Thomas Hunt

Our little town has a store again

2025-02-04T11:36:00.000-05:00

BIG news for little Whiting, Vermont:

The Whiting General Store opened Friday, January 31, at the historic building (also housing our post office) at the corner of South Main Street (Rt 30) and Leicester-Whiting Road. Whiting had been without a general store for some years, since one a bit further down South Main Street closed.

The store's Day 1 offerings included coffee, snacks, grocery / home essentials, holiday cards and treats. Many goods are from Vermont producers. (I picked up a Sap! maple soda.)

The building, which first housed a general store at least 150 years ago, is bright and clean with antique charm. It is decorated with old time photos and grocery containers.

Among the Day 1 visitors was a descendant of the family that long ago ran the Whiting General Store. He reminisced about the old store layout.

Proprietor Garrett Law says he's hoping to hear suggestions about how to best serve the community. Business hours are weekdays 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sat 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sun 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The store's website is whitinggeneral.com.

It also has pages on Facebook and Instagram.

'Cyber Monday' idea

2024-12-02T07:57:00.001-05:00

There's plenty of interesting reading in Informer's 2024 issue, The Treacherous World of Joseph Valachi (shown in hardcover above - red bow not included). The issue is available for online purchase in (easily wrapped) hardcover book, paperback book and magazine formats. (Electronic book and magazine editions are available too, but good luck getting a bow to stick to those.)

Books are sold through Amazon:

https://amzn.to/3ZxMwR6

Magazines are sold through MagCloud:

https://informer.magcloud.com

Click here for more information.

Gangster Hunters due out in November

2024-11-16T13:35:00.000-05:00

Gangster Hunters

How Hoover’s G-Men Vanquished
America’s Deadliest Public Enemies

by John Oller

John Oller’s meticulously researched account of the FBI’s early days is due to be released by Dutton (imprint of Penguin Publishing Group) on November 26, 2024.

John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd – these infamous Depression-era criminals have been immortalized as some of the most vicious felons in our history, but they share another commonality: every single one was brought down by the Federal Bureau of Investigation during a chaotic war on crime, which started in 1933 and thrust the FBI into the national spotlight for the first time.

Surprisingly little has been written about field-level agents responsible for hunting down the most dangerous criminals and bringing them to justice... until now. In this new book, Gangster Hunters, critically acclaimed author John Oller (also author of the 2021 release Rogues Gallery) brings to light the true stories of FBI’s unsung heroes. He gives play-by-play accounts of the G-men’s blood-soaked shootouts and intrepid pursuits of fleeing desperadoes while also exploring their methodical detective work.

John Oller

It might come as a surprise that most young FBI agents in the 1930s weren’t prepared for the wild lifestyle their careers would require. The Bureau initially had no jurisdiction over violent crimes, such as murders, bank robberies and kidnappings, and its special agents had little reason to believe they would be involved in such matters. But with Hoover at its helm, FBI quickly gained power and the fresh-faced agents found themselves in high-speed car chases wrapped in bullet-proof vests. Some agents sacrificed everything in the pursuit of justice, some were unceremoniously blacklisted by Hoover, and others simply never received the attention they deserved.

Gangster Hunters is full of exciting new primary research and dozens of never-before-seen photos. Oller interviewed thirty descendants of the early FBI agents he profiles. Weaving together their accounts, his book is able to correct historical accounts and myths about gangsters and manhunts that have long been considered fact.

The print edition of the book contains about 500 pages, including index, endnotes and bibliography. Hardcover and Kindle ebook formats can be ordered now through Amazon.com.

Valachi's treacherous world

2024-11-08T07:30:00.000-05:00

Informer's November 2024 issue, The Treacherous World of Joseph Valachi, has been released and is now widely available in magazine, book and electronic formats. The issue focuses on Mafia informant Valachi, his time and place, and many of the individuals who played roles in his life.

A rare primary source into American Mafia history of the Castellammarese War-era, Joseph Valachi also described early gangland of East Harlem and the Bronx, and provided a unique soldier-level view of New York-area organized crime from the days of Prohibition up to Apalachin. An early FBI informant, Valachi became the focus of a best-selling book and a popular movie, as well as televised Senate testimony and a lengthy autobiography. Despite this coverage, a great deal of the true Valachi story has remained untold.

Now, 60 years after Valachi put pen to paper in an effort to bring his story to the attention of the public, a team of historians from around the globe is revealing long hidden aspects of his life and investigating the individuals who influenced him. This Informer issue features articles on various phases of Valachi's existence in and out of "cosa nostra," bios of those who played important roles in his life and background of his time and place. The issue is illustrated with photos, documents and maps.

Contributors to the issue were Thomas Hunt (U.S.), Steve Turner (U.K.), Fabien Rossat (France), Jon Black (U.K.), Thibaut Maïquès (France), J. Michael Niotta PhD (U.S.), Thom L. Jones (New Zealand), Patrick Downey (U.S.), Ellen Poulsen (U.S.), Justin Cascio (U.S.), Scott Deitche (U.S.).

This is the 34th issue of Informer: The History of American Crime and Law Enforcement. In addition to Informer's traditional print and electronic magazine formats, this issue is available in hardcover, paperback and ebook formats.The magazine and e-magazine editions total about 260 pages, and the book editions are about 500 pages. The available formats are compared here:

Magazine layouts

Print magazine, 8 1/4" x 10 3/4", 262 pg incl covers, color, sold through MagCloud service, list price $62.00.
PDF magazine, color, sold through MagCloud, list price $20.00.

Book layouts

Print Hardcover, 6" x 9", 500 pg, B&W, sold through Amazon, list price $32.95.
Print Paperback, 6" x 9", 500 pg, B&W, sold through Amazon, list price $24.75.
Kindle Ebook, B&W, sold through Amazon, list price $15.75.
EPUB Ebook, B&W, sold through Google Play Books, list price $15.75.

William Flynn bio, 'Bulldog Detective'

2024-01-16T14:29:00.001-05:00

The Bulldog Detective: William J. Flynn and America's First War Against the Mafia, Spies, and Terrorists by Jeffrey D. Simon was released today (January 16, 2024). It is available in hardcover and ebook formats through popular booksellers Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com, as well as through academic nonfiction publisher, Rowman & Littlefield.

Publisher's description:

America in the early twentieth century was rife with threats. Organized crime groups like the Mafia, German spies embedded behind enemy lines ahead of World War I, package bombs sent throughout the country, and the 1920 Wall Street bombing dominated headlines. Yet the story of the one man tasked with combating these threats has yet to be told. The Bulldog Detective: William J. Flynn and America’s First War Against the Mafia, Spies, and Terrorists is the first book to tell the story of Flynn, the first government official to bring down the powerful Mafia, uncover a sophisticated German spy ring in the United States, and launch a formal war on terrorism on his way to becoming one of the most respected and effective law enforcement officials in American history.

Author Jeffrey Simon

Long before Eliot Ness and the Untouchables went after Al Capone and the Italian mob in Chicago, Flynn dismantled the first Mafia family to exist in America. Next stop for the indefatigable crime fighter would be Chief of the Secret Service where he would set his crosshairs on the country’s most notorious currency counterfeiters. Coined “the Bulldog” for his tenacity, Flynn’s fame soared as he exposed Kaiser Germany’s sophisticated spy and sabotage ring on the cusp of America’s entry into World War I. As the Director of the Bureau of Investigation (the forerunner of the FBI), the Bulldog would devise the first counterterrorist strategy in U.S. history. In this riveting biography, author Jeffrey D. Simon brings to life the forgotten saga of one of America’s greatest crime and terrorist fighters.

New book explores Mafia kinship ties

2023-11-21T06:18:00.001-05:00

Friend and colleague Justin Cascio has penned a book-length discussion of transatlantic family connections of Corleone, Sicily, mafiosi. In Our Blood: The Mafia Families of Corleone, now available through Amazon in hardcover, paperback and ebook editions, is Cascio's first book.

The Mafia criminal society is traditionally viewed as a hierarchical organization, but Cascio argues that Mafia networks are largely based on kinship ties.

He has poured years of his research into this project. The publisher of the Mafia Genealogy website and a frequent contributor to Informer journal, Cascio is highly regarded as an underworld historian and genealogist. He notes that pivotal figures in Mafia history, including present-day mafiosi, have direct ties to one another and to the earliest recorded gangs in Corleone, Sicily. In addition to bloodline and marriage connections, some mafiosi also linked through the significant religious/family role of godparent.

Cascio discusses dozens of gangland figures in the United States and Sicily as he analyzes family-based networks that include thousands of individuals. Along the way, he tackles some of the lingering questions about the Mafia: How old is the criminal society? Where was it formed? How did it spread from Sicily to the U.S.?

For the benefit of researchers, Cascio has provided references supporting his assertions. The hardcover and paperback editions of In Our Blood weigh in at 390 pages. The Kindle ebook is rated by Amazon at a print length of 532 pages.

October 2023 issue of Informer

2023-10-01T09:32:00.000-04:00

Informer's October 2023 issue, Gangsters of New York's Lower East Side, is now available in seven formats (print and electronic magazine, hardcover and paperback book, Kindle and EPUB ebook, and audiobook). Contributors to the issue include historians Justin Cascio, Patrick Downey, Michael O'Haire, Steve Turner, Matt Ghiglieri. Visit Informer's website for more information.

A dozen articles focus on aspects of Lower East Side gangland history:

End of the Whyos gang.
Historic Photo: Bandits' Roost.
John H. McGurk and Bowery's "Suicide Hall."
The death and life of hoodlum/hero Monk Eastman.
NYC's first Mafia boss?
Italian gang chief with an Irish name: Paul Kelly.
Sai Wing Mock and the New York "Tong Wars."
Frank Lanza's New York firms may have been Mafia fronts.
In search of "Johnny Spanish."
Racketeering future was molded in young Meyer Lansky's neighborhood.
"Death Avenue": Second Avenue, 1910-1924.
1964 narcotics report included mobster bios.

Eleven sidebar articles deal with these Lower East Side-related subjects: Gambling; Eastman's killer Jeremiah W. Bohan; Mafia HQ on Mott Street; The Pelham and Irving Berlin; Sirocco and Tricker; Torrio and Vanella; Bellantonis of Broome Street; "Mutty," "Lucy" and "Kitty"; "Dutch" Goldberg; "Gurrah," "Lepke," "Curly" and "Bugsy"; "Red" Levine.

Other articles include: New facts about 1928 Mafia conventioneers; "Bill the Butcher" wasn't from the Five Points; New and recent true crime book releases; Looking back from 2023: 150, 100, 75, 50, 5 years ago.

Happy Ass Day (to those who celebrate)

2023-01-14T10:15:00.005-05:00

Be especially kind to your ass today.

(Sebastian - one of our two donkeys)

Since the middle ages, this date - January 14 - has been the "Feast of the Ass" on Christian calendars.

Not kidding. See: "Feast of the Ass."

Note that donkeys, long the target of human abuse and ridicule, played significant roles in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. (They are also nearly always present in the nativity scenes used in Christmas celebrations.)

In Christian legend, the humble, thoughtful donkey not only carried Mary and newborn Jesus out of harm's way (the Flight into Egypt), it also carried adult Jesus into Jerusalem (the Palm Sunday tradition).

Donkeys also were used extensively by Abraham and Moses. This was a deliberate choice, as there were horses, oxen and camels available.

They were the ONLY form of animal exempted from sacrifice instructions in the Book of Exodus. The sacrifice of the first-born male domestic animal was mandated in Exodus, but it was suggested that a lamb be substituted for a donkey.

The donkey and the ox were the only animals specifically mentioned in the Ten Commandments.

A deceased donkey - or at least its jawbone - came in handy for Samson when he tangled with those Phillistines. The bone turned out to be especially durable, as Samson was able to use it to dispatch a thousand of his enemies.

At one point in the Old Testament, a donkey was even given the power to speak! That donkey conversed with and actually scolded the prophet Balaam for beating him.

By the way, while it certainly is not part of the Bible, there is also an old legend that says the donkey that carried baby Jesus to Egypt was the SAME donkey that carried the adult Jesus into Nazareth. (A donkey lifespan is long enough to have done both.) They had a strong bond. That donkey supposedly lingered and followed Jesus to Calvary, and there witnessed the crucifixion. The donkey happened to be positioned so that the shadow of the cross fell upon its back. From that day forward, as a mark of the nobility and loyalty of the species, all donkeys have born the image of the cross.

Spectacular sunrise on Dec. 29

2022-12-29T16:45:00.001-05:00

We were treated to a special show about 7 a.m. on December 29, 2022. Rippled clouds near the Green Mountains horizon showed up as tightly packed layers of magenta and orange light, while pink cotton candy puffs filled the rest of the sky.

A 14-second video, scanning the sky from northeast to southeast.

Apparently, the spectacle wasn't limited to the Whiting area. TV news in Burlington shared dawn photographs taken around the state of Vermont.

"People who like this sort of thing...

2022-12-04T07:00:00.001-05:00

... will find this the sort of thing they like."

I attended a showing of Violent Night yesterday at the Majestic 10 Cinemas in Williston, VT (after a nice, quick meal at Bliss Bee). The movie is, well, not for everyone.

If you feel a solemn reverence for Christmas, you're not likely to enjoy it. From the early moment in which a woman marveling at a flying, reindeer-drawn sleigh is splattered by a downpour of drunk-Santa vomit, it is clear that this not a traditional holiday flick.

There are some heartwarming, sensitive moments - plenty of them (mostly involving John McClane-like walkie-talkie communication between Santa and young Trudy Lightstone) - but the movie is basically a comedy bloodbath (set to an up-beat holiday soundtrack). A disillusioned Santa regains his holiday spirit as he dispenses brutal, gory justice upon a gang of very naughty home-invading thieves and saves a not-entirely-nice (except for certain members) family from an apparently deserved punishment.

The Christmas holiday, its traditions and decorations, human bodies, the Santa legend, Santa himself and even a representation of the baby Jesus all suffer great abuse in the process.

(Imagine a Friday the 13th film, but naughty camp counselors have arrived at Camp Crystal Lake in the winter and Jason Voorhees has been drinking heavily and is wearing a Santa suit. No..., that's not quite it. Comparisons to Home Alone and Die Hard also don't quite work. But you get the idea.)

There are many funny moments, particularly if you are the sort who can laugh at inventive methods of shockingly, gruesome murder. I don't ordinarily consider myself in that category, but I have to admit the snow-blower murders were surprisingly satisfying.

Aside from all the death and dismemberment, the movie includes a bit of a romantic story about parents splitting up and a child hoping for healing. But this is delivered poorly, and is well beside the point anyway.

Actor David Harbour was an effective and sympathetic Santa, John Leguizamo (who was also in The Menu) was a very convincing bad guy nursing long-hidden Christmas wounds, Beverly D'Angelo (lately you've probably been seeing quite a bit of her on repeated TV showings of Christmas Vacation) was somehow quite believable as an extraordinarily wealthy, foul-mouthed b*tch.

Funny, surprising, disturbing

2022-11-20T06:34:00.000-05:00

I don't think I will ever again be able to listen to a wine description without laughing out loud. (Honestly, this was already a tough thing for me.)

The Menu deliciously mocks pretentious cuisine, faddish "deconstructed" edibles and food journalism, while drawing a horror story out of kitchen enslavement to critics (and to much of the rest of restaurant-going society). I left the theater smiling, thinking and craving a double-cheeseburger.

Find me on Mastodon

2022-11-18T11:26:00.005-05:00

Leaving the Twits behind.

If you'd like to follow me on social media, give Mastodon a try.

'Murdertown,' 'Bombtown,' 'Crimetown USA'

2022-11-02T14:35:00.005-04:00

Through decades, Youngstown, Ohio, endured painful nicknames like those, due to the rackets, violence and corruption of organized crime in the region. In its November 2022 issue - just released yesterday - Informer addresses the history of organized crime in the Mahoning/Shenango valleys of northeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Articles on the subject range from the earliest "Mafia" reports of the 1890s through the apparent dissolution of the Mob more than a century later.

I spent much of the past two years coordinating "The Mob in Youngstown" issue. I had the pleasure of working on this massive project with extremely knowledgeable organized crime historians James Barber, Justin Cascio, Margaret Janco, Thom L. Jones, Michael A. Tona and Edmond Valin.

There were some special challenges. The Youngstown-area underworld was unusually complex, as four Mafia organizations - those from Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit and Buffalo - a non-Mafia Calabrian criminal society and other gangs all had interests in the region. These groups cooperated and competed with each other at various times. Sitting at the approximate midway point between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, assigned "open city" status by U.S. Mafia bosses and afflicted by intensely corrupt political and law enforcement leaders, Youngstown was a sort of underworld frontier where the rules - even those made by outlaws to govern their own interactions - were widely ignored. (Car-bomb assassinations, for which the Youngstown area became nationally famous, were supposedly outlawed by the U.S. Mafia's Commission.)

Readers of this issue will learn about the secret regional groups behind names like, "Society of Honor," "Sacred Circle" and "Society of the Banana." They will encounter crime figures like "Fats" Aiello, Ernie Biondillo, Frank Cammarata, "Cadillac Charlie" Cavallaro, Joe Cutrone, "Tony Dope" Delsanter, Vince DeNiro, "Wolf" DiCarlo, "Big Jim" Falcone, Mike Farah, "Red" Giordano, "Big Dom" Mallamo, Dominick Moio, "Two-Gun Jimmy" Prato, Rocco Racco, Rocco Strange, Lenny Strollo, "Zebo" Zottola, as well as the Barber brothers, the Carabbia brothers, the Naples brothers, the Romeo brothers and many more.

Summaries of all the individual articles and an introduction to the entire issue can be found on Informer's website, along with a handy table of links to help you preview and/or purchase Informer in the format that is best for you.

There are seven formats to choose from this time around. In addition to our traditional print magazine and PDF digital magazine (available, as usual, from the MagCloud service), the options include print paperback book, print hardcover book and Kindle ebook (these three from Amazon) and EPUB ebook and audiobook (these last two from Google Play Books). The magazine versions run 188 pages, including ads and covers. The books are 378 pages long. Both the paperback and hardcover have indexes. (I cannot imagine how - or even why - ebook page counts are stated by the sellers. Amazon's Kindle version indicates that it is 543 pages, while Google says the EPUB version is 320 pages. Both have precisely the same content.)

The new audiobook format is particularly exciting. While some of the brief, unrelated filler material of the other formats has been edited out in order to focus on the main theme, "The Mob in Youngstown" audiobook presents 10 hours and 22 minutes of discussion of the region's underworld history. The audiobook was made possible through Google artificial intelligence "auto-narration" technology, which generates a realistic human voice (U.S. English voice "Matt" was selected as Informer's narrator) from text. If you're interested, why not check it out?

Informer early releases, pre-releases

2022-10-26T05:35:00.004-04:00

Oct. 26, 2022 - Informer's November 2022 issue, The Mob in Youngstown, isn't scheduled for release until next week, but it is already available for preview and purchase through Amazon.com, Google Play Books and MagCloud. (With a total of seven different formats, coordinating availability by the scheduled release date required that the formats go live earlier for testing and online linking.)

Here's everything you need to know:

Some information about the issue is shown on Informer's website. Additional information, including summaries of all articles, will be posted there on October 30-31.

The Mob in Youngstown issue is of course available in its traditional magazine and e-magazine (PDF) formats through the MagCloud service. Every Informer issue, since the first one released fourteen years ago, remains available for preview/purchase on MagCloud.

In recent years, Informer page counts and production costs dramatically climbed, and we became concerned about the magazine's relatively high purchase price. In response, we began providing some lower cost options. The first of these was the Kindle ebook. Over time, we added the EPUB ebook and a print paperback book. With the November 2022 issue, we are offering two new formats: a print hardcover book and a somewhat abridged audiobook. The audiobook contains all of the feature article and sidebar material relating to the Youngstown region, but omits the magazine's short "filler" material. (In less important but probably more noticeable news relating to the November 2022 issue, the book format covers are now different in appearance from the magazine cover.)

The hardcover, paperback and Kindle ebook formats are available for preview and purchase through Amazon.com. An index is provided in the hardcover and the paperback. The EPUB ebook format is offered through Google Play Books. The new audiobook format, generated through Google's natural-sounding artificial-intelligence reading technology, is also available through Google Play Books.

List prices range from $9.95 for the ebooks up to $44.70 for the print magazine. The PDF e-magazine is priced at $10.95. The print books ($19.95 paperback, $26.85 hardcover) and audiobook (listed at $27.50, but available through October at a discounted price) fall close to the middle of the pricing range.

The table below provides details on each of the issue formats, with links (click the seller's logo) to the preview and purchase sites.


Type	Identifier	Dimensions	Color?	Seller	Price (USD)
MAGAZINE LAYOUTS
Print Magazine	ISSN: 1943-7803	8 1/4" x 10 3/4" 188 pg incl covers	Yes	MagCloud	$44.70
PDF EMagazine¹	ISSN: 1944-8139	N/A	Yes	MagCloud	$10.95*
BOOK LAYOUTS
Print Hardcover²	ISBN⁵: 9798849815220	6" x 9" 378 pages	No	Amazon	$26.85
Print Paperback²	ISBN⁶: 9798351244709	6" x 9" 378 pages	No	Amazon	$19.95
Kindle EBook³	ASIN: B0BDFT9C9C	N/A	No	Amazon	$9.95
EPUB EBook⁴	GGKEY: EYCX505E9B9	N/A	No	GooglePlay	$9.95
AUDIOBOOK
Audiobook⁷	GGKEY: 48QRTHAQBHN	10hrs:22mins	N/A	GooglePlay	$27.50
1 - PDF document reader - such as Acrobat Reader - required. 2 - The printed books are indexed. (Ebooks/Emagazines can be searched.) 3 - Kindle device or Kindle reader software required. 4 - EPUB device or reader software - such as Calibre - required. 5 - Print hardcover also has ASIN: B0BHRFTR4X. 6 - Print paperback also has ASIN: B0BHRB3L52. 7 - Audiobook created through Google Auto-Narrated Audiobook Beta program. * - PDF e-magazine is free with print magazine purchase.

The Mob in Youngstown

2022-08-13T14:32:00.000-04:00

Organized crime in the Youngstown, Ohio, area (including much of northeastern Ohio and nearby western Pennsylvania) will be the focus of Informer's next issue.

Articles for the issue will be accepted through September 1, 2022. Advertising will be accepted through September 30, 2022. The scheduled release date is November 1, 2022.

The issue will be a lengthy one, with more than a dozen feature articles covering more than a century of the region's organized crime history. We expect to release it in the usual magazine and e-magazine (PDF) formats, in addition to e-book (Kindle, EPUB), softcover print book and hardcover print book formats.

October 2021 issue of Informer

2021-09-27T02:30:00.009-04:00

Mafiosi of the West Coast

Our look at mobsters who set up shop on America's West Coast begins with excerpts from a fact-based crime noir by J. Michael Niotta PhD. These excerpts relate to the escape to California of New York gangsters - a young Jack Dragna and his cousin Ben Rizzotto - implicated in the 1914 murder of wealthy Manhattan poultryman Barnett Baff (PREVIEW). This is Dr. Niotta's first article in Informer. A brief biography of Baff is provided as a sidebar.

Dragna and Rizzotto also make appearances in Justin Cascio's study of the legendary “San Pedro Gang” and Corleone Mafia transplant Sam Streva (PREVIEW).

The San Francisco gangland murder of Nick DeJohn, found stuffed into the trunk of his car in 1947, and that killing's possible relationship with Chicago's so-called “Cheese War” are considered by Thomas Hunt (PREVIEW). The article is accompanied by a sidebar story on early Chicago shootings linked with the DeJohn family and by a collection of other car-involved murders of crime figures who settled in California.

Michael O'Haire reveals that San Francisco crime boss Francesco Lanza played important roles in the development of the Mafia in Colorado (PREVIEW). Lennert van 't Riet explores connections between the early San Francisco and New Orleans Mafia organizations, focusing on 1898 murder victim Francesco DiFranchi (PREVIEW).

In addition to the California-related material, we look into reports of another, “other Gentile family” (PREVIEW) and Jeffery King describes the career of Reinhold Engel, who led “one of the cleverest and most efficient” bank robbery gangs (PREVIEW).

In our “Just One More Thing” column, Thomas Hunt considers the rare appearance of law enforcement officers on United States postage stamps (PREVIEW). This issue also includes “Hundred Years Ago” notes on a crime boss desperate to leave the country and the murder of a St. Louis political boss, as well as a new book announcement for Rogues' Gallery about the Gilded Age revolution of policing in New York City.

This issue is available in five formats. Seller logos link to preview/purchase sites. (Sept. 27 note: The issue is being released earlier than scheduled, but we were limited in our ability to move up the release date. We regret that Amazon Kindle downloads will not be available until Sept. 29.)
Type	Identifier	Dimensions	Color?	Seller	Price (USD)
MAGAZINE LAYOUTS
Print magazine	ISSN: 1943-7803	8 1/4" x 10 3/4" 96 pages	Yes	MagCloud	$25.50
PDF e-magazine¹	ISSN: 1944-8139	N/A	Yes	MagCloud	$9.49*
BOOK LAYOUTS
Print paperback	ISBN⁴: 9798474567648	6" x 9" 160+ pages	No	Amazon	$14.95
Kindle e-book²	ASIN: B09FYJKJZS	N/A	No	Amazon	$9.49
EPUB e-book³	GGKEY: L7A1ZTHWFGN	N/A	No	GooglePlay	$9.49
1 - PDF document reader - such as Acrobat Reader - required. 2 - Kindle device or Kindle reader software required. 3 - EPUB device or reader software - such as Calibre - required. 4 - Print paperback also has ASIN: B09FS72B7G. * - PDF e-magazine is free with print magazine purchase.

Plain text links:

Rampant criminality in Bedford Falls

2020-12-16T09:23:00.004-05:00

Possibly I've been writing about crime history for too long. While rewatching It's a Wonderful Life recently, I couldn't help but compile a list of legal offenses presented within the 1946 holiday classic - charges ranging from child abuse to possible homicide.

I know that I am not alone in viewing Wonderful Life with a critical eye.

The movie has long been criticized for a theme some feel instigates class warfare. (I always find it odd that so many Americans are more concerned over the possibility of friction between economic classes than by the actual existence of economic classes.) This accusation is particularly popular among America's Henry F. Potter-types. The movie actually was investigated by the FBI as possible communist propaganda. I don't find that charge credible.

Wonderful Life does encourage have-nots to constructively work together to improve their lives, using the example of the shareholder-sponsored and generous-spirited Bailey Brothers Building & Loan company operating in spite of the incessant scheming of the evil, bigoted and money-grubbing Potter. But the movie never even suggests taking anything that Bedford Falls one-percenter Potter would claim as his own. In fact, Potter is more influential and, through ill-gotten gains, at least $8,000 (more than $115,000 in today's money) wealthier at the end of the film as he is at the start.

But there is an impressive collection of criminality. I admit that some violations are not truly native to the movie's Bedford Falls. These occur only in the alternate reality shown to main character George Bailey by his guardian angel Clarence Oddbody, after George suggests it would be better if he had never been born. But they're still in the movie.

Even leaving aside the judgment calls: the suggested but not stated behavior of boy-friendly female character Violet Bick, the troubling sight of Bert the Cop aiming and firing at the back of fleeing alternate-reality George Bailey and the strange 1930s-era disappearance of all depositor funds from the Bailey Building & Loan (the business acquires extensive loans from Potter's bank, which are recalled, and has absolutely no money when depositors come to make withdrawals) the list is ponderous. And I'm not sure it is comprehensive. You may find additional charges on your next rewatching.

Apparent anti-trust violations,
Assault and battery (more than once),
Assaulting a police officer (same officer - Bert - twice on the receiving end),
Child abuse,
Conspiracy,
Domestic violence,
Driving while intoxicated,
Failing to execute an arrest warrant,
Failing to report a crime (at least a couple),
Filing a false police complaint,
Harassment,
Larceny,
Malfeasance,
Poisoning,
Prohibition violation,
Public intoxication,
Reckless endangerment.
Resisting arrest,
Sexual assault,
Spousal abandonment,
Threatening,
Trespassing,
Vandalism,

There may also be a case of premeditated murder, depending on what Mary Hatch specifically wishes (she's a little vague discussing this with George later) when she tosses the rock through the window of the Old Granville House (320 Sycamore) and whether in the movie's universe her wish actually triggers the fatal stroke George's father Peter Bailey suffers immediately after.

It can be (and has been) successfully argued that the film also illustrates other societal ills, including alcoholism, racism, and sexism.

Crime without punishment
Despite all these offenses, the only individuals who ever face any sort of comeuppance are Violet (arrested for something done at a dance hall) and the druggist, Mr. Gower (sentenced to 20 years for homicide). The law catches up with both, but only in the alternate universe. (To be fair, Violet, faces a probably difficult future in the movie's reality as well. Apparently shunned for her flirtatious ways, she leaves her hometown with little money to take her chances in New York City.)

But, basically, everyone, including the wicked manipulator Potter, escapes all consequences for illegal acts. The concept of justice is occasionally considered in suburban Bedford Falls, but it never actually makes an appearance. Wonderful Life viewers noticing all of this may well wonder if this is a movie about "white privilege."

Dreaming of a White Christmas?
It is worth noting that Bedford Falls (Pottersville, in the alternate universe) is, in fact, a very white place, every bit as white as the scenery of the snowy winter that fills the second half of the movie. There are just a few African-American actors in the movie.

The only non-white character with a name and a few scripted lines is the Bailey family's stereotypical domestic employee Annie. Other non-white actors appear as a couple of unnamed and unspeaking students at a barely integrated high school dance, the unnamed and unspeaking alternate-reality piano player at Nick's bar (but none of the many bar patrons) and possibly a couple of barely noticed Bedford Falls pedestrians. (I will leave it to others to speculate on how Wonderful Life might be different with a less melanin-deficient cast.)

Justice as menacing intruder
At the climax of the movie, hero George Bailey is threatened with the possibility of justice - he may be charged with a crime for the gross negligence of leaving his notoriously forgetful uncle in charge of all depositor funds. Justice instantly becomes a menacing intruder into his wonderful life.

Merely the idea of lawful retribution is so crushing that George is poised to commit suicide! He is kept alive only through the intervention of an outer-space God (who sends second-rate angel Clarence), responding to the prayers of George's friends.

God and community intervene
The Almighty's agent on Earth succeeds in coaxing George back from the precipice. In the movie's final moments, the entire Bedford Falls community, including Annie, turn out to the Baileys' holiday-decorated living room to contribute generously and prevent George from getting what is rightfully coming to him.

A court-issued arrest warrant is then ripped to pieces by a government representative, and even a strict, visiting bank official is so moved by spirit of Christmas corruption that he takes money from his own pocket to support the effort.

As all present launch into song, viewers may well feel that they are watching a joyous celebration of a large family - the large, Bedford Falls organized crime family.

Nick Gentile is focus of Oct. 2020 Informer

2020-10-19T03:49:00.000-04:00

This Informer special issue (No. 30) focuses on Nicola "Nick" Gentile, underworld leader in U.S. and Sicily, who published an Italian-language tell-all autobiography in 1963. The issue is available as a 214-page printed and bound magazine, a 382-page paperback book and in PDF and Kindle e-book formats. (Searchable PDF and EPUB e-book formats should be available soon.)

Informer strives to bring Gentile's entire life story to the English-language reader. Building on extensive original research by a team of Mafia history experts and on U.S. government documents designed to extract meaning from the memoirs, this issue attempts to balance Gentile's obviously self-serving and self-aggrandizing autobiographical work with verifiable history, to correct his misinformation and to fill in the wide gaps left in his personal account.

Informer closely examines a number of aspects of Gentile's life, such as the launch of his underworld career in the Kansas City area; relationships with Mafia leaders, including Salvatore "Charlie Luciano" Lucania, Vito Genovese, Al Capone, Albert Anastasia, Vincent Mangano, and others; early murders performed by him in Pittsburgh; involvement in narcotics trafficking in New York, New Orleans and Houston; interactions with Mafia leaders in Cleveland, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles; links to underworld figures in Pueblo, Colorado; dealings with U.S. and Soviet spies in Italy during and after World War II.

Informer provides biographical information for dozens of individuals who contributed in interesting ways to Gentile's life story, including:
Frank Amato; Albert Anastasia; John "King" Angersola; Alfonso Attardi; John Bazzano; Joseph Biondo; Mario Brod; Fortunato Calabro; Salvatore Calderone; Vincenzo "James" Capizzi; Al Capone; Domenico Catalano; J.C. and Phillip Catalano; Salvatore Catanzaro; Charles "Cadillac Charlie" Cavallaro; Felice Chilanti; Charles Colletti; Dr. Gaetano Conti; Gregorio Conti; Francesco "Three Fingers" Coppola; Antonino "Nino" Cucuzzella; Gaspare D'Amico; Salvatore "Toto" D'Aquila; Rosario DeSimone; Salvatore "Sam" DiBella; Dominick "Terry Burns" DiDato; Vito DiGiorgio; Accursio DiMino; Archbishop Ernesto Filippi; Vito Genovese; Vincent and Gerlando Gentile; Umberto Gibilaro; Vito Guardalabene; Leonid Kolosov; Calogero "Big Nose" LaGaipa; Frank LaRocco; Orazio Leone; Salvatore "Lucky Luciano" Lucania; William Magee; Antonino "Mangano" Messina; Carlo, John "Johnny Mag" and Vincent Mangiaracina; Salvatore Maranzano; Luigi Marciante; Ferdinando "Fred" Mauro; Monroe Harrison Meader; Gaspare Messina; Frank "Ciccio" Milano; Joseph Natali; Giuseppe Parlapiano; Filippo Piazza; Valentino Piazza; Pietro Pirro; Aldo Charles Poletti; Saverio Pollaccia; Dr. Giuseppe Romano, Pellegrino Scaglia; Nicola Schiro; Giuseppe "Peppino" Siragusa; Joseph Talarico; Vincenzo "Big Vince" Troia; Gaetano Tropia; King Umberto II; Giovanni "Prince Johnny," James and Arthur Volpe; Andrew, Frank and Joseph Zappala.

Also in this issue:

1900s Mafia feuds in Los Angeles,
Book excerpts,
Book announcements,
Impact of COVID-19 on the underworld,
Obituary - Martha Macheca Sheldon.

Writers/researchers contributing to this issue: Thomas Hunt, David Critchley, Steve Turner, Lennert van't Riet, Richard N. Warner, Justin Cascio, Sam Carlino, Michael O'Haire, Jon Black, Margaret Janco, Bill Feather and Christian Cipollini.

Advertisers: Black Lives Matter by Justin Cascio; Colorado's Carlino Brothers (book) by Sam Carlino; Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia by Thomas Hunt and Martha Macheca Sheldon; DiCarlo: Buffalo's First Family of Crime (book) by Thomas Hunt and Michael A. Tona; Gangsters Inc. (website); Los Angeles Mafia Group on Facebook (website); Mafia Membership Charts (website) by Bill Feather; One of the Most Troublesome Robbery Gangs (book) by Jeffery S. King; The Origin of Organized Crime in America (book) by David Critchley; Rat Trap on mafiahistory.us (website); Secret Societies (book) by Jon Black; Vinnitta: The Birth of the Detroit Mafia (book) by Daniel Waugh; Wrongly Executed? (book) by Thomas Hunt.

More information on this issue and its contents is available on Informer's website.

Concetta Mangione Prisco (1921-2020)

2020-05-18T08:04:00.000-04:00

A few months shy of her ninety-ninth birthday, Concetta (Mangione) Prisco died Monday, May 4, 2020, of COVID-19 complications at Mamaroneck, New York. She had been a resident of the New Jewish Home long term care facility in that Westchester County municipality.

George and Concetta Prisco

Concetta "Connie" was born Maria Concetta Mangione to Liborio and Emma (Arnetta) Mangione, Sicilian immigrants, in Manhattan, New York, on August 5, 1921. (Baptismal records from St. Lucy's Church on East 104th Street place her birth on August 2, 1921.*) Brother Vincent "Sonny" was born in June 1925, and brother Joseph was born four years later. The family's early homes were in Italian East Harlem: first with Liborio's parents Vincenzo and Maria (Capizzi) Mangione at 344 East 105th Street and later at 225 East 108th Street.

1973 passport photo

Her later childhood appears to have been spent with relatives in the Little Italy neighborhood in the Bronx, New York, while her parents and brothers continued to live in Manhattan. Concetta graduated from the Industrial Course of Study of Junior High School No. 45 in the Bronx on January 25, 1938.

Concetta married George M. Prisco, who had been raised in the Mount Eden section of the Bronx and had relatives in East Harlem, on February 3, 1940, at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. Aldo Carniato, with Alfonso and Antonetta Prisco serving as witnesses.

Concetta's father Liborio died at Manhattan Metropolitan Hospital at the age of fifty-two on May 2, 1942.

Concetta with grandson

George and Concetta Prisco lived initially with George's widowed mother (his father Salvatore died in 1924), Carolina Prisco, at 2315 Hughes Avenue in the Bronx. About the time of Carolina's 1942 death, they moved to 3341 Paulding Avenue. In the early 1950s, they moved again to 808 Adee Avenue, their longtime home. They raised their family in a top-floor apartment (6C) of the six-story building, with Concetta's mother Emma Mangione living next door (6C-A). For a time, much of the Prisco-Mangione clan resided in two apartment buildings diagonally across the intersection of Adee Avenue and Matthews Avenue.

In addition to her family responsibilities, Concetta worked outside the home, holding a position with Al's Camera Shop in the Bronx.

Home in New Fairfield

George and Concetta Prisco built a vacation home for themselves in New Fairfield, Connecticut, between Connecticut's Ball Pond and New York's Putnam Lake. It was a long-term project. From modest beginnings, the home expanded dramatically over the years. With their children raised, George and Concetta turned the New Fairfield home into their full-time residence in the late 1970s.

Concetta's mother Emma passed away in August 1978 at the age of eighty-six.

Concetta loved to cook for family and friends ("arancini" rice balls, cream puff pastries, "pignoli" cookies...) and regularly made presents of her latest kitchen creations. She also enjoyed gardening and games of chance. She often hosted family get-togethers and took great interest in her grandchildren (who still recall her singing a rendition of "See Saw, Knock on the Door..."). She was a longtime member of St. Edward the Confessor Church in New Fairfield and the New Fairfield Senior Center.

Following the February 2006 death of her husband, Concetta moved to an apartment off Orchard Street in northern Brookfield, Connecticut.

Carol Andreana, Concetta Prisco, Emma Mangione with Cristina Andreana

She is survived by three daughters - Concetta Hunt (the late Patrick) of Orlando, Florida; Caroline Andreana (Joseph) of Stamford, Connecticut; Emily Schmetterer (Jerry) of New York, New York - and daughters-in-law Marilyn Prisco of Las Vegas, Nevada, and Debby K. Prisco of Bronx, New York. She also is survived by ten grandchildren, residing in Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, New Jersey, New York and Vermont; great-grandchildren; nieces and nephews. In addition to her husband, she was predeceased by her son George, Jr., and her brother Vincent. Her brother Joseph passed away a few days after her death.

Burial was scheduled for May 18, 2020, at St. Raymond's Cemetery in the Bronx. Bosak Funeral Home, 453 Shippan Avenue, in Stamford, Connecticut, handled funeral arrangements.

* Confusion on the date reported for her birth could have resulted from the birthdates of her parents. Liborio Mangione's birthday was August 5 and Emma Mangione's was August 2.

Bringing Joe Valachi's memoirs to the Web

2019-11-25T11:20:00.002-05:00

The 1000-plus page memoirs of Mafia turncoat Joseph Valachi are valuable source material for organized crime historians. The manuscript, entitled "The Real Thing - Second Government: The Expose and Inside Doings of Cosa Nostra," is one of just three authoritative inside sources on the Mafia during the period of the 1930-31 Castellammarese War (the others are published autobiographies, Vita di Capomafia by Nick Gentile and A Man of Honor by Joseph Bonanno). The Valachi memoirs were consulted and quoted by author Peter Maas for his 1968 book, The Valachi Papers, which grew into a 1972 Charles Bronson motion picture. Until now, these Joseph Valachi papers could only be accessed through the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston. I have been working to change that.

I first published a couple hundred pages of the manuscript on the mafiahistory.us website some years ago. The pages were acquired through the assistance of another Mafia historian, who requested anonymity. In summer 2019, I visited the JFK Library to access the remaining thousand or so pages. Since that time, I have been processing and formatting the pages for the web in small batches. At this moment, visitors to mafiahistory.us can access the first 500-plus consecutive pages of The Real Thing and an additional 80-plus scattered pages of the rest of the manuscript.

Copyright of the Valachi memoirs has been a concern. While the papers have been in the custody of the United States government and accessible to the public for decades since their official 1980 donation, the JFK Library has provided no clear guidance on any possible copyright holder. Following my summer 2019 visit to the library, I submitted a Freedom of Information request for access to the internal library paperwork relating to the memoirs. After some initial hesitation, the National Archives agreed to publicly release the "Deed of Gift" and "Donor File" relating to the memoirs. Transcriptions of these documents also have been added to the mafiahistory.us website.

The documents establish that the papers were donated to the library by Peter Maas on Christmas Eve of 1980. Maas stated his wish that they "be made available for research as soon as possible, and to the fullest extent possible." A New Year's Eve, 1980, memorandum indicates that Valachi intended at one time to publish his manuscript. Instead, the memoirs were used as source material for Maas's book, and Valachi received a payment of $75,000 for his story. Following Valachi's death in 1971, his estate went through normal probate procedures. "According to Maas' attorney, no question from Valachi's heirs about the rights to the manuscript or copyright arose during the settlement of the estate," the memorandum states. "Maas, therefore, has had the manuscript and accompanying transcript since 1965 without anyone questioning his right to the material."

This history and Maas' donation appear to place ownership of the memoirs clearly in the hands of the National Archives and the American people. In doing the work of bringing the memoirs to the Web, it is my hope to achieve Maas' goal of making them available for research "to the fullest entent possible."

Visit the Entrance Page for "The Real Thing: The Autobiography of Joseph Valachi" on Mafiahistory.us.

Why Maranzano? Why now?

2019-08-20T07:37:00.003-04:00

(UPDATE: Following publication, it was learned that the discovered photograph, labeled as Maranzano by an Italian periodical, was actually NOT the Mafia boss but a German serial killer.)

Informer special issue on Maranzano

2019-08-11T08:02:00.001-04:00

A long lost photograph of Salvatore Maranzano is discovered. Informer: The History of American Crime and Law Enforcement marks the occasion by dedicating an entire issue to the one-time American Mafia boss of bosses. (UPDATE: Following publication, it was learned that the photograph, labeled as Maranzano by an Italian periodical, was actually NOT the Mafia boss but a German serial killer.)

The August 2019 special issue, with articles by Thomas Hunt, Lennert van`t Riet, David Critchley and Richard N. Warner, is available now in print and electronic editions (magazine format) and in an e-book edition (Amazon Kindle format).

Visit Informer's website for more information.

Mafia boss Maranzano will be exposed!

2019-07-24T19:26:00.000-04:00

The August 2019 issue of Informer will deal exclusively with Prohibition Era Mafia boss of bosses Salvatore Maranzano - life, career, assassination and post-assassination aftermath. We plan to reveal EVERYTHING about the Mafia boss! (Well..., everything we currently know.)

Through articles (by organized crime historians Lennert van`t Riet, David Critchley, Richard N. Warner and Thomas Hunt), photos and maps, Informer will tackle many questions about Maranzano, including:

Who was Salvatore Maranzano?
What did he look like? (And what did he certainly NOT look like?)
What does a recent discovery tell us about him?
What was said about him by those who knew him in life?
Where were the locations significant to his life and career?
When did Maranzano-related events occur?
Why was he important in U.S. Mafia history?
How has he been portrayed by Hollywood?
What do we know of Maranzano's life in Sicily?
Was there really a post-Maranzano Mafia purge?

The official release date of Informer's special issue on Salvatore Maranzano is still a few weeks away, but the issue - in Kindle e-book form - can be pre-ordered NOW through Amazon.com. (Link: https://amzn.to/32GaLgr or click on the cover image below.)

This is only the second time an entire Informer issue has been devoted to a single subject. It is the first time that an issue has been sold in Kindle e-book format.

Our usual magazine formats - standard-size print and electronic PDF - will be available soon through the MagCloud service. Visit Informer's website for more information.

Finally get the last word

2019-04-28T08:24:00.000-04:00

My latest business venture is the sale of "You're Welcome" cards - perfect items for those times when you just can't let the matter drop.

Think about it:

So often you receive an invitation card you didn't ask for/didn't want to some silly event you couldn't possibly be persuaded to attend. What do you do? Largely out of an irrational sense of guilt, you send a gift and a card with your negative RSVP.

Of course, then the inviters respond to your card and gift by sending you another card that says, "Thank you." That's where the scenario generally ends.

But why should THEY always get the last word?
After all, THEY'RE the ones that started the whole thing in the first place!

A "You're Welcome" card allows you to put an end to the interaction on your own terms.

NOLA mayor to offer apology for 1891 lynchings

2019-04-03T04:46:00.000-04:00

American Italian Center to host proclamation on April 12

Cantrell

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell will offer an "Official Proclamation of Apology" for the 1891 lynching of eleven Italian-American men, according to published reports. The apology is scheduled to be presented in a morning ceremony April 12, 2019, at the city's American Italian Cultural Center.

The proclamation reportedly was set in motion by the Commission for Social Justice, Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America (OSDIA). The commission approached the mayor's office with the idea and found Cantrell receptive. The mayor appointed Vincenzo Pasquantonio, head of the city's Human Relations Committee, to coordinate with OSDIA. Cantrell, the first woman to serve as mayor of the Crescent City, was inaugurated in May 2018, replacing term-limited Mayor Mitch Landrieu.

Commission Special Counsel Michael A. Santo told reporters the lynchings were "a longstanding wound" for the Italian-American community. "This is something that has to be addressed," he told the Washington Post, praising Mayor Cantrell for her courage.

Some of the victims

The eleven victims included six men who were tried but not convicted for the 1890 murder of local Police Chief David Hennessy and five others charged but not yet tried for that crime. (The lynching, its causes and its aftermath were discussed in Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia by Thomas Hunt and Martha Macheca Sheldon.)

Chief Hennessy was murdered on his way to his Girod Street home late on the evening of October 15, 1890. He parted from his bodyguard, Captain William O'Connor, about one city square from his residence. A few steps later, gunmen firing from across the street knocked Hennessy down with shotgun loads of birdshot and then closed on their victim, firing high caliber slugs into his body. Hennessy drew his Colt revolver and shot in the direction of his attackers. As the gunmen ran off, O'Connor reached the fallen chief.

Hennessy

"They gave it to me, and I gave it back the best I could," Hennessy told O'Connor. The captain asked if Hennessy could identify his attackers. "Dagoes," Hennessy said.

The police chief died at Charity Hospital the next morning. Suspected members of the Mafia criminal society and their associates were arrested. Eighteen were charged with conspiring in the assassination. Louisiana-born businessman Joseph P. Macheca, Mafia chief Charles Matranga and seven others were the first to be brought to trial in early 1891.

On March 13, the jury acquitted six defendants and could not reach a verdict on the remaining three. The defendants all continued to be held at the Parish Prison - with the others charged in the assassination but not yet tried - pending the expected dismissal of related charges in another court on the Fourteenth.

There were widespread rumors of jury bribery. Civic leaders and a vigilante group known as the Regulators assembled on the night of March 13 and announced a public meeting at the Henry Clay statue (then in the middle of Canal Street at the intersection with Royal and St. Charles) for the next morning:

All good citizens are invited to attend a mass meeting on Saturday, March 14, at 10 o'clock a.m., at Clay Statue, to take steps to remedy the failure of justice in the Hennessy case. Come prepared for action.

Sixty-one prominent citizens signed the meeting call that was published in the morning newspapers. More than half of the signers belonged to one or both of the Crescent City's exclusive social clubs, The Pickwick Club and The Boston Club.

Mass meeting at Clay statue

Many thousands filled the street for that meeting. After being fired up by Regulators leader William Stirling Parkerson and other speakers, the mob marched to the prison. Though the lynchings are generally blamed on the angry mob, evidence strongly suggests that only a carefully selected execution team participated in the killings inside the prison.

Battering down door

Learning of the approaching thousands, the prison warden opened the cells of his Italian prisoners and advised them to hide as best they could. Parkerson's men attempted to batter through the main gate but more quickly gained entry by breaking down a rear door to the warden's apartment.

The execution squad of about one dozen men moved quickly through the prison, dragged one prisoner outside for hanging, then trapped and shot three prisoners in an upstairs prison hall. Seven prisoners were cornered in the prison yard. As they begged for mercy, the execution squad opened fire with repeating rifles at close range. When one of the targets was found to have survived the shooting, he was dragged outside to be hanged. (Another prisoner, mortally wounded in the shooting in the upstairs hall, remained alive but unconscious for hours.)

Execution squad

As the execution squad exited the prison, Parkerson again addressed the people in the mob, assuring them that justice had been achieved and urging that they return quietly to their homes.

Mob swarms Parish Prison

Local newspapers were supportive of the vigilante action. The New Orleans Times-Democrat commented, "Desperate diseases require desperate remedies." The Daily Picayune blamed the incident on "corrupt ministers of justice." New Orleans businessman in the Cotton Exchange, the Sugar Exchange, the Produce Exchange, the Stock Exchange, the Lumbermen's Exchange and the Board of Trade passed resolutions declaring the murders of the prisoners to be justified.

Picayune

Early in April 1891, a New Orleans judge dismissed a lawsuit brought against the city by the widow of one of the lynching victims. She argued that the city failed in its responsibility to safeguard the lives in its care. The judge found that laws making a municipality liable for destruction of property did not extend to a liability for loss of life. In the same month, the city administration defended anti-Italian sentiment by compiling and publishing a list of ninety-four "assassinations, murders and affrays" vaguely attributed to Sicilians and Italians. A month later, a grand jury investigating the lynchings issued a lengthy report critical of the victims. No one was indicted for participating in the raid on the prison or the execution of the helpless prisoners.

Pittsburgh Dispatch

The incident triggered a year-long dispute between the United States and Italy. Though arguing that most of the victims were either U.S. citizens or had declared their intention to become U.S. citizens, President Benjamin Harrison's Administration agreed to an indemnity payment of about $24,000. Harrison publicly condemned the lynchings and criticized Louisiana authorities for their handling of the matter.

According to a press release from the Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America, the ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. at the American Italian Cultural Center, 537 South Peters Street, just north of Lafayette Street. The Commission for Social Justice is the anti-defamation arm of the OSDIA. The commission was formed in 1979. OSDIA's roots stretch back to 1905 in New York City. The American Italian Cultural Center was founded in New Orleans as the American Italian Renaissance Foundation Museum and Research Library by the late Joseph Maselli (1924-2009).

See also:

Sources:

"Mayor to apologize for 191 lynching of 11 Italian Americans," New York Times, nytimes.com, March 30, 2019.
"Official Proclamation of Apology by the Mayor of New Orleans to the Italian American Community for America's Largest Single Mass Lynching," PRWeb, prweb.com, April 2, 2019.
Daugherty, Owen, "New Orleans mayor to apologize to Italian-Americans for 1891 lynchings," The Hill, thehill.com, April 1, 2019.
Feldman, Kate, "New Orleans mayor to apologize to Italian-Americans for 1891 lynchings that killed 11 immigrants," New York Daily News, nydailynews.com, April 1, 2019.
Flynn, Meagan, "New Orleans to apologize for lynching of 11 Italians in 1891, among worst in American history," Washington Post, April 1, 2019.
McConnaughey, Janet, "New Orleans mayor plans apology for 'longstanding wound' of 1891 Italian immigrant lynchings," New Orleans Advocate, theadvocate.com, March 30, 2019.
Prior, Ryan, "128 years later, New Orleans is apologizing for lynching 11 Italians," CNN, cnn.com, April 1, 2019.
Santo, Michael A., Esq., "Presentation of an Official Proclamation of Apology by the Mayor of New Orleans to the Italian American Community," We the Italians, wetheitalians.com, March 25, 2019.