Gangsters of Miami: True Tales of Mobsters, Gamblers, Hit Men, Con Men and Gang Bangers from the Magic City [Hardcover]

Ron Chepesiuk (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 16, 2009

This book chronicles gang and gangster history using profiles to tell the rise of the gangster and history of crime in Miami. Known as the Magic City, the book traces gangsters that include the notorious smugglers of the Prohibition era, famous mobsters like Al Capone and Myer Lansky, the Cuban Mafia, the Colombian cartel, the Russian mafia, and the current street gangs that have come to plague Miami after the advent of crack cocaine.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Meet the real Tony Montana's and flinch at their ruthless capacity for extreme violence and murder. Chepesiuk's aptitude for revealing the inner workings of organized crime within a community is once again on display here as the reader is cast into Miami's bloody underbelly. A remarkable achievement by the author. (Steve Morris, Publisher, The New Criminologist )

Chepesiuk provides another fascinating portrait of organized crime in an American city whose uniqueness and location made it a spa for a variety of colorful crimes and criminals. Miami stands as a stark contrast to the comparatively staid underworlds found in the east and Midwest. (Stephen Brodt, Editor, Trends in Organized Crime Journal )

With a sharp eye for detail and a crisp writing style, Ron Chepesiuk peels back the layers of sun-drenched Miami, exposing a history of corruption and crime, stretching from the Mafia to the Colombian cartels to the Russian mob to the little-known Cuban Corporation. It's one of the most complete looks at crime in South Florida. (Scott M. Deitche, author of Balls and Silent Don )

Since the turn of the century, Miami has been a pivotal destination for emerging criminal organizations: the Mafia, Colombian cartels and local street gangs. Ron's latest well written tome, Gangsters of Miami, accurately depicts their dominance, control, and method of operation during Prohibition and their progression to gambling and narcotics. This book is a must read for anyone interested in an historical and colorful account of crime in the Magic City! (Lew Rice - Former Special Agent in Charge, DEA, and author )

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Barricade Books; 1 edition (November 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569803684
• ISBN-13: 978-1569803684
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #646,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ron was a university professor before getting the writing bug. Now he is an award-winning author, two-time Fulbright Scholar recipient to Indonesia and Bangladesh, an adjunct instructor in UCLA's Extension Journalism program and a consultant to the History Channel's "Gangland" documentary series. Ron is the author of twenty-four books and more than 4,000 magazine, newspaper and Internet articles on a wide range of topics, from science to entertainment. His celebrity interviews include Yasser Arafat, Jimmy Carter, Abbie Hoffman, Noam Chomsky, Evander Holyfield, Andy McDowall, and many others. He has been interviewed by the History Channel, Biography Channel, Investigative Discovery, Black Entertainment Television and NBC Dateline and other media.

Among other awards, two of his books, Drugs Lords and Gangsters of Harlem, were selected finalists for Foreword magazine's 2007 True Crime Book of the Year. Gangsters Harlem won honorable mention. A third book, Black Gangsters of Chicago won a silver medal in the Independent Book Publishers Association's 2007 True Crime Book of the Year. Black Gangsters of Chicago also won first place in the African American nonfiction category of the U.S. Book News "Best Books 2007" award. Both "Black Gangsters of Chicago and Gangsters of Harlem were finalists for the award in the true crime category and Drug Lords won honorable mention in the general nonfiction category of the 2008 London Book Festival, while Black Gangsters of Chicago won honorable mention in the 2008 New England Book Festival. Black Gangsters of Chicago also won first place in African American nonfiction category of the 2009 National Indie Excellence Award. Gangsters of Harlem won the award in the True Crime category.

A native of Thunder Bay, Canada, Ron resides in South Carolina when not on assignment around the world. He hopes someday to write an award-winning screenplay based on one of his books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars My Review From planetill.com:, November 25, 2009

By 

Malice Intended (Port St. Lucie, Florida United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gangsters of Miami: True Tales of Mobsters, Gamblers, Hit Men, Con Men and Gang Bangers from the Magic City (Hardcover)

Every American city has its own unique underworld. Depending on how old that city is, its criminal history can be a vast and intricate tapestry. Collecting that history into a single, readable volume that doesn't overwhelm the reader is a Herculean task. Harder still is providing unbiased and accurate information from credible sources. You'd better be a focused and thorough journalist to embark on such an endeavor.

Gangsters of Miami is Ron Chepesiuk's latest book examining the history of crime in a single American city. This time he puts the "Magic City" under the microscope and reveals it to have as rich a tradition in crime (both organized and unorganized) as any other major American city. He also makes it clear that such traditions encompass much more than the oft- publicized "cocaine cowboys" period of the late 1970's and early 1980's.

The opening chapters give a brief but substantial recount of how Miami evolved from mere swampland to a thriving paradise in the late 1800's with the help of wealthy and visionary business people such as Julia Tuttle and Henry Flagler. The opening of Flagler's Royal Palm Hotel signified Miami's beginnings as not only a tourist paradise, but a Mecca of Gambling, bootlegging, and all around corruption.

The book chronicles each era of organized crime in Miami and the kingpins and folk heroes they produced. It shows how Prohibition made legends out of local "Rum Runners" such as Bill McCoy and The Ashley Gang. Al Capone's decision to relocate to Miami starts a migration of mob bosses to the area, forever changing the landscape of crime in the city.

The book describes in painstaking detail how Tampa-based Santo Trafficante Senior acquired control of the rackets in Tampa Florida by forming invaluable alliances with La Cosa Nostra heavyweights like Joe Profaci. He then establishes gambling operations in Cuba with the help of Meyer Lansky.

The book then moves on to Miami's evolution from gambling destination to major drug smuggling port. The counterculture of the 1960's develops America's taste for illicit drugs. That taste shifts from marijuana to cocaine. Fidel Castro defeats the Batista regime and effectively brings an end to the Mob's activity in Cuba. Around the same time, a Cuban Mafia develops in Miami and begins importing large quantities of cocaine with the help of the Italian Mafia.

The book then brings us headlong into the "Cocaine Cowboys" era, during which time Miami became a battle ground for representatives of The Medellin and Kali cartels, who became wealthy by importing cocaine by the metric ton. Here we are introduced to such figures as the infamous "Godmother' Griselda Blanco (whose exploits were also chronicled in the two "Cocaine Cowboys" documentaries) whose exceedingly brutal reign single-handedly helped turn Miami into the murder and cocaine smuggling capitol of America.

The Crack era opens up opportunities for violent street gangs such as The John Does, whose ultimate demise leaves a void that Haitian Gangs like Zoe Pound are only too happy to fill. We learn of the arrival of the Russian Mob after the fall of the Soviet Union, and how gangsters played a major role in developing Miami's current reputation as a celebrity playground and nightclub hotspot.

Gangsters of Miami is a dense and intricate work, but Ron Chepesiuk keeps the veritable raging sea of information navigable with his straightforward writing style. Everything is organized into a focused and steady timeline of events that carries the reader along at a brisk pace. His character profiles are brief but informative, as are his accounts of various crimes and events.

One would have hoped for a chapter on The Jamaican Posse, who also played a significant role in South Florida's drug trade. However, as Gangsters of Miami is already bursting at the seams, such omissions can be forgiven (especially when one considers that the exploits of The Jamaican Posse could very well be a book unto itself).

Gangsters of Miami is a great read for True Crime and history buffs alike. It gives a relatively clear and detailed account of Miami's criminal underworld from the late 1800's to the present and manages to be entertaining without being exploitive. It reveals Miami to be a city with a dual identity, the darker side of which proves to be endlessly fascinating.

[...]

3.0 out of 5 stars Gangsters of Miami, September 6, 2010

By 

Seth Ferranti- Gorilla Convict Publications (MO) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Gangsters of Miami: True Tales of Mobsters, Gamblers, Hit Men, Con Men and Gang Bangers from the Magic City (Hardcover)

I was expecting more stuff on black gangsters like the Boobie Boys and other Miami gangs that Rapper Rick Ross has rhymed about. It has a chapter on the John Does but most it's Italian and Russian mob stories. Still a good book but not like the other books in his gangster series. To read about the Boobie Boys check out Street Legends vol. 2 from Gorilla Convict Publications

3.0 out of 5 stars Miami Undone, February 27, 2010

By 

Miami Goodbye "Long Gone" (SC) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Gangsters of Miami: True Tales of Mobsters, Gamblers, Hit Men, Con Men and Gang Bangers from the Magic City (Hardcover)

This one is not too bad. The proof reader(s) didn't do a thorough job.

Being a former resident of Miami,I do know about some of the crime

problems there.

The crime problem was one of the reasons we left. We DID NOT want our

children to mature in that environment.