True Organized Crime

Linda Scarpa had the best toys, the nicest clothes, and a close-knit family. Yet her childhood was far from idyllic. Classmates avoided her; boys wouldn't date her. Eventually she learned why: They were afraid of her father. A made man in the Colombo crime family, Gregory Scarpa, Sr., was a stone-cold killer nicknamed the "Grim Reaper." Unlike most tight-lipped mobsters, Scarpa talked business - and murder - in front of his kids.

In 1979, Wisconsin native Tim McBride hopped into his Mustang and headed south. He was 21, and his best friend had offered him a job working as a crab fisherman in Chokoloskee Island, a town of fewer than 500 people on Florida's Gulf Coast. Easy of disposition and eager to experience life at its richest, McBride jumped in with both feet. But this wasn't a typical fishing outfit.

Gangster Squad chronicles the true story of the secretive police unit that waged an anything-goes war to drive Mickey Cohen and other hoodlums from Los Angeles after WWII. In 1946, the LAPD launched the Gangster Squad with eight men who met covertly on street corners and slept with Tommy guns under their beds. But for two cops, all that mattered was nailing the strutting gangster Mickey Cohen. Sgt. Jack O’Mara was a square-jawed church usher, Sgt. Jerry Wooters a cynical maverick....

The story of Paul LeRoux, the twisted genius entrepreneur and cold-blooded killer who brought revolutionary innovation to international crime, and the exclusive inside story of how the DEA’s elite, secretive 960 Group brought him down.

In researching his acclaimed true-crime books, Philip Carlo interviewed some of the most infamous criminals and killers of our times in prisons and on death rows throughout the country. He was able to forge trusting relationships with his subjects, enabling him to extract the facts behind their monstrous acts and identify what motivated them to commit their horrific crimes.

This riveting account reveals the secret corners of our supposedly flat world: black markets where governments are never seen but still spend outrageous amounts of money. Journalist Matt Potter tells the story of Yuri and his crew, a gang of Russian military men who, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, found themselves without work or prospects. So they bought a decommissioned Soviet plane - at liquidation prices, straight from the Russian government - and started a shipping business.

In 1987, a heroin addict murdered an Emmy Award-winning choreographer in Manhattan. Then a wealthy LA surgeon and his teenaged son were targeted. In 1991, an out-of-work redneck flew to London with cyanide to poison three members of a male exotic dance review. If the poison didn’t work, he was told to use a hammer to beat them to death. The true story behind the Hulu/Twentieth Century Fox TV eight-part series Welcome to Chippendales.

Organized crime - the Italian American kind - has long been a source of popular entertainment and legend. Now Thomas Reppetto provides a balanced history of the Mafia's rise - from the 1880s to the post-World War II era - that is as exciting as it is authoritative. Structuring his narrative around a series of case histories featuring such infamous characters as Lucky Luciano and Al Capone, Reppetto draws on a lifetime of field experience and access to unseen documents to show us a locally grown Mafia.

Al investigar las particularidades de lo que se podría denominar el "enigma Z", Diego Osorno advierte los riesgos que corre el país en los años venideros ante un potencial crecimiento desmedido de esta organización criminal.

Martin Suarez, a legend within the FBI who specialized in Colombian drug cartels, holds the record for the longest time spent continuously undercover. As his alter ego Manny, Martin followed the unspoken rules of the cartels: He knew the right lingo to use, the right whiskey to drink, the right watch to wear, the wrong questions to ask. He smuggled over $1 billion worth of cocaine into the United States for the Medellín Cartel and, as his cover deepened, he graduated to become a high-level money launderer for the North Coast Cartel.

How much do you know about the organized crime involvement of Irish descendants in the United States? How much do you know of the impact of British rule in Ireland? Religious conflicts? The backing of parliamentary and paramilitary groups by criminal gangs? Gun-running and drug-smuggling? A History of Irish Organized Crime is the perfect book to help you develop your knowledge and learn about social history, including the current impact of Brexit on the Irish border “backstop”.

For more than 20 years, the most intense and prolonged gang war in British history raged on the streets of Manchester. Warring factions left at least 40 dead and made headlines across the world. This best-selling account tells how vicious battles for control of drugs, turf, and protection rackets blighted the reputation of one of Europe's most dynamic cities and saw the coining of the sinister epithet "Gunchester".

Per ultimo, Vito mi disse il nome di Giovanni Falcone. Mi ricordai del fallito attentato nella sua villa dell’Addaura e, come in un flashback, sentii le sirene. In quel momento alzai lo sguardo verso l’orizzonte, come in cerca di qualcosa che potesse convincere Vito a lasciar perdere quell’incarico così pericoloso, e notai delle nuvole nere che avevano oscurato il cielo azzurro. Con queste parole, Rosaria Costa, vedova dell’agente Vito Schifani, caduto con Falcone a Capaci, rievoca il momento in cui il suo giovane sposo le disse orgoglioso che sarebbe entrato nella scorta del giudice.

Breaking bones, burying bodies, and planting bombs became second nature to Two Tonys while working for the Bonanno Crime Family, whose exploits inspired The Godfather. After a dispute with an outlaw motorcycle club, Two Tonys left a trail of corpses from Arizona to Alaska. On the run, he was pursued by bikers and a neo-Nazi gang bloodthirsty for revenge, while a homicide detective launched a nationwide manhunt.

The definitive portrait of the powerful, corruption-ridden Teamsters union and its legendary president Jimmy Hoffa - organizer, gangster, convict, and conspirator - with a new afterword by the author.

He was a flashy, high-rolling con man...a militant street hustler...a front man for the mob.... On TV and in the movies, FBI undercover agents are a dime a dozen. But in reality, only an elite handful have the unique combination of wit, instinct, and daring to work these highly dangerous scams. For 10 years, Larry Wansley was one of them.

Eine True Crime-Geschichte um die Brüder Franz und Erich Sass aus Berlin-Moabit: Die beiden galten als zwei der berühmt-berüchtigsten Verbrecher Deutschlands, die seit frühester Jugend jahrelang ihr Unwesen getrieben hatten, bis sie ihr "Glück" auch in Dänemark versuchten. Dies misslang jedoch, und es blühte ihnen nach ihrer Entlassung aus dem dänischen Gefängnis 1938 ein bitteres Ende in ihrem Heimatland, das bereits von den Nazis regiert wurde.

Se un tempo i suoi affiliati andavano a dorso di mulo, rubavano polli e vacche, e l'unica risorsa di cui disponevano era la violenza, oggi la 'ndrangheta è l'organizzazione criminale più ricca e più potente al mondo, con un fatturato annuo di diverse decine di miliardi di euro, in gran parte provenienti dal traffico internazionale di cocaina.

In Hoffa’s Shadow tells the moving story of how Goldsmith reunited with the stepfather he’d disowned and then set out to unravel one of the 20th century’s most persistent mysteries and Chuckie’s role in it. Along the way, Goldsmith explores Hoffa’s rise and fall and why the golden age of blue-collar America came to an end, while also casting new light on the century-old surveillance state, the architects of Hoffa’s disappearance, and the heartrending complexities of love and loyalty.

When her husband was murdered on the orders of Chicago mobster Frank Nitti, Georgette Winkeler - wife of one of Al Capone's "American Boys" - set out to expose the Chicago Syndicate. After an attempt to publish her story was squelched by the mob, she offered it to the FBI in the mistaken belief that they had the authority to strike at the racketeers who had killed her husband, Gus.