Vinnitta: The Birth of the Detroit Mafia (e-book) (used book) | bookbook.eu

Description

It was the winter of 1919, and it was the height of a gang war the Motor City hadn't seen before. Detroit's Mafia family had split into two factions, both vying to not only avenge ancient wrongs but also gain control of the city's lucrative illegal alcohol trade at the dawn of Prohibition. In Vìnnitta, author Daniel Waugh offers an in-depth account of the formation of the Detroit Mafia and how they grew from a small band of Sicilian immigrants into one of the most powerful criminal sects in the Midwest. He shares how the Mafia infiltrated the Detroit business community and established themselves in illegal rackets ranging from extortion, auto theft, bootlegging, burglary, and construction racketeering. The narrative focuses on not only the gangsters themselves but also residents of Little Sicily who lives became unwittingly entwined with the Mafia, chief among them an undertaker forced to prepare many of his friends for burial after their murders. The book climaxes with the Giannola-Vitale War of 1918-21, a violent gang war that involved Mafia families from all over the country and claimed the lives of both criminals and law-abiding citizens.