Ebook: On the take: From Petty Crooks to Presidents

In the United States, criminals have managed to put together an organization which is at once a nationwide illicit cartel and a nationwide confederation. This organization is dedicated to amassing millions of dollars by means of extortion, and from usury, the illicit sale of lottery tickets, chances on the outcome of horse races and athletic events, narcotics and untaxed liquor.
The author, a sociology professor, takes to the streets of Seattle for interviews and observations.
His research shows very clearly that organized crime really consists of a coalition of politicians, law-enforcement people, businessmen, union leaders, and (in some ways least important of all) racketeers. Who dominates the coalition varies from city to city and from time to time. In New York Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello may have been more powerful than anyone else in the city during their reign. But in Chicago and Gary, Indiana, it is politicians who for many years have had the ultimate and most important practical control of organized crime.