Product Description

The first world-wide history of international gangs. James Morton starts with the turn of the century. He looks at the influential gangs and families such as the Five Families of New York, the Purple Gang from Detroit, Cleveland's Mayfield Road Gang, Boston's Winter Hill Gang and the Dixie Mafia. He also examines the careers of some of America's lesser known but highly successful luminaries such as the Pillow Gang from St Louis, whose leader always carried a cushion after being shot in the buttocks. World-wide, Morton looks at a while range of gangs, large and small, such as the Green Gang of Shanghai, Rocco Perri of Toronto and the Zemour brothers in France, before turning to the rise of the South American drug cartels, the Russian Mafia, the Tongs and the Triads, the big Circle Boys and the Yakusa. An unforgettable range of mobsters includes, of course, Capone, Dillinger, Lansky and Luciano, but also Slippers Incerto, so-called because his feet froze during a raid on a still in Colorado; Squizzy Taylor, the Australian Larrikin; the fearsome Dubois brothers of Montreal, and literally thousands more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #921839 in Books
• Published on: 1999-09-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 904 pages

Review
'An engrossing survey' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'Bascially, everything you ever wanted to know about gangs and much, much more.' LATER 'James Morton rounds up the global scene with his usual efficiency... full of curious facts.' TIME OUT '...manages to convey all this knowledge entertainingly and wittily, with an abundance of grimly apposite anecdotes...hugely enjoyable' Marcel Berlins, THE TIMES 'Interesting and highly professional overview of gangland and its criminals' Phillip Knightley, MAIL ON SUNDAY 'An utterly compelling read' - FHM

Phillip Knightley, MAIL ON SUNDAY
`Interesting and highly professional overview of gangland and its criminals'

FHM
`An utterly compelling read'

Customer Reviews

Well researched but disappointing
There is no doubting the amount of research that has gone into this book,it covers crime all over the globe from the early part of the century to the present day.the only problem is its not a very exciting read.As a reference work it is excellent but for someone looking to be entertained i found my interest waning well before the end.Perhaps the scope was too large as many of the individual stories and chapters are riveting,its just as a whole,ultimately a bit of a let down