Download or read book The Canary Sang but Couldn t Fly written by Edmund Elmaleh and published by Union Square + ORM. This book was released on 2012-02-07 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A detailed re-examination of the mysterious 1941 death of a mafia informant. It remains one of the most enduring mysteries in gangland lore: in 1941, while Abe Reles and three other key informants were under round-the-clock NYPD protection, the ruthless and powerful thug took a deadly plunge from the window of a Coney Island hotel. The first criminal of his stature to break the underworld’s code of silence, he had begun “singing” for the courts—giving devastating testimony that implicated former cronies—with more to come. With cops around him day and night, how could Abe have gone out the window? Did he try to escape? Did a hit man break in? Or did someone in the “squealer’s suite” murder him? Here’s the gripping story, packed with political machinations, legal sleight-of-hand, mob violence—and, finally, a proposed answer to the question: How did Abe Reles really die? “Elmaleh’s The Canary Sang but Couldn’t Fly is a riveting treatment of one of the most remarkable stories in the annals of American crime and politics. A great read!”—Kevin Baker, author of Dreamland, Paradise Alley, and Strivers Row “Elmaleh has brought fresh energy, a fresh point of view, and a flair for original research to this story, tracing its conspiracies in the best tradition of life mimicking film noir. This blank spot in New York’s underworld history deserves to be filled, and Elmaleh fills it.” —Kenneth D. Ackerman, author of Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A. Garfield; Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York; and Young J. Edgar: Hoover, the Red Scare, and the Assault on Civil Liberties “Mob history buffs will be pleased with Elmaleh’s attention to detail and hefty collection of transcripts.” —Publishers Weekly

Download or read book Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories in American History 2 volumes written by Christopher R. Fee and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2019-05-24 with total page 668 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This up-to-date introduction to the complex world of conspiracies and conspiracy theories provides insight into why millions of people are so ready to believe the worst about our political, legal, religious, and financial institutions. Unsupported theories provide simple explanations for catastrophes that are otherwise difficult to understand, from the U.S. Civil War to the Stock Market Crash of 1929 to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. Ideas about shadowy networks that operate behind a cloak of secrecy, including real organizations like the CIA and the Mafia and imagined ones like the Illuminati, additionally provide a way for people to criticize prevailing political and economic arrangements, while for society's disadvantaged and forgotten groups, conspiracy theories make their suffering and alienation comprehensible and provide a focal point for their economic or political frustrations. These volumes detail the highly controversial and influential phenomena of conspiracies and conspiracy theories in American society. Through interpretive essays and factual accounts of various people, organizations, and ideas, the reader will gain a much greater appreciation for a set of beliefs about political scheming, covert intelligence gathering, and criminal rings that has held its grip on the minds of millions of American citizens and encouraged them to believe that the conspiracies may run deeper, and with a global reach.

Download or read book Benjamin Bugsy Siegel written by Larry D. Gragg and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-01-16 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This intriguing biography recounts the life of the legendary Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, revealing his true role in the development of Las Vegas and debunking some of the common myths about his notoriety. This account of the life of Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel follows his beginnings in the Lower East Side of New York to his role in the development of the famous Flamingo Hotel and Casino. Larry D. Gragg examines Siegel's image as portrayed in popular culture, dispels the myths about Siegel's contribution to the founding of Las Vegas, and reveals some of the more lurid details about his life. Unlike previous biographies, this book is the first to make use of more than 2,400 pages of FBI files on Siegel, referencing documents about the reputed gangster in the New York City Municipal Archives and reviewing the 1950–51 testimony before the Senate Committee on organized crime. Chapters cover his early involvement with gangs in New York, his emergence as a favorite among the Hollywood elite in the late 1930s, his lucrative exploits in illegal gambling and horse racing, and his opening of the "fabulous" Flamingo in 1946. The author also draws upon the recollections of Siegel's eldest daughter to reveal a side of the mobster never before studied—the nature of his family life.

Download or read book Murder Inc and the Moral Life written by Robert Weldon Whalen and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2016-09-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1940 and 1941 a group of ruthless gangsters from Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood became the focus of media frenzy when they—dubbed “Murder Inc.,” by New York World-Telegram reporter Harry Feeney—were tried for murder. It is estimated that collectively they killed hundreds of people during a reign of terror that lasted from 1931 to 1940. As the trial played out to a packed courtroom, shocked spectators gasped at the outrageous revelations made by gang leader Abe “Kid Twist” Reles and his pack of criminal accomplices. News of the trial proliferated throughout the country; at times it received more newspaper coverage than the unabated war being waged overseas. The heinous crimes attributed to Murder, Inc., included not only murder and torture but also auto theft, burglary, assaults, robberies, fencing stolen goods, distribution of illegal drugs, and just about any “illegal activity from which a revenue could be derived.” When the trial finally came to a stunning unresolved conclusion in November 1941, newspapers generated record headlines. Once the trial was over, tales of the Murder, Inc., gang became legendary, spawning countless books and memoirs and providing inspiration for the Hollywood gangster-movie genre. These men were fearsome brutes with an astonishing ability to wield power. People were fascinated by the “gangster” figure, which had become a symbol for moral evil and contempt and whose popularity showed no signs of abating. As both a study in criminal behavior and a cultural fascination that continues to permeate modern society, the reverberations of “Murder, Inc.” are profound, including references in contemporary mass media. The Murder, Inc., story is as much a tale of morality as it is a gangster history, and Murder, Inc., and the Moral Life by Robert Whalen meshes both topics clearly and meticulously, relating the gangster phenomenon to modern moral theory. Each chapter covers an aspect of the Murder, Inc., case and reflects on its ethical elements and consequences. Whalen delves into the background of the criminals involved, their motives, and the violent death that surrounded them; New York City’s immigrant gang culture and its role as “Gangster City”; fiery politicians Fiorello La Guardia and Thomas E. Dewey and the choices they made to clean up the city; and the role of the gangster in popular culture and how it relates to “real life.” Whalen puts a fresh spin on the two topics, providing a vivid narrative with both historical and moral perspective.

Download or read book Animal written by Casey Sherman and published by UPNE. This book was released on 2013-04-09 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles the life of the New England assassin, a notorious killer whose deal with the FBI resulted in the Witness Protection Program.

Download or read book The Brooklyn Thrill Kill Gang and the Great Comic Book Scare of the 1950s written by Mariah Adin and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-12-09 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What caused four recently bar mitzvahed middle-class youths to go on a crime spree of assault and murder in 1954? This book provides a compelling narrative retelling of the boys, their crimes, and a U.S. culture obsessed with juvenile delinquency. After ongoing months of daily headlines about gang shootouts, stomp-killings, and millions of dollars worth of vandalism, by the summer of 1954, America had had enough of juvenile delinquency. It was in this environment that 18-year-old Jack Koslow and the other three teenage members of the Brooklyn Thrill Killers committed their heinous crimes and achieved notoriety. The Brooklyn Thrill-Kill Gang and the Great Comic Book Scare of the 1950s exposes the underbelly of America's mid-century, the terrible price of assimilation, the uncomfortable bedfellows of comic books and juvenile delinquency, and the dystopia already in bloom amongst American youth well before the 1960s. Readers will be engrossed and horrified by the tale of the Brooklyn Thrill-Kill Gang whose shocking, front-page story could easily have been copy-pasted from today's online news sites. Author Mariah Adin takes readers along for a breathtaking moment-by-moment retelling of the crime spree, the subsequent interrogations, and the dramatic courtroom showdown, interspersed with expository chapters on juvenile delinquency, America's Jewish community in the post-Holocaust period, and the anti-comics movement. This book serves to merge the history of juvenile delinquency with that of the Great Comic Book Scare, highlights the assimilation of immigrants into America's white mainstream gone wrong, and complicates our understanding of America's "Golden Age."

Download or read book Boss of Murder Inc written by Michael Newton and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2020-03-25 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Umberto Anastasio, better known as Albert Anastasia, was an Italian-American mobster and hitman who became one of the deadliest criminals in American history and one of the founders of the modern American Mafia in New York City. For all-out savagery and ruthlessness, few other leaders of the Mafia worldwide have rivaled Anastasia, known to peers as "The Mad Hatter" and to journalists as "The Lord High Executioner." After escaping a death sentence in 1921 and multiple other arrests for murder, he later served as director of the national crime syndicate's contract murder department ("Murder, Inc.") from 1931 until informers brought it down ten years later. By 1951 he led one of New York City's Five Families, a post he held until his public barbershop assassination in October 1957. This first-ever book-length biography of Anastasia traces the mobster's life and the ripple effects his career had on the American crime world. The story also tracks his brothers and their families, while debunking certain widespread myths about their parentage, various deportations, trials, convictions, and eventual retirement from the mob, dead or alive.

Download or read book Prohibition Gangsters written by Marc Mappen and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2013-06-06 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Master story teller Marc Mappen applies a generational perspective to the gangsters of the Prohibition era—men born in the quarter century span from 1880 to 1905—who came to power with the Eighteenth Amendment. On January 16, 1920, the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution went into effect in the United States, “outlawing the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors.” A group of young criminals from immigrant backgrounds in cities around the nation stepped forward to disobey the law of the land in order to provide alcohol to thirsty Americans. Today the names of these young men—Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Dutch Schultz, Legs Diamond, Nucky Johnson—are more familiar than ever, thanks in part to such cable programs as Boardwalk Empire. Here, Mappen strips way the many myths and legends from television and movies to describe the lives these gangsters lived and the battles they fought. Placing their criminal activities within the context of the issues facing the nation, from the Great Depression, government crackdowns, and politics to sexual morality, immigration, and ethnicity, he also recounts what befell this villainous group as the decades unwound. Making use of FBI and other government files, trial transcripts, and the latest scholarship, the book provides a lively narrative of shootouts, car chases, courtroom clashes, wire tapping, and rub-outs in the roaring 1920s, the Depression of the 1930s, and beyond. Mappen asserts that Prohibition changed organized crime in America. Although their activities were mercenary and violent, and they often sought to kill one another, the Prohibition generation built partnerships, assigned territories, and negotiated treaties, however short lived. They were able to transform the loosely associated gangs of the pre-Prohibition era into sophisticated, complex syndicates. In doing so, they inspired an enduring icon—the gangster—in American popular culture and demonstrated the nation’s ideals of innovation and initiative. View a three minute video of Marc Mappen speaking about Prohibition Gangsters.

Download or read book Crimes of the Centuries 3 volumes 3 volumes written by Steven Chermak Ph.D. and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2016-01-25 with total page 1225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This multivolume resource is the most extensive reference of its kind, offering a comprehensive summary of the misdeeds, perpetrators, and victims involved in the most memorable crime events in American history. This unique reference features the most famous crimes and trials in the United States since colonial times. Three comprehensive volumes focus on the most notorious and historically significant crimes that have influenced America's justice system, including the life and wrongdoing of Lizzie Borden, the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, the killing spree and execution of Ted Bundy, and the Columbine High School shootings. Organized by case, the work includes a chronology of major unlawful deeds, fascinating primary source documents, dozens of sidebars with case trivia and little-known facts, and an overview of crimes that have shaped criminal justice in the United States over several centuries. Each of the 500 entries provides information about the crime, the perpetrators, and those affected by the misconduct, along with a short bibliography to extend learning opportunities. The set addresses a breadth of famous trials across American history, including the Salem witch trials, the conviction of Sacco and Vanzetti, and the prosecution of O. J. Simpson.

Download or read book Armed Jews in the Americas written by Raanan Rein and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-07-05 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together some of the best new works on armed Jews in the Americas. Links between Jews and their ties to weapons are addressed through multiple cultural, political, social, and ideological contexts, thus breaking down longstanding, stilted myths in many societies about Jews and weaponry.

Download or read book Shadowland written by Douglas Thompson and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-10-14 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shadowland is a revelatory and dramatic true-life thriller spanning much of the twentieth century, a page-turning chronicle of an elaborate Mafia plan to 'invade' Europe using 1960s London as a bridgehead. The capital city of the Swinging Sixties was also a world of gambling, guns and gangsters. Several veterans of the era are astonished that they survived it and some feel protected enough - now that most of the killers are themselves dead - to reveal to bestselling author Douglas Thompson the details and secrets of one of history's greatest criminal conspiracies, and of how world-champion boxer Freddie Mills really died. The tension in this real-life narrative is ferocious as the tale moves from London to New York and Las Vegas, down to Miami, into Havana, then on to the Bahamas and back to an unexpected denouement in London. Brutal, terrifying and intrigue-packed, it is an account of the Mob's Machiavellian global manipulation of governments and officials. Shadowland recounts events from the viewpoint of the pawns as well as the kingmakers. All the big players of Mafia history are here, controlled by the gangster genius Meyer Lansky, but so are the hit men, the fixers, the hoodlums and the wiseguys.

Download or read book Bugsy s Shadow written by Larry D. Gragg and published by University of New Mexico Press. This book was released on 2023-10 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Early in the Prohibition era, Moe Sedway became part of the New York organized crime gang led by Meyer Lansky and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. A loyal and highly effective operative for Siegel, Sedway eventually gained monopoly control of the race wire service in Las Vegas and also became an effective casino manager of the Las Vegas Club, El Cortez, and the Rex Club. A breach in their relationship led to rumors that Sedway had gained Lansky's approval for a "hit" on Siegel. The unsolved mystery of who murdered Bugsy in 1947 has spawned numerous theories about the identity of the hitman, but regardless of who pulled the trigger, Bugsy's death opened the way for Moe to flourish as his own man at last. Long overshadowed by Bugsy in the annals of organized crime in America, Moe Sedway is now at last brought out into the light in this riveting tale of the sensational life and times of one of Vegas's most mysterious and little-known figures.

Download or read book Mafia Summit written by Gil Reavill and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-01-22 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mafia Summit is the true story of how a small-town lawman in upstate New York busted a Cosa Nostra conference in 1957, exposing the Mafia to America In a small village in upstate New York, mob bosses from all over the country—Vito Genovese, Carlo Gambino, Joe Bonanno, Joe Profaci, Cuba boss Santo Trafficante, and future Gambino boss Paul Castellano—were nabbed by Sergeant Edgar D. Croswell as they gathered to sort out a bloody war of succession. For years, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had adamantly denied the existence of the Mafia, but young Robert Kennedy immediately recognized the shattering importance of the Appalachin summit. As attorney general when his brother JFK became president, Bobby embarked on a campaign to break the spine of the mob, engaging in a furious turf battle with the powerful Hoover. Detailing mob killings, the early days of the heroin trade, and the crusade to loosen the hold of organized crime, fans of Gus Russo and Luc Sante will find themselves captured by this momentous story. Reavill scintillatingly recounts the beginning of the end for the Mafia in America and how it began with a good man in the right place at the right time.

Download or read book Forensics Ii written by Harry A. Milman PhD and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2022-07-24 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George Washington, the former first president of the United States, lay in his bed suffering from a high fever, a raw throat, and labored breathing. His three physicians milled around his bed, treating Washington with blisters of cantharides, tartar emetic, and bloodletting, removing nearly 40 percent of his total blood volume and causing excruciating pain. When Washington finally was relieved of his misery and died, the three doctors could not agree what caused his death. Forensics II: The Science Behind the Deaths of Famous and Infamous People reads like a mystery novel, presenting biographical and scientific information that helps readers understand how medical examiners-coroners utilized forensic analysis to determine the causes and manners of death of thirty-six famous and infamous people, including Napoleon Bonaparte, a French military leader and politician; Charles Whitman, the University of Texas tower shooter; Bruce Lee, an actor and martial artist; Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of Nirvana; Jim Jones, a key figure in the Jonestown massacre; Aretha Franklin, a singer-songwriter; Alexander Litvinenko, a former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service; Jeffrey Epstein, a financier and convicted sex offender; and many more. The book is based on a review of publicly available autopsy and toxicology reports, published lay articles, and the scientific literature. Of the deaths reviewed, 39 percent were due to natural causes, 19 percent were accidental, and 6 (17 percent) were suicides. The remaining deaths comprise three cases each of homicide and justifiable homicide by police, one case of court-mandated execution, and three cases in which the manner of death was undetermined.

Download or read book Sunny s Nights written by Tim Sultan and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2018-03-20 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imagine that Alice had walked into a bar instead of falling down the rabbit hole. In the tradition of J. R. Moehringer’s The Tender Bar and the classic reportage of Joseph Mitchell, here is an indelible portrait of what is quite possibly the greatest bar in the world—and the mercurial, magnificent man behind it. The first time he saw Sunny’s Bar, in 1995, Tim Sultan was lost, thirsty for a drink, and intrigued by the single bar sign among the forlorn warehouses lining the Brooklyn waterfront. Inside, he found a dimly lit room crammed with maritime artifacts, a dozen well-seasoned drinkers, and, strangely, a projector playing a classic Martha Graham dance performance. Sultan knew he had stumbled upon someplace special. What he didn’t know was that he had just found his new home. Soon enough, Sultan has quit his office job to bartend full-time for Sunny Balzano, the bar’s owner. A wild-haired Tony Bennett lookalike with a fondness for quoting Shakespeare and Samuel Beckett, Sunny is truly one of a kind. Born next to the saloon that has been in his family for one hundred years, Sunny has over the years partied with Andy Warhol, spent time in India at the feet of a guru, and painted abstract expressionist originals. But his masterpiece is the bar itself, a place where a sublime mix of artists, mobsters, honky-tonk musicians, neighborhood drunks, nuns, longshoremen, and assorted eccentrics rub elbows. Set against the backdrop of a rapidly transforming city, Sunny’s Nights is a loving and singular portrait of the dream experience we’re all searching for every time we walk into a bar, and an enchanting memoir of an unlikely and abiding friendship. Praise for Sunny’s Nights “Fantastic . . . [Sultan takes] material that might seem familiar and [mixes] a perfect, insightful cocktail: full-bodied, multitextured and delicious. . . . Simply beautiful.”—The New York Times Book Review “Sultan’s love of Red Hook shines through, and it’s hard not to be swept along on the ebb and flow of his emotions. . . . Sultan’s book is, among other things, a meditation on the fragility of the moment and the passage of time. . . . Wistful, funny and biting, Sunny’s Nights rewards you with its evocation of a certain place in time and, as Sultan calls him, ‘the most original man I have ever met.’”—Newsday “An affectionate portrait of the idiosyncratic Sunny’s Bar.”—USA Today “Sultan finds Sunny . . . a real character, a poet, a cinephile, a philosopher, bluegrass maestro and (Rheingold) beer server.”—New York Post (“Required Reading”) “Captivating . . . a classic story about a local bar.”—The Buffalo News “An enchanting memoir, a profound meditation on place and a beautiful story of an unlikely and abiding friendship.”—Brooklyn Daily Eagle “[A] polished, affecting look at remarkable barkeep Sunny Balzano . . . In elegant prose, Sultan deploys laconic humor, an instinct for telling details, a taste for eccentricity, and above all, clear-eyed compassion for our all-too-human failings.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Beautifully wrought . . . an indelible portrait of an unusual man and a nearly forgotten part of NYC.”—Booklist “More than an elegy for a bar and a neighborhood—it’s also a vivid and loving portrait of the larger-than-life eccentric who gave the bar its name and its spirit.”—Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers

Download or read book An Irish Passion for Justice written by Robert Polner and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2024-05-15 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Irish Passion for Justice reveals the life and work of Paul O'Dwyer, the Irish-born and quintessentially New York activist, politician, and lawyer who fought in the courts and at the barricades for the rights of the downtrodden and the marginalized throughout the 20th century. Robert Polner and Michael Tubridy recount O'Dwyer's legal crusades, political campaigns, and civic interactions, deftly describing how he cut a principled and progressive path through New York City's political machinery and America's reactionary Cold War landscape. Polner and Tubridy's dynamic, penetrating depiction showcases O'Dwyer's consistent left-wing politics and defense of accused Communists in the labor movement, which exposed him to sharp criticism within and beyond the Irish-American community. Even so, his fierce beliefs, loyalty to his brother William, who was the city's mayor after World War II, and influence in Irish-American circles also inspired respect and support. Recognized by his gentle brogue and white pompadour, he fought for the creation of Israel, organized Black voters during the Civil Rights movement, and denounced the Vietnam War as an insurgent Democratic candidate for US Senate. Finally, he enlisted future president Bill Clinton to bring an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland. As the authors demonstrate, O'Dwyer was both a man of his time and a politician beyond his years. An Irish Passion for Justice tells an enthralling and inspiring New York immigrant story that uncovers how one person, shaped by history and community, can make a difference in the world by holding true to their ideals.

Download or read book The Ultimate Book of New York Lists written by Bert Randolph Sugar and published by Skyhorse Publishing Inc.. This book was released on 2009-11-15 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where can you find New York City's best hamburger? What are the ten best songs ever written about New York? The ten best books set in New York? Bert Randolph Sugar and some famous friends answer these burning questions, helping both New Yorkers and tourists learn what makes the greatest city on earth so great. With a foreword by legendary newspaperman Bill Gallo of the New York Daily News and lists from celebrity New Yorkers like Pete Hamill and Howard Stern, this is a book no lover of New York City should be without.