The First Family: Giuseppe Morello and the Birth of the American Mafia

Long before the "Five Families" took control of the criminal underworld of New York, it was ruled unchallenged by the "boss of bosses" Giuseppe Morello. Mike Dash resurrects the little-known history of the birth of the American Mafia at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. This is a story spanning three decades, covering everything from the villages of Sicily to the streets of Little Italy. Using a colossal amount of never-before-published sources - archives of secret services, prison records, and interviews with surviving members of the Mafia Families, Dash created a unique work that details how Italian ethnic crime originated in the US, almost bringing the entire American justice system to its knees.