True Organized Crime

Griselda Blanco was not just another drug trafficker—she was a pioneer of the cocaine trade, a key architect of the Miami underworld, and one of the most dangerous figures in organized crime history.

From the author of the number one international best seller Gomorrah comes an electrifying investigation of the international cocaine trade, as vicious as it is powerful, and its hidden role in the global economy. In many countries, “000” flour is the finest on the market. It is hard to find, but it is soft, light, almost impalpable - like the purest, highest quality grade of cocaine. ZeroZeroZero is also the title of Roberto Saviano’s unforgettable, internationally best-selling exploration of the inner workings of the global cocaine trade.

Pierre Rausini—in the 1990s—was a 20-something-year-old Los Angeles-based drug trafficker. He and his associates drove luxury European supercars, lived in Beverly Hills' penthouses, and dated Playboy models while dodging federal indictments. Then, two FBI officers with the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force entered the picture. Dirty agents willing to fix cases and identify informants.

In the late 1970s, a string of seemingly unconnected murders had Harlem police and federal authorities at their wits' end until they realized several commonalities. The victims were all either Mafia members or potential witnesses of Mafia activity and they'd all been shot from .22 pistols traced back to a single private sale in Florida. From these details, the FBI and police were able to build a profile of a rogue sect of Mafia hitmen known as the East Harlem Purple Gang.

In Public Enemies, Bryan Burrough strips away a thick layer of myths put out by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI to tell the full story of the most spectacular crime wave in American history, the two-year battle between the young Hoover and an assortment of criminals who became national icons: John Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and the Barkers.

The first serious external threat to the mafia's existence in America comes from U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who repeatedly expresses his desire to eradicate organized crime in America. Kennedy unleashes the full force of the U.S. Justice Department to the apparent dismay of long-time FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. The mafia's unforgiving response is executed by Louisiana don Carlos Marcello along with Florida don Santo Trafficante, who together take aim at the attorney general's brother, the president of the United States.

Born in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, Joseph Bonanno found his future amid the whiskey-running, riotous streets of Prohibition America in 1924, when he illegally entered the United States to pursue his dreams. By the age of only 26, Bonanno became a don. He eventually took over the New York underworld, igniting the "Castellammarese War", one of the bloodiest Family battles ever to hit New York City.

John Gotti was without a doubt the flashiest and most feared Mafioso in American history. He became the boss of the Gambino Crime Family in spectacular fashion—with the brazen and very public murder of Paul Castellano in front of Sparks Steakhouse in midtown Manhattan in 1985. Not one to stay below law enforcement’s radar, Gotti instead became the first celebrity crime boss. His penchant for eye-catching apparel earned him the nickname “The Dapper Don;” his ability to beat criminal charges led to another: “The Teflon Don.”

Northern Ireland, 1975. Violence has erupted on the streets of Belfast. After years as a guerilla army, the IRA is clashing with Loyalist gangs and heavily armed British soldiers. But the Troubles have spilled beyond the island: An ocean away, in the heart of Philadelphia’s Irish enclave, a teenage girl finds a letter in her mailbox. Inside is a bullet, and the message is clear: The next one is for you or your family. As reporter Ali Watkins reveals, the conflict in Northern Ireland might have gone very differently had it not been for a small ragtag band of gunrunners in the United States.

Join us as we delve into our family’s narrative-one filled with secrets, connections, and the threads that weave us together across time and space. This is not just history; it is our truth as we understand it, shaped by the shadows of the past and the resilience of those who came before us. We used to believe no known associate of Murder Inc. knew of this information you are about to read. It turns out they did know and kept an eye on the family and reported to Charlie “The Bug.” Embark on this journey with us as we explore the challenges of piecing together our lineage in a world ...

Wised Up is a true crime story of atonement for Charlie Wilhelm, a career criminal who ended his life of crime the year he turned 40. Going to the FBI with no lawyer – and no criminal charges against him – he went undercover, wearing a wire to catch his life-long friends for drug dealing, bribery, loan sharking and murder. This intimate story, told in Charlie’s voice, is the first to expose organized crime in Baltimore. It also reveals Charlie's friendship with a childhood friend, Bruce Hall, who became an FBI agent and helped Charlie leave his life of crime. The book unravels the ...

The Irishman is an epic saga of organized crime in post-war America told through the eyes of World War II veteran Frank Sheeran, a hustler and hitman who worked for legendary crime boss Russell Bufalino alongside some of the most notorious figures of the 20th Century. Spanning decades, Sheeran’s story chronicles one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history, the disappearance of legendary union boss Jimmy Hoffa, and offers a monumental journey through the hidden corridors of organized crime: its inner workings, rivalries, and connections to mainstream politics.

In 1850, an impoverished twenty-five-year-old named Fredericka Mandelbaum came to New York in steerage and worked as a peddler on the streets of Lower Manhattan. By the 1870s she was a fixture of high society and an admired philanthropist. How was she able to ascend from tenement poverty to vast wealth? In the intervening years, “Marm” Mandelbaum had become the country’s most notorious “fence”—a receiver of stolen goods—and a criminal mastermind.

Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a city in its brawny postwar prime, is where Little Joe Regino and Russ Shorto build a local gambling empire on the earnings of factory workers for whom placing a bet - on a horse or pool game, pinball or Tip seal - is their best shot at the American dream. Decades later, Russell Shorto grew up knowing that his grandfather was a small-town mobster, but never thought to write about him, in keeping with an unspoken family vow of silence. Then a distant cousin prodded him: You gotta write about it.

Volume two of One Nation Under Blackmail examines the rise of Jeffrey Epstein and his closest associates, such as Leslie Wexner and Ghislaine Maxwell, and contextualizes them within the organized crime-intelligence networks detailed in-depth in volume one. It subsequently details their ties, with a focus on Epstein, to intelligence networks, espionage activity, and the subversion of American institutions, as well as the role of Epstein and the Maxwell family in the evolution of blackmail in the digital era.

Despite lacking any experience with motorcycle gangs, Charles Falco infiltrated three of America's deadliest biker gangs: the Vagos, Mongols, and Outlaws. In separate investigations that spanned years and coasts, Falco risked his life, suffering a fractured neck and a severely torn shoulder, working deep under cover to bring violent sociopaths to justice.

Una noche de enero de 1993, en una apartada provincia italiana, dos jóvenes soldados carabinieri detienen a un vehículo. Una semana después, el 15 de enero, Totò Riina es aprehendido tras 24 años de vivir en la clandestinidad. "El último capo" narra los hechos de aquella semana decisiva. Esos días enmarcan el relato de la etapa más sanguinaria de la mafia de Corleone, en boca de quienes la vivieron en carne propia y de los hombres que cazaron a Riina. Una semana que representa la historia de una época.

They were the most powerful gang in Chinatown. Like the notorious crime families of the Italian Mob, the Asian youth gang known as the Ghost Shadows carved out their own territory in New York's underworld and ruled those streets for decades. Their leader Peter Chin, a young immigrant from the outskirts of Hong Kong, not only found a new family among his fellow gang members but became one of the two most powerful men in Chinatown's history at that time. For the first time ever, the former leader of the Ghost Shadows breaks his silence in this tell-all to author Everett De Morier

The son of Sicilian immigrants, Camillo Carmine Galante was raised in Manhattan's Little Italy and by all accounts born bad. By fifteen he was terrorizing the streets of New York's Lower East Side, scoring high marks for the "errands" he was running for his La Cosa Nostra elders. When he turned twenty, Galante was already one of the mob's top enforcers­-a sadistic thrill killer and clinically diagnosed psychopath with big dreams.

The Calabrese family of Chicago is a close-knit, middle-class, multi-generational Italian-Irish-American clan. They operate family businesses. They work day and night striving for the American Dream. All three sons forge a bond with their controlling father, Frank Sr., and their soft-spoken favorite uncle, Nick. As a boy, the oldest son, Frank Jr., realizes that his father and uncle are also "made" members of another close-knit family: the outfit.