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In 1919, the National Prohibition Act was passed, making it illegal across America to produce, distribute, or sell liquor. With this act, the U.S. Congress also created organized crime as we know it. Italian, Jewish, and Irish mobs sprang up to supply the suddenly illegal commodity to the millions of people still eager to drink it. Men like Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky, Dutch Schultz and Bugsy Siegel, Al Capone in Chicago and Nucky Johnson in Atlantic City, waged a brutal war for power in the streets and on the waterfronts. But if you think you already know this story...think again, since you've never seen it through the eyes of one of the mobsters who lived it.
Called "one of the most significant organized crime figures in the United States" by the U.S. District Attorney, Vincent "Jimmy Blue Eyes" Alo was just 15 years old when Prohibition became law. Over the next decade, Alo would work side by side with Lansky and Luciano as they navigated the brutal underworld of bootlegging, thievery and murder. Alo's later career included prison time and the ultimate Mob tribute: being immortalized as "Johnny Ola" in The Godfather, Part II.
Introduced to the 91-year-old Alo living in retirement in Florida, Dylan Struzan based this book on more than 50 hours of recorded testimony—stories Alo had never shared, and that he forbid her to publish until "after I'm gone." Alo died, peacefully, two months short of his 97th birthday. And now his stories—bracing and violent, full of intrigue and betrayal, hunger and hubris—can finally be told.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
April 16, 2019 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781785657719
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781785657719
- File size: 7724 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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February 18, 2019
Based on a series of interviews with gangster Jimmy Alo (1904–2001) in his old age, Struzan’s first novel takes a sweeping look at the Prohibition era from 1920 to 1933. The narrative focuses on friends and business partners Charlie Luciano and Meyer Lansky, but it also includes a large cast of lesser-known Italian, Jewish, and Irish mobsters fighting for a piece of the pie made possible by prohibition. If this version of the familiar story of bootlegging, rumrunning, cargo heists, and rub-outs in the streets lacks the soaring soap operatic grandeur of Mario Puzo’s novels or the superb characterizations of The Sopranos, it holds its chunk of turf with sheer energy. Readers will know how it all plays out, but hanging with Scarface, Lucky, Bugs, and the gang is always fun. The text includes illustrations by movie poster artist Drew Struzan, the author’s husband. Just in time for the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 18th Amendment, this crime saga thunders along with the authority of an erupting Tommy gun -
May 24, 2019
[DEBUT] For her first novel, Struzan sat down with an aging Vincent Alo, famed member of the American mafia during its formative years, and interviewed him extensively about how the 1920s street gangs he ran with rose from petty crime to lords of the international criminal underworld, responsible for stealing millions of dollars and thousands of lives. Alo recounts his dealings with legendary figures such as Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and even Al Capone, all framed as brief vignettes from the memory of a dying mobster, interspersed with the author's movie poster illustrator husband Drew Struzan's stylish artwork. Alo's memories don't have much drama or insight attached to them, and the lack of an overarching narrative or historical context of this important and influential segment of American history lessens the work. VERDICT Scholars and hard-core fans of American mafia history will sift through these stories to find the occasional gem; however, the work isn't compelling or satisfying enough for leisure readers who can find a better account of the period elsewhere.--Gregg Winsor, Johnson Cty. Lib., Overland Park, KS
Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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