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Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob
Best-selling author Russell Shorto, praised for his incisive works of narrative history, never thought to write about his own past. He grew up knowing his grandfather and namesake was a small-town mob boss but maintained an unspoken family vow of silence. Then an elderly relative prodded: You’re a writer—what are you gonna do about the story?
Smalltime is a mob story straight out of central casting—but with a difference, for the small-town mob, which stretched from Schenectady to Fresno, is a mostly unknown world. The location is the brawny postwar factory town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The setting is City Cigar, a storefront next to City Hall, behind which Russ and his brother-in-law, “Little Joe,” operate a gambling empire and effectively run the town.
Smalltime is a riveting American immigrant story that travels back to Risorgimento Sicily, to the ancient, dusty, hill-town home of Antonino Sciotto, the author’s great-grandfather, who leaves his wife and children in grinding poverty for a new life—and wife—in a Pennsylvania mining town. It’s a tale of Italian Americans living in squalor and prejudice, and of the rise of Russ, who, like thousands of other young men, created a copy of the American establishment that excluded him. Smalltime draws an intimate portrait of a mobster and his wife, sudden riches, and the toll a lawless life takes on one family.
But Smalltime is something more. The author enlists his ailing father—Tony, the mobster’s son—as his partner in the search for their troubled patriarch. As secrets are revealed and Tony’s health deteriorates, the book become an urgent and intimate exploration of three generations of the American immigrant experience. Moving, wryly funny, and richly detailed, Smalltime is an irresistible memoir by a masterful writer of historical narrative.
Smalltime is a mob story straight out of central casting—but with a difference, for the small-town mob, which stretched from Schenectady to Fresno, is a mostly unknown world. The location is the brawny postwar factory town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The setting is City Cigar, a storefront next to City Hall, behind which Russ and his brother-in-law, “Little Joe,” operate a gambling empire and effectively run the town.
Smalltime is a riveting American immigrant story that travels back to Risorgimento Sicily, to the ancient, dusty, hill-town home of Antonino Sciotto, the author’s great-grandfather, who leaves his wife and children in grinding poverty for a new life—and wife—in a Pennsylvania mining town. It’s a tale of Italian Americans living in squalor and prejudice, and of the rise of Russ, who, like thousands of other young men, created a copy of the American establishment that excluded him. Smalltime draws an intimate portrait of a mobster and his wife, sudden riches, and the toll a lawless life takes on one family.
But Smalltime is something more. The author enlists his ailing father—Tony, the mobster’s son—as his partner in the search for their troubled patriarch. As secrets are revealed and Tony’s health deteriorates, the book become an urgent and intimate exploration of three generations of the American immigrant experience. Moving, wryly funny, and richly detailed, Smalltime is an irresistible memoir by a masterful writer of historical narrative.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published February 2, 2021
343 people are currently reading
4069 people want to read
About the author
Russell Shorto
40 books508 followersRussell Shorto is the author, most recently, of Revolution Song, a new narrative of the American Revolution, which the New York Times called a "remarkable" achievement and the Chicago Tribune described as "an engaging piece of historical detective work and narrative craft." He is also the author of The Island at the Center of the World, a national bestseller about the Dutch founding of New York. Shorto is senior scholar at the New Netherland Institute and was formerly the director of the John Adams Institute in Amsterdam.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 211 reviews
March 15, 2022
'Small-time' by Russell Shorto fills in some blank areas about organized crime during the 1920's - 1970. He writes from the point of view of a Jonestown, Pennsylvania grandson, whom he is, of a grandfather and great-uncle who were mobsters. His father Tony was intentionally kept out of the business by Russell Shorto, the author's grandfather and one of the two so-called crime bosses, whom the author was named after. Although the author is a journalist, he had never asked about his father's life or his grandfather's or his great-uncle Joe, "Little Joe". He makes the realization he has been avoiding this discussion after his mother's cousin, Frankie Filia, challenges him to write a book about his grandfather during a family holiday get-together. It necessarily meant talking to all of his relatives, which he didn't want to do.
The author could not understand his reluctance which persisted even when he had committed to writing this book. He knew it had something to do with his relationship with his father, Tony. Anyway, he does the investigation first using official legal records, libraries, newspapers stories, etc. Then he tracks down witnesses and does interviews over several visits. Most of the individuals are elderly at this point. The women are generally more forthcoming, and some of the men tell their stories very cautiously. But only after he has accumulated stories from outside sources does he tackle his mom and dad, siblings and relatives. What he learns amazes him! Shorto had understood things were a certain way from overheard conversations or he had been told what had happened in an expurgated version as a child growing up, but he discovers his understanding was wrong in writing this book.
For me, a woman, the environment as described in this book that these guys operated in is one of hyper masculinity. Pool halls, bars, cigar stores, and private clubs were fronts for all kinds of gambling - horses, sports, card games, pinball, tip seals. Politicians - male, of course - were paid off by goods and cash.
Before these criminals branched out into gambling, they made their start in selling illegal alcohol cooked up in backyard stills by their wives, originally. Their wives needed money, especially when these men enlisted to go to war. It was the era of Prohibition, too, and then the Great Depression.
The economic environment in the 1920's in small industrial towns like Jonestown centered on the needs of the men working in the mills and mines. Italians were considered the lowest on the social scale, just under Black people, and were paid appropriately. Most of the employees of the mills and mines were undereducated immigrants who came from extreme poverty in European countries.
Shorto's great-grandfather came from Sicily to work in the mines. The work was hard and life at home was harder, with entire families of six living in a single small apartment. Honestly, I can see how gambling and drinking attracted so many of these people! Children became runners for the mob, of course, not attending much school. The men who were in what eventually became the mob were respected and looked up to. They felt they were chiseling the rich upper-class chiselers of the Gilded Age, and they felt they gave the lower classes hope of winning a score. They didn't own the mills and mines like the rich chiselers, they owned the small neighborhood shops, and provided loans the shop owners needed when banks refused them. Of course, the shop owners ended up paying off loans by allowing the mob to put in pinball machines, and sponsor other gambling, sometimes. Or what Shorto's grandfather and great-uncle also did, becoming a part owner of the business, becoming a partner of sorts.
Shorto gives the impression the mob was really an organic growth of many small illegal businesses coming from the bottom rungs of the impoverished working classes. They provided what people wanted but couldn't get because it was illegal, like alcohol and gambling. They weren't evil crooks, they were desperately poor. Some became very successful and rich, and rubbed shoulders with the legal crooks.
But, the Kennedys, yes, the President and the Attorney General, changed everything, bringing Federal investigations. Small-time mobsters in small-towns couldn't handle the pressure. The world was changing around them as well - rock and roll music, and educated third-generation kids unaware of their family's mob activities or unwilling to get involved in the family's illegal businesses.
Shorto has written an interesting memoir. Many of these people were just ordinary people who didn't know how to make a living wage any other way. Running a gambling business was work that didn't destroy them like working in the mines and mills destroyed their health. Many men loved the hyper-masculinity of the bars and pool halls. One had to be smart and tough, and of course, it was challenging work that brought community respect and wealth. Men loved it. They really did. But being arrested and convicted and sent to prison, or the threat of being sent to prison, did break down a lot of these men. But they loved the illegality and rough and tough interplay of controlling their empires, whether it was small-town or Big City, even more than the money they could make.
I will never understand many of these aspects of male biology! Never never never!
The author could not understand his reluctance which persisted even when he had committed to writing this book. He knew it had something to do with his relationship with his father, Tony. Anyway, he does the investigation first using official legal records, libraries, newspapers stories, etc. Then he tracks down witnesses and does interviews over several visits. Most of the individuals are elderly at this point. The women are generally more forthcoming, and some of the men tell their stories very cautiously. But only after he has accumulated stories from outside sources does he tackle his mom and dad, siblings and relatives. What he learns amazes him! Shorto had understood things were a certain way from overheard conversations or he had been told what had happened in an expurgated version as a child growing up, but he discovers his understanding was wrong in writing this book.
For me, a woman, the environment as described in this book that these guys operated in is one of hyper masculinity. Pool halls, bars, cigar stores, and private clubs were fronts for all kinds of gambling - horses, sports, card games, pinball, tip seals. Politicians - male, of course - were paid off by goods and cash.
Before these criminals branched out into gambling, they made their start in selling illegal alcohol cooked up in backyard stills by their wives, originally. Their wives needed money, especially when these men enlisted to go to war. It was the era of Prohibition, too, and then the Great Depression.
The economic environment in the 1920's in small industrial towns like Jonestown centered on the needs of the men working in the mills and mines. Italians were considered the lowest on the social scale, just under Black people, and were paid appropriately. Most of the employees of the mills and mines were undereducated immigrants who came from extreme poverty in European countries.
Shorto's great-grandfather came from Sicily to work in the mines. The work was hard and life at home was harder, with entire families of six living in a single small apartment. Honestly, I can see how gambling and drinking attracted so many of these people! Children became runners for the mob, of course, not attending much school. The men who were in what eventually became the mob were respected and looked up to. They felt they were chiseling the rich upper-class chiselers of the Gilded Age, and they felt they gave the lower classes hope of winning a score. They didn't own the mills and mines like the rich chiselers, they owned the small neighborhood shops, and provided loans the shop owners needed when banks refused them. Of course, the shop owners ended up paying off loans by allowing the mob to put in pinball machines, and sponsor other gambling, sometimes. Or what Shorto's grandfather and great-uncle also did, becoming a part owner of the business, becoming a partner of sorts.
Shorto gives the impression the mob was really an organic growth of many small illegal businesses coming from the bottom rungs of the impoverished working classes. They provided what people wanted but couldn't get because it was illegal, like alcohol and gambling. They weren't evil crooks, they were desperately poor. Some became very successful and rich, and rubbed shoulders with the legal crooks.
But, the Kennedys, yes, the President and the Attorney General, changed everything, bringing Federal investigations. Small-time mobsters in small-towns couldn't handle the pressure. The world was changing around them as well - rock and roll music, and educated third-generation kids unaware of their family's mob activities or unwilling to get involved in the family's illegal businesses.
Shorto has written an interesting memoir. Many of these people were just ordinary people who didn't know how to make a living wage any other way. Running a gambling business was work that didn't destroy them like working in the mines and mills destroyed their health. Many men loved the hyper-masculinity of the bars and pool halls. One had to be smart and tough, and of course, it was challenging work that brought community respect and wealth. Men loved it. They really did. But being arrested and convicted and sent to prison, or the threat of being sent to prison, did break down a lot of these men. But they loved the illegality and rough and tough interplay of controlling their empires, whether it was small-town or Big City, even more than the money they could make.
I will never understand many of these aspects of male biology! Never never never!
April 11, 2021
This book reads like one that was researched by conversations with old Italian-American men in a Panera, which is exactly what it was. The intimacy is nice in some ways, but sometimes the author seems to forget that the reader isn’t a member of his family and so he needs to tell us more clearly who the characters are in the story.
February 16, 2021
Well written family memoir and history of underworld activity in Johnstown, PA and how it evolved throughout smallish cities countrywide. Some of the family material goes on and on, but good nonetheless.
September 9, 2021
I thoroughly enjoyed this well-researched and touching family memoir/historical non-fiction/true crime read. It’s about Russell Shorto’s grandfather who was the number 2 of the local mafia in the small steel town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania between 1946 and 1960.
Shorto is an excellent writer specialised in the Dutch origins of New York and, in this book, I find him at his strongest when he describes his great grandparents’ emigration from Sicily in the 1890s, the fate of the Southern Italian immigrants as second-rate citizens and the rise of the American mafia following the World War II. It is a fascinating story I knew very little about.
The only criticism I have is that a too romantic picture is painted about the illegal activities of these men. They were smart men and as immigrants did not have an easy life in America, and so they started offering ‘services’ (i.e. gambling) for which there was demand but that the state did not offer. It may very well be understandable they went down this path and yes they were relatively ‘smalltime’, but they could have made a different choice. How about the victims of all the extortions, the violence, the scams? The author refuses to comdemn or even acknowledge their suffering and the perspective always remains that of the criminals. But emotions do come in when he talks about his ailing father…
Still a very good book though!
Shorto is an excellent writer specialised in the Dutch origins of New York and, in this book, I find him at his strongest when he describes his great grandparents’ emigration from Sicily in the 1890s, the fate of the Southern Italian immigrants as second-rate citizens and the rise of the American mafia following the World War II. It is a fascinating story I knew very little about.
The only criticism I have is that a too romantic picture is painted about the illegal activities of these men. They were smart men and as immigrants did not have an easy life in America, and so they started offering ‘services’ (i.e. gambling) for which there was demand but that the state did not offer. It may very well be understandable they went down this path and yes they were relatively ‘smalltime’, but they could have made a different choice. How about the victims of all the extortions, the violence, the scams? The author refuses to comdemn or even acknowledge their suffering and the perspective always remains that of the criminals. But emotions do come in when he talks about his ailing father…
Still a very good book though!
February 26, 2021
This is the second son/father memoir I've read this month after several other non-fiction. This is the one I will remember for detail. I could go very long and interesting in this review/reaction because of my own Sicilian 1st generation, 2nd generation immigrant offspring history. His were Northeast tip of Sicily to PA area, especially in Pittsburg and near to it within mining and steel country towns. His territory became the Johnstown sector. Mine were Campofelici de Rocello outside of Palermo to New York to Chicago but very similar. Although my people came about 8 or 9 years after his did.
I won't be long, because there is too much to tell in my reaction. Specifics only with a few spoilers but there is MUCH more here than just the particulars I mention. Read the book. It's not an easy read because of all the intermixtures of dozens of people who usually in 3 generations own the same names as their grandfather. Same here. But also because of the patterns of job available to Italian/Sicilian immigrants at that time too. They were hired last. After Irish, after Blacks, after anyone. They had the lowest wages recorded for physical work in the USA for 20 or 30 years just after the turn of the century. Very few knew how to read or write in any language.
The historical part of the book with exact detailing for his great-grandfather's life was a 5 star section. He died on his return to Sicily to bring back money for his wife and 2 kids there. He was stabbed to death for the cash he was carrying in his 40's by the old friends from his hill town in Sicily. But he left Russell's (the author named Russell) grandfather as a half grown child in the USA with his American Sicilian speaking family. (Most of the Sicilian men had at least 2 wives on different continents most usually. My husband's grandfather had 3 different families. One in Calabria, one in New York, one in Chicago- over his lifetime. And he named the boys the same names on top of it.) Not my own birth family at all- my Grandmother and Grandfather left Sicily together as teen agers and never went back, not even once. They also moved out of the Italian neighborhood immediately. My Nonna was smart and did NOT like the gambling and scams. She hated the Black Hand and wanted nothing to do with it. She got embedded within some of the other traditional superstition and healing (laying of hands) nonsense at times but that was it. But unlike this book's father/ son combo here she did it voluntarily and almost immediately.
In this book Tony (Russell, the author's father) was on the bridge of getting in to the same lines of work and skills as his father but his father denied him placement. He kicked him out and would not let him stay near the Cigar store. The outcome was similar though. Because Tony and Russell were not incorporated into Mob or scam corporation life. But they did become member name known and recognized many associations of this towns and of the county or larger city area for territory.
It was always The Numbers or horses or some other dice or cards regime. Slot machines and drugs came much later.
This book is the analysis of what happened and why. And where. And how. The women's stories are especially poignant. Men didn't do this in such intricate organizational webs by themselves. And I especially liked how all the details and facts are recorded in nature and process over the years here for the Democratic Party tie ins and complete allowances by governmental and police powers for this system to operate at its best.
There is a middle half of the book which is a terribly difficult read. So many names and tie ins and front business or bar openings or disputes that many will not relish to any degree anywhere close to a 4 star read. I understand how that was then. Also with changing jobs and how their domestic lives nearly always panned out. So for my own read, much of this was easier to understand for full cognition of rules and habits than it would be for most casual readers. Especially the babies being given away. And how Tony understands how he has two additional half brothers finally by the time he is past middle age. One being in family raised, one not. This happened within my husband's family too with the death of two young wives, one in childbirth. It is just how it had to be in their eyes when a secretary, nanny or other wife got pregnant. Thus it is extremely difficult to appropriate the bloodlines from a perspective of 2020 readers' eyes. And all of these people had broken English in the 1st generation or none at all. So they were always starting their own businesses (retail stores of every ilk or cart) because no one would ever hire them. There is one orphan from Sicily girl who became the 2nd no ceremony wife who had numerous children and another marriage after he was stabbed to death who lived 70 years in PA and never spoke any English. (Mary but he called her "Chinky".)
So it is a difficult book to know whose on 1st or who stole 2nd. But it is easier for me to understand the emotional mores in some of this than it will be for the average reader. This isn't a long book but it is not one you will fly threw in any sense.
The author is a skilled writer, it's his trade. You can tell. He also puts the onus of the whole almost entirely on his own Dad's plate which is well done. He didn't "take over" in the legacy/aftermath of fallout as the other memoirs like this I have read. A very good thing.
This was done with many witness and quoted conversations. Nearly everyone male Shorto died fairly young. Just like my Sicilian family exactly. And until his own Father's death, I don't think this author understood who had rejected whom either. Now he does.
I almost gave this book 5 stars for the portion of Italian Unification period history here. It was a total 5 star detailed one that rarely, rarely is ever visited. When Italy became unified, it devastated the already worse economics of starving in Europe that existed in Sicily. It caused/ finished what invasion after invasion and stealing of the populace to Mideastern slavery systems had begun. The dialect is another language and people were down to eating the stucco powder from their walls. Sicily emptied not by any accident. My own Nonna and Nonno lived on mountain green weeds and leftover pasta water for half of their meals. Unlike these people who had fares, they never went back. After the American Civil War period up until about 1920 Sicily was the emptying internal for every horrendous reason. Cheapest labor went to building in the American South too. Many before 1900 came from Sicily. There is an entire branch of my husband and son's family (same exact name too) in New Orleans today.
It's ironic that this particular family original BIG MAN patriarch died in violence at the Sicilian spot he was born.
I won't be long, because there is too much to tell in my reaction. Specifics only with a few spoilers but there is MUCH more here than just the particulars I mention. Read the book. It's not an easy read because of all the intermixtures of dozens of people who usually in 3 generations own the same names as their grandfather. Same here. But also because of the patterns of job available to Italian/Sicilian immigrants at that time too. They were hired last. After Irish, after Blacks, after anyone. They had the lowest wages recorded for physical work in the USA for 20 or 30 years just after the turn of the century. Very few knew how to read or write in any language.
The historical part of the book with exact detailing for his great-grandfather's life was a 5 star section. He died on his return to Sicily to bring back money for his wife and 2 kids there. He was stabbed to death for the cash he was carrying in his 40's by the old friends from his hill town in Sicily. But he left Russell's (the author named Russell) grandfather as a half grown child in the USA with his American Sicilian speaking family. (Most of the Sicilian men had at least 2 wives on different continents most usually. My husband's grandfather had 3 different families. One in Calabria, one in New York, one in Chicago- over his lifetime. And he named the boys the same names on top of it.) Not my own birth family at all- my Grandmother and Grandfather left Sicily together as teen agers and never went back, not even once. They also moved out of the Italian neighborhood immediately. My Nonna was smart and did NOT like the gambling and scams. She hated the Black Hand and wanted nothing to do with it. She got embedded within some of the other traditional superstition and healing (laying of hands) nonsense at times but that was it. But unlike this book's father/ son combo here she did it voluntarily and almost immediately.
In this book Tony (Russell, the author's father) was on the bridge of getting in to the same lines of work and skills as his father but his father denied him placement. He kicked him out and would not let him stay near the Cigar store. The outcome was similar though. Because Tony and Russell were not incorporated into Mob or scam corporation life. But they did become member name known and recognized many associations of this towns and of the county or larger city area for territory.
It was always The Numbers or horses or some other dice or cards regime. Slot machines and drugs came much later.
This book is the analysis of what happened and why. And where. And how. The women's stories are especially poignant. Men didn't do this in such intricate organizational webs by themselves. And I especially liked how all the details and facts are recorded in nature and process over the years here for the Democratic Party tie ins and complete allowances by governmental and police powers for this system to operate at its best.
There is a middle half of the book which is a terribly difficult read. So many names and tie ins and front business or bar openings or disputes that many will not relish to any degree anywhere close to a 4 star read. I understand how that was then. Also with changing jobs and how their domestic lives nearly always panned out. So for my own read, much of this was easier to understand for full cognition of rules and habits than it would be for most casual readers. Especially the babies being given away. And how Tony understands how he has two additional half brothers finally by the time he is past middle age. One being in family raised, one not. This happened within my husband's family too with the death of two young wives, one in childbirth. It is just how it had to be in their eyes when a secretary, nanny or other wife got pregnant. Thus it is extremely difficult to appropriate the bloodlines from a perspective of 2020 readers' eyes. And all of these people had broken English in the 1st generation or none at all. So they were always starting their own businesses (retail stores of every ilk or cart) because no one would ever hire them. There is one orphan from Sicily girl who became the 2nd no ceremony wife who had numerous children and another marriage after he was stabbed to death who lived 70 years in PA and never spoke any English. (Mary but he called her "Chinky".)
So it is a difficult book to know whose on 1st or who stole 2nd. But it is easier for me to understand the emotional mores in some of this than it will be for the average reader. This isn't a long book but it is not one you will fly threw in any sense.
The author is a skilled writer, it's his trade. You can tell. He also puts the onus of the whole almost entirely on his own Dad's plate which is well done. He didn't "take over" in the legacy/aftermath of fallout as the other memoirs like this I have read. A very good thing.
This was done with many witness and quoted conversations. Nearly everyone male Shorto died fairly young. Just like my Sicilian family exactly. And until his own Father's death, I don't think this author understood who had rejected whom either. Now he does.
I almost gave this book 5 stars for the portion of Italian Unification period history here. It was a total 5 star detailed one that rarely, rarely is ever visited. When Italy became unified, it devastated the already worse economics of starving in Europe that existed in Sicily. It caused/ finished what invasion after invasion and stealing of the populace to Mideastern slavery systems had begun. The dialect is another language and people were down to eating the stucco powder from their walls. Sicily emptied not by any accident. My own Nonna and Nonno lived on mountain green weeds and leftover pasta water for half of their meals. Unlike these people who had fares, they never went back. After the American Civil War period up until about 1920 Sicily was the emptying internal for every horrendous reason. Cheapest labor went to building in the American South too. Many before 1900 came from Sicily. There is an entire branch of my husband and son's family (same exact name too) in New Orleans today.
It's ironic that this particular family original BIG MAN patriarch died in violence at the Sicilian spot he was born.
May 2, 2021
I grew up in Johnstown, had family in the same “business”, and even I couldn’ follow the story line.
Small town mob was a good premise but the family drama was not interesting. There was a lot of Johnstown name dropping just for the sake of name dropping and the characters were not fully developed. The writing was mediocre. I had higher hopes for this book.
Small town mob was a good premise but the family drama was not interesting. There was a lot of Johnstown name dropping just for the sake of name dropping and the characters were not fully developed. The writing was mediocre. I had higher hopes for this book.
November 7, 2024
3.5 stars 🌟
Cloud ☁️ Library 📖 app
----
Rough and slow start,mostly with me trying to keep everything straight (not always easy for me with inattentive adhd mild cognitive impairment) but once I did, smooth and fun sailing 😊.
I found this looking at the Trending Audiobooks section of the app out of curiosity. It called out me strongly, so figured why not?
I've been through Johnstown alot and it's was interesting to read about how it was in its heyday,so to speak . Knowing how it is now, it felt surreal and hard to wrap my mind around at first.
I kept saying to myself "Johnstown had a mob?? They were cool and lively?"
It was also interesting to see the mental map in my minds eye and trying to overlay (right word?) The new and the old together, side by side.
Asked my mom if she knew all this about Johnstown and she said no she didn't. Actually found a physical copy of this in a little free library after my doctor appointment the one day(how about that?) so I'll see if she wants to read it perhaps.
The author's family history was told right alongside the town history very smoothly, never felt jarring.
Would have loved to see all this in person, walk among everything and soak it in.
Highly recommend 👌
Cloud ☁️ Library 📖 app
----
Rough and slow start,mostly with me trying to keep everything straight (not always easy for me with inattentive adhd mild cognitive impairment) but once I did, smooth and fun sailing 😊.
I found this looking at the Trending Audiobooks section of the app out of curiosity. It called out me strongly, so figured why not?
I've been through Johnstown alot and it's was interesting to read about how it was in its heyday,so to speak . Knowing how it is now, it felt surreal and hard to wrap my mind around at first.
I kept saying to myself "Johnstown had a mob?? They were cool and lively?"
It was also interesting to see the mental map in my minds eye and trying to overlay (right word?) The new and the old together, side by side.
Asked my mom if she knew all this about Johnstown and she said no she didn't. Actually found a physical copy of this in a little free library after my doctor appointment the one day(how about that?) so I'll see if she wants to read it perhaps.
The author's family history was told right alongside the town history very smoothly, never felt jarring.
Would have loved to see all this in person, walk among everything and soak it in.
Highly recommend 👌
February 7, 2021
Russell Shorto, the author, is not to be confused with his grandfather, Russell Shorto, the Smalltime Mafioso who was the No. 2 man in the small steel mill town of Johnstown between 1946 through 1960. This is the elder Shorto’s story. But more interesting, it is also the story of how and why the mafia evolved in Sicily and then moved around the world.
Shortly after the American Civil War, Sicilians were starving at home. The US Southern states needed workers to replace their former slaves at cut-rate prices. The Sicilians, who were always a practical lot, jumped on the chance to not watch their families slowly die.
"More than 100,000 young Sicilian men went to Louisiana. They worked the sugarcane alongside black sharecroppers or took the places that former slaves had abandoned [...] They became objects of degradation and disdain to white Louisianans and far beyond. The eleven men who were hanged in the largest mass lynching in American history—in New Orleans in 1891—were not black but Italian."
However, Shorto’s ancestors went a different route. His great-grandfather worked in the coal mines of Pennsylvania, which paid considerably better. $5 a day. Voyages from Sicily to America cost only $10 so it was easy for him to bring his lover to be with him in America. They soon had nine children including the elder Russell. With prohibition right around the corner, the Italian mafia was perched to make its move into money, power, and respect.
Smalltime starts out really slow with the story of the elder Russell’s last few days working for the mob. A killing is foreshadowed and then there is look back into the history of the mafia and Sicily. Usually the opening story is enthralling and then you are forced to slog through the history. However, in this book, the history made for some intriguing and compelling reading. I found it much more interesting than the memoir. Perhaps this occurred because the author has written many narrative histories before. Regardless, if you want to read a “from the bottom to the top” immigration narrative filled with dreams and aspirations, you must read Smalltime. 4 stars!
Thanks to W.W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.
Shortly after the American Civil War, Sicilians were starving at home. The US Southern states needed workers to replace their former slaves at cut-rate prices. The Sicilians, who were always a practical lot, jumped on the chance to not watch their families slowly die.
"More than 100,000 young Sicilian men went to Louisiana. They worked the sugarcane alongside black sharecroppers or took the places that former slaves had abandoned [...] They became objects of degradation and disdain to white Louisianans and far beyond. The eleven men who were hanged in the largest mass lynching in American history—in New Orleans in 1891—were not black but Italian."
However, Shorto’s ancestors went a different route. His great-grandfather worked in the coal mines of Pennsylvania, which paid considerably better. $5 a day. Voyages from Sicily to America cost only $10 so it was easy for him to bring his lover to be with him in America. They soon had nine children including the elder Russell. With prohibition right around the corner, the Italian mafia was perched to make its move into money, power, and respect.
Smalltime starts out really slow with the story of the elder Russell’s last few days working for the mob. A killing is foreshadowed and then there is look back into the history of the mafia and Sicily. Usually the opening story is enthralling and then you are forced to slog through the history. However, in this book, the history made for some intriguing and compelling reading. I found it much more interesting than the memoir. Perhaps this occurred because the author has written many narrative histories before. Regardless, if you want to read a “from the bottom to the top” immigration narrative filled with dreams and aspirations, you must read Smalltime. 4 stars!
Thanks to W.W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.
September 16, 2020
Thank you to #NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book prior to publication in exchange for my honest review. Russell Shorto is known for his books of narrative history and this time the subject is his own family. He delves into the past to see what he can discover about his grandfather, also Russell Shorto, who he was named after. His grandfather was known to be a small town mobster and it was after a meeting with his mother's cousin, Frankie, that Shorto decided there was a story to tell and it is quite a story. Supposedly his grandfather helped to run an operation that generated about $40,000,000 over a period of 15 years-the equivalent of about $370,000,000 today. There are also stories about his grandfather's personal life, photographs and drawings and, of course, there is a murder. The author's father, Tony, was his partner in researching the book and this book is his story as much as it is about Russell Shorto, the grandfather and Russell Shorto, the author. It is a well researched, touching story and I recommend it.
April 11, 2021
Meh. I mean, the author did his homework research-wise, and the book gave a glimpse into the smalltime mob industry of the day, but it just wasn’t that compelling or interesting. More like watching someone else’s home movies or vacation slides and you just don’t care.
November 26, 2023
Felt like the mid western Pennsylvania was so close yet so far. I read and listened - both totally enjoyable.
August 27, 2021
Krista says:
The Shorto family past has been talked about in hushed tones for decades. At the encouragement of a relative, however, Russell begins to research his family history and ask questions. What he presents the reader with is a rich history of his family, from his Italian ancestors' immigration, to hustling in Johnstown, PA, to present day. While writing this book, Shorto was able to reconcile and form a strong bond with his father. I loved the beginning and end of this book. It was fascinating to read how a poor Italian immigrant family made it rich through small cons and hustles during the Prohibition. The middle of this book did drag for me, and it can get confusing at times to remember everyone's names. However, this is a well-researched book on family history that lends a personal look at the rise of the local Italian mobster. Informative, Precise, and Interesting, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in family histories and Italian-American immigrant stories.
The Shorto family past has been talked about in hushed tones for decades. At the encouragement of a relative, however, Russell begins to research his family history and ask questions. What he presents the reader with is a rich history of his family, from his Italian ancestors' immigration, to hustling in Johnstown, PA, to present day. While writing this book, Shorto was able to reconcile and form a strong bond with his father. I loved the beginning and end of this book. It was fascinating to read how a poor Italian immigrant family made it rich through small cons and hustles during the Prohibition. The middle of this book did drag for me, and it can get confusing at times to remember everyone's names. However, this is a well-researched book on family history that lends a personal look at the rise of the local Italian mobster. Informative, Precise, and Interesting, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in family histories and Italian-American immigrant stories.
February 18, 2021
Review of Smalltime
When I started reading this book, I was a bit distracted. After I read about 50 pages, I decided that I was missing integral, pertinent information and started again. I cannot say enough how very glad I did just that—started again. I really loved this book!! Rich in history I never knew (how much prejudice Italian immigrants—Sicilians in particular—faced coming to the US during the early 1900s), big personalities that I often loved and/or despised. What I loved most was the Journey Russell and his father Tony took in the creation of this memoir. The “righting” of wrongs and the discovery of who they were despite and in spite of their roots. Thank you for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
When I started reading this book, I was a bit distracted. After I read about 50 pages, I decided that I was missing integral, pertinent information and started again. I cannot say enough how very glad I did just that—started again. I really loved this book!! Rich in history I never knew (how much prejudice Italian immigrants—Sicilians in particular—faced coming to the US during the early 1900s), big personalities that I often loved and/or despised. What I loved most was the Journey Russell and his father Tony took in the creation of this memoir. The “righting” of wrongs and the discovery of who they were despite and in spite of their roots. Thank you for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
February 9, 2021
Easy read disagreed with some of the "facts"
December 29, 2021
This book spans three genres: organized crime, local history, and family memoir. It triumphs in all of them, and it’s so tight, it did it all in well under 300 pages.
Despite the title, this book is a bigtime contribution to the True Mob canon. It covers the heretofore mysterious territory between Pittsburg and Youngstown: a land of steel mill towns populated by poor and working-class white folks with roots in eastern and southern Europe. It’s the rust-belt world that cult novelist K.C. Constantine set his crime stories in. Films like The Deer Hunter and The Winning Season have drawn on its culture to great effect, but it nevertheless seems to be an overlooked and often forgotten region that has generally been underrepresented in arts and literature. With this book, Russell Shorto has helped fill the void.
The Johnstown mob that Russell Shorto brings to life might have been obscure and relatively inconsequential on the national Mafia scene, but it serves as a fascinating microcosm of the Mafia phenomenon, and it’s packed with many of the same elements of intrigue and colorful characters one finds in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Kansas City, and other Mafia power centers. It is, in Shorto’s words, “a wonderous and alien world.”
Mobster’s personal lives are often as tumultuous and dramatic as their businesses, and the Shorto family was no exception. The author’s expedition into the pathos and psychology of his mobster grandfather and the people in his orbit is compelling and entertaining, with equal parts horror, humor, and humanity. He does an extraordinary job investigating and piecing his family history together and interpreting the gamut of emotions he and others experienced as they came to terms with the past and with each other. The author left home at a young age and evolved into a worldly writer and a sophisticate, but he did Johnstown proud in the way he embraced his roots, his family, his hometown community, and his name.
Many writers have tackled the Sicilian diaspora, but you’d have to look hard to find a better treatment than Shorto’s, which was nourished by informants in the village his ancestors came from. I really liked the way he drew on Booker T. Washington’s work to contextualize some of the realities of European peasantry as it compared to the plight of the American Negro.
Shorto’s objective was to weave his family history into a wider historical context, and he succeeded in spades. History is rarely told so artfully; Shorto is a highly skilled writer, and he uses creative literary devices that elevate his narrative and enhance the reader’s enjoyment. He approached his material with sensitivity, vulnerability, and honesty.
One of my only complaints is that the book doesn’t have enough pictures.
Unfortunately, this will be probably be Shorto’s one and only foray into True Mob, which is too bad, because he could parlay his copious research into a book about the Pittsburgh family. If he’s listening, I hope he’ll consider it!
Despite the title, this book is a bigtime contribution to the True Mob canon. It covers the heretofore mysterious territory between Pittsburg and Youngstown: a land of steel mill towns populated by poor and working-class white folks with roots in eastern and southern Europe. It’s the rust-belt world that cult novelist K.C. Constantine set his crime stories in. Films like The Deer Hunter and The Winning Season have drawn on its culture to great effect, but it nevertheless seems to be an overlooked and often forgotten region that has generally been underrepresented in arts and literature. With this book, Russell Shorto has helped fill the void.
The Johnstown mob that Russell Shorto brings to life might have been obscure and relatively inconsequential on the national Mafia scene, but it serves as a fascinating microcosm of the Mafia phenomenon, and it’s packed with many of the same elements of intrigue and colorful characters one finds in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Kansas City, and other Mafia power centers. It is, in Shorto’s words, “a wonderous and alien world.”
Mobster’s personal lives are often as tumultuous and dramatic as their businesses, and the Shorto family was no exception. The author’s expedition into the pathos and psychology of his mobster grandfather and the people in his orbit is compelling and entertaining, with equal parts horror, humor, and humanity. He does an extraordinary job investigating and piecing his family history together and interpreting the gamut of emotions he and others experienced as they came to terms with the past and with each other. The author left home at a young age and evolved into a worldly writer and a sophisticate, but he did Johnstown proud in the way he embraced his roots, his family, his hometown community, and his name.
Many writers have tackled the Sicilian diaspora, but you’d have to look hard to find a better treatment than Shorto’s, which was nourished by informants in the village his ancestors came from. I really liked the way he drew on Booker T. Washington’s work to contextualize some of the realities of European peasantry as it compared to the plight of the American Negro.
Shorto’s objective was to weave his family history into a wider historical context, and he succeeded in spades. History is rarely told so artfully; Shorto is a highly skilled writer, and he uses creative literary devices that elevate his narrative and enhance the reader’s enjoyment. He approached his material with sensitivity, vulnerability, and honesty.
One of my only complaints is that the book doesn’t have enough pictures.
Unfortunately, this will be probably be Shorto’s one and only foray into True Mob, which is too bad, because he could parlay his copious research into a book about the Pittsburgh family. If he’s listening, I hope he’ll consider it!
March 29, 2023
“Small-time” is the story of the smaller operations of the mob. Not the big New York families we’ve all seen the documentaries for, but the smaller organizations in the little towns. Mostly centered on gambling operations as well. Sure, these arms of the mob would report back to the bigger organizations, but they ran things primarily on their own. It sounds really intriguing, right? To get that closer look at a side of the mob rarely talked about, and from an almost first-hand perspective from someone who lived it! What could be better? Except that this family memoir delivered more on the family drama, than the involvement with the mob.
I applaud the author for documenting this side of his family history while he still had the chance, but I think he was perhaps a bit too close to the source material. By interviewing his family and family friends at a Panera Bread, names were casually thrown all over the place, and when so many of these men are named after their fathers and were all friends or related, I had a really hard time keeping track of who was who and doing what. But there were times where the author was very focused on just how the mob worked and set up shop in this little town that I found fascinating. There were even moments where it looked like the author wanted to solve a cold case of a potential mob hit, but then lost the plot of both of those lines of intrigue alongside recounting his family history. The accounts of his grandfather and father's relationship went on so long that I forgot that his memoir started with this murder to begin with.
All in all, I guess I was just expecting something a bit different from this memoir about the mob, as is evidenced by the fact that it took me nearly three weeks to read less than 300 pages. So, I’m giving this 2 stars mainly because I was bored and disappointed for so much of this book. Needless to say, I’ll look elsewhere for my fix on mob history in the future.
I applaud the author for documenting this side of his family history while he still had the chance, but I think he was perhaps a bit too close to the source material. By interviewing his family and family friends at a Panera Bread, names were casually thrown all over the place, and when so many of these men are named after their fathers and were all friends or related, I had a really hard time keeping track of who was who and doing what. But there were times where the author was very focused on just how the mob worked and set up shop in this little town that I found fascinating. There were even moments where it looked like the author wanted to solve a cold case of a potential mob hit, but then lost the plot of both of those lines of intrigue alongside recounting his family history. The accounts of his grandfather and father's relationship went on so long that I forgot that his memoir started with this murder to begin with.
All in all, I guess I was just expecting something a bit different from this memoir about the mob, as is evidenced by the fact that it took me nearly three weeks to read less than 300 pages. So, I’m giving this 2 stars mainly because I was bored and disappointed for so much of this book. Needless to say, I’ll look elsewhere for my fix on mob history in the future.
February 23, 2021
I received a complimentary copy of this book in return for a review on Bookbrowse.com.
Author Russell Shorto, whose oeuvre is narrative history, accomplishes three things with his latest work. First, he presents an engaging narrative history of a small town mob unit operating in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, from World War II until the 1960s. The star of this story is another Russell Shorto: his grandfather, a second generation Italian immigrant. The story also focuses secondly, on the Italian -- specifically the Sicilian -- immigrant experience and its attempt to merge itself into US culture. Gambling and liquor apparently helped. Finally, Shorto presents a fraught family history. He explores the relationship of his father and his grandfather. and his grandfather's relationship with his grandmother, as they say, warts and all. The book is short, reads easily, and draws excellent and interesting characters. I enjoyed this one!
Author Russell Shorto, whose oeuvre is narrative history, accomplishes three things with his latest work. First, he presents an engaging narrative history of a small town mob unit operating in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, from World War II until the 1960s. The star of this story is another Russell Shorto: his grandfather, a second generation Italian immigrant. The story also focuses secondly, on the Italian -- specifically the Sicilian -- immigrant experience and its attempt to merge itself into US culture. Gambling and liquor apparently helped. Finally, Shorto presents a fraught family history. He explores the relationship of his father and his grandfather. and his grandfather's relationship with his grandmother, as they say, warts and all. The book is short, reads easily, and draws excellent and interesting characters. I enjoyed this one!
October 28, 2025
As a history teacher in Johnstown, this was an interesting read. I found myself sitting at my desk today looking out into my class before the day started, looking at a Filia, watching a Croco walk down the hall, talking to a colleague with the same last name as Detective Hienlien. Even recalling Ragnos sitting in my class and going to the zoo with a colleague with the name Shorto on Friday. Who would of guessed that a world can be so small and history around every corner.
What this book taught me is local history is often deemed lesser, but when one peels back the covers they can't help but be amazed.
What this book taught me is local history is often deemed lesser, but when one peels back the covers they can't help but be amazed.
June 11, 2021
Amusing Story about Living with the mob.
Too wordy and difficult to follow at times. But I enjoyed the history of Sicily and the history of Italy as a country. Also why Sicilians came to the US.
Too wordy and difficult to follow at times. But I enjoyed the history of Sicily and the history of Italy as a country. Also why Sicilians came to the US.
October 10, 2023
A touching memoir. I think reading Pileggi's Casino made me expect more technical minutia of the organization and the schemes. Which isn't really what the story is about.
February 20, 2021
Russell Shorto wrote this sentence as a tribute to his father. He could have written it about all of our fathers:
"Thank you for showing me how to do history, which, it suddenly occurs to me, is nothing if it doesn't involve a consideration of how human beings try to balance their inevitable failures and stay afloat amid currents that are destined to sink them."
"Thank you for showing me how to do history, which, it suddenly occurs to me, is nothing if it doesn't involve a consideration of how human beings try to balance their inevitable failures and stay afloat amid currents that are destined to sink them."
March 4, 2021
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Smalltime. It is informative, introspective, entertaining and eye opening. Russell Shorto’s hometown of Johnstown Pennsylvania just happens to be my hometown. I know, or know of, many of the people, places and events in this well crafted memoir. Anyone, and everyone who is from Johnstown should read this book....regardless of your era. However, you don’t have to be a J-town native to appreciate a good piece of investigative writing. I think you will find the confirmation of the murmurings of The Mob presence in Johnstown as intriguing as I did.
December 12, 2021
3.5 STARS
January 11, 2022
Great story of a family. This gave me context of the mob that I hadn't read anywhere else.
April 8, 2025
An interesting snapshot of a mobster in small town Pennsylvania that just so happens to be the author’s grandfather. So he shares his thoughts of discovery as he learns the stories along the way.
February 21, 2021
Big story about small town
Very interesting story that paints a big picture about a small town. Well structured to give historical perspective but not read as a history book.
Very interesting story that paints a big picture about a small town. Well structured to give historical perspective but not read as a history book.
May 28, 2021
Every vacation of my childhood was spent in my moms hometown of Johnstown PA. It couldn’t be much farther from my hometown in CA. Growing up I couldn’t think of a more boring, quiet place than Johnstown. Getting to read about this salacious history brought new life to a town that’s spent the last century slowly dying. I’ve been to these places. My mother grew up during this time period and remembers so many of these people , events, and places. I enjoyed every moment of this story, but more importantly I had a Shorto-esque mother-daughter bonding experience over a small town where steel used to reign supreme, in the hills of western Pennsylvania.
August 20, 2021
Loved it
June 11, 2021
Thoughtful family memoir of small town Sicilian mob and generational secrets. Shorto always writes well, and is charmingly honest in his quest to define his complicated grandfather who ran betting operations in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Without excusing the occasional violence, Shorto reveals how the underground economy mirrors that of the capitalist superstructure: the hierarchy, the ruthlessness, the eternal hunt for an edge, the rivalries, and the manipulation of the social and legal systems of a small society. Yes, everybody knows everybody in a city this size, but that by no means excludes corruption. And now we know how Rosario Sciotto became Russell Shorto.
April 6, 2021
Russel Sorto knows how to make history enjoyable. He did it with Amsterdam but now takes on a more personal voyage, that of his own ancestors. A family history closely linked to the mob, Sorto writes wonderfully, sharing information about his relatives. It’s a book about America and mainly Italian immigrants that will appeal to history buffs as well as those who would like to know how the country came to be what it is today.
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