Vinnitta: The Birth of the Detroit Mafia

by Daniel Waugh

It was the winter of 1919, and it was the height of a gang war the Motor City hadn't seen before. Detroit's Mafia family had split into two factions, both vying to not only avenge ancient wrongs but also gain control of the city's lucrative illegal alcohol trade at the dawn of Prohibition. In Vìnnitta, author Daniel Waugh offers an in-depth account of the formation of the Detroit Mafia and how they grew from a small band of Sicilian immigrants into one of the most powerful criminal sects in the Midwest. He shares how the Mafia infiltrated the Detroit business community and established themselves in illegal rackets ranging from extortion, auto theft, bootlegging, burglary, and construction racketeering. The narrative focuses on not only the gangsters themselves but also residents of Little Sicily who lives became unwittingly entwined with the Mafia, chief among them an undertaker forced to prepare many of his friends for burial after their murders. The book climaxes with the Giannola-Vitale War of 1918-21, a violent gang war that involved Mafia families from all over the country and claimed the lives of both criminals and law-abiding citizens.

Genres: Crime

510 pages, Paperback

First published April 4, 2019

Reviews

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vinnitta: The Birth of the Detroit Mafia the latest tome by noted early organized crime historian Daniel Waugh chronicles the birth of the Detroit Mafia. Setting the stage in the southern Italy island of Sicily. The story begins with old-world vendettas between mafia connected families that would eventually make their way to America and eventually Detroit.

The book kicks off in 1901 and for the next 20 or so years in Detroit's Little Sicily and Little Italy its nothing but a feudal bloodbath. I learned so much about the early years of the Detroit mafia which little is published it was mind-blowing. With all that said and done this book is backed with just about 90 pages of endnotes citing newspaper articles, census, immigration, and death records, and further biographical info about the personalities in the book.

If you consider yourself to be someone with a remotely serious interest in the history of organized crime and you're an endnote junkie like me. You should definitely add this book to the never-ending pile of books to read.

[Michael Figueroa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Read

Awesome! the Research on this book second to none. 30 years of reading mob books this one easily falls in my top 5 out of hundreds

[Daniel Folk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating.