Mafia: Inside the Dark Heart

by Arnold G.D. Maran

Book by Maran, A. G. D.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, True Crime, Crime

411 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2008

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mafia: Inside the Dark Heart sheds no new light on its primary subject – the history of the secret criminal society in its native land – and it does even worse when it crosses the Atlantic to explore the genesis of the Mafia in the United States.
Maran’s simplistic view of the American Mafia seems to be based upon myths and misinterpretations. He suggests, for example, that early New Orleans Mafia patron Joseph Macheca was an immigrant (he was born in Louisiana), who ran riverboat casinos (not even close). The author’s discussions of the 1890 assassination of New Orleans Police Chief David Hennessy and the 1891 anti-Mafia lynchings include aspects of pure fantasy. In Maran’s version, Hennessy obtains ownership of a brothel in exchange for supporting the Provenzano underworld faction, the New Orleans lynch mob kills two Italian bystanders, the lynchings receive “universal approval,” and Sicilian underworld survivors all flee to New York City!
Maran misplaces the 1903 New York barrel murder in 1908, sets back the date of the televised Valachi hearings by an entire decade, decides that the New York Mafia was unimportant before Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano organized it in the 1930s, and announces that the first bosses of the five New York families were Charlie Luciano, Vito Genovese, Joe Bonanno, Joe Profaci and Carlo Gambino! (Well, he’s slightly more than half right.) And he does all of those unforgivable things by Page 110 in a narrative that runs some 385 pages.

[Barrett Gough · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a weird little book I picked up at the library. I was bored and my kid was playing. Read enough of the book I felt compelled to check it out and finish it. Would like to have a beer with this author. Lots of unfocused tangents.

[Zeke Chase · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually bought this book at the Mob Museum (National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement) in Las Vegas, the same building they held the Kefauver Hearings, and read a good deal into the book wired on a 5-Hour Energy Shot on the flight back.

I must admit I knew very little about the mob prior to that museum and this book. My knowledge was pretty much limited to (the first season of) “Boardwalk Empire” and the occasional Wikipedia search of who, for example, Johnny Torrio was.

This was a decent book, divided into three parts (Rise, Zenith and Fall), but its major flaw was that it predominantly covered only the Italian (or more specifically Sicilian) side of things, occasionally touching on American figures like Capone and Luciano. The entire second half of the book dealt almost exclusively with Italy (with a few notes on America and the drug business in South America). While this is all interesting stuff, I’d have much rather read up on the history of the American Mafia with its necessary digressions into Italy than the other way around. For example, he didn’t hardly cover the mob influence in Vegas, the Kefauver Hearings, or the RICO act. He did, however, spend an entire chapter on the Vatican’s shady banking.

Nonetheless, a decent book, with a lot of history about Italy, its unification under Garibaldi, the presence of Italian communism and the CIA/Christian Democrat Party schemes to keep them from power.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not being a Mafia expert and therefore ill-equipped to assess this book from the standpoint of its factual accuracy I did find several of his general themes to be of interest; specifically: its focus on the Italian rather than the US context; the distinction between the mafia as distinctly Sicilian organization and organized crime in general; the notion of two mafias--an early rule-governed, paternalistic government stand-in in Sicily where protection was not unlike taxation and its more recent incarnation as an ultra-violent bunch of drug-runners; the role of the Vatican bank in laundering drug money; and the institutional ties between the Mafia and Sicilian and Italian politics. As a Mario Puzo fan, I was happy to learn that there really is a Corleone in Sicily and that it is important in the Mafia story. However, it was difficult for me to follow all of the intrigue and all of the characters. All of this said, I am pleased to report that my wife and I just returned from a two-week vacation in Italy that was wonderful and that neither of us were kidnapped and held for ransom.

[Raza · Rating 1 out of 5]

Though not narratively flowing, the book is a good read about the general history of sicilian mafia (and covers parts of american mafia as well). What started out as a protection racket based on principles of social welfare had turned into a drug cartel in the later half of the 20th century. Brought down by honest magistrates investigating financial transactions & with a help of a few informers, the 90s were brutal for the organization when hundreds (bosses included) were sent to prison.
Now the power of the sicilian mafia has been taken by other organized crime rackets in Italy and they left to demand protection money from pensioners and professionals.

[Poshmoog · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite covering what should be engaging subject matter, the writing style of this book renders the topic dull and uninteresting. In fairness, some of the material in the first half isn't completely awful but by the time I reached the later chapters I was losing the will to live. It's written with about as much passion as goes into the average shopping list and is saved from getting one star only by the fact that some of the events and tales told are interesting enough to shine through the mechanical narrative. I'd recommend Cosa Nostra by John Dickie as an alternative.

[Jono Carney]

Unreadable. Makes no sense at all and is very amateurish. Bad beyond all human belief. Please avoid.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book but left me wanting more information