Book Synopsis

The Mafia is perhaps the most powerful criminal organization ever to have existed. Emerging in late-19th-century Sicily, it soon spread across Italy and the United States, creating a crime empire based on racketeering, drug smuggling, and ruthless intimidation.

This lavish full-color guide is the complete history of the notorious organization from the ragtag bandits who terrorized the populations of rural Sicily through to the notorious gangsters of the Prohibition era to the Five Families that dominated the New York mob for much of the 20th century.

Filled with infamous characters such as Al Capone, Charles 'Lucky' Luciano, Totò Riina, and John Gotti, this book is a definitive history of the Mafia.

About the Author

Jo Durden Smith was a reporter, researcher, then producer-director at Granada TV and an executive producer at Alan King Associates. As a freelance writer, he contributed to well-established publications
such as Village Voice in the US, as well as authoring a number of books including Sex and the Brain with Diane de Simone.

M. A. Frasca is a freelance writer living in Toronto. She has been interested in the Mafia since she was young and is working in earnest on a series of Mob-related stories highlighting watershed moments within the American Mafia.

Arthur Martin is an author and journalist. He has written for a number of publications including the Daily Mail.