Gangland International: An Informal History of the Mafia and Other Mobs in the Twentieth Century

This book is immensly informative, from gangsters like Sicilian gangster Tony Accardo to black mobs and Russian Jews in the Mafiya like Michael Smushevich. This book also gives insight into the Polish gangsters in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. "Of course pre-war crime in Cleveland had not been wholly from the Italian and Jewish element. There were at least two major Polish-led gangs of robbers. One was the Flatheads led by Paul Jawarski. On 13 September 1928 when Jawarski and Frank "whitey" Kraft were caught in a restaurant, "whitey"-Kraft ran out the back but Jawarski holed up in Chambers Avenue. He was driven out by tear gas and was shot. It was not thought he would survive, but he did so. He has already shot a prison guard escaping from Pittsburgh, and was said to have killed up to 26 people including a former gang member who was also a drug addict. Jawarski, rather than see him suffer, threw his body in the river. Returned to Pennsylvania where he was electrocuted on 2 January, Jawarski declined the services of the prison chaplain, saying: I preached atheim since the day I quit singing the choir. A man is yellow if he spends his life believing in nothing and then comes crawling to the church because he is afraid his death is near. Shorty before his execution, Jawarski sent his friends a postcard with his future address - 45 Hellsfire Road, 6/14 miles from Hell. Father Pat O'Brien would not have used him as an example. Frank "Whitey" Kraft was later killed by police in Detroit. The other main Polish group, the Flats Mob, was led by Joseph Filkowski. In October 1930 he and two colleagues were suprised by a patroling policeman when they held up the Dixie Shoe Company, and then relieved him of his gun and uniform. This was not an action which endeared them to the police, but Filkowski's friend Joseph Stazek was shot dead by detectives on 7 December 1930. A day earlier, Filkowski had escaped a police trap. Worse was yet to come, for on 9 December Joseph Fortini, district circulation manager of the Plain Dealer, was shot by Patrolman Patrick McNeely in mistake for Filkowski, so beginning a long-drawn-out and effectively unresolved inquiry into use of police firearms. Filkowski was later caught and executed. Others in the gang received life imprisonment. Filkowski, known as John Blake, has his death mask in the Cleveland Police History Museum.

James Morton's "Gangland International: The Mafia and Other Mobs" is the most comprehensive book I have read on global crime. This book covers the history of organized crime from the early gangs to those presently active. I found this book very interesting as I learned about Gangs and Gangsters I have never even heard of and got more information on ones I know of from all over the world: whether it be United States, Italy, France, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Russia, or South America, the author provides in depth, up to date material. Included in the book are eight double pages full of pictures of gangsters, policemen, assasins, gangland slayings, graves and funerals. Running in at 900+ pages total this is definitely an informative read which I would recommend for the collection.