Thanks to the popularity of The Godfather movies, most Americans associate Sicilians with the criminal underworld. English, an organized-crime expert, argues that from the 1840s to 1929, the Irish dominated the underworld. In this entertaining account, English points out that whereas the Sicilians craved nationwide public attention, the Irish schemed in the shadows, keeping their dealings local. Using personal interviews, manuscripts, crime commission reports, criminal trial transcripts, and FBI-generated wiretaps, the author gives a cursory examination of organized crime in New York, Chicago, Boston, New Orleans, Kansas City, and Cleveland. Irish dominance of the underworld ended in Chicago with the 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre. To stanch the inevitable crackdown on their illicit Prohibition activities, Sicilian mobsters formed the Syndicate, a governing body designed to direct future decisions. The gangsters also outlawed Irish participation in the governing body, relegating them to the fringe of the criminal world. Afterward, Irish hoodlums entered the labor movement or became independent contractors. By the end of the century, the remnants of Irish organized crime succumbed to Irish-on-Irish violence and diligent law enforcement. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. General and undergraduate collections. P. G. Connors Michigan Legislative Service Bureau

The American mob has long been seen as run by Italians and their henchmen. Edgar-nominee English (Born to Kill) sets the record straight, emphasizing that Irish ingenuity first established the mob in the U.S. Close to two million Irish inundated the American Northeast in the aftermath of the Irish famine of the 1840s. "[T]he formation of a gang," writes English, "carried with it the whiff of a noble gesture," and the Irish personality-full of resentment, rebellion, suspicion and clannishness-mixed with poverty proved to be perfect for this new way of life. Prohibition-the high point for the Irish mob in America-first was viewed by the Irish as a WASP attack on their way of life, and eventually as a way to get rich. But Prohibition was also the beginning of the end of super-Irish gangsters. English covers the bootlegging escapades of Joseph P. Kennedy and-number one on the FBI Most Wanted List-Boston's Whitey Bulger. But there are also colorful details about the likes of "Mad Dog" Coll, "Two Gun" Crowley and mayors Walker of New York and Curley of Boston. This is an intense, erudite yet sometimes horrifying account of violent Celtic criminals who make the Dead End Kids look like choirboys. 16 pages of b&w photos. Agent, Nat Sobel. (Feb. 15) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved