Informer: The History of American Crime and Law Enforcement - October 2020: Nicola Gentile, Chronicler of Early U.S. Mafia History

by Thomas Hunt, David Critchley, Steve Turner

This Informer special issue focuses on Nicola "Nick" Gentile, underworld leader in U.S. and Sicily, who published an Italian-language tell-all autobiography in 1963. We strive to bring Gentile’s entire life story to the English-language reader. Building on extensive original research by a team of Mafia history experts and on U.S. government documents designed to extract meaning from the memoirs, we attempt to balance Gentile’s obviously self-serving and self-aggrandizing autobiographical work with verifiable history, to correct his misinformation and to fill in the wide gaps left in his personal account. We closely examine a number of aspects of Gentile's life - the launch of his underworld career in the Kansas City area; relationships with Mafia leaders, including Salvatore "Charlie Luciano" Lucania, Vito Genovese, Al Capone, Albert Anastasia, Vincent Mangano, and others; early murders performed by him in Pittsburgh; involvement in narcotics trafficking in New York, New Orleans and Houston; interaction with Mafia leaders in Cleveland, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles; links to underworld figures in Pueblo, Colorado; dealings with U.S. and Soviet spies in Italy during and after World War II... And we provide biographies for many dozens of individuals who contributed in interesting ways to his life story.Also in this 1900s Mafia feuds in Los Angeles, book excerpts, book announcements, impact of COVID-19 on the underworld, obituary.Writers/researchers contributing to this Thomas Hunt, David Critchley, Steve Turner, Lennert van't Riet, Richard N. Warner, Justin Cascio, Sam Carlino, Michael O'Haire, Jon Black, Margaret Janco, Bill Feather and Christian Cipollini. This issue is available in print and electronic magazine formats through the MagCloud service, as well as in Kindle-compatible e-book format.

621 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 19, 2020

About the author

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 related to organized crime.

Married with three children and (too) numerous pets, I live and work in the Middlebury VT area.

Reviews

[Justin Cascio · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most up-to-date research on one of the very few powerful mafiosi to have written a memoir.

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

A team of researchers and writers took a deep-dive into the life and legacy of one of the most interesting and elusive individuals in the history of organized crime. American and Italian history has been well served by their efforts. Great stuff.