Robert Reynolds: 560 books

Vasco De Nunez Balboa is credited with discovering the Pacific Ocean but he might have accomplished even more had not jealousy and treachery intervened. Balboa secretly hid himself in a cask on his voyage to Santa Maria del Darien in what is today the country of Panama. The captain of the ship, Enciso,...

Bartender Jack Hannon's August 1949 murder in Rockaway Beach was a violent event that remained unsolved at the end of the year. Law enforcement believed that Hannon's assassin used a German luger P-38. Multiple witnesses looked on as the barkeep was shot three times in the head. Hannon died in the...

The Lanzetti Mob controlled crime in South Philadelphia for nearly two decades. The brothers were often referred to as punks by police in Philly. The Lanzettis demonstrated a remarkable ability to avoid jail despite their many crimes. Not until 1936 did one of them, Ignatius, receive a stiff sentence...

Salvatore Avellino was a caporegime involved in Lucchese enforcement of the garbage/carting industry. My e-book considers Avellino from age sixteen when he was charged with brandishing a zip gun at a Lake Ronkonkoma resort. The year was 1952. The Luccheses were heavily involved in controlling the...

Capucine was a successful French model who came to the United States in 1959 to act in motion pictures. The protégé of Charles Feldman she went on to act in The Lion (1962), The 7th Dawn (1964), The Pink Panther (1963) and A Walk On The Wild Side (1962). An exotic beauty of uncertain beginnings...

In the early 1960s the Provenzano brothers held complete control of Teamsters Local 560 in Hoboken, New Jersey. Several dissident Teamsters were murdered at the time. Provenzano was tried and convicted of one of the killings in 1976. The Provenzanos, Anthony "Tony Pro", Nunzio "Nunzi...

Joseph Zito Sr. was a Mafioso who was mostly involved in upstate New York gambling ventures. A criminal turned FBI government informant, Zito sometimes wore an electronic device to assist federal agents. In 1973 he introduced an FBI agent to a New York City mobster. This was an era that witnessed...

Gennaro "Gerry Lang" Langella was a Colombo family Mafia underboss and boss. He came to the forefront after beginning his career as a mobster in Brooklyn. He served successively as a bodyguard and underboss for Colombo family chief Carmine "the Snake" Persico. Persico's imprisonment for ten years...

Joseph and Anthony Stassi were part of Nick Delmore's gambling syndicate in Union County, New Jersey in the 1950s. In the late 1960s they were participants in the infamous French Connection smuggling operation. Active in the Gambino crime family Joseph and Anthony were sentenced to 25 years in federal prison in the mid 1970s.

Carmine Tramunti took over the Lucchese crime family following the death of the organization's boss, Thomas Lucchese, in 1967. Tramunti and Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corrallo were rivals to ascend to the top spot of the New York City syndicate. Tramunti later made a name for himself with investments...

Anthony "Tony Boy" Boiardo was the son of Ruggerio "Richie the Boot" Boiardo, a notorious Mafioso from the Prohibition era. Tony Boiardo was a key player in the political downfall of Newark Mayor Hugh Addonizio. My e-book discusses the crimes of the Boiardos, from fencing stolen merchandise to numbers...

Joe Gulmi was associated with the Gambino crime family but his exact connection to them is subject to speculation. Multiple New York businesses noticed a man frequenting their establishments on multiple occasions. They assumed for a time that he was a bookie. Soon he began asking them to sign a contract...

Juste Fontaine was once a gym sweeper in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Around 1943 former welterweight champion Fritzie Zivic took him under his wing and taught him to box in a Pittsburgh gym. Fontaine was a hard puncher who fought his way to a sixth place ranking among world lightweights. Juste ran into...

Vito Genovese was the most well known of ten people who were prosecuted for an international narcotics conspiracy at the end of the 1950s. Genovese was the mastermind but he had substantial help. A controversial witness at the trial was Puerto Rican national Nelson Cantellops who became a Genovese...