The First Family - Terror, Extortion and The Birth of the American Mafia.
When William Flynn of the US Secret Service raided Giuseppe Morello's Manhattan apartment on 15 November 1909, he was hunting for the man who had put $100,000 of forged currency into circulation. What he found was something far more terrifying: the first boss of bosses of the American Mafia, a ruthless gangster from the fabled stronghold of Corleone in Sicily who overcame the deformities that earned him the nickname The Clutch Hand' and made himself the founding father of organised crime.
Backed by the murderous relatives who helped to run his criminal family, Morello built himself a business empire, and had his own private graveyard where as many as 60 of his enemies were buried. Had it not been for Morello, New York might never have heard of 'Men of Honour, ruthless protection rackets and bizarre initiation rituals. William Flynn pursued the First Family for a decade, painstakingly building up a case.
But not even he could prevent them from spawning the Mafia that exists today.
Mike Dash is a master of atmospheric historical narrative. He exhumes the long-forgotten story of the Morello family from archives across the US and Italy. The First Family is a ground-breaking piece of history that explains how a ruthless, maimed
Sicilian became the most influential crime lord in the United States.