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    Motor City Mafia:: A Century of Organized Crime in Detroit
    Motor City Mafia:: A Century of Organized Crime in Detroit
    Motor City Mafia:: A Century of Organized Crime in Detroit
    Ebook210 pages1 hour

    Motor City Mafia:: A Century of Organized Crime in Detroit

    By Scott M. Burnstein

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Motor City Mafia: A Century of Organized Crime in Detroit chronicles the storied and hallowed gangland history of the notorious Detroit underworld. Scott M. Burnstein takes the reader inside the belly of the beast, tracking the bloodshed, exploits, and leadership of the southeast Michigan crime syndicate as never before seen in print. Through a stunning array of rare archival photographs and images, Motor City Mafia captures Detroit's most infamous past, from its inception in the early part of the 20th century, through the years when the iconic Purple Gang ruled the city's streets during Prohibition, through the 1930s and the formation of the local Italian mafia, and the Detroit crime family's glory days in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, all the way to the downfall of the area's mob reign in the 1980s and 1990s.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439633106
    Motor City Mafia:: A Century of Organized Crime in Detroit

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    • 3/5
      Perhaps if I had seen the words "Images of America" above the title, I would have realized that this is largely a picture book. While the photos are interesting, if you are looking for something informative, this is not the book for you.
    • 5/5
      Arcadia Publishing's Images of America series is a great way to get a quick sense of an aspect of history through photographs and limited text and captions. I was fortunate to hear Scott Burnstein speak about the history of the underworld in Detroit at my local library. He is very knowledgeable and passionate about this subject. This book combines the many black and white pictures with his knowledge to deliver an interesting overview.

    Book preview

    Motor City Mafia: - Scott M. Burnstein

    2006

    One

    THE BEGINNING

    At the beginning of the 20th century, America was changing—in culture, in industry, and, most of all, in size. Hoards of immigrants hailing from across the vast continent of Europe filled the streets of metropolitan cities and quickly made their presence felt in their new communities. The city of Detroit was one of the best examples of this phenomenon. By the end of the new century’s first decade, Detroit was a melting pot of ethnicity and foreign culture, spawning several neighborhoods specific to Italian, Jewish, Polish, and Irish decent. With these new communities came old world–style traditions, brought by the influx of Europeans with them to their new country. These traditions ranged from the benign to the tremendously lethal, the most dangerous of which was the underground criminal society, known by many as the Camorra or the Black Hand. Just like the many people from Italy and its tiny neighbor Sicily, who arrived in America, so did their tradition of a secret society of criminals, whose power equaled and in some cases even exceeded that of the elected government and would in later years become known as the Mafia.

    The first incarnation of this eerily mysterious fraternity in the city of Detroit, the forefather to what is today modern organized crime, was the Adamo Gang, which sprang up in 1905 and was lead by Tony and Vito Adamo. By 1910, all of the area’s liquor distribution, gambling, loan sharking, prostitution, and extortion rings were under their control. In 1913, the Adamo Gang went to war with the Gianolla Gang, a faction of street toughs led by the Gianolla brothers. The Adamos were killed by Gianolla gunmen as the pair walked together on a city street corner, paving the way for the Gianolla’s to assume control of the local underworld for themselves. In 1919, after six years of power, the Gianolla brothers were unseated by a former ally named John Vitale, who turned against his bosses and had them murdered. Vitale’s rule was short-lived and he was killed by Gianolla loyalists within a year after taking power. With the onset of Prohibition, former Gianolla lieutenant Salvatore Singing Sam Catalanotte was elected gangland overlord of Detroit and maintained final authority over all activities regarding the city’s newest criminal regimes, the Purple Gang, the River Gang, the East Side Gang, and the West Side Gang.

    This is a Detroit Police Department (DPD) mug shot of early-20th-century Mob boss Sam Gianolla, who alongside his brother Tony wrestled control of the local underworld from previous city crime lords the Adamo Gang in 1913 and ruled the Motor City streets unchallenged for the next six years. Gianolla was gunned down and killed in October 1919 on the corner of Russell Street and Monroe Avenue by hit men sent by rival gang leader Giovanni John Vitale. (Walter Reuther Library—Wayne State

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