Don’t dare call him ‘Three Finger Brown’
The 1960s marked the end of an era for some of America’s underworld leaders. The forward-thinking, Prohibition-era architects of New…
The hit that could have sunk Las Vegas
On May 2, 1957, Frank Costello thought he had problems, but he had no idea. He was appealing a five-year…
Sixty years ago, the Tropicana opened under Mob’s hidden control
Las Vegas was in the middle of a slump. It was April 1957, and the town was still coming to…
Seventy years ago, Luciano’s Havana sojourn was cut short
Written February 2017 In 1946, Charles “Lucky” Luciano was persona non grata in America. Though he was granted a pardon…
The Hollywood legend, the Mob and the jukebox racket
The venerable actress and singer Debbie Reynolds, who died last week at age 84, was a risk-taker for decades when…
Reader’s guide to Mob rub-outs
In New York’s long, rich history of organized crime, the death of Antonio Flaccomio is considered the city’s first Mafia…
Elizebeth Friedman: The rumrunner’s worst nightmare
In the waning weeks of Prohibition in 1933, Elizebeth Friedman, chief cryptologist for the U.S. Treasury Department, was called as…
Virginia Hill: ‘Queen of the Mob’ was no one’s pushover
Third in a series of profiles for Women’s History Month. On March 24, 1966, passersby walking on a footpath beside…