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Thomas Hunt

Goodreads Author

Born

in New York, The United States

Website

http://mafiahistory.us

Twitter

thunt63

Genre

History, Biographies & Memoirs, Crime

Influences

Arnold C. Brackman, Rick Mattix, Robert F. Kennedy, William J. Flynn ...more

Member Since

October 2007

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/tphunt

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I am a writer/researcher on the subject of organized crime (American Mafia). I most recently authored, Wrongly Executed? The Long-forgotten Context of Charles Sberna's 1939 Electrocution. I publish a quarterly true crime journal, Informer, and The American Mafia history website as well as a number of blogs. I co-wrote DiCarlo: Buffalo's First Family of Crime with Michael A. Tona and Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia with Martha Macheca Sheldon. I contributed the American Mafia history sections to the Australian published, Mafia: The Necessary Reference to Organized Crime. I moderate Mafiahistory.us and Facebook discussion groups on Mafia history. Previously, I served as editor of several dmoz.org categories

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Popular Answered Questions

Exactly how far back does this history go? I am looking for Jean Lafitte-era New Orleans history and anything to do with the ethnic histories there. New Orleans has a fascinating history...

Thomas Hunt Thanks for the question.
Not quite that far back. Some earlier stuff is mentioned, but Deep Water basically deals with New Orleans from the 1860s throu…moreThanks for the question.
Not quite that far back. Some earlier stuff is mentioned, but Deep Water basically deals with New Orleans from the 1860s through 1891.
Possibly of interest to you: A collection of Jean Lafitte information is held by the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center at Liberty, Texas. See: https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/ts...(less)

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What inspired you to write about Charles Sberna? It was surprising to see a book about someone with whom I share a last name, and coincidentally, by an author near where I live! L. Sberna

Thomas Hunt Hi Luanne. Thanks for your question.

My initial interest was sparked when I looked into issues relating to capital punishment. It has been argued that …moreHi Luanne. Thanks for your question.

My initial interest was sparked when I looked into issues relating to capital punishment. It has been argued that a number of those executed by the criminal justice system turn out to have been wrongly convicted. I noted that lists of the "wrongly executed" were assembled. Charles Sberna's name appeared on such lists. Additional research turned up Walter Winchell's old newspaper columns, in which Sberna was identified as the one executed man Sing Sing Warden Lawes knew was innocent.

Interesting story!

So, I picked up a copy of Lawes' book, Meet the Murderer, and found a name-changed account of the Sberna situation. It was then that I decided to do my first writing on the subject. I put together an article for a crime history journal in 2006.

During research, I stumbled on Sberna's connection to the Mafia, a subject of great interest to me. Sberna appeared in a family tree I assembled for U.S. Mafia boss of bosses Giuseppe Morello.

I didn't do much more with the Sberna story until what I thought was unrelated research - into a series of anarchist bombings in New York City - turned up the name of his father. Giuseppe Sberna fled the U.S. as local, state and federal officials closed in on him. That's when I began to wonder if the son of an anarchist-terrorist leader and son-in-law of a Mafia boss of bosses could possibly get a fair trial.(less)

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Thomas Hunt’s books

Average rating: 4.12 · 228 ratings · 54 reviews · 102 distinct works • Similar authors

	Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia by Thomas Hunt (Goodreads Author), Martha Sheldon 4.53 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 2007 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	DiCarlo: Buffalo's First Family of Crime - Vol. I by Thomas Hunt (Goodreads Author), Michael A. Tona 4.65 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 2013 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	DiCarlo: Buffalo's First Family of Crime (Vol. 2) by Thomas Hunt (Goodreads Author), Michael A. Tona 4.46 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 2013 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Informer: The History of American Crime and Law Enforcement - October 2020: Nicola Gentile, Chronicler of Early U.S. Mafia History by Thomas Hunt (Goodreads Author), David Critchley, Steve Turner 4.83 avg rating — 6 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Mob in Youngstown: Organized Crime in the Mahoning and Shenango Valleys by Thomas Hunt (Goodreads Author), James Barber, Justin Cascio (Goodreads Author) 4.33 avg rating — 6 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Mob in Youngstown: Organized Crime in the Mahoning and Shenango Valleys by Thomas Hunt (Goodreads Author), James Barber, Justin Cascio (Goodreads Author) 4.50 avg rating — 4 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Gangsters of New York's Lower East Side: Informer: The History of American Crime and Law Enforcement, October 2023 by Thomas Hunt (Goodreads Author), Justin Cascio (Goodreads Author), Patrick Downey (Goodreads Author) 4.25 avg rating — 4 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Informer: The History of American Crime and Law Enforcement - October 2021: The Mafia in California by Thomas Hunt (Goodreads Author), J. Michael Niotta, Justin Cascio (Goodreads Author) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Informer: The History of American Crime and Law Enforcement - August 2019: Who Was Salvatore Maranzano? by Thomas Hunt (Goodreads Author), Lennert van`t Riet (Contributor), David Critchley (Contributor) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Wrongly Executed? - The Long-forgotten Context of Charles Sberna's 1939 Electrocution 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Thomas Hunt…

42 posts
Thomas Hunt's Blog

California mafiosi

Just released: The October 2021 issue of Informer focuses on California mafiosi, particularly those who relocated to the Golden State after launching criminal careers in other regions. Formats available: print and electronic PDF magazines (MagCloud), print paperback book and Kindle-compatible e-book (Amazon), EPUB-compatible e-book (Google Play).

California-related articles: Trail of blood - Barne Read more of this blog post »

2 likes · Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on September 27, 2021 00:18 • Tags: california, chicago, colorado, los-angeles, mafia, new-orleans, organized-crime, san-francisco, stamp-history

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Series by Thomas Hunt

Buffalo's First Family of Crime (1 book)
by

Thomas Hunt (Goodreads Author),

Michael A. Tona

4.65 avg rating — 17 ratings

Thomas is Currently Reading

Thomas is currently reading

How We Got the New Testament: Text, Transmission, Translation (Acadia Studies in Bible and Theology)

by Stanley E. Porter

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Nov 12, 2013 04:32AM

Thomas is currently reading

Lanza's Mob: The Mafia and San Francisco

by Christina Ann-Marie DiEdoardo (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading, true-crime

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Aug 11, 2016 03:22AM

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Tudors: The History of England from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I (The History of England, #2)

by Peter Ackroyd

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Dec 26, 2013 06:08AM

Thomas’s Quotes

“Organized crime in America takes in over forty billion dollars a year and spends very little on office supplies.”
― Woody Allen

61 likes

“There is no character, howsoever good and fine, but it can be destroyed by ridicule, howsoever poor and witless. Observe the ass, for instance: his character is about perfect, he is the choicest spirit among all the humbler animals, yet see what ridicule has brought him to. Instead of feeling complimented when we are called an ass, we are left in doubt.”
― Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson

31 likes

“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”
― Groucho Marx

tags: books, humor, reading, television

23102 likes

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
― United States Congress

tags: first-amendment

13 likes

“There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse; as I have found in traveling in a stage coach, that it is often a comfort to shift one's position and be bruised in a new place.”
― Washington Irving, Tales of a Traveller

57 likes

More of Thomas’s quotes…