Mafia Crimes: The History of the Mob

by Al Cimino

Since the late 19th century, the Mafia has been a presence in North America using intimidation and worse to exert its control over organized crime in the major cities and beyond―anything from loansharking to bootlegging during Prohibition to extortion, kidnapping and racketeering. For the Mob (as they are also known), crime was big business. Feuds between Mafia families and their associates led to Lucky Luciano, the preeminent Mob boss, creating the Commission which rules over Mob activity and disputes to this day.

Genres: True Crime, History, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

Published November 15, 2017

Reviews

[Tegan Stettaford · Rating 1 out of 5]

I bought this book to go with the series published by Arcturus Publishing Limited. However, this book was unfortunately just not for me. I felt I was just constantly reading names and places without much to pull them together in a cohesive story. There was a lot of back and forth in the timeline which impacted readability. Reading the chapter on Richard Kuklinkski was the highlight for me, and I wish the book was more like this; deep dives into the individuals that made up the Mafia. Regardless, I do feel as if I have gained new knowledge from this book.

[Lawrence Roth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was looking forward to a well researched and engaging narrative history of the Mafia, but what became clear quite quickly is that Al Cimino is not that kind of writer and this book would be nothing like the standard true crime books I like.

Cimino's writing style is the main issue. He tells the history of the mob in the quickest, most jarring way possible. New names, dates, places, events are thrown at the reader every other sentence. It makes for an incredibly disjointed, jarring, and unpleasant reading experience. I understand that there is likely a lot of history and notable names to get through in a book about the history of the mafia but there are way more effective ways to tackle that issue than just throwing every name involved on paper, only to drop them in the narrative a few paragraphs later when they were killed off.

I decided to DNF this book during the chapter that was allegedly about Al Capone. I was already frustrated with the reading experience of Mafia Crimes but when the chapter on Al Capone wandered away from talking about Capone himself relatively quickly and instead engaged with the development of Chicago mafia wars that would eventually place Capone in power, I just couldn't continue. I had forgotten basically every person and small killing in the first few chapters except for the Bananas guy and the NYPD officer who was killed in Siciliy. I was retaining no information while reading this book. I wasn't learning anything. At the pace this book is written in, there was a good chance I would not learn anything more substantial.

There are very likely many other books on the history of American organized crime and Italian organized crime than this.