Any good books on the pre-Casso era

[Frank]

Crea was official underboss when Madonna was on the street. Madonna was street boss.

[yatescj7781]

I never understood why Viro wasn't charged with Murder?
What was be Rizzuto charge with that have him only 10 years?

He took a plea deal for his role in the 3 Capos murder.


Pogo

That's correct Pogo. Vito would only admit his role in the 3 capos murder was to say "This is a Hold Up". A few Bonanno guys got hammered in that RICO back then but a lot of them i.e. Rizzuto took pretty good plea deals considering the options they had.

[Lucchese81]

Going back to the original question, I've always wanted various books on the early years of the Lucchese family. They are strangely absent from before the Casso/Amuso era. Particularly, Lucchese himself who remains one of the most secretive and less written about bosses from the 'golden era' and as someone who was present and involved in all the big happenings in the first half of the century. Arguably, under his rule, I think it's entirely possible that the family held the 1 or 2 spot for periods of time given the respect and power he had on the panel, and how clever he was in creating new sources of income.

[HairyKnuckles]

Going back to the original question, I've always wanted various books on the early years of the Lucchese family. They are strangely absent from before the Casso/Amuso era. Particularly, Lucchese himself who remains one of the most secretive and less written about bosses from the 'golden era' and as someone who was present and involved in all the big happenings in the first half of the century. Arguably, under his rule, I think it's entirely possible that the family held the 1 or 2 spot for periods of time given the respect and power he had on the panel, and how clever he was in creating new sources of income.

Lucchese was a master manipulator and pulled strings behind the scenes. For example, there are indications that he was the one who put the idea for the Appalachin meeting of 1957 into motion.

I think there is a book on the Luccheses pre Casso written by Ernest Wolkman. I can´t remember the name of it but if you google Wolkman you may find it. Another tip would be that you read the "Researching the Mafia" thread in this section and start looking for info yourself. There is plenty of information on Lucchese on the Mary Ferrell site for example and articles on him can be found if you search online newspaper´s archives. Reports can be found at hathitrust.com. etc start digging! Researching is fun!

[Chaps]

Going back to the original question, I've always wanted various books on the early years of the Lucchese family. They are strangely absent from before the Casso/Amuso era. Particularly, Lucchese himself who remains one of the most secretive and less written about bosses from the 'golden era' and as someone who was present and involved in all the big happenings in the first half of the century. Arguably, under his rule, I think it's entirely possible that the family held the 1 or 2 spot for periods of time given the respect and power he had on the panel, and how clever he was in creating new sources of income.

Lucchese was a master manipulator and pulled strings behind the scenes. For example, there are indications that he was the one who put the idea for the Appalachin meeting of 1957 into motion.

I think there is a book on the Luccheses pre Casso written by Ernest Wolkman. I can´t remember the name of it but if you google Wolkman you may find it. Another tip would be that you read the "Researching the Mafia" thread in this section and start looking for info yourself. There is plenty of information on Lucchese on the Mary Ferrell site for example and articles on him can be found if you search online newspaper´s archives. Reports can be found at hathitrust.com. etc start digging! Researching is fun!

Volkman wrote a book called Gangbusters in 1998 which went through the Amuso/Casso era. I will say that Volkman's books, and this one is no exception, are known to be highly inaccurate. That means that anyone on this board who has a good knowledge of mob history, could pick out his mistakes in an instant. I can't say it was horrible and it did have a good historical background on the Lucchese's, but he obviously had lousy editors.

[Lucchese81]

Going back to the original question, I've always wanted various books on the early years of the Lucchese family. They are strangely absent from before the Casso/Amuso era. Particularly, Lucchese himself who remains one of the most secretive and less written about bosses from the 'golden era' and as someone who was present and involved in all the big happenings in the first half of the century. Arguably, under his rule, I think it's entirely possible that the family held the 1 or 2 spot for periods of time given the respect and power he had on the panel, and how clever he was in creating new sources of income.

Lucchese was a master manipulator and pulled strings behind the scenes. For example, there are indications that he was the one who put the idea for the Appalachin meeting of 1957 into motion.

I think there is a book on the Luccheses pre Casso written by Ernest Wolkman. I can´t remember the name of it but if you google Wolkman you may find it. Another tip would be that you read the "Researching the Mafia" thread in this section and start looking for info yourself. There is plenty of information on Lucchese on the Mary Ferrell site for example and articles on him can be found if you search online newspaper´s archives. Reports can be found at hathitrust.com. etc start digging! Researching is fun!

I automatically dismissed the Volkmann book due to aforementioned inaccuracies, but thank you very much for that other info. I may start my own digging, tbh, I was tempted a good six odd years ago to embark on a book project relating to Lucchese and the family early years but never really got going with it because of well life and other such things. Maybe I'll try to compile at least an in depth gathering of sources