Issue focuses on Nicola "Nick" Gentile, Mafia leader in U.S. and Sicily, author of 1963 tell-all autobiography. Informer provides Gentile's entire life story, building on original research by Mafia history experts, balancing Gentile's self-serving and self-aggrandizing autobiographical work with verifiable history, correcting misinformation and filling in wide gaps left in his personal account. In addition to studying Gentile's life and career, Informer provides biographical information for dozens of individuals who contributed in interesting ways to his life story. Also in this issue: - 1900s Mafia feuds in Los Angeles, - Book excerpts, - Book announcements, - COVID-19's impact on Mafia, - Obituary. Contributors: Thomas Hunt, David Critchley, Steve Turner, Lennert van't Riet, Richard N. Warner, Justin Cascio, Sam Carlino, Michael O'Haire, Jon Black, Margaret Janco, Bill Feather, Christian Cipollini.

This Informer issue focuses on the mafiosi of California, particularly those who relocated to the Golden State after launching criminal careers in other regions. California-related articles include: - Trail of blood: Mafia murder of Barnett Baff linked Corleone, East Harlem and the ghettos of Los Angeles; - Sam Streva and the 'San Pedro gang'; - Was DeJohn a victim of Cheese War? - Golden State often unfriendly to transplanted mobsters; - San Francisco boss Lanza held key role with Colorado's Mafia; - New Orleans connection to San Francisco Mafia. Other articles in this issue: - Reinhold Engel: Forgotten leader of a big-time robbery gang; - Another, other Gentile family; - Police rarely appear on U.S. postage; - New York revolutions in policing and crime.

Journalists Craig Thompson and Allen Raymond in 1940 wrote that “...the lower East Side of Manhattan in the first twenty years of the twentieth century was the greatest breeding ground for gunmen and racketeers, since risen to eminence, that this country has ever seen...” Conditions in the pre-Prohibition twentieth century Lower East Side certainly fueled an explosion in gangs and racketeering. Such underworld giants as Meyer Lansky, Louis “Lepke” Buchalter and Salvatore “Charlie Luciano” Lucania were products of that overcrowded and hard environment. But that was just a small part of the area’s underworld history. In this issue, Informer presents a collection of articles representing the seedy and bloody gangland history of the Lower East Side. Material spans many decades of Manhattan’s history. Related article subjects: ∙ End of the Whyos gang. ∙ Historic Photo: Bandits' Roost. ∙ John H. McGurk and Bowery's "Suicide Hall." ∙ The death and life of hoodlum/hero Monk Eastman. ∙ NYC's first Mafia boss? ∙ Italian gang chief with an Irish name: Paul Kelly. ∙ Sai Wing Mock and the New York "Tong Wars." ∙ Frank Lanza's New York firms may have been Mafia fronts. ∙ In search of "Johnny Spanish." ∙ Racketeering future was molded in young Meyer Lansky's neighborhood. ∙ "Death Avenue": Second Avenue, 1910-1924. ∙ 1964 narcotics report included mobster bios. In addition, the issue includes these articles: ∙ New facts about 1928 Mafia conventioneers. ∙ "Bill the Butcher" wasn't from the Five Points. ∙ New and recent true crime book releases. ∙ Looking back from 2023: 150, 100, 75, 50, 5 years ago. Contributors to this issue: Thomas Hunt, Justin Cascio, Patrick Downey, Michael O'Haire, Steve Turner, Matt Ghiglieri.

"Murdertown," "Bombtown," "Crimetown." Through decades, the City of Youngstown, Ohio, has been branded with such painful nicknames, due in large part to the rackets, violence and corruption of organized crime in the region. The streets of Youngstown and other communities in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys of northeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania have been bloodied through numerous shootings and stabbings and, during an especially disturbing period, a series of gruesome car-bombings. In too many cases, public officials and officers of the law were complicit in the criminal activity, profiting through bribery and graft. Some authorities who resisted corruption and attempted to perform their public duties found themselves the targets of underworld violence. In this November 2022 issue of Informer: The History of American Crime and Law Enforcement, we tackle the history of organized crime in Youngstown region, from the earliest reports of the 1890s through the apparent dissolution of the Mob presence more than a century later. It is a complex subject, as elements of at least four regional Mafia organizations and a persistent non-Mafia Calabrian organization, in addition to other criminal elements, all collided, cooperated, combined and clashed with each other at different times. This resulted in a wealth of interesting but often uncoordinated stories and personalities. Our strategy for dealing with the subject is to present a number of individual standalone articles on the more interesting of these stories, bringing to light the significant personalities, groups, areas and eras. The effort might be compared to the photographic “stitching” of a collection of images into a panorama. Readers will discover the secret criminal organizations behind names like "Society of Honor," "Sacred Circle" and "Society of the Banana" and will encounter such characters as "Fats" Aiello, Ernie Biondillo, Frank Cammarata, "Cadillac Charlie" Cavallaro, Joe Cutrone, "Tony Dope" Delsanter, Vince DeNiro, "Wolf" DiCarlo, "Big Jim" Falcone, Mike Farah, "Red" Giordano, "Big Dom" Mallamo, Dominick Moio, "Two-Gun Jimmy" Prato, Rocco Racco, Rocco Strange, Lenny Strollo, "Zebo" Zottola, along with the Barber brothers, the Carabbia brothers, the Naples brothers, the Romeo brothers and many more. While it is our hope that a coherent image of the history of Youngstown-area organized crime (and its connections to criminal entities outside the region) will emerge, we are concerned by the fact that some of our individual historical “snapshots” do not overlap with or even touch each other while others may overlap quite a bit. We hope that the obvious voids and repetitions will not be a great distraction and that, with some patience, our readers will be able to “get the picture.” Contributors to this Informer issue: James Barber, Justin Cascio, Margaret Janco, Thom L. Jones, Michael A. Tona, Edmond Valin and Thomas Hunt

The New York Times bestseller chronicling the history of NYC’s infamous five mafia families is now the basis for the upcoming The HISTORY® Channel documentary series American Godfathers: The Five Families. Genovese, Gambino, Bonnano, Colombo and Lucchese. For decades these Five Families ruled New York and built the American Mafia (or Cosa Nostra) into an underworld empire. Today, the Mafia is an endangered species, battered and beleaguered by aggressive investigators, incompetent leadership, betrayals and generational changes that produced violent and unreliable leaders and recruits. A twenty year assault against the five families in particular blossomed into the most successful law enforcement campaign of the last century. Selwyn Raab's Five Families is the vivid story of the rise and fall of New York's premier dons from Lucky Luciano to Paul Castellano to John Gotti and more. The book also brings the reader right up to the possible resurgence of the Mafia as the FBI and local law enforcement agencies turn their attention to homeland security and away from organized crime.

"Crimetown, U.S.A." is a narrative of organized crime in Youngstown, Ohio and the surrounding Mahoning Valley during the years 1933 to 1963. It begins with the Valley's participation in the Midwest Crime Wave of 1933-34, describing the demise of the legendary bank robber "Pretty Boy" Floyd. This is followed by the demise of one of the Valley's own in the brutal slaying of "Happy" Marino, which also happens to be one of the Valley's few gangland murders in which all the participants were tried, convicted and sent to prison. The mid-to-late 1930s is chronicled showing the dominance of the ethnic-based lottery houses, which operated in Youngstown. These operations came to end after a run-away grand jury created enough interest to draw the governor's attention. The late 1940s saw the height of popularity of the infamous Jungle Inn gambling den, located just over the Mahoning County line in Trumbull County. The history of this establishment is chronicled in "Welcome to the Jungle Inn," also by Allan R. May, and is a companion book to "Crimetown U.S.A." describing the history of organized crime in Warren and Trumbull County, Ohio. By the end of the 1940s the citizens of Youngstown put a new mayor in City Hall. Charles Henderson ran on the platform of "Smash Racket Rule" in the city. The man he brought in to do the "smashing" was Edward J. Allen. The feisty and fearless police chief began by chasing out two-thirds of the Valley's "Big 3," including Mafia member Joe DiCarlo, who muscled into the race wire service and controlled the local bookmaking. This period was followed by what was known as the "bug" craze, which was the Valley's nickname for the numbers game or policy, as it was also known. The battle for dominance resulted in a bombing war throughout the 1950s for supremacy in this field by the city's top policy racketeers, Sandy Naples and Vince DeNiro. By the end of the 1950s, Youngstown had become known as "Bomb Town." In the early 1960s, the bombs that were used to scare the competition were now being used to eliminate it. A wave of vicious killings took place, some taking the lives of innocent people. No murder was more notorious than the November 1962 car-bombing that took the lives of "Cadillac Charlie" Cavallaro and his 11-year old son. The senseless killing shocked the country and brought national attention to Youngstown. It also brought the city an everlasting and despised nickname, "Crimetown, U.S.A."