Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Book presents complete picture of KC mob history

Author Frank Hayde left no stone unturned as he assembled a comprehensive and readable history of the Kansas City underworld. He neatly tied together generations of political shenanigans by the influential Pendergast political machine and numerous murders and illicit business ventures by the local Sicilian-Italian Mafia organization.

In telling just over a century's worth of history, Hayde did considerably more than merely hit the high points - the Union Station Massacre, point-shaving allegations against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Strawman case, and the shocking assassination of a political boss within a Democratic headquarters. Hayde also provided rich detail on little known events, such as the Election Day riots of the 1920s and 1930s and the River Quay war, without ever allowing his narrative to become bogged down.

The result is the most complete picture yet of the Kansas City underworld and of the mutualistic relationship between organized politics and organized crime.

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US Mafia was born in New Orleans

book cover

SILVER MEDALIST - 2008 INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER AWARDS

Deep Water:
Joseph P. Macheca and the
Birth of the American Mafia

Written by Thomas Hunt and Martha Macheca Sheldon, Deep Water captures the life and times of Joseph P. Macheca. It finally sets the record straight on the man who was a warrior for the corrupt New Orleans Democratic machine, a pioneer of the Crescent City’s fruit trade, a Confederate privateer and the legendary “godfather” of the first Mafia organization to germinate in American soil.
While answering at last the questions surrounding the 1890 assassination of Police Chief David Hennessy and the subsequent Crescent City lynchings, Deep Water establishes the factual details of Macheca’s life and sets them against the vivid backdrop of Gilded Age New Orleans. Published by iUniverse.


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Tom Hunt
Tom is coauthor of "Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia," silver medal winner in the 2008 Independent Publisher Book Awards. He publishes several sites related to organized crime: the American Mafia history website (www.onewal.com); CagedWolves: History of the Morello Mob (www.cagedwolves.com); and the MobNews current events blog (mob-news.blogspot.com). In addition, he moderates a Yahoo discussion group on Mafia topics (groups.yahoo.com/group/americanmafia/) and edits organized crime and crime publications categories for the Open Directory Project (dmoz.org). He has written and co-written articles on organized crime for the On the Spot Journal.
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