I'm about halfway through the Dutch Schultz, Beer Baron book. It's pretty fast and easy reading. Enjoyable but not too detail oriented. This series of books is good for those who are begining to read books about the mob and mobsters. A great "introductory" series of books on the mob. But a definite have for any mob/crime collector's library.

I just ordered these books :

The "Dutch" Schultz Story
The Gangster Chronicles
Frank Costello:Prime Minister of the Underworld
Lucky Luciano: The Man Who Organized Crime in America


Don Cardi

I am currently writing a thesis on the Italian Mafia...so most of the books are more academically orientated.

I would recommend John Dickie's Cosa Nostra for the most current information and theory on the Mafia.

Other books that are good to read include Octupus by Claire Sterling for a more international perspective on the Mafia.

Excellent Cadavers by Alexander Stille provides a substantial amount of information on the lives of Falcone and Borsellino. There's also a movie based on the book, but it is pretty uniformative and boring.

Men of Dishonor by Pino Arlacchi is the account of the mafioso Antonino Calderone and provides a unique perspective. It is somewhat similar to Tim Shawcross and Martin Young's Men of Honor which is Tommaso Buscetta's confessions. Both provide some good accounts of individual members of the Sicilian Mafia and good description of a number of events. Take their stories as you will-they do offer insight into the Mafia, but both are "pentiti" and have a tendency to portray their enemies in a more negative light than their friends.

Mafia and Mafiosi by Henner Hess is strictly academic-he puts forward a number of theories about what a mafioso is, what the nature of the Mafia is, ect.

Fighting the Mafia and Renewing Sicilian Culture was written by the mayor of Palermo, Leoluco Orlando. It is quite useless if you want to learn about the Mafia and is more self-glorifying than anything, but at the very least you can document some of the changes that have occurred in the last two decades.

Men of Honor was written by Giovanni Falcone, who was above anyone else, instrumental in bringing Mafia information into the public light and the Maxi Trial of the 80s. Most of this information can be found in other books, but its always good to read the primary source.

Fascism and the Mafia by Christopher Duggan is the only book that I know of that covers the time period from the early 1900s to the end of WWII so extensively.

The Allies, Separatism and the Mafia covers a little bit of the Fascist period, but really focuses on the links between the FBI, American Mafia and Sicilian Mafia.

Mafia Brotherhoods by Letizio Paoli gives another good historical overview of the Mafia and the political connections.

If you have finished that...is it possible to post it on the forum. I'm dying to read that.

If you have finished that...is it possible to post it on the forum. I'm dying to read that. [/b][/quote]Yes, please! Sounds impressive!

hello sir.

I am currently writing my dissertation (thesis) on the political & social impacts of the american mafia on c20th american life.

Is your thesis purely on italy?!

Do you know any academic books that would benefit myself?!

Also, once completed, would you like to swap a copy of each?! I would like to read someone else's atttempt.

Anyone know any good books on the Mafia with ties to the US Goverment?

Many books that deal with the JFK assassination discuss the link between the Mafia and the C.I.A. and their plot to kill Castro.

Contract on America : The Mafia Murder of President John F. Kennedy.
by David E. Scheim


Don Cardi

DC- I think it was Bill Bannano that killed Kennedy Oh no I mean it was Oswald who based his shooting style on Bannano :rolleyes:

Or maybe it was Henry Hill!

Between the two of them, one lies and the other one swears.


Don Cardi

Ok well even though my first post was said to be funny, I picked up the book and on page 4 Bill Bannano says he knows WHO and WHY President Kennedy was killed.

Later he will explain who opened the drapes and who killed the Tahoe assasins

Are you serious? You see, what did I tell you yesterday about him and why I don't particulary care to read what he writes? He's soooo full of himself, it's not even funny.


Don Cardi

Are you serious? You see, what did I tell you yesterday about him and why I don't particulary care to read what he writes? He's soooo full of himself, it's not even funny.


Don Cardi [/b][/quote]Uh, that isn't all he's full of... :rolleyes:
The number of people who claim to know WHO and WHY President Kennedy was killed might actually exceed the number of people who "know" who and why Jimmy Hoffa was killed--and where he was buried. :p

"BLOOD RELATION" by Eric Konigsberg

The nominal subject of this book is Harold (Kayo) Konigsberg, legendary NJ thug and shtarker,who may have committed as many as 20 murders, most of them for the Genovese Family and for Anthony (Tony Pro) Provenzano, Genovese capo and Teamster official who may have been behind Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance. The author is Eric Konigsberg, a capable writer who is Konigsberg's great-nephew. Eric got interested in Kayo after finally finding out the family secret: their blood relationship to Kayo.

Eric visited the 79-year-old Kayo several times in Auburn (NY) Prison, where he's doing a life bit. The visits weren't all that revealing, but Eric did a massive job of researching his career, and especially finding and interviewing people whose paths crossed Harold's--his family, former criminal associates, family members of Kayo's victims, judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, etc. What emerges is a picture of a true lunatic--equal parts Luca Brasi, Don Rickles and Clarence Darrow. Kayo was absolutely fearless, not because of courage, but out of sheer malevolence, and his drive for getting his way no matter what. As a small kid, he started rocking the ladder of a painter working on his parents' house. "Don't do that, you'll make me fall," the painter chided. "I want you to fall," the little kid replied. As a boxer, Kayo just stood in the ring, swinging away. If someone got in his way, he knocked him out; otherwise his opponents won decisions. But it didn't matter: Kayo waited for them outside the arena after the fight, and beat them to a pulp.
Illiterate into his twenties, Kayo taught himself to read, and then boned up on law. His greatest passion, seemingly, was to match wits with judges and prosecutors, filing endless motions and challenges, gaining endless delays, wising off in the courtroom. No stunt was too outrageous, no lie too obvious, for Harold. It didn't matter in the end: he spent (and is spending) most of his life in prison. Winning seemed almost irrelevant in those courtroom battles: Kayo basked in the publicity and recognition he got (I bet SC and plaw remember some of those trials), as well as the pleasure he took in pissing off his legal foes. He also had an uncanny ability to manipulate other people into doing his bidding and providing him with information, which he used to good advantage in and out of court, usually by intimidating witnesses. Yet, most of the lawmen Eric interviewed seemed to like him, and one FBI guy even asked if he could do anything for Kayo. As Mario Puzo wrote of Luca: he was like a natural force.
In the end, Kayo wound up threatening Eric--who, after researching Kayo's life, believed Kayo could reach him even behind bars. His grandmother intervened.
Not a real crime book, more a personal journey. But most of the stories aren't about Eric, they're about real people whose confidenced Eric earned. All in all, interesting, thoroughly researched and informative. A decent and fast read.

Brutal: The Untold Story of My Life Inside Whitey Bulger's Irish Mob

Co-Authored by Kevin Weeks & Phyllis Karas


The book describes more than 20 years Weeks spent working with Bulger before he fled the country. Weeks was arrested in 1999, two years after he discovered that Bulger and another associate, Steve Flemmi, had been working as informants for the FBI.

I grew up in the Old Colony housing project in South Boston, a tough, working class, mostly Irish neighborhood. I went from being a Golden Gloves boxer to a bouncer in a popular Southie bar called Triple O's. I got into many fights, knocked out a lot of people, and got noticed by one person in particular. People paid him a great deal of respect, came to him with their problems. Sure, I knew who he was. I'd heard stories. He was tough. He could be vicious. He ran the rackets in Southie. His name wasJ ames "Whitey" Bulger, although I always called him Jimmy.



Anyone pick this book up yet?


Don Cardi

Has anybody read

"Five Families: The Rise, Decline and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires" - Selwyn Raab

I was thinking of getting this,what do people think of this

Thanks

Haven't read it myself, but many experts say it's one of the best books around.

I'll defintley be getting it,it looks like an interesting read with a lot of imformation

I read "Five Families" several months ago, and I found it to be one of the most informative books on the Mob. Absolutely indespensible.
Raab covered the Mob for the NY Times for many years. He starts with a fairly short history of the Five Families that many here will be familiar with. His history doesn't add much. But he absolutely excels in his accounts of the families from about 1970 to the present. Those were the years that he covered the Mob, and his exhaustively detailed accounts for the first time helped me to follow and make sense of the endless machinations and personnel changes in the families. He also explains the workings of many of the multi-family rackets (like the "Cement Club" and the waterfront operations) that yielded billions. Raab also, for the first time, presents a cogent explanation of how the RICO Act and its wiretapping provisions work; and how law enforcement, after a long learning curve, used RICO so effectively.
A challenging but highly rewarding read.

Thanks turnbull,sonunds interesting

Raab's book is superb.

Anyone read "Mobsters, Unions and Feds" by James Jacobs.

i am reading it at the moment, helping my dissertation immensely...the same can be said of "five families".

i just found this 1 on a website and was wondering if anyone has read it or seen it? i only read 1 review for it and it got bad ratings but anyways here it is.

Thanks for the recommendation, Turnbull. I'll most definitely be ordering it.

Speaking of which, as I was looking it up on Amazon.com, you know how when you're gonna order something, they usually recommend another book to go along with, similar in interest? The one they recommended with "Five Families" is a book called "Gangster City : The History of the New York Underworld 1900-1935." I was wondering if anyone has read it, and if they recommended it.

After people's reccomendations just ordered:

I was looking through here, reading about the different books, and had a question. I got the book Cosa Nostra, History of the Sicilian Mafia, by John Dickie. I been reading it and it seems that the American mafia is thought to be different than the Sicilian mafia. Is there a book for beginner's that deals with the American mafia that anyone could recommend? Cosa Nostra is the first book I've read other than Mario Puzo's novels so I don't know much about anything other than what I read on here or look up online.

The Day Michael Collins Was Shot, by Meda Ryan.

The Day Michael Collins Was Shot is a book about General Michael Collins, Commander-In-Chief of the Free State Army, and Director Of Intelligence for the Irish Republican Brotherhood or IRB (which is now known as the Irish Republican Army or IRA.)

Michael, or Mick as he was called by his friends, fought in the War Of Independence against British soldiers, where he bombarded the Dublin GPO.

This book, however, focuses more on the Civil War that occurred in Ireland after the War Of Independence. Michael was asked by Eamon de Valera, an American living in Ireland and the Commander-In-Chief of the IRB to negotiate with the British Government for an independent Ireland, free of British rule, but Mick could only manage to get 26 of the 32 counties in Ireland, so there was a split in the IRB, anti-treatyites (de Valera and the IRB) on one side and pro-treatyites (Mick Collins and the Free State Army) on the other side.

Mick Collins was shot in the head at long-range by his own countrymen and former friends and comrades of the IRB. He died on the 22 August 1922. The Free State Army is now the official army of the Republic Of Ireland, but they are a neutral army and decide not to go to war. The IRB (now known as the IRA) are still an unofficial army of Ireland, using violence to rid their beloved country of British rule.

Me thinks Peter C. you might have a bit of the Isle in you!?!

If so, "Brits Out!"

If Turnbull recommends it ... it must be good. Thanks to everyone for all of the great suggestions/reviews on here. There is a lot of crap out there, so it is nice to be able to get opions of books from other like-minded people before wasting time reading them.

I bought a book called The Mafia by Claire Sterling a few months ago expecting great things. I thought it would take the reader through a complete history of the Sicilian and American Mafia. It glossed over these details, but the author seemed more concerned with how many kilos of heroin and coke the Mob seemed to import and export.

Nothing about Albert Anastasia and his activities, or Meyer Lansky, Charlie Luciano, Vito Genovese ...just narcotics, narcotics, narcotics on every single page.

Don't get me wrong, Ms Sterling's research is impeccable but I have to say I wasn't gripped.

I sturggled through and finished it but it's not a book I will read again. I think I'll take some of the recommendations on this thread instead.

Tíocfaidh ár lá!