The American Mafia

For more than a century, the American Mafia built an underworld empire from gambling, extortion, bootlegging, labour racketeering, corruption and fear. The American Mafia: Five Families, Prohibition, Las Vegas and the Rise and Fall of Organised Crime in America traces the extraordinary history of La Cosa Nostra from its roots among the early Sicilian criminal networks of immigrant America to the creation of New York's Five Families, the fortunes made during Prohibition, Mafia influence in unions and legitimate industries, the casino era of Las Vegas, international heroin trafficking and the long federal campaign that finally broke much of its power. Along the way, the book examines the Castellammarese War, the Commission, Apalachin, Joseph Valachi, the Donnie Brasco infiltration, RICO, the Mafia Commission Case, John Gotti, Sammy Gravano and the collapse of omertà. It also looks beyond the famous bosses to the businesses, workers, communities and victims affected by organised crime-and separates documented history from the mythology created by films, television, memoirs and Mafia legend. The Mafia did not disappear. But the criminal empire America once feared has been transformed. This is the story of how it rose, how it worked, why it endured and how law enforcement gradually pushed it from national power towards regional survival. Disclaimer: This is an independent, unauthorised work of historical nonfiction. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any organisation, government agency, company, individual, media property or trademark owner mentioned. Names, trademarks and other identifying terms are used solely for factual, historical and nominative purposes. Allegations and disputed matters are identified as such where applicable.