Just One More Thing

November 2024 issue contents

Elusive Crime Figures

Identities of some Valachi underworld associates remain frustratingly uncertain

By Thomas Hunt and Steve Turner

Our plan to define the vaguely described characters in Joseph Valachi’s life story encountered a few significant obstacles. While we were able to establish the identities and outline the activities of many of the individuals Valachi referred to in his autobiography and other statements, a number of individuals continue to be frustratingly unknown...

6 magazine pages / 12 book pages.
Endnotes. 

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Mob Corner

November 2024 issue contents

End of Days

by Thom L. Jones

La Tuna Federal Prison

This is how it might have been...
It’s hard work being Joe Valachi.
Sitting in his prison cell, just this side of the Texas border from Ciudad Juarez, he spends his days in reflection. A lot...

4 magazine pages / 8 book pages.
Images, endnotes.

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Opinion

November 2024 issue contents

Historians review

'Valachi Papers' movie

With Justin Cascio, Scott Deitche, Thibaut Maïquès, Ellen Poulsen, Fabien Rossat and Thomas Hunt
Informer asked a number of crime historians a set of questions about the popular 1972 movie, The Valachi Papers...

6 magazine pages / 10 book pages.
Images.

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Perspective

October 2023 issue contents - Columns

Lanza's NY firms may have been Mafia fronts

By Michael O'Haire and Matt Ghiglieri 

Before founding the San Francisco Mafia, Frank Lanza spent over a decade in Manhattan, engaging in very profitable business ventures that may have been Mafia fronts.

Lanza was accused of no crimes during his years in New York. However, his close personal relationships with Nicolo Schiro, a Mafia boss in Brooklyn in 1912, and a lesser known Mafia member Carmelo Naso, are reasonably well documented.

Once he headed west in 1919, law enforcement authorities understood him to be an underworld boss. One report by the pre­-FBI “Bureau of Investigation” even charged that Lanza organized a Black Hand presence in Colorado. His New York relationships, the dramatic financial success of his endeavors and his quick climb to the level of boss suggest that Lanza was a well connected and active mafioso while in New York.

Book page count: fifteen.
Magazine page count: eight.
Images: four.

Learn more about Informer's October 2023 issue.

Mafia genealogy

October 2023 issue contents - Columns

In search of 'Johnny Spanish'

It appears the gangster and his family invented their false backstory

By Justin Cascio

Those who have attempted to write his biography agree that very little is known about the life and origins of the Lower East Side gangster known as “Johnny Spanish.”

In fact, less is true about Spanish than has been claimed. We don’t even know for certain what helooked like: a photo alleged to be of Spanish, published in a 1911 issue of the New York Evening World, may be of another gang leader, Paul Kelly.

Johnny Spanish’s birthplace in New York City or Italy or Spain, and his half­-Spanish or Jewish heritage, have been declared many times, always without evidence...

Book page count: seventeen.
Magazine page count: eight.
Images: nine.
Source list.

Learn more about Informer's October 2023 issue.

Mob history

October 2023 issue contents - Columns

New facts about two 1928 conventioneers

By Steve Turner

An interstate network of Sicilian­-American mafiosi was revealed with the arrests of twenty ­three men at Cleveland’s Hotel Statler on December 5, 1928. The arrested attendees of this Mafia convention had traveled to Cleveland from Chicago, New York, Tampa, Buffalo and St. Louis.

Frank Abbate

The men were processed on “suspicion,” photographed and questioned. Investigators were certain that the gathering was for a sinister purpose and that the hasty Hotel Statler arrests frightened away other visiting mafiosi who were staying at other locations in the city. But they learned very little during interrogations of the prisoners – each had some sort of cover story for his visit to Cleveland – and eventually almost all were bailed out or released...

Book page count: nine pages. 
Magazine page count: four pages.
Images: nine. 
Source list.

Learn more about Informer's October 2023 issue. 

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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Mafia warrior and boss of Trapani

August 2019 issue contents
Columns

The Warner Files

Mafia warrior and boss of Trapani

By Richard N. Warner

For this special issue on Salvatore Maranzano, it's worth providing a little info on his background. He was born in Castellammare del Golfo on July 31, 1886, to Domenico Maranzano and Antonina Pisciotta. He married Elisabetta Minore, the sister of Salvatore "Don Toto" Minore of Trapani, probably around 1912. Together they had one daughter and three sons.

Joseph Bonanno tells us that when he was a boy, "Maranzano was a chief warrior under Uncle Stefano Magaddino in Castellammare, and he too had fought against the Buccellatos"...

One page.

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Was there a post-Maranzano purge?

August 2019 issue contents
Columns

Just One More Thing...

Was there a post-Maranzano purge?

By Thomas Hunt

One persistent Maranzano-related legend relates to a supposedly widespread post-assassination purge of Maranzano's followers. The slaughter has been referred to as "the Sicilian Vespers."

The term "Sicilian Vespers" originally referred to a Palermo uprising against an oppressive Angevin occupying force on the Easter holiday way back in 1282. The Sicilian community, apparently gathering for an evening Vespers religious service, suddenly and brutally attacked the occupiers. According to legend, thousands were slaughtered in the uprising...

The American Mafia-related version of the Sicilian Vespers legend suggests that Salvatore "Charlie Luciano" Lucania, successor to Maranzano's defeated Castellammarese War opponent "Joe the Boss" Masseria, organized a secret conspiracy against Maranzano...

Seven pages including two images and one page of notes.
 

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Who killed Sam? A mystery solved?

November 2018 issue contents
Columns

Warner Files: 

Who killed Sam? A mystery solved?

By Richard N. Warner

Giancana

Earlier this year, on June 27, 2018, Frank Calabrese Jr., son of the late Outfit hitman Frank "the Breeze" Calabrese Sr., gave an interview on WGN-TV in Chicago in which he threw out a potential bombshell revelation into the biggest mystery in the history of the Chicago Outfit: "Who Killed Sam Giancana?"

His answer made a lot of mob-watchers rethink what they thought they knew.

Four pages including five images.

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Wherefore art thou, Romeo?

November 2018 issue contents
Columns

Just One More Thing:

Wherefore art thou, Romeo?

By Thomas Hunt

His deeds forgotten and his remains misplaced, Frank Romeo is a mysterious figure in New Orleans underworld history.

Recalled by history merely as one of eleven men murdered in an 1891 lynch mob assault on Orleans Parish Prison, Romeo, also known as Romero, actually served a key, longtime role in the evolution of organized crime in southern Louisiana.

Eleven and a half pages including eight images and two and a half pages of notes.

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Warner Files: Chicago Outfit

August 2017 contents
Columns

The Warner Files:

What's new in the Chicago Outfit?

By Richard N. Warner

"There have been a lot of changes in City of Big Shoulders over the past ten years. It was ten years ago that the devastatingly successful Family Secrets case took place.  A little over a decade ago, John 'No Nose' Di Fronzo was the 'boss of bosses' of the Syndicate, James 'Little Jimmy' Marcello was the day-to-day boss, and there were four or five operating street crews..."

Five pages, four images.

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Warner Files: Asbury's flawed history

October 2016 contents.
Columns.

The Warner Files: 

History must be more than

the repetition of legend

by Richard N. Warner

"Lately I've been revisiting The Gangs of New York. Not the film, although the Martin Scorsese-directed film was enjoyable. My favorite character was Daniel Day-Lewis's 'Bill the Butcher' Cutting, the stove-pipe hat wearing nativist bully, and my favorite scene was the preamble to the fight between Cutting's Natives against the Dead Rabbits. Liam Neeson as the priest Vallon stands holding a cross and one gang after another lines up on his side. 'The O'Connell Guard!' 'The Shirt Tails!' 'The Chichesters!' 'The Forty Thieves!' Entertaining, yes. Accurate history, not so much..."

One and a half pages.

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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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Warner: Reviews of "Bugsy Siegel,' 'Two Mafias'

October 2015 Issue Contents
Columns

The Warner Files

New books: ‘Bugsy Siegel’ and ‘The Two Mafias’

By Richard N. Warner 

 "...Gragg starts out by dismantling the Hollywoodization of Siegel through movies such as the 1991 film Bugsy, starring Warren Beatty and Annette Bening. (Bening, Beatty’s soon-to-be real-life wife, played Siegel’s volatile paramour, Virginia Hill.) While most viewers found the film entertaining, organized crime buffs, historians and researchers found it frustrating and vexing with its erroneous depictions of Siegel as a 'kill-crazy' psychopath and the founder of the Las Vegas casino industry, among many other historical falsifications..."

Seven pages.

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Downey: October's Greatest 'Hits'

October 2015 Issue Contents
Columns

Dead Guys in Suits:

October’s biggest ‘hits’

By Patrick Downey

"October is my favorite month for many reasons. The weather is generally very comfortable, the autumn colors are a feast for the eyes, there’s cider and donuts and my favorite holiday, Halloween. October also happens to be a very interesting month in terms of 'Dead Guys in Suits.' A number of big gangland hits took place in the tenth month of our calendar..."

Two pages.

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The Warner Files: Racism and Organized Crime

June 2015 Issue Contents
Column

The Warner Files:

Racism’s connection to organized crime

by Richard N. Warner

"With fresh allegations of police racism surfacing in cities around the United States over the past year, it’s worth asking if racism has had a
ny connection to the creation or development of organized criminal groups in American history. The answer would be in the affirmative..."

Two pages.

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Just One More Thing: Calabrian Organization

June 2015 Issue Contents
Column

Just One More Thing:

Just how ‘organized’ was 

Calabrian organized crime?

by Thomas Hunt

"There are a number of unanswered questions related to the American Mafia's incorporation of Calabrian gangsters - those who trace their origins to the southernmost portion of the Italian mainland. We may ask: How did this combination occur? Precisely when did it occur? Was it the result of a decision of the American Mafia as a whole or did it result from decisions of individual crime families? Were Calabrian gangsters welcomed on an individual basis or was a Calabrian crime network consumed by the Mafia en masse? This last question touches on a subject that I have found particularly interesting: Was there a distinct, organized Calabrian criminal network in the United States and Canada before Calabrian gangsters were absorbed into the known Sicilian-based Mafia crime families?"

Fifteen pages, including eight images.

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