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Organized crime was born in the back of a fruit store in Marion. Before America saw headlines about the Capone Mob, the Purple Gang and Murder Inc., the specter of the Black Hand terrorized nearly every major city.

Fears that the Mafia had reached our shores and infiltrated every Italian immigrant community kept police alert and citizens on edge. It was only a matter of time before these professed Robin Hoods formed a band. And when they did, the eyes of the world turned to Ohio, particularly when the local Black Hand outfit known as the Society of the Banana went on trial. Authors David Meyers and Elise Meyers Walker unfold this first and nearly forgotten chapter on crime syndicate history.

They are the dirty little secrets of Cleveland's past, mob guys so good--or so bad--that you rarely hear their stories. Men such as Micky McBride turned newsboys into sluggers, gave bookies a run for suckers' losing bets and created the Cleveland Browns when football was still a sport the players knew how to win. There was the Jewish Navy, taking laundry trucks to Canada and bringing back barges filled with booze. Then there were the rug joints--the Harvard Club, the Beverly Hills Club, the Mounds Club--where Moe Dalitz mastered the art of taking your money and helped build Las Vegas, the best "man trap" in America. Join author Ted Schwarz as he tracks wanted killers through the Statler Hotel and navigates the secret history of the Cleveland mob.

The last Public Enemy No. 1 of the Depression era, Alvin "Creepy" Karpis reportedly compiled a record of fifty-four aliases, fifteen bank robberies, fourteen murders, three jailbreaks and two kidnappings.

His criminal career came to an end when J. Edgar Hoover and his famed G-Men apprehended the man they wanted more than any other in New Orleans. From there, Karpis found himself confined on Alcatraz Island, where he spent nearly twenty-six years - more than any inmate in the prison's history. Historian Julie Thompson tells the true story of Karpis's life and career, a riveting tale taking readers from rural Kansas and Ohio to the bustling streets of the Big Easy and into the bleak innards of "the Rock."

In the early 1900s, a criminal society known as the Black Hand became feared across the United States as it extorted hardworking immigrants. In 1908, Agostino Iannarino received a series of threatening letters, and when he refused to pay, a bomb exploded at the entrance of his Columbus home. His family fled to Sicily, only to continue receiving threats. The following year, U.S. Post Office inspectors learned that a Black Hand gang called the Society of the Banana was headquartered in Marion, Ohio, and authorities attempted to put an end to the violent outrages occurring across the Midwest. Revealing twenty-four extortion letters written by members of the Society of the Banana, author Shane W. Croston details factual and fatal accounts of the Black Hand.