Allan May
Allan May has been interested in organized crime since he saw his first episode of the
old "Untouchables" television series. An admirer of Eliot Ness for years, in
1997, May initiated the movement which resulted in the spreading of Ness's ashes, along
with his third wife's and adopted son's, at a memorial service in Cleveland's historic
Lake View Cemetery.
May's organized crime writing first appeared as "Big Al's Corner," in Jerry
Capeci's internet Gang Land column. He now works with author Rick Porrello writing a
weekly column for AmericanMafia.com. May's personal library on organized crime contains
over 450 volumes. He is currently working on a book about the history of organized crime
in Cleveland and his columns will be the basis of a second book.
In addition, May teaches classes on the history of organized crime for Cuyahoga
Community College and Lakewood Adult Education.
May is also the historian at Lake View Cemetery and on the speaker's bureau. He wrote
the "Who's Who of Lake View Cemetery" which includes biographies on over 250
noted personalities buried there. In the past he has written a monthly historical column
for the Cleveland Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine.
New! The
Original Teflon Don: Des Moines's Louis Fratto. "Cockeyed Louie" Fratto stared down
three U.S. Senate committees -- Kefauver, McClellan, and Capehart -- by taking
"the Fifth." His 30-year reign as the mob's lead man in Iowa netted
him numerous civic honors, but not one day in jail. (10/23/02)
Updated! The
History of the Kansas City Family. Other than Tammany Hall in New York, the
Pendergast machine in Kansas City was the most thorough melding of vice and
politics ever seen in the United States. It would not be until the emergence of
the iron-fisted Nick Civella in the mid-1950s –10 years after "Boss
Tom" Pendergast was dead – that Kansas City would take on a more
traditional organized crime structure. (Updated 10/10/02)
The
Brothers Capone. Imagine having the most notorious gangster in U.S. history for a
brother. James, the oldest of the seven Capone brothers, did everything he
could, including changing his name and becoming a Prohibition agent, to distance
himself. He didn’t quite make it. The others lived their lives in Big Al’s
orbit.
The Rat
For 15 years "Willie Boy"
Johnson ratted out his mentor John Gotti and other major New York crime family
figures to save his own skin and got away with it. And then an assistant U.S.
attorney, in a turf battle with the FBI, deliberately blew his cover – and
his chances for staying alive.
Part IV of Chicago’s Unione
Siciliana: 1920 – A Decade of
Slaughter
Joseph Aiello was Al
Capone’s most bitter rival. Each wanted control of Chicago’s Unione
Siciliana and the enormous profits its "alky cookers" generated during
Prohibition. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, plus the rise and fall of
Aiello play out in this final segment of Chicago’s decade of slaughter.
Part III of Chicago’s Unione Siciliana: 1920 – A
Decade of Slaughter
Being the president of Chicago’s Unione Siciliana was a ticket to the morgue,
but that didn’t stop Tony Lombardo, Capone’s man, and Joe Aiello from
wanting that job more than any other.
Part II of Chicago’s Unione
Siciliana: 1920 – A Decade of Slaughter As president of Unione Siciliana, Mike Merlo was able to keep the
peace among Chicago’s various underworld factions during the early years of
Prohibition. When he died of cancer in 1924, Al Capone set his sights on taking
over control of the Unione and its fabulously profitable "alky"
stills. First Angelo Genna and then Samoots Amatuna were murdered -- each
within six months of taking over the Unione – paving the way for Capone’s
man to become president.
Chicago’s
Unione Siciliana: 1920 – A Decade of Slaughter The political feud between Anthony D’Andrea, the head of Unione
Siciliana, and John Powers, the entrenched alderman of Chicago’s 19th
Ward, was a fight to the death.
Vannie Higgins: Brooklyn’s Last Irish Boss
Prohibition spawned greed, and greed in
turn spawned mayhem and murder throughout the underworld. Bootlegger Vannie
Higgins ran booze by seaplane, speedboat, a fleet of trucks and by taxi to his
Brooklyn customers. When he muscled his way into Manhattan, he paid the price
for his greed.
Greed in the Desert: The Murder of
Herbert Blitzstein At 300
pounds, Chicago mobster Herbert Blitzstein looked like a heart attack waiting to
happen. Instead it was three bullets to his head that stopped his heart. As his
profits from loan sharking and auto insurance fraud were piling up in Las Vegas,
crime families in Los Angeles and Buffalo asserted their claim.
Boston’s
Mob War The 1984 death of
Raymond Salvatore Loreda Patriarca – who had ruled the well-oiled New England
Crime Family from Providence for the last 30 years – sent Mafia operations in
Boston into a bloody and prolonged free fall.
Frank McErlane and the Chicago Beer War
From 1923 through 1930 the beer
wars raged in Chicago. Frank McErlane – the gangster the Illinois Crime Survey
called "the most brutal gunman who ever pulled a trigger in Chicago"
– stood at the center of this bloody Prohibition Era turf battle.
The
Guileless Gangster
Charles "Cherry Nose" Gioe was the victim of his own naivete. He
was forthright before the Kefauver Commission and he fatally misread
"Joey" Glimco, Chicago’s top labor racketeer.
Gaetano
Gagliano: The Quiet Don Less
is known about Gagliano – who ruled one of the original "five
families" from 1931 until he died of natural causes in the early 1950s –
than any other mob boss.
Havana
Conference – 1946 Lucky Luciano briefly reestablished himself as
the "boss of bosses" at the mob’s summit in Havana, but before he
could consolidate his power the U.S. government forced the Cuban government –
under threat of a medical-supplies boycott -- to deport him to Sicily. When he
finally did make it back to New York in 1962, his remains were in a coffin.
Frank
Bompensiero: San Diego Hit Man, Boss and FBI Informant "The Bomp" was the most feared hit man of his era. His specialty was
murdering fellow mobsters. He got away with being an informant for 10 years
until the FBI hung him out to dry. He would die the same way he had lived.
Serving
Up Harry: The Riccobene/Scarfo War
"Little Nicky"
Scarfo took over the Philadelphia Mafia in 1981 following the murders of
long-time Philly boss Angelo Bruno and his successor, "Chicken Man"
Testa, but it took a war with Harry Riccobene to consolidate his power.
Johnny
"The Fox" Torrio: The Father of Modern American Gangsterdom A mentor to Al Capone, a confidante of
Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello, Torrio even managed to win the
begrudging respect of law enforcement.
Lawrence
Mangano: The Immigrant Who Became Public Enemy No. 4 He’s
obscure now, but "Dago" Mangano was one rung away from the top of the
Chicago Outfit’s ladder in 1944 when hit men pumped some 200 shotgun pellets
and five .45 caliber bullets into him.
The Power Lunch – Mob Style When 13 mobsters sat down for lunch at La Stella restaurant in 1966,
authors and journalists began to speculate on the meaning of the meet - and that
speculation continues to this day. The lunch became known as "Little
Apalachin."
Tales
of the Artichoke King
is the
story of Ciro Terranova - believed by some to be the original "Boss of
Bosses" in New York City.
The
Last Days of Lepke Buchalter Thomas E.
Dewey built a political career around hounding the Jewish gangster Lepke. His
execution in 1944 — the first of a major underworld figure – riveted the
attention of a nation and was in doubt up to the last minute.
Jimmy
McBratney — A Footnote to Mob History
A great deal of lore now surrounds John Gotti’s meteoric and bloody rise to
power, but some of it is completely erroneous.
The
Silencing of a Radio Crusader Was
Detroit radio crusader Jerry Buckley murdered because he led a successful recall
of the mayor or because he had witnessed a gangland murder? His unsolved case
from 1930 leaves that question open.
Waxey Gordon’s Half Century of Crime Waxey Gordon led a life of
crime during a very long life. Busted for pickpocketing at age 18, he became a
major East Coast bootlegger during Prohibition and the head of a heroin ring
following World War II when he was in his 60s. He was the one Jewish gangster
who seriously rivaled Meyer Lansky, who became his bitter enemy.
Anthony
Giordano: St. Louis Hot Head
is the story of a St. Louis mob boss who wielded influence not only in St.
Louis, but in all of Colorado. Giordano was an old time gangster with a temper
and was a legend in the Midwest.
The Michigan Whiskey Rebellion Allan May tells the heartwarming story of a local prosecuting
attorney who stood up to the federal government, on behalf of Italian working
men who made wine for their own consumption - and won. Although this story
is about Prohibition, and the frenzy to stamp out alcohol, it reminds one of the
modern War on Drugs that criminalizes users of marijuana - including those who
seek to grow their own.
"Three Thin
Dimes": The Demise of Larry Fay Although largely forgotten now, Larry
Fay was a dapper gangster who inspired the movie The Roaring Twenties.
"Sammy
G": Home Town Gangster
Salvatore
Gingello was the most colorful gangland figure in Rochester’s organized crime
history. His quick rise to fame and sensational ending was characteristic of the
Rochester mob itself.
The
Two Tonys is the story of two
Kansas City hoods who went to Los Angeles to throw their weight around. This
story, peopled with such characters as Mickey Cohen and Jimmy "The Weasel"
Frattiano, is a page that could have been torn from "L.A.
Confidential."
A
Bug's Life is the story of
Charlie "The Bug" Workman, who was rumored to have killed 20 men. One
of those 20 men was Dutch Schultz.
Part 1
of "Mad
Sam" DeStefano: The Mob's Marquis de Sade is the story of a man many consider to be the most vicious in Chicago
gangster history.
Part 2 of "Mad Sam" DeStefano, by Allan May.
Thomas
Eboli: Down for the Count
Tommy Eboli ran the Genovese crime family for nine years, and some thought he
nearly ran it into the ground. But it was a drug deal gone sour that ended
his reign as one of the most powerful gangsters in the nation.
Jack
Zuta: Angina From The Grave
The murder of Jake Lingle, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, caused a
firestorm of publicity and fatal problems for Zuta, so unlovely a hoodlum that
his fellow Chicago gangsters despised him.
Murder
on the Day the Pope Came to Town
Few writers get to tell about mob hits made on members of their own family. One
writer who had the opportunity was Detective Louie Eppolito of the New York City
Police Department. On the evening of October 1, 1979, the day Pope John Paul II
visited the Big Apple, James Eppolito and his son were killed in Coney Island by
members of the Gambino Crime Family.
Whacked by the Good Guys Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci had the shortest tenure of
any of Chicago’s North Side gang leaders. An Italian, he headed a gang that
was dominated by Irish, German and Polish criminals. A mob rarity, he was given
a 21-gun salute at his funeral. But most notably, he may have been the only mob
boss ever to be killed by a law enforcement officer.
Cleveland’s
Sly – Fanner Murders The Italian Mayfield Road Mob dominated organized crime in
Cleveland during the latter years of Prohibition. Many members of the gang came
from the Little Italy section located on Cleveland’s East Side and, prior to
prohibition, specialized in payroll stickups. One such bloody stickup,
which resulted in three executions of robbers, has gone down in Cleveland
history.
Late for the Opera:"Samoots" Amatuna is the story of a flashy Chicago gangster
who killed his first man at age 17, then rose to the top of mobsterdom -- only
to find that not only is it lonely at the top, but dangerous.
In
Ghosts of Bader Avenue, Allan May, our organized
crime columnist, examines a perplexing unsolved double murder case from Cleveland.
The Forgotten Man at Sparks:
Crime Magazine's organized crime expert, Allan May, takes a
look at Paul Castellano's underboss, Tommy Bilotti, a man who struck fear in New York
City.
A Sicilian Bedtime Story
Despite what some academics still
contend, it's more fable than fact that Lucky Luciano was behind the massacre of
mob leaders that became known as the Night of Sicilian Vespers.
The
First Shooting of Frank Nitti is the true story of how this infamous gangster was
almost murdered by a Chicago detective.
The
Tortured Soul of Ann Coppola Mob
informant Joey Cantalupo once stated in a video documentary that organized crime
members "like to keep their wives at home, barefoot and pregnant."
Mike Coppola handled things quite differently. He liked his wives to be bloodied
and beaten and, if a threat to him, dead. Each of Coppola’s two wives died at
a relatively young age. One from murder, the other from suicide.
"Dandy"
Phil Kastel was a little-known partner of organized crime heavyweights
such as Frank Costello and Arnold Rothstein. Allan
May illuminates Kastel in a way that gives you a
feel for the ever-changing face of organized crime.
The Wandering Jew, a/k/a Jacob
"Yasha" Katzenberg played a minor role in the history of organized crime, yet he
helped bring down some major mobsters and then disappreared forever.
Arnold Rothstein
is
one of those legends that hang on the tip of the tongue -- "Don't tell me, don't tell
me, I know who he is." In "The Last
Hours of Mr. Big," Allan May tells us not only who Rothstein was,
but why the Big Guy finally shot craps.
Undying
Loyalty In August 1943,
Thomas A. Aurelio stood at the threshold of a dream. After nine years as an
assistant prosecutor and 12 as a judge in New York City, he was about to be
elected to a seat on the Supreme Court for the State of New York. Then Aurelio,
in a wiretapped conversation, was overheard swearing his undying loyalty to
gangster Frank Costello.
Part III: The History of the Race Wire
Service The
conclusion of Allan May's three part series on the rise and fall of the
notorious race wire service.
Part II: The History of the Race Wire
Service The rise of
the Annenbergs. The great Annenberg publishing dynasty that controlled the Daily
Racing Form, The Philadelphia Inquirer and TV Guide for
decades produced the fortune that allowed Walter Annenberg to establish and
endow the prestigious M. L. Annenberg Schools of Communication at the University
of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California in honor of his
disgraced father, a major player in Capone’s underworld.
Part
I: The
History of the Race Wire Service Mont Tennes and the Birth of the Race Wire. Virtually
everyone who has ever been to a race track has used the Daily Racing Form, a
newspaper that provides comprehensive information on horse races at tracks
around the country. In this first of a three-part series, Allan May tells
the rich, mob-filled history of that small newspaper - so vital to gamblers
across the nation.
Allan May’s e-mail address is: AllanMay@worldnet.att.net
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