|
|
The Outfit: The Role of Chicago's Underworld in the Shaping of Modern America
|
You are here:
Home > Sports Books > Chicago Blackhawks > Item
|
The Outfit: The Role of Chicago's Underworld in the Shaping of Modern America
|
by Gus Russo
Sales Rank : 612828
|
|
|
|
Hardcover: 550 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA April 24, 2002
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1582341761
ISBN-13: 978-1582341767
Product Dimensions:
9.6 x 6.5 x 1.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
Investigative reporter Russo (Live by the Sword: The Secret War Against Castro and the Death of JFK) offers an impressive in-depth history of Chicago's elusive crime syndicate. Unlike their trigger-happy East Coast counterparts, Chicago's gangsters stressed businesslike discretion following the chaotic Capone era, and they had a wide-ranging impact on American culture, entertainment and politics that has never been fully documented. Russo has new sources, ranging from entertainer Steve Allen's "crime files" to the widow of the book's most memorable figure, the Outfit's financial manager, "Curly" Humphreys. Others, like Paul "The Waiter" Ricca, will be known to Mob aficionados, but even they will note Russo's novel thesis, that the lucrative scams carried out during the group's 40-year heyday involved members of the respected "upperworld." These ventures ranged from the well known, such as the gambling operations that fueled Chicago's civic corruption, to the surprising (Mob-linked dairies were the first to use "sell by" dates). The Outfit started off-track betting and Top 40 charts and, in its declining years, the Outfit's "fixer," Sidney Korshak, vetted the cast of The Godfather. According to Russo, their "respectable" partners who publicly abhorred the gangster element included Joe Kennedy, MCA president Jules Stein, Bing Crosby, Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, and innumerable public servants. Russo humanizes the shadowy gangsters without denying their violent proclivities. He also examines them in the context of traditional immigrant ambitions. Russo's illuminating history may disorient some readers; still, this is the book to beat in examining this midcentury criminal empire. B&w photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In this impressive work, investigative journalist Russo (Live by the Sword: The Secret War Against Castro and the Death of JFK) combines hundreds of his own interviews and newly revealed government files with the latest in exposes (e.g., Sally Denton and Roger Morris's The Money and the Power, on Las Vegas) to present an in-depth history of the Chicago mob from the 1920s through the 1960s. Russo shows how, during that period, "The Outfit," as it called itself, helped elect several presidents, created Las Vegas, and bankrolled Hollywood. The book is studded with revelations, such as the true story of "The Untouchables," Bing Crosby's debt to the mob, and Al Capone's surprise conviction for tax evasion. The author has no sympathy for those in political power, decrying corruption in the Roosevelt, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations. In an afterword he reveals his strong opinions on the topic, stating that white-collar criminals ("the upperworld") have been ignored at the expense of those in the "underworld" because of prejudice against Italians and the poor in general. Whether or not the reader agrees, Russo has written the most detailed book on the subject to date. Recommended for general collections. Harry Charles, Attorney at Law, St. Louis
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
|
|
|
|
