Golden City-Crescent City connection

October 2021 issue contents - Feature

New Orleans connection to San Francisco Mafia

The death and the life of Francesco DiFranchi

By Lennert van 't Riet

The American Mafia, which in its heyday included about two dozen distinct “families,” provides a textbook case for independent crime cells operating under a single banner by means of collaboration in unlawful activity and strong personal and social connections. The San Francisco Mafia, never one of the nation's more active organizations, appears to have had few criminal collaborations with other families but did establish meaningful links with mafiosi across the United States...

See what else is in Informer's October 2021 issue.

 

November 2018 issue of Informer

November 2018 issue contents
Editorial

Adhesive tape was a fairly recent invention when robbers began finding it especially handy in their field of endeavor. It was quicker and easier to bind and gag a victim with strips of the sticky material than with cloth or rope. And a roll of tape was far easier to carry around. Due to the novelty of this approach, newspapers dubbed groups that used it, “tape bandits.”

We learn in this issue’s feature by Jeffery S. King (Preview), that notorious gangster George “Baby Face” Nelson once led a group of these enterprising tape bandits.

Also in this issue:

• Saving a person from the electric chair may not always be the same as saving the person’s “life.” Thomas Hunt’s article (Preview) reveals that one wrongly convicted man was emotionally destroyed despite Detective Joseph Petrosino’s heroic efforts to free him from Sing Sing’s Death House.
• Did Albany’s powerful O’Connell Machine ensure the 1930s conviction and electrocution of widow Anna Antonio merely to shield local bootlegging and narcotics rackets? Ellen Poulsen considers the question (Preview).
• Author Christian Cipollini reveals past, present and what might happen if he ever smiled for a photograph (Preview).
• Richard N. Warner explores the unsolved murder of Chicago’s Sam Giancana (Preview).
• Thomas Hunt ponders “Wherefore art thou, [Frank] Romeo?” (Preview).
• Book reviews and announcements (Preview).

Sixty-eight pages.

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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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August 2017 issue of Informer

August 2017 contents
Editorial

This issue's "cover story" is an excerpt from Dock Boss, scheduled for release this summer by Barricade Books. Dock Boss, the story of Eddie McGrath and the mobsters who controlled New York City's West Side waterfront, is the first book-length project by crime historian Neil G. Clarke (Preview).

Also in this issue:

•  Lennert Van`t Riet and David Critchley provide a groundbreaking history of Frank Zito's little-known but influential Springfield, Illinois, Mafia organization (Preview).
•  Justin Cascio explores the career and family connections of the "Capitano," Angelo Di Carlo, who held key underworld positions on both sides of the Atlantic (Preview).
•  Edmond Valin digs through government records to discover the identity of a Bonanno Family informant (Preview).
•  Bill Feather provides details on the founding of twenty-nine United States Mafia organizations (Preview).
•  Richard Warner reviews books on an axe-wielding killer, the origins of street gangs and revered New York law enforcement officer Joseph Petrosino (Preview).
•  In The Warner Files, Richard Warner outlines recent changes in the Chicago Outfit (Preview).

[REMINDER: The Scribd online document-sharing service recently made the business decision to shut down the Scribd Store, one of Informer's electronic edition distribution channels since fall of 2010. At this time, the MagCloud/Blurb service is the sole distributor of Informer print and electronic editions.]

104 Pages

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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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Texas, New Orleans Membership Charts

Vol. 3, No. 3, July 2010 Contents
Membership Charts
by Bill Feather

In the July issue, we present two Mafia membership charts by Bill Feather: New Orleans, 1920s-1970s, and Texas, 1900-1970s. Each chart includes more than 50 members and provides birth/death/immigration data, nicknames, underworld ranks and other information.

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Newspaperman reveals lynch mob role

Vol. 1, Issue 1, Sept. 2008 Contents
Short article

New Orleans newspaperman reveals

his role in 1891 anti-Mafia lynch-mob

Introduction:
"Sirs: I have read in the past many versions of the now famous Mafia affair, most of which were incorrect. I have never written anything about it, as I knew many of the squad were still alive and would resent it, but now that most of us are dead and I am 68, there is little chance of trouble."

Two pages article body
One grayscale photo.

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A Look Back

Vol. 1, Issue 1, Sept. 2008 Contents
A Look Back

100 years ago:
NYPD Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino keeps a watchful eye on vacationing Sicilian Mafioso Raffaele Palizzolo.

75 years ago:
Philadelphia mob leaders Salvatore Sabella, John Avena and A. Domenico Pollina are acquitted of the Cocozza and Zanghi murders.

25 years ago:
New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello heads to prison. Chicago and Kansas City mobsters are accused of skimming from Vegas casinos. Joseph Bonanno begins serving a prison term.

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