Boston Organized Crime

Book excerpt: Boston has had its share of bookies and loan sharks, gangsters and wiseguys, hoodlums and hit men. From the Great Brink's Robbery, which was hailed as the crime of the century; to the long-forgotten Cotton Club in Roxbury, where the legendary nightlife kingpin Charlie "King" Solomon was gunned down; to the infamous Blackfriars Massacre, a brutal gangland slaying that left five men dead, slumped over a backgammon game in a cramped basement office--all of these dark moments in time are a part of Boston's history that is rarely spoken about. Boston Organized Crime explores the region's shadier side and takes a closer look at the mobsters and racketeers who once operated in the Greater Boston area. Drawing upon an eclectic collection of crime scene photographs, mug shots, and police documents, author Emily Sweeney takes readers on an eye-opening journey through Boston's underworld, from the bootlegging days of Prohibition to the bloody gangland wars of the 1960s.