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.

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Ad: Mafia Membership Charts

Mafia Membership Charts
by Bill Feather
As seen in Informer.
Organized crime historian Bill Feather has collected decades of research into the births, deaths, immigration dates, kinship ties and crime family roles of known and suspected Mafiosi into easy to use charts. More than a dozen of Bill's charts have appeared on the pages of Informer. Now, the Mafia Membership Charts are available for free access on Bill Feather's website.
http://mafiamembershipcharts.blogspot.co.uk/

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Membership charts online

Informer's longtime columnist Bill Feather is bringing his Mafia membership charts online. The charts provide data - birth, death, aliases, immigration, family relationships, active eras, etc. - on documented and suspected Mafiosi from crime families across the United States.

Visit:
http://mafiamembershipcharts.blogspot.co.uk/

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Detroit Mafia Chart

January 2014 Issue Contents
Mafia Membership Chart

Detroit Mafia Chart, 1930s-50s.

By Bill Feather

Birth, death, immigration, relationships and other data on more than 100 known and suspected members of the Detroit Mafia active in the 1930s-50s.

Five and a half pages.

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Los Angeles Mafia Chart

October 2013 contents
Mafia Membership Chart

Los Angeles Mafia Chart, 1910s-40s

By Bill Feather

Sixty-five documented and suspected members of the Southern California crime family based in Los Angeles active in the period of the 1910s through the 1940s. Chart contains information on aliases, birth, death, immigration, family connections and underworld rank.

Four pages.

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Buffalo Mafia Chart

July 2013 Contents
Mafia Membership Chart

Buffalo Mafia Chart, 1910s-1940s

By Bill Feather

More than one hundred documented and suspected members of the Buffalo-based Magaddino "Arm" Crime Family active in the period of the 1910s through the 1940s. Chart contains information on aliases, birth, death, immigration, family connections and underworld rank.

Six pages.

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Lucchese Mafia Chart

April 2013 Contents
Mafia Membership Chart

Lucchese Crime Family

Membership Chart, 1910s-1940s

By Bill Feather

More than one hundred documented and suspected members of the Lucchese Crime Family active in the period of the 1910s through the 1940s.

Four pages.


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October 2012 Issue of Informer

October 2012 Contents
Editorial

For whatever reason, certain figures in crime history attract an inordinate amount of attention from the public. That attention tends to generate legend. And there probably are more underworld legends about Al Capone than any other criminal.

Capone contributed to the growth of these legends through his public appearances and through his travels. While his criminal empire was based in Chicago, he is known to have visited many locations across the Midwestern United States. He also traveled extensively in his native state of New York and in the nearby states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He visited the West Coast and vacationed in the South, eventually settling in Florida. All the locations he visited during his lifetime – and perhaps a fair number of places he never even heard of – have become homes to Capone history and Capone legend.

In this issue, true crime author Scott Deitche tracks down some of the lingering Capone legends in St. Petersburg, Florida, a Capone retreat where the gangland boss reportedly owned considerable real estate. (Preview) Deitche uncovers the properties and businesses that really have historic connections to Capone and his underworld associates.

Also in this issue We present Part 4 of the Gunmen of the Castellammarese War series. Lennert van‘t Riet, David Critchley and Steve Turner examine Dominic “The Gap” Petrelli, close friend and Mafia sponsor of Joe Valachi. (Preview)

Bill Feather provides an early Mafia membership chart for Tampa, Florida. (Preview)

Edmond Valin studies FBI documents to determine which members of the San Jose and San Francisco Mafias were providing information to law enforcement. (Preview)

In the Warner Files, Richard Warner gives his  recommendations for books about New York organized crime figures. (Preview)

Fifty-six pages, including advertising and cover.

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Tampa Mafia Chart

October 2012 Contents
Mafia Membership Chart

Tampa Mafia Chart

By Bill Feather

Chart provides data on dozens of documented and suspected Mafiosi from the Tampa, Florida, area in the 1920s through the 1940s.

Five pages.

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Milwaukee Mafia Chart

July 2012 Contents
Mafia Membership Chart

Milwaukee-Area Mafia Chart

By Bill Feather

Chart provides background data on dozens of documented and suspected organized criminals in the Milwaukee area in the 1920s-50s era.

Four pages.

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April 2012 Issue of Informer

April 2012 Contents
Editorial

The average Mafia aficionado likely feels that he or she already knows a great deal about New York gangland chieftain Charlie "Lucky" Luciano. Just about everyone knows, for example, that Luciano survived being taken "for a ride" by his rivals, that he was nicknamed "Lucky" as a result of that episode and that he single-handledly revolutionized organized crime in the United States. Just about everyone knows those things; unfortunately none are true. The problem is that much of what is generally believed about the 1930s-era crime boss can be traced to fictional works and a single, terribly suspect Luciano biography.

In this issue, Informer takes a close look at Salvatore Lucania, a.k.a. Charlie Luciano, intending to separate fact from fiction and to establish the real-world details of his life and criminal career. A great deal of the material written about Luciano and his associates since the mid-1970s rests upon an insecure foundation: The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano by Martin Gosch and Richard Hammer.

Though often criticized by historians as the product of Gosch's imagination, The Last Testament has been widely (and inexplicably) accepted as a near-autobiographical telling of Luciano's life story. Quotes from the work have appeared in books about Luciano and his ally Meyer Lansky. Even some who have been vocally critical of Last Testament's contents and Gosch's methods have found it impossible to resist borrowing tales from the book for their own works.

In our featured article, historian Richard Warner explores The Last Testament and the claims of its authors. He compares its contents to the historical record in order to deliver what should be "The Last Word on The Last Testament" (preview).

Thomas Hunt follows up with a Luciano lifetime chronology. While the Gosch-Hammer controversy is noted, "Year-by-year: Charlie Lucky's life" is devoid of Last Testament influence (preview).

Also in this issue, we present the second installment of “Gunmen of the Castellammarese War,” as historians Lennert van ‘t Riet, David Critchley and Steve Turner tell the story of Steve Rannelli (preview); Edmond Valin identifies underworld informants from the Philly Mob (preview); Bill Feather provides an extensive membership chart for the post-Luciano Genovese Crime Family of New York (preview); Richard Warner recommends books on Al Capone (preview); and Patrick Downey discusses gangsters who were sent to watery graves (preview).

One hundred pages. Published April 20, 2012.

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Genovese Mafia Chart

April 2012 Contents
Mafia Membership Chart

Genovese Mafia Membership Chart

Bill Feather provides background information on more than 300 members of the Genovese Crime Family active in the 1950s-1960s era.

Seven pages.

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Profaci-Colombo Mafia Chart

January 2012 Contents
Membership Chart
By Bill Feather

The January issue includes a Profaci-Colombo crime family membership chart compiled by Bill Feather. The five-page chart lists more than one hundred known and suspected members of the organization from the period of 1950s-1960s, along with birth, death, relationship, rank and other information.

Five pages.

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Profaci Mafia Chart

October 2011 Contents
Membership Chart
By Bill Feather

The October issue includes a chart of early Profaci Crime Family membership compiled by Bill Feather. The three and a half page chart lists more than 70 documented and suspected Mafiosi along with birth, death, immigration, relationship, rank and other information.

Three and a half pages.

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July 2011 Issue of Informer

July 2011 Contents

Crime historians have puzzled for decades over FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s long denial of the existence of organized crime. Following the Apalachin Mafia convention of 1957 and Joe Valachi’s revelations in the early 1960s, Hoover and his Bureau joined the war on organized crime. Hoover, however, never explained his earlier reluctance , and various theories—some baseless and cruel—have emerged to fill the void in the historical record.

In this issue, author Alex Hortis shares with us a recently discovered handwritten Hoover memo from 1970 that serves as a window into the director’s earlier position (preview). Hortis and Informer columnist Richard Warner (preview) double-team many of the myths that have circulated about Hoover.

The New England Crime Family receives special attention in this issue. We begin with Part 1 of Richard Warner’s history of the Mafia in Boston (preview). A look at some of the better known underworld meeting places on Federal Hill in Providence, Rhode Island (preview), and Bill Feather’s New England Mafia Membership Chart (preview) follow.

In his first article for Informer, historian Ed Valin puts together historical clues to track down two of the FBI’s best confidential informants (preview).

Author Patrick Downey devotes his quarterly Dead Guys in Suits column to a discussion of siblings eliminated by their underworld rivals (preview). Then, in the issue’s final pages, Informer editor/publisher Thomas Hunt looks at an extremely early prediction of the Sicilian Mafia’s demise (preview).

Fifty-six pages. Published July 22, 2011.

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New England Mafia Chart

July 2011 Contents
Membership Charts
By Bill Feather and Thomas Hunt

The July issue includes a New England Mafia Membership Chart by Bill Feather and Thomas Hunt. The five-page chart includes more than 100 documented and suspected Mafiosi along with birth, death, immigration, relationship, rank and other information.

Five pages.

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Northeast Pennsylvania Mafia Chart

April 2011 Contents
Membership Charts
By Bill Feather

The April issue includes a Northeastern Pennsylvania Mafia Membership Chart by Bill Feather. The three and a half-page chart includes more than 70 documented and suspected Mafiosi along with birth, death, immigration, relationship, rank and other information.
Three and a half pages.

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January 2011 issue of Informer

January 2011 Contents

Recently reorganized under the Commission system favored by Charlie "Lucky" Luciano, in 1932 the American Mafia reacted quickly to a bloody revival of old underworld rivalries. Luciano's underboss Vito Genovese called together an underworld convention in Brooklyn and ordered Pittsburgh Mafia boss John Bazzano to appear and answer for the recent murders of the Neapolitan Volpe Brothers.
(preview)

The notorious Brady Gang traveled to Bangor Maine in autumn of 1937. The FBI was waiting. Richard Shaw tells the tale of the Brady Gang's last days. (preview)

Much of what we believe we know about the Mafia's "Joe the Boss" Masseria turns out to be untrue. In his first column for Informer, underworld researcher Richard Warner sets the record straight. (preview)

Interviewed by Ellen Poulsen, true crime author William Helmer reflects on Dillinger, Nelson, Capone and a career at Playboy. (preview)

Bill Feather provides a membership chart for the Genovese Crime Family based in New York. (preview)

On October 27, 2010, the Mattix family of Iowa lost a beloved patriarch, the community of true crime writers lost a treasured friend and the Informer journal lost its editorial director. Rick Mattix's death was keenly felt by both of his families - the one related to him by blood and marriage and the other tied to him by professional appreciation and admiration. While we gave some consideration to closing Informer following the tragic news, it seemed a far better choice to use the journal as a means for his second family to assist his first family. (preview)

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Genovese Mafia Chart

January 2011 Contents
Membership Charts
By Bill Feather

The January issue includes a 1930s-1970s Genovese Crime Family membership chart by Bill Feather. The Seven and a half-page chart includes more than 150 documented and suspected Mafiosi along with birth, death, immigration, relationship, rank and other information.

Seven and a half pages.

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Philadelphia Mafia Chart

October 2010 Contents
Membership Charts
by Bill Feather

The October issue includes a 1910-1960s Philadelphia Mafia Membership Chart by Bill Feather. The four-page chart includes dozens of documented and suspected Mafiosi along with birth, death, immigration, relationship, rank and other information.


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