Jr Reynolds: 516 books

Extortion and Fake Labor Unions worked hand in hand in a scheme concocted by Solomon "Sol" Massarsky, two private detectives and a well known lawyer. The men banded together in a attempt to defraud Wheelan Studios of money in 1943. Picketing the Manhattan offices of the business the extortionists had succeeded in coercing a payment of $1,000 before they were arrested by police detectives.

Johnny Guista was a powerful force behind the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) in the years before his death in May 1931. Guistra was from Calabria like Carmelo Liconti, his partner in the undertaking business. Liconti and Guistra attempted to broker a halt to the Castellammarese...

Paolo Antonio Vaccarelli aka Paul Kelly was a notorious gang leader in New York City beginning in the 1890s. The son of Italian immigrants he legally changed his name to Paul Kelly when he became involved in political and labor issues that concerned the Irish population of the city. Kelly propped...

Al Capone moved into union racketeering in 1920s, one of many Mafia bosses who did so. Three Capone surrogates were murdered in cold blood in the Blue Hour Saloon on April 20, 1930. A single assassin was responsible for all three deaths. The murders represented a rupture in the peace agreement in...

A badly charred Frank Kierdorf entered St. Joseph's Mercy Hospital in Pontiac, Michigan in the early morning hours of Monday, August 4, 1958. Burned over 85% of his body, the wounded man lived for nearly four days. During this time he maintained a story that he'd been abducted by captors who took...

Medico Industries is a defense contractor formerly based in Pittston, Pennsylvania. It was later relocated to Wilkes-Barre. The period I have written about is from 1957 until the early 1970s. William Medico was chairman of the board and his brother Phil was a significant player in the organization....

Joe Profaci was head of a large empire that centered on olive oil importation. He had briefly become involved in bootlegging in the late 1920s before he was rounded up with other mobsters in a Cleveland hotel in 1928. His Mafia baronage included loan sharking and jukebox rackets. Before the early...

Babe Triscaro was a pugilist who won a Gold Gloves boxing title as a flyweight in 1931. He became an important figure in the Teamsters Union, rising to the second ranking position in the state of Ohio. My e-book discusses Babe's contraband venture, specifically his attempted sale of military...

The Chevrolet Corvair had a tempestuous life fraught with long-lasting defects throughout its production years from 1960-May 1969. The small and sporty car was introduced at a stockholders meeting in May 1959. It was designed to compete against the small cars that were taking a considerable amount...

Clotilde Marchand, the wife of Henri Marchand and an accomplished painter in her own right was murdered inside her Buffalo, New York home in 1930. A Seneca Indian woman confessed to killing her in a brutal manner, using a hammer to hit her over the head. The investigation into the murder revealed...

Anthony Carfano, aka Little Augie Pisano, died on the streets of Astoria Heights, Queens on September 26, 1959. He was accompanied by Janice Drake, a former Miss New Jersey, who was married to comedian Allan Drake. Some four years later the murders remained unsolved. Little Augie had grown up with...

Bridget Rose Dugdale was a debutante before the Queen of England in 1958. Her father was an executive with Lloyd's of London and her mother was a wealthy woman whose family grew rich on cotton. Rose Dugdale earned advanced degrees in economics and philosophy. During the student revolt of 1968...

‘Planet Stories’ was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published between 1939 and 1955. It featured interplanetary adventures, both in space and on other planets, and managed to obtain work from well-known names, including Isaac Asimov and Clifford Simak. In 1952 ‘Planet’ published...

Meyer Lansky ran a gambling casino in Ballston Spa, Saratoga County, New York in the 1950s. His partner, Joseph "Doc" Stacher, was a Ukranian-Jewish immigrant who was raised in New York City near Lansky and Bugsy Siegel. Stacher was also a silent partner in the Sands Hotels casino and other...