Showing titles in Organized Crime

As the last don of the Philadelphia mob, Ralph Natale, the first-ever mob boss to turn state's evidence, provides an insider's perspective on the Mafia. Natale's reign atop the Philadelphia and New Jersey underworlds brought the region's Mafia back to prominence in the 1990s. Smart, savvy, and articulate, Natale came up in the mob and saw firsthand as it hatched its plan to control Atlantic City's casino unions.

In 1986, more people watched “The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vault” than the Superbowl. More people watched the two-hour live event than David Frost’s interview with Richard Nixon. Both events were high-wire, high-reward, high-disaster broadcasts. Geraldo Rivera had been fired from ABC after fifteen years and the live broadcast from Chicago of Al Capone’s vault was to be his comeback. On April 21, 1986, at nine fifteen Eastern, Geraldo gave the signal at the midpoint of the show to blow open the subterranean vault with dynamite and reveal to the world the great secrets of Al Capone...

A gripping narrative of power, corruption and greed, The Mechanism is the true story of how a simple investigation into money laundering uncovered the biggest corruption scandal in human history. When a small team of investigators discovered that a black market currency dealer was operating out of a Brazilian petrol station, they could never have imagined that their work would destroy the government and lead to the impeachment of two presidents. 

Award-winning investigative journalist and contributing Wired editor Scott Carney leads listeners on a breathtaking journey through the macabre underworld of the global body bazaar, where organs, bones, and even live people are bought and sold on The Red Market. The Red Market sheds a blazing new light on the disturbing, billion-dollar business of trading in human body parts, bodies, and child trafficking, raising issues and exposing corruptions almost too bizarre and shocking to imagine.

During the peak of the Somali piracy crisis, three ships - from Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan - were hijacked and then abandoned to their fate by their employers, who lacked the money to pay ransoms. All would still be there, were it not for Colonel John Steed, a retired British military attaché, who launched his own private mission to free them. Author Colin Freeman, who has himself spent time held hostage by Somali pirates, takes listeners on an inside track into the world of hostage negotiation and one man’s heroic rescue mission.

NYPD officers Mike Dowd and Kenny Eurell knew there were two ways to get rich quick in Brooklyn's Lower East Side. You either became drug dealers, or you robbed drug dealers. They decided to do both. Dowd and Eurell ran the most powerful gang in New York's dangerous 75th Precinct, the crack cocaine capitol of 1980s America.

Former Chicago police officer and Outfit associate Fred Pascente is the man who links Tony Spilotro, one of Chicago's most notorious mob figures, to William Hanhardt, chief of detectives in the Chicago Police Department. Pascente and Spilotro grew up together on Chicago's Near West Side, and as young toughs they were rousted and shaken down by Hanhardt.

Since the beginning of civilization, crime and injustice has existed. At the same time, gangs in all shapes and sizes have been around, from rebels, dissidents, and rogue soldiers to the average circle of miscreants loitering in alleys and behind convenience stores. In Japan, a gang of a different breed would arise - one underscored by honor, respect, family, and a code of ethics. They are the Yakuza. The Yakuza claim to be the Robin Hoods of the Far East. While they may lean towards the other side of the law, justice is all they truly aim for.

The true story of super-criminal Jon Roberts, star of the documentary Cocaine Cowboys. American Desperado is Roberts’ no-holds-barred account of being born into Mafia royalty, witnessing his first murder at the age of seven, becoming a hunter-assassin in Vietnam, returning to New York to...

Smedley D. Butler (1881–1940), the most decorated officer in U.S. military history, including two Medals of Honor, wrote a searing critique in War is a Racket. Drawing from his service in conflicts from the Spanish-American War to World War I, he exposed how wars enriched corporations, bankers, and industrialists while soldiers and civilians bore the devastating costs. With unflinching candor, Butler revealed the profiteering motives behind global conflicts, delivering a timeless call for peace.

A Criminal and an Irishman is the story of Pat Nee's life as an Irish immigrant and Southie son, a Marine, a convicted IRA gun smuggler, and a former violent rival and then associate of Whitey Bulger. His narrative transports the listener into the criminal underworld, inside planning and preparation for an armored car heist, inside gang wars and revenge killings.

In 1945, US intelligence officers in Manila discovered that the Japanese had hidden large quantities of gold bullion and other looted treasure in the Philippines. President Truman decided to recover the gold but to keep its riches secret. These, combined with Japanese treasure recovered during the US occupation, and with recovered Nazi loot, would create a worldwide American political action fund to fight communism. 

From its inception, Atlantic City has always been a town dedicated to the fast buck, and this wide-reachinghistory offers a riveting account of its past 100 year, from the city's heyday as a Prohibition-era mecca of lawlessness to its rebirth as a legitimate casino resort in the modern era.

La cocaina: la merce più usata, trafficata, desiderata del nostro tempo. Le infinite vie del narcotraffico, dal Messico alle spiagge di Miami, dalla Colombia alla Russia, dall'Africa alle strade di Milano, New York, Parigi. Il viaggio di un grande scrittore nei gironi infernali del mondo contemporaneo, dove la ferocia dilaga incontrastata ma i boss hanno imparato tutte le regole più sofisticate del business. Uno straordinario romanzo-verità.

From a onetime white-supremacist leader now working to disengage people from extremist movements, Breaking Hate is a "riveting" (James Clapper), "groundbreaking" (Malcolm Nance), "horrifying [but] hopeful" (S.E. Cupp) exploration of how to heal a nation reeling from hate and violence. Today's...

As co-founder and CEO of Dark Watch, author Noel Thomas has led United States law enforcement and the judicial system into the new battleground, where high-tech data analysis is changing how criminals are caught and prosecuted. Dark Traffic arrives on a new wave of media attention and actions at the federal, state, and local government levels, and informs listeners how they can play a role in identifying and helping stop trafficking that occurs in their own neighborhood. Noel’s story of how he became aware of the issue is proof.

The Crossing is a groundbreaking, unprecedented look inside the UK's newest and most chilling underworld. Wensley Clarkson's insider account reveals the emergence of numerous organised crime networks more powerful and violent than anything ever seen before in this country. These often foreign gangs run elaborate international systems dealing in drugs, people smuggling, prostitution and money laundering, and they have gained a huge foothold in the UK underworld thanks to The Crossing.

Twenty year-old ‘Melodie’, a recent convert to Islam, meets the leader of an Islamist brigade on Facebook. In 48 hours he has ‘fallen in love’ with her, calls her day and night, urges her to marry him, join him in Syria to enjoy a life of paradise – and join his jihad. Discover how...

Three years after undercover agent Robert Mazur infiltrated Pablo Escobar's Medellín drug cartel, he re-emerged, a half-million-dollar bounty still on his head, with a new identity for a risky new sting. Deployed to Panama, he worked, travelled, partied and washed millions with Central America's criminal elite. Partnered with a DEA task force agent, Mazur slipped effortlessly into Colombia's notorious Cali drug cartel. Robert Mazur's riveting true story exposes the corruption at the heart of one of the most explosive undercover missions of his career.

‘Michael is living proof that love always has the power to bring you home.’ Charlie Mackesy ‘A cracking read. Really gets to the bottom of the madness of a man fighting his demons.’ Ray Winstone ‘His life may have had its ups and downs, but it is wonderful example of God’s...