Common Assignment & Research Questions

Being involved in eleven murders earned "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratioanno the title of caporegime - until a rival boss tried to put him out of business with a bullet. Vowing vengeance, "the Weasel" began to sing, and the Mafia's Big Boys began to shake. Now the highest-ranking mafioso ever to "turn" tells all in this sizzling expose.

In this intelligent, thoroughly researched biography, Lacey argues that Jewish gangster Lansky was primarily "a professional gambler . . . caught dodging his taxes," rather than the eminence grise of the Mafia as portrayed by the media.

A popular, gripping look at the FBI operation which monitored the criminal pursuits of Jerry Angiulo, udnerboss of Boston's Mafia.

The first inside account of the Mafia from Joseph Valachi, a disgruntled soldier in New York's Genovese Crime Family in the 1960s.

It is an autobiographical crime book written by Joseph D. Pistone (assisted by Richard Woodley) about his story as an FBI agent going undercover and infiltrating the Mafia.

A comprehensive look at this classic work of popular fiction and its hold on the American imagination.

The book is a selection of readings from Italian fiction and non-fiction writers on the subject of the Mafia. It is a historically diverse examination of criminal and outlaw institutions by some of the most significant figures in Italian literature.

Aging Mafia Don Salvatore Padronelli is furious when fanatical Islamic terrorists capture his beloved daughter and grandson on a trip to Egypt. Fed up with ineffective diplomatic measures and a lack of governmental action, the Don and his loyal henchman cleverly insinuate themselves into the White House posing as waiters at a State dinner and take the President and his wife hostage. Now the Don calls the shots.

The "post-classic" era of American gangster films began in 1967 with the release of Bonnie and Clyde, achieving a milestone five years later with the popular and highly influential The Godfather. This historical study explores the structure, myths and intertextual narratives found in the gangster films produced since The Godfather. The intense relationship between masculinity and ethnicity in the gangster film, especially within the movie-generated mythology of the Mafia, is carefully analyzed, and the book tracks the trends in the genre up to and including the landmark HBO television series The Sopranos.

The essays in this volume provide a comprehensive exploration of the myth of the mafia onscreen, identifying key features and connections to styles such as film noir, thrillers, and even westerns.

Started by Italian brothers from North Denver, the high-profile Smaldone crime syndicate began in the bootlegging days of the 1920s and flourished into the 1980s. Connected to notorious crime figures, politicians, and presidents, Clyde Smaldone was the crime family's leader. Through candid interviews and firsthand accounts, Dick Kreck reveals the true sense of what it meant to be a Smaldone, not only the corrupt but also the virtuous.

This book provides the first sociological analysis to date of Philadelphia's infamous "Black Mafia" which has organized crime (with varying degrees of success) in predominantly African-American sections of the city dating back to the late 1960's.

Shows how the Mob has distorted American labor history, explaining the relationship between organized crime and organized labor, as well as recent federal efforts to clean up unions.

Painting a vivid picture of the pivotal case that broke apart a Chicago mob family, this narrative relies on court transcripts, police records, interviews, and notes to recreate the story as it unfolded in a 2007 courtroom.