Organized Crime History

Winner of the National Indie Excellence Award for 2019, and Finalist in the 2019 NGIBA, “the Sundance Film Festival of the publishing world.” 1995: Having grown up in America during the Cold War, young Peter Turner’s idealism has led him to study Russian. Brilliant and driven, he dreams of building bridges between the decaying Russian system and Western ideals. When the opportunity for a university exchange in Nizhny Novgorod falls in his path, Peter jumps at the chance to go and help build the new Russia. American businessman Del Sanning has also set up shop in Nizhny. A real cowboy ...

From running guns to white-collar crimes in cyberspace and illegal seafood, the Triads, the mafia of China, are potent figures in the world of organized crime. Going by enigmatic names like the 14K Triad and the United Bamboo Gang, these criminal groups are enormous, with some organizations boasting memberships ranging in the tens of thousands. A powerful factor in China and throughout Asia, Triads are entrenched in society and the masters of multiple enterprises ranging from extortion, narcotics, prostitution, and white collar crime.

Eliot Ness presents the first complete picture of the real Eliot Ness. Both fearless and shockingly shy, he inspired courage and loyalty in men twice his age, forged law-enforcement innovations that are still with us today, and earned acclaim and scandal from both his professional and personal lives. Through it all, he believed unwaveringly in the integrity of law and the basic goodness of his fellow Americans.

San Francisco, Chinatown, September 4, 1977, 2:00 a.m. Despite it being the middle of the night, Chinatown was still a hive of activity. Fresh produce glistening with dew was being delivered by vegetable vendors at grocery stores. Chinese barbeque chefs at neighborhood restaurants were preparing juicy roast duck and sticky sweet red barbeque pork for both the late-night crowd and tomorrow’s lunch rush.

Most folks think of Hawaii as a vacation destination. Mob-style executions, drug smuggling, and vicious gang warfare are seldom part of the postcard image. Yet, Hawaii was once home to not only Aloha spirit, but also a ruthless, homegrown mafia underworld. By 1980 - the year Charles Marsland was elected Honolulu's top prosecutor - the honeymoon island paradise was also plagued by violence, corruption, and organized crime. The zeal that Marsland brought to his crusade against the Hawaiian underworld was relentless, self-destructive, and very personal.

The bloody story of the rise of paramilitaries in Colombia, told through three characters—a fearless activist, a dogged journalist, and a relentless investigator—whose lives intersected in the midst of unspeakable terror.

Mob opens terrifying windows on the brutal and mysterious world of organized crime. You'll meet murderous wiseguys, scheming Dons and undercover agents risking their lives to break the Mob's most powerful syndicates. The picture that emerges from these stories is astoundingly complex and all too human: a world of warped desire and violent consequences that is at once shocking and fascinating.

The ‘Ndrangheta (pronounced an-drang-et-ah) is a close neighbor of the Cosa Nostra and currently considered the most powerful (and difficult to spell) criminal organization in Italy. The ‘Ndrangheta is centered around Calabria, the most southwestern region of Italy, almost touching the Sicilian city of Messina. Though it began as far back as the late 19th century, it was not until the 1950s that the ‘Ndrangheta started to spread its tentacles throughout Italy and then across the entire globe, forming an empire that now ranges from Australia and Turkey, to Chile to Canada.

William Elliott Hazelgrove provides the exciting and sprawling history behind the 1933 World's Fair, the last of the golden age. He reveals the story of the six millionaire businessmen, dubbed The Secret Six, who beat Al Capone at his own game, ending the gangster era as prohibition was repealed. The story of an intriguing woman, Sally Rand, who embodied the World's Fair with her own rags to riches story and brought sex into the open.

The rise of Chicago’s gangland can be attributed to a number of factors. First, there was the sudden explosion in its population, which saw an influx of immigrants - mainly from eastern and southern Europe, as well as Americans from neighboring and faraway states - teem into the city in search of promising job opportunities and a better life. The abrupt inundation of permanent citizens rendered the already suffering policeman to civilian ratio out of kilter, and the authorities' control of the city became further unzipped.

A suspenseful thriller set in New York City during the early 20th century. In "Murder as Justice," the bustling streets of early 20th-century New York City serve as the backdrop for a gripping tale of morality, revenge, and the complexities of justice. As an organized Assassination Bureau operates strictly under a moral code, the lines between righteousness and vendetta blur, drawing readers into a world where the pursuit of justice leads to chilling consequences. At the heart of the story is Andrei Nikolov, the head of the Assassination Bureau, who is thrust into a moral dilemma when ...

This thought-provoking book examines gang history in the region encompassing West Texas, Southern New Mexico, and Northern Chihuahua, Mexico. Known as the El Paso-Juárez borderland region, the area contains more than three million people spanning 130 miles from east to west. Mike Tapia examines this region by exploring a century of historical developments through a criminological lens and by studying the diverse subcultures on both sides of the law.

Over the course of the 19th century, the people of Sicily found themselves at the center of a struggle for freedom, one that ended up being long and often very bloody. It was during these crucial years of struggle that the Sicilian mafia, La Cosa Nostra ("Our Thing"), started to take shape. Cosa Nostra: The Notorious History and Legacy of the Sicilian Mafia examines how the world’s most famous mob formed, its inner workings, and the events that made it feared around the world.

When billions poured into the neglected east London borough hosting the 2012 Olympics, a turf war broke out between crime families for control of a now valuable strip of land. Using violence, guile and corruption, one gangster, the Long Fella, emerged as a true untouchable. A team of local detectives made it their business to take him on until Scotland Yard threw them under the bus and the business of putting on 'the greatest show on earth' won the day.

Where justice meets corruption—and one prosecutor stands at the crossroads. In the shadows of jazz clubs and beneath the canopy of moss-draped oaks, a far more sinister rhythm pulsed through the streets of New Orleans: the grip of organized crime. Mobster-ville Magistrate: The Story Behind the Story pulls back the curtain on a world few have truly seen—one where American Mafia influence shaped politics, police, and even the courts. This powerful nonfiction companion to the novel Magistrate in Mobster-ville reveals the true-life inspirations behind a gripping tale of legal warfare and ...

In the shadows of Northeastern Pennsylvania, a clandestine empire emerged—one that would become synonymous with the essence of organized crime. The Bufalino Mafia Crime Family takes you on a gripping journey through the tumultuous history of the notorious Bufalino crime syndicate. This meticulously researched and fascinating narrative unveils the hidden layers of a mafia family that left an indelible mark on American criminal history.

Delve into the hidden underbelly of crime as we unveil the secrets of the Los Angeles Mafia Crime Family. From its elusive origins to its far-reaching influence, prepare to uncover the tangled web of power, intrigue, and betrayal that defined this criminal empire.

Operation Car Wash is the inside story of two Brazilian Federal Police officers who found themselves at the centre of the biggest corruption scandal in history; uncovering a web of political and corporate racketeering which would lead them all the way to the arrest and imprisonment of the nation’s President. Through engrossing first-hand testimony, Pontes and Anselmo recount the uphill battle faced by the Federal Police in apprehending Brazil’s white-collar criminals.

Mafia-crats of New York A Detective’s Costly Crusade Against Mob-Inspired Corruption What happens when the real enemy isn’t just on the streets—but in city hall? In the shadows of New York’s political machine, where the lines between government and organized crime have long been blurred, one detective dares to push back. Mafia-crats of New York tells the gripping story of an anti-corruption investigator who risks everything to expose the mob’s enduring grip on local politics—and the quiet complicity of those sworn to uphold the law. Haunted by a turbulent past and targeted by ...

In the long annals of sports and crime, no story compares to the one that engulfed the Luckman family in 1935. As 18-year-old Sid Luckman made headlines across New York City for his high school football exploits at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, his father, Meyer Luckman, was making headlines in the same papers for a very different reason: the gangland murder of his own brother-in-law. Amazingly, the connection between sports celebrity son and mobster father was studiously ignored by the press and ultimately overlooked for eight decades.