August 6, 2015
Thursday
Reader Jim Walmsley of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania emailed me his observations about
the recent AMC-TV eight-part one-hour series The Making Of The Mob: New York that ran from June into August 2015.
He said, "I have been reading your book - 30 Illegal Years, as I have also been
watching the weekly show "Making of the Mob" on AMC. That show's
timeline, etc. is about the same as your book. However - there are so many
absolute contradictions. The TV show doesn't acknowledge the widepread
corruption in government at all. That shows puts ALL of the blame on the mob
and the members."
I explained to Jim the reasons for the many incredible
differences between the advertised "authentic" TV series and my book.
"Thank you for taking the time to email me about my book 30 Illegal Years To The Strip. You can
systematically confirm every fact I learned in my lifelong historical research
because my book contains 546 endnotes of all my sources that are detailed in 41
pages. The date of every important event is listed along with extensive
timelines of interrelated dates. Much of the information about New York gang activities and the city's politics came
from the New York Times, and most
about these activities in Chicago came from the Chicago Tribune. Thus, you can quickly confirm
most facts by looking up the dates in one of these two newspapers' archived
files, which are offered to the public on the internet for inspection. I
believe you will find my presentations are highly accurate based on the
investigative reports presented in these two newspapers and the many other
sources that I used such as FBI files.
"This type of analysis using the dates presented in my
endnotes will also expose the many gross inaccuracies presented in AMC's
eight-part series The Making Of The Mob:
New York that you refer to. The specific evidence collected at the crime
scene is where effective detective work and true-crime analysis begins, but
this series depicts one gangland murder after another very inaccurately. If you
study the facts contained in the police reports, autopsies, coroner inquests,
and newspaper investigative reports, you will find that most of the murders in
this TV series suffer from one or more of the following forensic errors. They
are at the wrong time of day, in an improper location, have an incorrect number
of shooters and/or gunshots, and/or the wounds are inflicted to wrong parts of
the body. If essential details of the killings are incorrect, how can anyone
rely on the suppositions presented about the complex subjects of properly
assigning guilt and determining motivation?
"This TV series is filled with many incredibly
incorrect statements, and each should have raised a glaring red flag to anyone
who claims to be an expert about the early history of organized crime. For
example, in that era, there was no federal statute against murder, except for
the killing of a federal law-enforcement agent. Yet, the AMC TV series has FBI
Director J. Edgar Hoover investigating
three local murders over which the Justice Department had no jurisdiction to
prosecute, and the FBI's files demonstrate that agents never investigated.
Then, in Luciano's prostitution trial, AMC dramatizes the gangster's testimony
and Prosecutor Tom Dewey's statements to the jurors, but their words on TV are
the exact opposite to what they actually said in the courtroom, as reported not
only in the New York Times, but also
in the book by Dewey's career-long publicist Hickman Powell (Lucky Luciano: The Man Who Organized Crime
in America). Even though Dewey was the lead prosecutor in Manhattan
in New York County
(or Borough), AMC has him prosecuting three cases in Brooklyn in King County,
which had a different DA. Not only did Dewey have no jurisdiction in King County,
but the records of these Brooklyn prosecutions
demonstrate that Dewey had no participation in these trials. The AMC series
also has Meyer Lansky building new casinos in Havana
a decade before Cuba
allowed them. AMC states that New York's Ben
Siegel led the huge extortion of the Hollywood movie studios, but the unions
that directed these shakedowns were under the sole control of the Chicago gang. The leaders
of these unions and the studio owners testified against the Chicago-gang thugs
regarding every aspect of the extortion, leaving no conceivable role for
Siegel. And the list of well-documented serious errors presented in this AMC TV
series goes on, and on, and on with this type of gross misinformation.
"You should also consider the veracity of the sources
AMC relied on for this series. Not one person who was quoted had been born when
these events occurred, and AMC does not explain how any of them learned
anything about what they were talking about. AMC used a number of actors who
appeared in fictional mobster films; a few organized-crime authors, including
the co-author of The Last Will and Testament
of Lucky Luciano, which the nation's press proved was a complete fraud
before it was even published; a federal prosecutor, even though it was the IRS
and local prosecutors rather than the FBI and Justice Department who brought
down these gang leaders; and a former mob associate who would not have known
any of the characters discussed in this series. Finally, extensive law
enforcement investigations and criminal trial testimonies prove that many of
AMC's assertions about some of the key characters are totally untrue, including
AMC's even placing some top mobsters in the wrong New York gangs."
Jim's reply to me said, "Thanks so much for your
detailed response in regard to the glaring discrepancies between your
book and the AMC series. I did, often times as I was reading the book and
then again after I completed the book, read all of the end notes and sources
you cited. That was a very helpful addition to your work. The endnotes which I
referred back to as I was reading were also valuable as your book wasn't
an "easy read" - that isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just that
in today's world of most people wanting things to be simple and
immediate your book required some thought and I found myself rereading and
referring to the endnotes for further explanation.
"I have passed my copy on to an employee of mine and
have recommended the book to several others that I know have an interest on the
subject. I encourage those who find themselves watching the AMC series to read
your book, 30 Illegal Years. I am disappointed and a bit sad when shows like
"Making of the Mob" are able to present "history" so
inaccurately. ... Feel free to use my questions and comments in your blog. I am
interested to read the views of others as well.
