review è PDF, DOC, TXT or eBook Ð C. Alexander Hortis
Forget what you think you know about the Mafia After reading this book even life long mob aficionados will have a new perspective on organized crimeInformative authoritative and eye opening this is the first full length book devoted exclusively to uncovering the hidden history of how the Mafia came to dominate organized crime in New York City during the 1930s through 1950s Based on exhaustive research of archives and. The Mob and the City gives an overview of the New York Mafia from the late 1920s to the late 1950s What makes this book different and what makes it stand out is the amount of research that went into making this work and its accuracy He goes into details of the Castellammarese War and the 1957 Apalachin meeting that no one else has even touched He did this by digging into the archival records in New York Maryland and Washington DC and analyzed them like only a lawyer can Beyond that Hortis is a good writer The book is a good read and his style keeps you interested Once I started reading a chapter I was almost forced to continue to the end because of his storytelling skills Hortis also went after several myths like the Mafia's avoidance of drugs He provides a long list of names that leaves the reader without having any doubt that the Mafia was deep in the drug trade I believe Hortis's book would be an invaluable addition for the reader interested in Mafia and organized crime studies True Crime American History and New York History
C. Alexander Hortis Ð 4 Free read
The Mob and the CitySecret files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act author and attorney C Alexander Hortis draws on the deepest collection of primary sources many newly discovered of any history of the modern mobShattering myths Hortis reveals how Cosa Nostra actually obtained power at the inception The author goes beyond conventional who shot who mob stories providing answers to fresh uestions such as Why did the Sic. I really hate to do this but after reading than two thirds of author C Alexander Hortis’s book on the rise of the New York Mafia I just had to give it up; there really was no point in continuing on If you’re new to the history of the Mafia during the 20th Century you may enjoy it but I’d still encourage you to seek out other books on the subject in order to wet your feetThe promise of The Mob and The City was a new perspective or outlook on a history that is tired and well mined by other historians The promise was made but Hortis didn’t pull it off For a good part of the book to prove the history has been warped he uses Bonanno crime family boss Josephy Bonanno’s 1983 autobiography A Man of Honor as an example Bonanno wrote this book after being dissatisfied with Gay Talese’s 1971 book on the Bonanno Family Honor Thy Father for which Bonanno participated by giving the author interviews It is generally known by those of us who have read extensively on Mob history that Bonanno’s book is a bit of a whitewash; Bonanno painting the biased picture he wanted to paint – in essence furiously putting make up on a pig hoping we won’t notice it’s still a pig So referring to this book throughout The Mob and The City to make a point doesn’t get the job doneI’ll admit I’m biased This is an area of interest but at the same time I’m also somewhat opened minded I enjoyed Jonathan Eig’s Get Capone The Secret Plot That Captured America’s Most Wanted Gangster in which Eig posits that The St Valentine’s Day Massacre had absolutely nothing to do with Al Capone but was the result of something else Here he makes a good argument; however I’m still inclined to give ole Scarface the credit there The St Valentine’s Day Massacre was the first criminal case that fully embraced at that time the new science of ballistics and because of that the guns used in the commission of that crime have been tied back to too many Capone associatesBut I digress I went into The Mob and The City with a great deal of excitement but found it lacking both in information as well as style and presentation Many times I felt like I was reading a textbook but not one with sufficient information and insight to correctly educate me I value the effort by the author but as far as I’m concerned it was a swing and a miss