Summary Of The History Of Organized Crime In America By David Critchley

In his book The Origin of Organized Crime in America, David Critchley states that his goal in writing this work is to dispel any popularized myths that the public had surrounding the Mafia. He thinks that, “ the history of the phenomenon of organized crime in American society contains many pitfalls, although none quite so precarious as the presence of a standard historiography” (pg. 239). Critchley believes that the media and historical accounts have created this image of the Mafia as this hierarchy of gangsters and murderers wreaking havoc in New York City and he believes that it is his duty to try and change that. He investigates the lives of many well known gangsters, and even some little known ones, additionally he examines documents from

For example Critchley not only chronicles the life and impact of Charles “Lucky” Luciano, thought by many to have been the father of organized crime in America but also the man responsible for splitting the New York City Mafia into five families, but also minor Mafia members such as Aniello “The Gimp” Prisco. While Critchley spent a bit too much time analyzing the lives and impact of certain “Mafiosi” he did so for a specific purpose. He did so in order to reveal an inner and complex array of connections within the Mafia based upon marriage, place of birth, whether or not they had Sicilian ancestry and the strength of their neighborhood ties. He pointed out that the Mafia had more of a network of connectedness instead of the popular opinion of a centralized and organized

One thing that he does is that he writes all of Origin of Organized Crime in America, through a very scholarly voice. This would be one point that would have prevented someone with the intent of casually reading it to veer away. However it doesn’t seem as though Critchley wanted this work to be read for casual enjoyment, but rather as a sort of comprehensive history of the Mafia that can be looked upon by scholars and crime historians. Additionally Critchley’s title is sort of misleading because one would assume that the book is centered around the narrative of the origin of the Mafia in New York City, but rather he speaks about the rise of the Mafia and states that they had already been established before the narrative begins. On the contrary, a strength of this book is its attention to detail regarding the lives of “the mobsters” that he covers. Through his extensive research he paints a clear portrait of every person that he speaks of. Furthermore he enhances these portraits through numerous pictures to provide a face or scene for the event or person that he is