The Origin of Organized Crime in America The New York City Mafia, 1891}}}1931 [Paperback]

While the later history of the New York Mafia has received extensive attention, what has been conspicuously absent until now is an accurate and conversant review of the formative years of Mafia organizational growth. David Critchley examines the Mafia recruitment process, relations with Mafias in Sicily, the role of non-Sicilians in New Yorks organized crime Families, kinship connections, the Black Hand, the impact of Prohibition, and allegations that a new Mafia was created in 1931. This book will interest historians, criminologists, and anyone fascinated by the American Mafia.

1. Introduction  2. Black Hand, Calabrians, and the Mafia  3. First Family of the New York Mafia  4. The Mafia and the Baff Murder  5. The Neapolitan Challenge  6. New York City in the 1920s  7. Castellammare War and La Cosa Nostra   8. Americanization and the Families  9. Localism, Tradition, and Innovation

This work adds significant value to the small collection of competently crafted histories of organized crime. Historians and other interested scholars will appreciate the richness of Critchley's extensive endnotes and selected bibliography. ... All readers will acknowledge the author's research diligence. He has produced a volume that will be cited frequently. This book should be added to library collections at all campuses where departments of history and criminology share space but where they may rarely exchange ideas about how organized crime history can be improved.
-James D. Calder, University of Texas at San Antonio, Journal of American History,vol. 96 no. 3  

This is one of the most comprehensive studies of the New York Mafia... Essential. - W.M. Fontane, McNeese State University, Choice