By E.Valin, 2013

As the FBI entered the fight against organized crime on a national level, it benefited from considerable information supplied by confidential informants from within the Mafia families of northern California.

By E.Valin, 2011

During the Banana War of the 1960s, law enforcement benefited from data provided by an informer within the Bonanno Crime Family. Researcher Edmond Valin argues that the informer could only have been Joseph Bonanno's son, Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno.

Edited By J.Dugard, 2010

A gruesome murder in a reportedly haunted, old, Staten Island mansion provides a window into the operation of the Bonanno Crime Family of New York. Turncoat witness Cicale testifies in the October 2008 case United States v. Joseph Young.

By C.Walker, 2010

Around the globe, billions of dollars will be gambled on this single game, much of it will be wagered online. Last year, the Internet gambling industry generated in an estimated $10 billion to $12 billion, according to Capital HQ gaming analyst Michael Tew. About half of those revenues came from Americans.

By D.Critchley, 2008

Historians have neglected the role played by Berrien County, Michigan, in the history of Chicago and New York organized crime. The Berrien cities of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph were linked to three significant incidents in American organized crime history.

By J. Dugard, 2007

Elizabeth Bethel, a chambermaid at Miami’s Ocean Shore Motel, unlocked the door to Room 23 at about noon on July 14, 1976. After setting a fresh batch of towels down on a chair, she began making one of the room’s two beds. It was the only piece of furniture noticeably disturbed.

By T. Hunt and L. Cafiero, 2008

Some underworld legends, often repeated in mob history books and long cherished by Hollywood, will have to be revised or discarded due to continuing discoveries related to a shadowy Mafia figure named Saverio “Sam” Pollaccia.

By T. Hunt and M. Sheldon, 2008

On Wednesday evening, Oct. 28, 1868, the Innocenti political brigade suspended its violent Presidential election season rampages through Republican neighborhoods and headed indoors. Members held a large rally at the Orleans Ballroom on Bourbon and Orleans Streets.

By T.Hunt, 2007

After completing an evening meal of fish and pasta at the Caffé Oreto on March 12, 1909, Joseph Petrosino walked into the Piazza Marina, a wooded, public square just to the south of the busy docks of Palermo, Sicily. Petrosino, a New York police lieutenant, leader and founder of the Italian Squad, was in Italy to gather evidence against Italian fugitives living in New York.

By T. Hunt and M.A. Tona, 2007

“Diu miu!” The shout drew Michael Fiaschetti’s attention to the figure silhouetted in the dim gray light passing through the hotel window. Fiaschetti was on self-imposed guard duty, ostensibly protecting barber Bartolo Fontano from gangsters who wished him dead.

Feb. 2006 testimony of Michael DiLeonardo

Paul Castellano had sent some emissaries to talk to me about it. My brother Robert was with the Colombo family, and being he was with that family, we have no say and no influence on their politics or anything that they do. So this is a way to tell me this is Cosa Nostra. This is the way the rules are. Your brother was there. They killed him and that's it. There's no questions to be asked.

By T.Hunt, 2011

There is no more mysterious and confusing figure in American Mafia history than the powerful Giuseppe Morello, who more than once climbed to the pinnacle of the society's leadership.

By T.Hunt, 2006

Despite running one of New York's smaller underworld units, Gaetano "Tommy" Lucchese was one of the more successful American Mafia bosses of the post-Prohibition era. Abundant evidence of his business acumen suggests he was among the few mob chiefs who could have succeeded in life without underworld ties.

By T.Hunt, 2005

Few gangsters have cast a greater shadow on American society than Albert Anastasia of Brooklyn. For much of three decades, the man who was called "The Mad Hatter" and "The Lord High Executioner" helped to shape the organized underworld in the United States

By T.Hunt, 2006

Anthony Spilotro wasn't much to look at. His build certainly wasn't threatening. He stood just five feet, six inches tall and weighed in the neighborhood of 160. His small stature led underworld colleagues to call him "Tony the Ant" and "The Little Guy."

By T.Hunt, 2005-06

The disappearance of former Teamster President James Riddle Hoffa in 1975 sparked a public debate that continues to this day. Despite claims to the contrary, no one knows for sure what became of Hoffa or who was responsible.

By P.Desmond, 2003

Max "Boo Boo" Hoff was born in 1893 in South Philadelphia, a son of poor Russian-Jewish, immigrants. After quitting school, Boo Boo worked for several years as a cigar store clerk. His salary allegedly was raised from $12 a week to $15 after the proprietor noticed how Boo Boo's amiable personality appealed to customers.

By T.Hunt, 2002

Before his ascendance to the position of lord of the Sicilian-Italian Underworld, Giuseppe Masseria busied himself with the various criminal activities that were found in great abundance in turn-of-the-20th-Century lower Manhattan.

By T.Hunt, 2002

Conspiracy theorist is not at all a new line of work. And one of the more unusual conspiracy theories relating to organized crime dates back to 1931 and the accusation of an ersatz Capone.

By T. Hunt, 2006-07

Patrolman John H. A. Wilson, an 11-year member of the New York Police Department, was on strike-duty in front of the E. J. Barry drug warehouse at 54 Fulton Street in lower Manhattan. Employees of the warehouse had walked off the job, and Wilson was sent to ensure picketers behaved themselves.

By T.Hunt, 1992

A period of continuous celebration for the upper crust, of defiance and confusion for the rest, the 1920s contributed more than a typical decade's worth of images to our national identity. To mention the "Roaring Twenties" is to conjure up countless mental pictures of history-shaping trends and events.

By T.Hunt, 2002

The most basic question confronting the American Mafia historian is: "Does an American Mafia exist?" In our post-Valachi age, when books, movies and television shows about the Mafia are everywhere, it may seem a silly question.

By T.Hunt, 1986

Charles "Charlie Lucky" Luciano seized control of the Italian-American underworld in 1931. As the most powerful criminal leader, Luciano was able to unite regional crime groups across the United States under a system of his own choosing.

Copyright © 2011, Thomas P. Hunt, P.O. Box 1350, New Milford, CT 06776-1350
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