Carmen Calderone is a Trenton-born resident of Ewing. He is also the author of “The History of Sicily and the Mafia.”
Weighing in at 246 pages, the book printed via Amazon delivers a brief overview of the Italian island, whose human history reaches back to 14000 B.C., and a series of outlines of various Mafia families that work as a quick and informative index, rather than a narrative account.
In other words, the book that includes a section on New Jersey and Trenton area mobsters skips the idea of being a “good read” and jumps to being a reference for those interested in the topic, perhaps like Calderone, who notes the following in his introduction:
In the area of New Jersey where I grew up, organized crime had its presence in two separate families. The men of these families were always well dressed and treated people to various things. In other words, they had money to spare, whereas my father, who always worked hard for a living, never really seemed to have money to spare, although we were probably the average middle class of the 1940s. If you saw an older Italian person, well dressed, driving a fairly new car, with many people showing him extraordinary respect, someone would always say, “Well he’s connected” and you knew what that meant.
I grew interested in this phenomenon. I would read in the newspapers about Frank Costello or Lucky Luciano and others. As a young, impressionable boy, my interest developed further.
There came a point in the 1950s when I started to realize that some of these men were getting arrested and going to jail for long terms. It didn’t seem all that glamorous any more. That’s when I said to myself, “I better improve.” So I went to junior college at night, while I worked during the day.
In 1956 I started to keep track of everything I heard and read. I started to pay more attention to the increase in members of organized crime who were frequently killing each other. It wasn’t what I wanted for my future.
This is one of the reasons why, when I could find the date of birth and the date of death, for a crime figure, I list it. Young men who may be considering an organized crime lifestyle should note the difference between the dates of birth and death listed here. They will find that a very high percentage of these men died young. Even when they weren’t murdered, they still died fairly young. It is no wonder with the pressure they must have been under, not only from various law enforcement agencies, but from other Organized Crime members as well.
In the 21st century organized crime won’t consist solely of Italians or Jews, but mobs such as, from Japan (the “AKUZA”), from China (the “TRIADDS”), and the Russian Mafia, who deal in nuclear weapons, among other things. This book provides the names of the cities that organized together in 1931 and the chronological order in which their hierarchy reigned along with their predecessors and some independent groups.
The following are the alleged, reputed names that have been accused, considered, suspected and assumed, coming up in the media, TV, radio, books, magazines, newspapers, etc., over the last hundred years. Prior to 1931, the names listed may be considered Black Handers and/or Mafiosi. The word Associate can also be used as Soldier or Member.
The order in which these groups are listed is from Northeast, starting with New England, moving West to San Francisco, then out of the country to Montreal, Canada, and Sicily.
The History of Sicily and the Mafia, Carmen Calderone, 246 pages, $16.99, available on Amazon.
