A detailed compendium of American gangsters and gangs from the end of the Civil War to the present day. American Gangsters, Then and Now: An Encyclopedia ranges from Western outlaws revered as Robin Hoods to the Depression's flamboyant bootleggers and bank robbers to the late 20th century's drug kingpins and "Dapper Dons." It is the first comprehensive resource on the gangster's historical evolution and unshakable grip on the American imagination. American Gangsters, Then and Now tells the stories of a number of famous gangsters and gangs—Jesse James and Billy the Kid, the Black Hand, Al Capone, Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels, the Mafia, Crips and Bloods, and more. Avoiding sensationalism, the straightforward entries include biographical portraits and historical background for each subject, as well as accounts of infamous robberies, killings, and other events, all well documented with both archival newspapers and extensive research into the files of the FBI. Readers will understand the families, the places, and the times that produced these monumental criminals, as well as the public mindset that often found them sympathetic and heroic.

A detailed compendium of American gangsters and gangs from the end of the Civil War to the present day.

While the gangster film may have enjoyed its heyday in the 1930s and ’40s, it has remained a movie staple for almost as long as cinema has existed. From the early films of Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Edward G. Robinson to modern versions like Bugsy, Public Enemies, and Gangster Squad, such films capture the brutality of mobs and their leaders. In Gangsters and G-Men on Screen: Crime Cinema Then and Now, Gene D. Phillips revisits some of the most popular and iconic representations of the genre. While this volume offers new perspectives on some established classics—usual suspects like Little Caesar, Bonnie and Clyde, and The Godfather Part II—Phillips also calls attention to some of the unheralded but no less worthy films and filmmakers that represent the genre. Expanding the viewer’s notion of what constitutes a gangster film, Phillips offers such unusual choices as You Only Live Once, Key Largo, The Lady from Shanghai, and even the 1949 version of The Great Gatsby. Also included in this examination are more recent ventures, such as modern classics The Grifters and Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. In his analyses, Phillips draws on a number of sources, including personal interviews with directors and other artists and technicians associated with the films he discusses. Of interest to film historians and scholars, Gangsters and G-Men on Screen will also appeal to anyone who wants to better understand the films that represent an important contribution to crime cinema.

The novelization of American Gangster, the major motion picture from Universal Pictures about Frank Lucas, drug czar of Harlem. The film stars Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, and is directed by Ridley Scott. For decades the Mafia controlled the flow of heroin onto the streets of Harlem. Frank Lucas changed all that. Born in rural North Carolina, he came to New York and rose to power under notorious mobster Bumpy Johnson. When Bumpy died, Frank moved to take over the drug business. Caught in a squeeze play between the Mafia and the street dealers, Frank got creative. Instead of being a tool of the mob, he went straight to the source—Cambodia—and set up his own unique distribution system. Using his brothers as his lieutenants and selling "quality" heroin in trademark blue plastic bags, Frank Lucas and his "Country Boys" became the kings of One Hundred Twenty-Fifth Street. Frank had it made. He was rich, successful, and untouchable. . . . . . . until Richie Roberts came along. Roberts, the Eliot Ness of drug enforcement, became a pariah among other detectives in the NYPD when he turned in the million dollars in cash he found in the trunk of a dealer's car. His personal life was a mess—his wife left him, and his son hardly knew him anymore—but on the job, Roberts was all business, and his business, heading up a Federal Narcotics Squad, was busting big-time dealers. His next target? Frank Lucas. This violent, action-filled chronicle of a uniquely American family is based on Ridley Scott's film, itself based on a New York magazine profile, "The Return of Superfly" by Mark Jacobson. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

"Reppetto's book earns its place among the best . . . he brings fresh context to a familiar story worth retelling." —The New York Times Book Review 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-WWII era—that is as exciting and readable 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. It wasn't until the 1920s, thanks to Prohibition, that the Mafia assumed what we now consider its defining characteristics, especially its octopuslike tendency to infiltrate industry and government. At mid-century the Kefauver Commission declared the Mafia synonymous with Union Siciliana; in the 1960s the FBI finally admitted the Mafia's existence under the name La Cosa Nostra. American Mafia is a fascinating look at America's most compelling criminal subculture from an author who is intimately acquainted with both sides of the street.

This book examines a broad range of infamous scams, cons, swindles, and hoaxes throughout American history—and considers why human gullibility continues in an age of easy access to information. Covering American cons and hoaxes past and present, including the Great Moon Hoax of 1835, the controversy over "subliminal messaging" (do bands, filmmakers, and advertisers really put secret messages in their works?), the panic about "satanic" daycare operators in the 1980s, and recent Internet scams, this book provides a fascinating, fact-based look at infamous frauds across the centuries. Offering an engaging mix of history, sociology, and psychology, author Nate Hendley gives readers an appreciation of how prominent scams, cons, "confidence men," and hoaxes have impacted American society, past and present. Each entry details the scheme or hoax and the pertinent con artist/schemer involved, examining the sociological, cultural, political, and/or economic effect of the scams. Each topic is accompanied by a short bibliography of further reading selections. As the old saying goes, "There is a sucker born every minute"—and there has always been a keen-eyed swindler to take advantage of the situation. The Big Con: Great Hoaxes, Frauds, Grifts, and Swindles in American History explores this sordid underbelly of American civilization and invites readers to revel in the felonious experience.

To what extent does a person's own success result in social transformation? This book offers 100 answers, providing thought-provoking examples of how American culture was shaped within a crucial time period by individuals whose lives and ideas were major agents of change. 100 People Who Changed 20th-Century America provides a two-volume encyclopedia of the individuals whose contributions to society made the 20th century what it was. Comprising contributions from 20 academics and experts in their field, the thought-provoking essays examine the men and women who have shaped the modern American cultural experience—change agents who defined their time period as a result of their talent, imagination, and enterprise. Organized chronologically by the subjects' birthdates, the essays are written to be accessible to the general reader yet provide in-depth information for scholars, ensuring that the work will appeal to many audiences.

Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is haunted by the past in his latest case, and his private life, in Dead Man's Time, by award winning crime writer Peter James. A vicious robbery at a secluded Brighton mansion leaves its elderly occupant fighting for her life. Millions of pounds’ worth of valuables have been stolen. Within days, Grace is racing against the clock, following a murderous trail that leads him from the shady antiques world of England, across Europe and all the way back to the New York waterfront’s gang struggles of 1922, chasing a killer driven by the force of one man’s greed and another man’s fury. Although the Roy Grace novels can be read in any order, Dead Man's Time is the ninth gripping title in the bestselling series. Enjoy more of the Brighton detective’s investigations with Want You Dead and You Are Dead. Now a major ITV series, Grace, starring John Simm.

Ruth shows that the media gangster was less a reflection of reality than a projection created from Americans' values, concerns, and ideas about what would sell.

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.