Mafia

Ed Reid was one of the great American crime writers who penned several classic books of the genre during the 1950s and 60s. In this short early work from 1952 he traces the Mafia origins in Sicily, details its notorious code of silence, pries open the workings of the international narcotics racket, and tells the stories of numerous mob murders. Reid sheds light on the lives of many figures in organized crime, both well known and obscure, but perhaps the most interesting material relates to the man just then establishing himself as arguably the most powerful single mobster in the country: Vito Genovese. The author reports on the fascinating period Genovese spent exiled in Italy during WWII as a favorite of the fascist government, acting as an interpreter for American forces while raking immense profits blackmarketing everything from stolen cigarettes to military vehicles. The appendix, the partial transcript of a September 1945 interview given to the Brooklyn district attorney's office by the U.S. Army investigator who arrested Genovese and brought him to Brooklyn for an outstanding murder charge, is a must-read. If you are a student of organized crime history, and want to build your library starting from key canonical works, you should own this book by one of the principal, Pulitzer Prize-winning documentarians.