by ledblimp » Sun Sep 10, 2017 9:57 am
Two good books on the 1890/91 David Hennessey/lynching incident are Deep Water and Crescent City Lynchings. Vendetta has some good info but, IMO, Gambino had a forgone conclusion on why things happened and an obvious bias. His theory on James Houston orchestrating events to take over Macheca's business doesn't hold any water.
Empire of Sin is an awesome read. Gangs of New Orleans (also titled Gangs of the French Quarter) by Herbert Asbury, same guy that wrote Gangs of New York, has some good info though not much on actual OC and it's dated as it was written in the late 30's. More of a history of gambling and vice up till then.
Mafia Kingfish......unfortunately the best book out there on Marcello. Davis had a lot of mistakes in there, two glaring ones about the Black Diamond meeting in May 1947 when Marcello took over. Davis has Frank Todaro attending the meeting. Todaro died in 1944. He has Sam Carollo choosing the site of the meeting (though not attending?) but Carollo was deported a month before. Davis also writes about two of Marcello's victims killed in the Willswood tavern. Gene Mano and Constantino Masotto. Mano was actually Masotto's alias in NOLA. He was hiding out here from his Family after murdering and robbing his own sister. Newspaper accounts of the time, 1942/43 exposed this so it wasn't a mystery. Makes you question other info in there.
Mr. New Orleans I haven't read yet. I've heard is a good read but have also heard from locals who knew him and are familiar with some of the events in there that it's 90% bullshit and Frenchy Brouliette made himself out to be way more than he was.
A good read is the Last Madame, about a notorious NOLA madame named Norma Wallace. Though not strictly about OC there's a lot of familiar names, events and history in there.
Two good books on the 1890/91 David Hennessey/lynching incident are Deep Water and Crescent City Lynchings. Vendetta has some good info but, IMO, Gambino had a forgone conclusion on why things happened and an obvious bias. His theory on James Houston orchestrating events to take over Macheca's business doesn't hold any water.
Empire of Sin is an awesome read. Gangs of New Orleans (also titled Gangs of the French Quarter) by Herbert Asbury, same guy that wrote Gangs of New York, has some good info though not much on actual OC and it's dated as it was written in the late 30's. More of a history of gambling and vice up till then.
Mafia Kingfish......unfortunately the best book out there on Marcello. Davis had a lot of mistakes in there, two glaring ones about the Black Diamond meeting in May 1947 when Marcello took over. Davis has Frank Todaro attending the meeting. Todaro died in 1944. He has Sam Carollo choosing the site of the meeting (though not attending?) but Carollo was deported a month before. Davis also writes about two of Marcello's victims killed in the Willswood tavern. Gene Mano and Constantino Masotto. Mano was actually Masotto's alias in NOLA. He was hiding out here from his Family after murdering and robbing his own sister. Newspaper accounts of the time, 1942/43 exposed this so it wasn't a mystery. Makes you question other info in there.
Mr. New Orleans I haven't read yet. I've heard is a good read but have also heard from locals who knew him and are familiar with some of the events in there that it's 90% bullshit and Frenchy Brouliette made himself out to be way more than he was.
A good read is the Last Madame, about a notorious NOLA madame named Norma Wallace. Though not strictly about OC there's a lot of familiar names, events and history in there.