Showing titles in Organised Crime

In the 1970s, Frank Lucas was the king of the Harlem drug trade, bringing in over a million dollars a day. He lived a glamorous life, hobnobbing with athletes, musicians, and politicians, but Lucas was a ruthless gangster. He was notorious for using the coffins of dead GIs to smuggle heroin into the United States, and, before being sentenced to 70 years in prison, he played a major role in the near death of New York City.

June 20, 1991. A five-man hit team waited in a car outside the Long Island home of Victor Orena, the acting crime boss of the Colombo crime family. Orena recognized the vehicle—and managed to escape with his life. Over the next year, more shots would be fired in what would become the last major mob war in New York's crime-soaked history—and one of the bloodiest. The war ended with Orena's 1992 arrest and conviction for racketeering.  

Previously published as The Girl for the Job Fast-paced and eye-opening, Undercover Copper is an exciting account of life as a covert investigator by Danni Brooke. For over a decade, Danni Brooke was one of the most effective female undercover cops in the UK, one of a very small number of women...

Susan Berman grew up in Las Vegas luxury as the daughter of Davie Berman, casino mogul and notorious mafia leader. After her father died she learned about his mob connections. Susan then dedicated her life to learning about Vegas and its underworld chiefs. Her life took a bizarre turn in l982 when Kathie Durst - the wife of her good friend, Robert Durst - mysteriously disappeared. Kathie's husband was a prime suspect but the case was never solved.

For more than 20 years, the most intense and prolonged gang war in British history raged on the streets of Manchester. Warring factions left at least 40 dead and made headlines across the world. This best-selling account tells how vicious battles for control of drugs, turf, and protection rackets blighted the reputation of one of Europe's most dynamic cities and saw the coining of the sinister epithet "Gunchester".

Cosa Nostra is the compelling story of the Sicilian mafia, the world's most famous, most secretive and most misunderstood criminal fraternity. The mafia has been given many names since it was founded 140 years ago: the Sect, the Brotherhood, the Honoured Society and now Cosa Nostra. Yet as times have changed, the mafia's subtle and bloody methods have remained the same. Now, for the first time, Cosa Nostra reconstructs the complete history of the Sicilian mafia from its origins to the present day. 

Here's what we now know: John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas by Mafia contract killers hired by Louisiana mob boss Carlos Marcello. Kennedy was killed in that city because it was the only place in the country where a crime of that magnitude could be committed without fear of punishment. Long-time local district attorney Henry Wade, an LBJ crony who would have sole jurisdiction over the prosecution of those responsible, had been corrupted by the local Civello crime family. Lyndon B. Johnson, while a U.S. senator during the 1950s, had accepted bribes from the same mobsters so that they could avoid deportation.

The gripping true story of the rise and fall of one of the most dangerous men in the world The most feared and notorious of all the Mexican cartel leaders, Joaquín Guzmán was the ultimate narco. His nickname of ‘El Chapo’ or Shorty belied his deadly power as ‘El Jefe’, the boss of the...

Italy's ultras are the most organised and violent fans in European football. Many groups have evolved into criminal gangs, involved in ticket-touting, drug-dealing and murder. A cross between the Hells Angels and hooligans, they're often the foot-soldiers of the Mafia and have been instrumental in the rise of the far-right. But the purist ultras say that they are insurgents fighting against a police state and modern football. Only amongst the ultras, they say, can you find belonging, community and a sacred concept of sport. 

With his brother dead, Eddie Richardson feels free to detail the story of a vicious family feud that provoked extravagant acrimony. No Handcuffs unravels the mysteries of decades of crime and political incident. The story of a turbulent era, it rivals the most imaginative fiction in its portrayal of gangland life with all its chanciness and rawness and careless disregard for any obstacle on the way to its target: the big money.

One Sunday morning in 1993 a 16-year-old girl named Eliza Claps goes missing from a church in the centre of Potenza, Italy. Shortly before her disappearance, Elisa had met Danilo Restivo, a strange local boy with a fetish for cutting women's hair on the back of buses. Elisa's family are convinced that Resitvo is responsible for their daughter's disappearance, but he is protected by local bigwigs: by his Sicilian father, by a doctor with links to organised crime, by a priest who had vices of his own. Years go by, and Elisa's family can find only false leads.

The moving true story of a little girl with Asperger syndrome, controlled and abused by the one person she called her friend. Taylor had always struggled to make friends – she felt ‘different’. Taylor never knew her father and her mother wasn’t around much. She just didn’t understand...

Twenty years undercover - one man's true story of life as an undercover cop. A must-listen for fans of Donnie Brasco. For over 20 years, Joe Carter has worked for the police as an undercover cop. He travelled the globe on different passports. He fraternised with thieves and international drugs and arms dealers. He worked alongside the most dangerous criminals. Always fearing that this life would come crashing down around him at any point.

Brought to you by Pengun. Meet the Wilsons - the deadliest family in crime Brothers Eric, Keith and John Wilson, their cousin Alan, and nephew Luke shared a trade - assassination. Working for Ireland's criminal gangs they brought bloodshed and chaos to the streets. The Wilsons were not choosy...

The Peaky Blinders as we know them, thanks to the hit TV series, are infused with drama and dread. Fashionably dressed, the charismatic but deeply flawed Shelby family have become cult antiheroes. Well-known social historian, broadcaster and author Carl Chinn revealed the true story of the notorious gang in his best-selling Peaky Blinders: The Real Story, and now in this follow-up book, he explores the legacy they created in Birmingham and beyond. What happened to them and their gangland rivals?

For eight years, two outlaw biker clubs fought to control street-level drug sales in Quebec, Canada. The notorious Hell's Angels went up against local drug dealers, the mafia, and a rival biker club, the Rock Machine. Many unfortunate bystanders got caught in the crossfire. When the smoke cleared and dozens of outlaws were arrested, over 150 people were dead. This true-crime book depicts the history of both clubs and the events known as the Quebec Bikers War.

By the spring of 2024, it will be four and a half years since the publication of Chinn's Sunday Times number 1 best-selling Peaky Blinders. The Real Story. Adopting a chronological approach, it covered the origins of Birmingham's backstreet gangs in the late 1860s through the late 20th century. This much-awaited fourth book in the bestselling series, Peaky Blinders: The Real Gangsters and Gangs differs by taking a thematic approach and delves far more deeply into the crimes as well as the political issues at the heart of this pre-war period.

A rich biography of the legendary figure at the center of the century’s darkest secrets: an untold story of Golden Age Hollywood, modern Las Vegas, JFK-era scandal, and international intrigue from Lee Server, the New York Times best-selling author of Ava Gardner: Love Is Nothing.... 

This is the untold story of the American federal agent who captured the world’s most-wanted drug-lord. Every generation has its larger-than-life criminal legend living beyond the reach of the law: Billy the Kid, Al Capone, Ronnie Biggs, Pablo Escobar. But for every one of these criminals...

Widely known in the criminal underworld as the 'Black Widow', Linda Calvey spent the first half of her life running with the UK's top gangsters, robbing banks and rubbing shoulders with the Kray twins. That is, until, in 1990, her lover Robbie Cook was murdered at point-blank, and she found herself falsely convicted. Linda was sent away for decades, and would go on to become Britain's longest-serving female prisoner. This is her story of life inside, and how she learnt to survive the many years she spent behind bars.