Once Upon a Time, before the term “New York’s Five Families” became entrenched in the popular imagination, gritty newspaper reporters coined a phrase for the highest ranking members of the rackets. Usually reporters chose six or seven mob bosses, men like Adonis or Schultz, and hoisted them high on the flagpole of the New York dailies as members of what they called “The Big Six.” Those fathers of crime writing were responsible for much of the information that we have today. While Gangland Gotham employs a revisionist, academic approach to the subject, it nonetheless offers its respect to the tabloid journalists by citing and alluding to their work.
Allan May is the most fastidious organized crime researcher today. In his book Gangland Gotham, May has created a textbook on the subject of the major figures of the early 20th Century crime lore: Adonis, Anastasia, Buchalter, Costello, Gambino, Genovese, Luciano, Rothstein, Schultz and Zwillman.
May’s book is laid out in a concise manner that makes it a valuable research tool. Because of May’s sterling, gold-standard credibility as a researcher, the material contained therein is the kind that appeals to writers and researchers who are looking for material cited through first, not second sources. In other words, he doesn’t recycle from other books but has a wealth of material here that he discovered through primary research.
If you are looking for a factual, chronological collective biography of the East Coast mob bosses of the early 20th Century, this is it. May leaves no questions unanswered, and takes some initiative to fill in the blanks. For example, May declares that Luciano was making money from prostitution. Obviously, the strong association between prostitution boss Tommy “The Bull” Pennochio and Luciano was deep enough to convince May that Luciano was indeed, involved in the Prostitution Bonding Combination.
This book is a resource that knows no equal for researchers and writers – but the “casual” reader of organized crime books will also enjoy it – that is, if you can find a casual reader in a genre that generally attracts only serious readers.
Ellen Poulsen
