Informer: The History of American Crime and Law Enforcement - October 2020: Nicola Gentile, Chronicler of Early U.S. Mafia History

This Informer special issue focuses on Nicola "Nick" Gentile, underworld leader in U.S. and Sicily, who published an Italian-language tell-all autobiography in 1963. We strive to bring Gentile’s entire life story to the English-language reader. Building on extensive original research by a team of Mafia history experts and on U.S. government documents designed to extract meaning from the memoirs, we attempt to balance Gentile’s obviously self-serving and self-aggrandizing autobiographical work with verifiable history, to correct his misinformation and to fill in the wide gaps left in his personal account. We closely examine a number of aspects of Gentile's life - the launch of his underworld career in the Kansas City area; relationships with Mafia leaders, including Salvatore "Charlie Luciano" Lucania, Vito Genovese, Al Capone, Albert Anastasia, Vincent Mangano, and others; early murders performed by him in Pittsburgh; involvement in narcotics trafficking in New York, New Orleans and Houston; interaction with Mafia leaders in Cleveland, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles; links to underworld figures in Pueblo, Colorado; dealings with U.S. and Soviet spies in Italy during and after World War II... And we provide biographies for many dozens of individuals who contributed in interesting ways to his life story. Also in this issue: 1900s Mafia feuds in Los Angeles, book excerpts, book announcements, impact of COVID-19 on the underworld, obituary. Writers/researchers contributing to this issue: Thomas Hunt, David Critchley, Steve Turner, Lennert van't Riet, Richard N. Warner, Justin Cascio, Sam Carlino, Michael O'Haire, Jon Black, Margaret Janco, Bill Feather and Christian Cipollini. This issue is available in print and electronic magazine formats through the MagCloud service. Read more