Ebook: The first family: terror, extortion, revenge, murder, and the birth of the American mafia

The barrel mystery -- Men of respect -- Little Italy -- "The most secret and terrible organization in the world" -- The clutch hand -- Vengeance -- Family business -- Green goods -- "See the fine parsley" -- Sheep and wolves -- Mob -- Artichoke kings -- The Eighteenth Amendment.;Before the notorious five families dominated US organized crime, there was the one-fingered criminal genius Giuseppe Morello and his lethal coterie. Combining first-rate scholarship and pulse-quickening action, Mike Dash brings to life this little-known story, following the rise of the Mafia in America from the 1890s to the 1920s, from the villages of Sicily to the streets of Little Italy. Using an array of primary sources -- hitherto untapped Secret Service archives, prison records, and interviews with surviving family members -- Dash has written a groundbreaking account of the crucial period when the criminal underworld exploded with fury across the nation. - Back cover.;A history of the birth of the Italian Mafia in America traces the life of Giuseppe Morello, who rose from poverty to become one of the nation's most influential underworld crime heads, and also evaluates the contributions of Morello's brothers.