The rise of the Sicilian Mafia, from its beginnings in Sicily as a system of rural self-help to its position at the head of organised crime throughout Europe and the United States, is a shocking and sensational story. During the years of Prohibition, the gangs of Al Capone and Lucky Luciano littered the streets of Chicago and New York with corpses, intimidated honest citizens and bribed high-ranking police and politicians. More sophisticated mobsters like Frank Costello and Meyer Lansky built underworld empires out of prostitution, gambling syndicates and drug distribution, the tentacles of which now reach worldwide. Acclaimed author Joe Pieri reveals the many arms of this octopus of crime, disentangling the rackets, feuds, business and political chicanery that made it what it is today. He describes how, in Italy, seven-times President Giulio Andreotti was convicted of association with the Mafia, while the Vatican Bank became involved with a huge Mafia money-laundering operation which may have led to the murder of Pope John Paul I. In America, strong evidence suggests that President John F. Kennedy's crackdown on organised crime led to Mafia involvement in his assassination. In exposing the bloodstained annals of the Mafia, Pieri also pays tribute to the policemen and legislators, from speakeasy-busting Eliot Ness in Chicago to the murdered Judge Giovanni Falcone in Sicily, who have had the courage to stand up for law-abiding citizens and to resist Mafia intimidation. źródło opisu: Mercat Press, 2007 źródło okładki: http://www.birlinn.co.uk/The-Octopus-9781841831275.html