A bloody business The rise of organized crime in America

Dylan Struzan

Book - 2019

In 1919, the National Prohibition Act was passed, making it illegal across America to produce, distribute, or sell liquor. With this act, the U.S. Congress also created organized crime as we know it. Italian, Jewish, and Irish mobs sprang up to supply the suddenly illegal commodity to the millions of people still eager to drink it. Men like Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky, Dutch Schultz and Bugsy Siegel, Al Capone in Chicago and Nucky Johnson in Atlantic City, waged a brutal war for power in the streets and on the waterfronts. But if you think you already know this story...think again, since you've never seen it through the eyes of one of the mobsters who lived it. Called "one of the most significant organized crime figures in the ...United States" by the U.S. District Attorney, Vincent "Jimmy Blue Eyes" Alo was just 15 years old when Prohibition became law. Over the next decade, Alo would work side by side with Lansky and Luciano as they navigated the brutal underworld of bootlegging, thievery and murder. Alo's later career included prison time and the ultimate Mob tribute: being immortalized as "Johnny Ola" in The Godfather, Part II. Introduced to the 91-year-old Alo living in retirement in Florida, Dylan Struzan based this book on more than 50 hours of recorded testimony--stories Alo had never shared, and that he forbid her to publish until "after I'm gone." Alo died, peacefully, two months short of his 97th birthday. And now his stories--bracing and violent, full of intrigue and betrayal, hunger and hubris--can finally be told.

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Subjects
Genres
Detective and mystery fiction
Biographical fiction
Historical fiction
Published
London : Titan Books 2019.
Language
English
Main Author
Dylan Struzan (author)
Other Authors
Drew Struzan (illustrator)
Edition
First Hard Case Crime edition
Physical Description
638 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
ISBN
9781785657702
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

The backstory behind this documentary-style novel about gangland wars during Prohibition is the most interesting part of the book. In the 1970s, Vincent ""Jimmy Blue Eyes"" Alo began talking to Tommy Sobeck, Jr., who provides the book's foreword, about the old days hanging out with Meyer Lansky, Charlie ""Lucky"" Luciano, and Ben Siegel throughout the Prohibition era, when Italian, Jewish, and Irish gangs fought each other for ever-bigger shares of the bootleg business. Sobeck eventually brought author Struzan into the mix, and, armed with boxes of tapes recording Alo in conversation, she began researching and then translating the rambling memories into a historical novel. It was a long process. Alo, who died in 2001, requested that nothing be published until well after he was gone. Alo was a teenager when Prohibition was voted into law, just an errand boy for Lansky and Luciano, but eventually he became a gangster in his own right, operating a portion of the illegal beer business in New York and later working with Lansky in Florida and Cuba. Struzan focuses exclusively on the Prohibition years, and, of course, that story has been covered extensively elsewhere, both in fiction and nonfiction. Still, there is a richness of detail here that no doubt stems from Alo's recollections, especially in the give-and-take between rival gangs, eating cheesecake at Lindy's one day, shooting each other the next. Lansky's willingness to compromise with rivals (""Give him a piece of the action now; it will save trouble later"") also emerges vividly in this telling, which effectively chronicles the beginnings of organized crime.Unfortunately, as fiction, there are some problems. There is no real narrative arc; the story begins with the passing of Prohibition in 1920 and ends with its repeal in 1933; along the way, there are anecdotal recountings of various gang rivalries negotiated by Lansky, either with business acumen or bullets (typically provided by Siegel). Also, Struzan does relatively little in the way of developing full-bodied, nuanced characters, her efforts apparently circumscribed by what she learned from Alo. There is fascinating material here for those with a deep interest in Prohibition and the growth of the Mob so much so that one wonders if this material would have been better served in pure documentary format, told by Alo in the first person and allowing his personality to dominate.--Bill Ott Copyright 2019 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Based on a series of interviews with gangster Jimmy Alo (1904-2001) in his old age, Struzan's first novel takes a sweeping look at the Prohibition era from 1920 to 1933. The narrative focuses on friends and business partners Charlie Luciano and Meyer Lansky, but it also includes a large cast of lesser-known Italian, Jewish, and Irish mobsters fighting for a piece of the pie made possible by prohibition. If this version of the familiar story of bootlegging, rumrunning, cargo heists, and rub-outs in the streets lacks the soaring soap operatic grandeur of Mario Puzo's novels or the superb characterizations of The Sopranos, it holds its chunk of turf with sheer energy. Readers will know how it all plays out, but hanging with Scarface, Lucky, Bugs, and the gang is always fun. The text includes illustrations by movie poster artist Drew Struzan, the author's husband. Just in time for the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 18th Amendment, this crime saga thunders along with the authority of an erupting Tommy gun (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved