Customer Reviews

Masters of Paradise: Organied Crime and the Internal Revenue Service in the Bahamas

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The second half of the book is much better documented than the first half. Much of the information on Paradise Island is slightly erroneous and there is little talk of the development of the Paradise Island Bridge that made the island accessible.

The background on Wallace Groves and Freeport is sketchy and laden with accusations of his criminality. He owned several finance companies in the late 1920's which he sold to Abe Pritzker and then was involved in taking over Celotex, Certainteed Products, Hahn Department Stores (name changed to Allied Stores), United Cigar-Whelan Drugs, Loft's Candies and then Pepsi. His criminality only came when he was prosecuted under the Investment Company Act of 1940. After serving time, he returned to an office at Pepsi and then moved to the Bahamas where he bought most of Grand Bahama Island.

However, the author does analyze Robert Vesco and the later times very well.

Well documented and presented. Knowing the main characters made this especially chilling. I had lost my copy of this book and was quite pleased to get this copy.