Organized Crime History

In the predawn hours of a gloomy February day in 1994, two thieves entered the National Gallery in Oslo and made off with one of the world's most famous paintings, Edvard Munch's Scream. It was a brazen crime committed while the whole world was watching the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. Baffled and humiliated, the Norwegian police turned to the one man they believed could help: a half English, half American undercover cop named Charley Hill, the world's greatest art detective.

Charles Bowden writes, “this book is not about how the world ends but how a new world is being born.” Murder City explores this new world, focusing on the idea that Mexico is collapsing into a permanent culture of violence. Bowden focuses on Ciudad Juarez, which lies just across the Rio Grande from El Paso. Infamously known as the place where women disappear, last year alone 1,607 people were murdered, a number that is set to accelerate in 2009.

Mafia Spies is the definitive account of America’s most remarkable espionage plots ever - with CIA agents, mob hitmen, “kompromat” sex, presidential indiscretion, and James Bond-like killing devices together in a top-secret mystery full of surprise twists and deadly intrigue. In the early 1960s, two top gangsters, Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana, were hired by the CIA to kill Cuba’s Communist leader, Fidel Castro, only to wind up murdered themselves amidst Congressional hearings and a national debate about the JFK assassination.

Meet Michael D. Blutrich, founder of Scores, the hottest strip club in New York history. A resourceful lawyer at one of the city's most respected firms, Blutrich fell into the skin trade almost by accident, but it was his legal savvy that made Scores the first club in Manhattan to feature lap dances and enabled him to neatly sidestep a law requiring dancers to wear pasties by instead covering their nipples with latex paint. Soon Scores was a home away from home for everyone from sports superstars and Oscar-winning actors to pop singers and political notables alike.

Packed with shocking revelations, untold stories, and behind-the-scenes details, this six-book collection is a must-listen for anyone captivated by the dark and dangerous world of organized crime. For decades, the Mafia ruled the East Coast, shaping cities, corrupting politicians, and controlling vast criminal enterprises. The Six Families of East Coast pulls back the curtain on these powerful crime syndicates, revealing their history, key figures, and the bloody battles that defined them.

A vivid, wild ride through a century of Mafia lore, this book tells stories of organized crime rings that have settled in Florida and made the state their base of operations for bootlegging, gambling, extortion, money laundering, and drug running.

💀 From Al Capone to John Gotti, these are the true stories of the most infamous crime bosses—and their ultimate downfall. 🚬 Step into the shadowy world of organized crime, where power is absolute, loyalty is fleeting, and the price of betrayal is death. Kingpins and Killers explores 25 real-life mobsters, tracing their rise to power, bloody reign, and inevitable demise. 🔪 Inside, you’ll uncover: ✔️ The brutal executions that ended mob legends ✔️ The FBI’s relentless pursuit of crime bosses ✔️ The betrayals and backstabbings that shattered syndicates ✔️ The ...

Many critiques of the Trump era contrast it with the latter half of the 20th century, when the United States seemed governed more by statesmen than by special interests. Without denying the extraordinary vigor of President Trump's assault on traditional ethical and legal norms, Jonathan Marshall challenges the myth of a golden age of American democracy. Drawing on a host of original archival sources, he tells the shocking story of how well-protected criminals systematically organized the corruption of American national politics after World War II.

Organized crime - the Italian American kind - has long been a source of popular entertainment and legend. Now Thomas Reppetto provides a balanced history of the Mafia's rise - from the 1880s to the post-World War II era - that is as exciting as it is authoritative. Structuring his narrative around a series of case histories featuring such infamous characters as Lucky Luciano and Al Capone, Reppetto draws on a lifetime of field experience and access to unseen documents to show us a locally grown Mafia.

Burn Boston Burn is an astounding true crime narration. A conspiracy of nine men, including three Boston cops and a Boston firefighter, burned Boston and surrounding communities in the early 1980s due to tax-cutting measures that caused layoffs of hundreds of police and firefighters. Over two years, these fire buffs-turned-arsonists torched 264 buildings, causing millions of dollars in damages and hundreds of injuries. The city was ablaze with nightly fires, sirens wailing through the streets, and people too afraid to sleep.

The Sicilian mafia, known as Cosa Nostra, is far from being Italy's only dangerous criminal fraternity. The country hosts two other major mafias: the Camorra from Naples; and, from the poor and isolated region of Calabria, the mysterious 'Ndrangheta, which has now risen to become the most powerful mob group active today. Blood Brotherhoods is an audiobook of breathtaking ambition, tracing for the first time the interlocking story of all three mafias from their origins to the present day.

Forget what you think you know about the Mafia. After reading this book, even life-long mob aficionados will have a new perspective on organized crime. Informative, authoritative, and eye-opening, this is the first full-length book devoted exclusively to uncovering the hidden history of how the Mafia came to dominate organized crime in New York City during the 1930s through 1950s.

Step into the shadowy realm of the Patriarca Mafia Crime Family, where power, deception, and ambition intermingle to create a riveting saga that has left an indelible mark on New England's criminal history. In this meticulously documented narrative, Mafia Library uncovers the untold story of one of America's most infamous crime families, tracing its origins from the turbulent days of Prohibition to its enduring presence in the 21st century.

Before the Five Families who so notoriously dominated U.S. organized crime for a bloody half-century, there was the one-fingered, surpassingly cunning Giuseppe Morello and his murderous coterie of brothers. Born into a life of poverty in rural Sicily, Morello became an American nightmare, pioneering the bizarre initiation rituals, imaginative protection rackets, influential underworld reigns, and Mafia wars later popularized by countless books, television shows, and movies.

Noted Mexican American journalist Alfredo Corchado refuses to shrink from reporting on government corruption, murders in Juarez, or the ruthless drug cartels of Mexico. One night, Corchado received a tip that he could be the next target of the Zetas, a violent paramilitary group - and that he had 24 hours to find out if the threat was true. Midnight in Mexico is the story of one man's quest to report the truth of his country - as he races to save his own life.

Una noche de enero de 1993, en una apartada provincia italiana, dos jóvenes soldados carabinieri detienen a un vehículo. Una semana después, el 15 de enero, Totò Riina es aprehendido tras 24 años de vivir en la clandestinidad. "El último capo" narra los hechos de aquella semana decisiva. Esos días enmarcan el relato de la etapa más sanguinaria de la mafia de Corleone, en boca de quienes la vivieron en carne propia y de los hombres que cazaron a Riina. Una semana que representa la historia de una época.

Ronnie Earle was a Texas legend. During his three decades as the district attorney responsible for Austin and surrounding Travis County, he prosecuted corrupt corporate executives and state officials, including the notorious US congressman Tom DeLay. But Earle maintained that the biggest case of his career was the one involving Frank Hughey Smith, the ex-convict millionaire, alleged criminal mastermind, and Dixie Mafia figure. With the help of corrupt local authorities, Smith spent the 1970s building a criminal empire in auto salvage and bail bonds.

The cult classic that traced how a religion that once embodied the 1960s hopes for peace, love and understanding metamorphozed into a worldwide organized crime ring. This new edition is being published in conjunction with a new documentary based on the book and contains a new foreword by the authors as well as Krishna images never published before.

From their birthplace in Phenix City, Alabama to the corruption of today, the Dixie Mafia’s tentacles stretch from coast to coast throughout the south. While most of the world denies their existence, this network of freelance criminals have flown under the radar for the most part since the 1950s. Their structure is completely different than that of La Cosa Nostra so people discount them as rogue bands of individual criminals. In reality it’s one massive web of corruption, lies, and murder.

More than 175 years of true crimes culled from the city's police blotter, told through an insightful text by two NYPD officers and a NYC crime reporter. From atrocities that occurred before the establishment of New York's police force in 1845 through the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 to the present day, this audio is an insider's look at more than 80 real-life crimes that shocked the nation, from arson to gangland murders, robberies, serial killers, bombings, and kidnappings.