Crime Incorporated: The Inside Story of the Mafia's First 100 Years

by William Balsamo, George Carpozi Jr.

Based on previously unavailable information and nearly two decades of research, Crime Incorporated reveals for the first time all the unsavory facts of the Mob’s bloody evolution from a gang of uncouth, bumbling killers into the highly organized, smoothly running “corporation” it is today.  William Balsamo, great-nephew of the first godfather, Don Giuseppe — “Battista” — Balsamo, and George Carpozi, Jr. disclose the Mob’s savage beginnings in the group of Italian immigrants — the “Black Hand” — who tore control of New York’s waterfronts away from the Irish racketeers — the “White Hand” — and went from there.  They trace the Black Hand’s coalescence into an organization whose insidious influence reached across the country and into a presidential administration.

Crime Incorporated explores the horrifying facts behind the rise and fall of the Mob’s most notorious leaders and goes behind the headlines of Rudolph Giuliani’s pursuit of the Mob — the Pizza Connection and Commission trials — to cite with chilling clarity the Mafia’s control over daily life in America. Crime Incorporated reads like a novel. But it is frightening, deadly truth.

Genres: True Crime, History, Nonfiction

400 pages, Paperback

First published December 10, 1988

Reviews

[Eamon Loingsigh · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is quite possibly the most inaccurate and purposefully manipulated book I have ever read. This, what is it a docu-drama? Ugh, what a mess. A reader looking for factual information should only use this book to stand on in order to reach Luc Sante's work or Herbert Asbury's. Whole scenes and entire groups of characters and their monikers are fraudulently and fictionally created. Take it from someone who studied every detail of the White Hand Gang that supposedly went to "war" with the mafia and lost... This is utterly fictional dressed up as a historical documentation. The Italians and Irish never fought the war some people have portrayed for their own ends. Just disn't happen. Oh and the "Godfather" of all the Brooklyn and Manhattan Italian gangsters? His name also happens to be Balsamo. Fancy that. Eamon Loingsigh

[Walt · Rating 3 out of 5]

An easy read that provides a good overview of organized crime in America, and New York in particular.

[Ravali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads like a novel. Am not sure if all the facts are checked out as it has no reliable glossary

[Dana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting story. Terrible, terrible writing.