Jr: 1643 books

Pasqualino Lolordo was an underling of Al Capone who the Chicago crime boss made head of the Unione Sicilliana. Lolordo was murdered in cold blood in his own home one afternoon in 1929 after he and his wife returned from a shopping trip. Two groups of men visited his fashionable northwest Chicago...

"Skinny Razor" DeTullio was a lynchpin in the Philadelphia crime syndicate of the late 1950s and the 1960s. He lived in Camden, New Jersey until his death from natural causes in 1966. DeTullio's main function was lending money to underworld figures and businessmen who couldn't rely on banks to loan...

An ugly incident that occurred in a popular Toronto night spot brings to mind the struggle for supremacy in the Ontario gambling world, circa 1961. Gambler Max Bluestein was beaten with brass knuckles and lead pipes as he was leaving the Town Tavern on the night of March 21, 1961. Later it was learned...

Unsolved Mafia murders occurred in numerous American cities in 1959. Among the most prominent was the slaying of Joseph Bronge, a Chicago beer distributor. Gunned down outside his Melrose Park office, he attempted to escape through a chained link fence near an apartment building. Bronge was tied to...

Christine Jorgensen sex reassignment was among the first of its kind. The former Army Private from the Bronx had gone to Copenhagen, Denmark in 1950 as a tourist. When he returned to his home in the United States he was no longer George. Instead with extended hormone therapy treatments and the collaboration...

Angela Dorian is a famous Playboy Playmate who used her magazine modeling to become a successful actress in motion pictures and on television. She appeared in numerous mid 1960s television shows and debuted in movies in Chuka, a 1967 western that starred Rod Taylor. Her best known film is When Dinosaurs...

John Peanuts Manfredonia was murdered inside his Mount Vernon, New York home on November 28, 1978. The murder scene was a bloodbath, with a smudge of blood on the wall and a victim lying in a pool of his own blood. Manfredonia was a bookie who was associated with the Vito Genovese crime family. He...

Raymond Patriarca became the head of a powerful five state crime syndicate which reached throughout New England. By 1938 Patriarca had already served a stint in the Atlanta Federal Prison. In his formative years as a criminal he worked for Warwick, Rhode Island based Carl Rettich. Patriarca was indicted...

Salvatore Polisi was an associate of Gambino crime boss John Gotti for many years. He managed the Sinatra Club, which was a frequent hangout for Gambino crime family members. Gotti and his brother were among these individuals. The moniker "Crazy Sal" was given Polisi for his unique ability...

Harold Giles Hoffman was elected governor of New Jersey in 1935. A gregarious, popular politician he was a former assistant chemist and banker. His supporters touted him as a prospective Republican Presidential candidate for the upcoming 1936 election. Unbeknownst to his backers, however, Hoffman...

Angelo Bruno was a Mafia don in Philadelphia and southern New Jersey until he was shot dead as he arrived home one evening from an Italian restaurant. It was when competitors encroached on Angelo's dominance in the more lucrative Atlantic City rackets that he found trouble. Also Bruno had divulged...

Around 1903 the Italian Mafia in New Orleans experienced a rash of dissension involving grocery merchants. Rivals attacked the family of Antonio Luciano, resulting in the murder of his brother Salvatore Luciano. The violence occurred in the aftermath of Mafia investment in a Donaldsonville, Louisiana...

Philip "Little Farvel" Cohen was a rackets collector for Murder Inc. and its head Louis Lepke Buchalter. In September 1949 Cohen's body was dumped on the Southern Parkway in Valley Stream, New York. Authorities discovered it laying on the side of an access road. The corpse had 3 bullets...

Murder, Inc. was a Brooklyn based criminal organization that dealt in murder, protection rackets, loan sharking and coercion. Headed by Louis Lepke Buchalter, the group of gangsters turned to Albert Anastasia as leader when Buchalter was imprisoned for heroin smuggling. There were also small players...