Feature 13

November 2024 issue contents

DOJ vs FBI

Government agencies squabbled over the release of Valachi's information

Robert Kennedy and J. Edgar Hoover

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and its parent Department of Justice had very different ideas of what to do with informant Joseph Valachi and the organized-crime data he provided. In a feud that lasted a year, each agency worked to block and undermine the other and eventually made its own secret publicity arrangements...

8 magazine pages / 14 book pages.
Sidebar articles on Courtney Allen Evans, Miriam Ottenberg
Images, documents, endnotes.

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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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Fifty Years Ago: Warren Commission

January 2014 Issue Contents
Feature Article

Oswald and the FBI

Lee Harvey Oswald

"Late in January of 1964, the President’s Commission on the Assassi-nation of President Kennedy (the Warren Commission) wrestled in executive session with a particularly troubling issue. There had been reports that the late Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of President John F. Kennedy, had been on the payroll of the Federal Bureau of Investigation..."

Fifteen pages including two pages of notes.

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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.

Congress Examines Profaci-Colombo

January 2012 Contents
Feature Article

Kennedy assassination investigators

turn their attention to Profaci-Colombo

In the late 1970s, as it reexamined the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the House Select Committee on Assassinations explored what it considered to be relevant events in organized crime. Two of those events were the 1971 assassination of crime boss Joseph Colombo and the failed 1962 attempt by Giuseppe Magliocco to eliminate important underworld rivals.

Two pages including one photograph.

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Hoover: 'Plagued Ever Since..."

July 2011 Contents
Feature Article

Nearing the end of a long career as the director of the

Federal Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar Hoover

reflected upon his early denials of the

existence of the American Mafia.

'I have been plagued ever since...'

By Alex Hortis

Hoover

"One of the enduring mysteries about J. Edgar Hoover is why he resisted going after the American Mafia. For his first thirty-three years as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1924 to 1957, Hoover engaged in few sustained actions against organized crime.
"Absent any personal explanation from Hoover for his reluctance, others have filled the void with speculation. Their theories have ranged from plausible to wildly conspiratorial.
"A newly discovered handwritten note by the late FBI director provides fresh insight into this controversy..."

Fifteen and a half pages including nine photographs and two and a half pages of endnotes.

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Jack Ruby visits Havana in 1959

Vol. 2, Issue 4, October 2009 Contents

Feature article

Jack Ruby visits

Havana in 1959

"Jack Ruby of Dallas, a prominent character in an American drama in 1963, appears to have played a role in the departure of American racketeers from Cuba four years earlier. How big a role he played remains uncertain."

Three pages

Two images

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The Mob's Worst Year: 1957 - Part Two

Vol. 2, Issue 1, Jan. 2009 Contents
Feature Article
Part 2 of 2

Fifty years ago, lawmakers, enforcement officials

and the American public finally became aware

of the depth and breadth of the Mafia underworld.

The Mob's Worst Year

by Thomas Hunt

First paragraph:
"Albert Anastasia’s death in 'the chair' might have been preordained. The legendary Mafia boss and accomplished murderer managed to escape death in Sing Sing Prison’s electric chair in 1921, only to meet his end in a barber chair 35 years later."


Seven and a half pages article body
Two pages of endnotes
Seven images.

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The Mob's Worst Year: 1957

Vol. 1, Issue 1, Sept. 2008 Contents
Feature article
Part 1 of 2

Fifty years ago, lawmakers, enforcement officials

and the American public finally became aware

of the depth and breadth of the Mafia underworld.

The Mob's Worst Year

by Thomas Hunt

Introduction:
"A single year changed everything for the American Mafia.
"Aided by vice and extortion income, by the arrival of vast numbers of Sicilian and southern Italian victims already practiced in deference to an outlaw class and by periodic rejuvenating shake-ups of its organization, the Mafia in the United States rapidly grew in wealth and power from its 19th Century origins through the first half of the 20th Century. The organization's resources and influence might have continued to grow unchecked but for the events of 1957."

Eight and a half pages article body
Three and a half pages of endnotes
13 grayscale photos.

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