date, the fledgling underworld organizations of Louisiana had established colonies in the area of Galveston and Houston, Texas.

We also include membership charts for the Texas and New Orleans Mafia families by Bill Feather (preview), A Look Back (preview), book reviews and notes (preview), and current events and obituaries (preview).

Sixty pages
including cover and advertisements
Published July 13, 2010.

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DiGiorgio: First crime boss of Los Angeles?

Vol. 3, No. 3, July 2010 Contents
Feature article

Before Dragna called the shots, the southern California Mafia

took its orders from a relocated New Orleans grocer.

Might the mysterious Vito DiGiorgio have been...

The first crime boss

of Los Angeles?

By Richard N. Warner

"In many people's minds, Los Angeles organized crime began with Jack Dragna, Benjamin 'Bugsy' Siegel and Mickey Cohen. Some secondary sources go so far as to list Dragna as the first Mafia boss in southern California. Through the help of informants, organized crime specialists with the Federal Bureau of Investigation were able to turn the clock back a bit before Dragna's reign, discovering bosses Joe Ardizzone and Rosario DeSimone. One underworld chronicler provides a glimpse into the more distant past and describes the man who was possibly the first Mafia chieftain of Los Angeles. In 1960s-era memoirs and interviews, Mafioso Nicola 'Zio Cola' Gentile described a previously unknown southern California boss by the name of Vito DiGiorgio."

Twelve pages
including two pages of notes.
Five images.

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'My first dinner with Mickey'

Vol. 2, Issue 3, July 2009 Contents
Feature Article

My first dinner with Mickey

by Steve Stevens

and Craig Lockwood

(Show business veteran Steve Stevens reflects on his early encounters with California underworld figure Mickey Cohen in this excerpt from King of the Sunset Strip by Steve Stevens and Craig Lockwood.)

"I pushed the doorbell. And the door opened. As if someone had been waiting, just inside. Before I could stop myself, I lurched back.
"'Yeah?' The voice and the guy were both scary. His heavy black eyebrows looked like they'd been applied by the Lon Chaney School of makeup design."


Four and a half pages
Five photos


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