The First Family: Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder, and the Birth of the American Mafia

By Mike Dash

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The roots of the Mafia lie in Sicily, but one man—Giuseppe Morello—is primarily responsible for the rise of organized crime in the U.S. Morello, known as the Clutch Hand due to a physical deformity, came to the U.S. during the last decade of the 19th century during a boom of Italian immigration. Morello’s cruelty and cunning may be the stuff of legend, but the events chronicled in the book are all true.

Organized crime has had a surprising impact on American popular culture, and The First Family gives readers a unique look at the people who first brought the Mafia to prominence. Dash relied heavily on primary sources in his research, including some previously-unreleased material from the U.S. Secret Service. His goal was to write a historically-accurate book that would debunk some of the commonly-accepted myths about the rise of the Mafia, and he has accomplished just that. A must-read for Mafia and true-crime aficionados.