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The First Family
Terror, Extortion, Barrel Murder & the Birth of the American Mafia
- Author: Mike Dash
- Category: Non-fiction Crime
- Publisher: Simon and Schuster (UK)/ Crown (US)
- Pub date: 2 March 2009
- Length: 480 pages
About The First Family
Dash’s sources, among which are some dramatic and detailed confessions from gang members, bring to life this bloody period of organised crime history – before Prohibition in 1919 created a new generation of underworld bosses. He documents bullet for bullet the power struggles that marked the first generation of mafiosi
– Clare Longrig, DAILY TELEGRAPH Book of the Week
A British historian and journalist whose capacity for research appears to be limitless, Dash has dug into tons of material and emerged with a work of popular history… that seems likely to be the definitive work on its subject for years to come
- WASHINGTON POST
There is one final dilemma for the Mafia enthusiast: who should play Giuseppe Morello in the movie now that Brando is gone
– FINANCIAL TIMES
Dash writes with an unabashedly cinematic flair, and his accounts are backed by meticulous research
– NEW YORK TIMES
Mike Dash’s latest work of narrative non-fiction tells the story of the founding fathers of American organized crime: the first, the most inventive and most bloodthirsty Mafia family to transplant itself from the backwaters of Sicily to metropolitan New York. Led by a criminal genius by the name of Giuseppe Morello, this extended, close-knit clan of racketeers and murderers left their home in Corleone (the fabled Mafia heartland made famous by Mario Puzo) and established dominance over the New York underworld – where, from 1900 to 1920, they were responsible not only for well over a hundred murders, but for introducing the techniques of extortion, protection and intimidation that remain the hallmarks of organized crime today.
Painstakingly researched, carefully documented and fully exploiting the holdings of little-known archives in the US and Italy that have never been properly explored before, Dash tells, for the first time, the true and detailed history of the Mafia’s birth and rise to power in the United States.
About the Author
Mike Dash is a Cambridge-educated historian and the author of several books acclaimed for their combination of quality writing and detailed original research. His titles include the international bestsellers TULIPOMANIA and BATAVIA’S GRAVEYARD, and more recently THUG and THE FIRST FAMILY. Dash is currently at work on another history and contributes regularly to newspapers and magazines ranging from the Sunday Telegraph to Fortean Times.