Rocco Perri

Author : Antonio Nicaso
Publisher : Mississauga, Ont. : J. Wiley & Sons Canada
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : IND:30000092779846

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Rocco Perri by Antonio Nicaso Pdf

Rocco Perri came to Canada almost a century ago from Calabria, Italy. Even today his name is well known to historians, police and organized crime—and especially to the people of the city he called home—Hamilton, Ontario. A poor immigrant, Perri along with his common-law wife, Bessie Starkman, built an unequalled crime empire for the time. During the Prohibition years, Perri provided alcohol to a thirsty clientele in Canada and the United States—a business that was very illegal and highly lucrative. Al Capone and Joseph Kennedy were among Perri’s customers. The Perris also ran gambling, loan-sharking, extortion and prostitution rackets. ROCCO PERRI: King of the Bootleggers is more than the biography of a man and his empire; it is a riveting portrait of a time when corruption was rampant, murder a business necessity, and discrimination against newcomers forced many to turn to crime as a means of survival. This book also solves a half-century-long mystery about the fate of Rocco Perri.

Author : Trevor Cole
Publisher : HarperCollins
Page : 528 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2017-04-11
Category : True Crime
ISBN : 9781443442251

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The Whisky King by Trevor Cole Pdf

“True-crime writing at its finest.” —Dean Jobb, author of Empire of Deception A rich and fascinating history of Canada’s first celebrity mobster, Rocco Perri—King of the Bootleggers—and the man who pursued him, Canada’s first undercover Mountie, for readers of Erik Larson, Dean Jobb and Charlotte Gray At the dawn of the 20th century, two Italian men arrived in Canada amid waves of immigration. One, Rocco Perri, from southern Italy, rose from the life of a petty criminal on the streets of Toronto to running the most prominent bootlegging operation of the Prohibition era, taking over Hamilton and leading one of the country’s most influential crime syndicates. Perri was feared by his enemies and loved by the press, who featured him regularly in splashy front-page headlines. So great was his celebrity that, following the murder of his wife and business partner, Bessie Starkman, a crowd of 30,000 thronged the streets of Hamilton for her funeral. Perri’s businesses—which included alcohol, drugs, gambling and prostitution—kept him under constant police surveillance. He caught the interest of one man in particular, the other arrival from Italy, Frank Zaneth. Zaneth, originally from the Italian north, joined the RCMP and became its first undercover investigator—Operative No. 1. Zaneth’s work took him across the country, but he was dogged in his pursuit of Rocco Perri and worked for his arrest until the day Perri was last seen, in 1944, when he disappeared without a trace. With original research and masterful storytelling, Cole details the fascinating rise to power of a notorious Prohibition-era Canadian crime figure twinned with the life of the man who pursued him.

Author : Bill Freeman
Publisher : James Lorimer & Company
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2006-10-14
Category : History
ISBN : 1550289365

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Hamilton: A People's History by Bill Freeman Pdf

Pioneers, soldiers, merchants, murderers, workers and bosses--all contributed to the colourful history of the tough, attractive city of Hamilton. Popular historian Bill Freeman tells the story of the city from the time of its earliest habitation through the War of 1812, on to its heyday as a major manufacturing centre. The key roles that the railway and Hamilton's spectacular geography played in the city's development are fully described, and the many forceful personalities who shaped Hamilton's history are brought to life. Bill Freeman's lively account superbly balances social, political, and labour themes to give the reader a deep understanding of the city's past. The product of extensive research, illustrated with over 200 contemporary and archival images, Hamilton: A People's History offers a vivid portrait of one of Ontario's most prosperous and appealing cities.

Author : Morley Callaghan
Publisher : Exile Editions, Ltd.
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN : 1550966138

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Strange Fugitive by Morley Callaghan Pdf

Originally published in New York in 1928, this book announced the coming of the urban novel in Canada through the story of Harry Trotter--a "hero” who cannot escape his tendancy toward brutality. Incapable of reflection, he does not realize that he has become a thug, believing instead that if he feels good, things must be right.

Author : Stephen Schneider
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 657 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2009-12-09
Category : True Crime
ISBN : 9780470835005

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Iced by Stephen Schneider Pdf

"You're lucky he didn't have an ice pick in his hands. I know how this guy performs." -Mobster Paul Volpe speaking about a Buffalo-mafia enforcer named "Cicci" Canada is lauded the world over as a law abiding, peaceful country - a shining example to all nations. Such a view, also shared by most Canadians, is typically naïve and misinformed. Throughout its history, to present day and beyond, Canada has been and will continue to be home to criminals and crime organizations that are brilliant at finding ways to make money - a lot of money - illegally. Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada is a remarkable parallel history to the one generally accepted and taught in our schools. Organized crime has had a significant impact on the shaping of this country and the lives of its people. The most violent and thuggish - outlaw motorcycle gangs like Hells Angels - have been raised to mythic proportions. The families who owned distilleries during Prohibition, such as the Bronfmans, built vast fortunes that today are vested in corporate holdings. The mafia in Montreal created and controlled the largest heroin and cocaine smuggling empire in the world, feeding the insatiable appetite of our American neighbours. Today, gangs are laying waste the streets of Vancouver, and "BC bud" flows into the U.S. as the marijuana of choice. Organized crime is as old as this nation's founding, with pirates ravaging the east coast, even as hired guns by colonial governments. Since our nation's earliest times, government and crime groups have found that collusion can have its mutual benefits. Comprehensive, informative and entertaining - as you will discover in the remarkable period pieces devised by the author and the illustrations commissioned specially for this book - Iced is a romp across the nation and across the centuries. In these pages you will meet crime groups that are at once sordid and inept, yet resourceful entrepreneurs and self-proclaimed champions of the underdog, who operate in full sight of their communities and the law. This is the definitive book on organized crime in Canada, and a unique contribution to our understanding of Canadian history.

Author : Margaret Houghton
Publisher : James Lorimer & Company
Page : 164 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2003-10-22
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1550288040

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The Hamiltonians by Margaret Houghton Pdf

The Hamiltonians is a collection of stories about the most interesting and influential people who made Hamilton their home. These tales are told by some of the city's most expert writers.

Author : C. W. Hunt
Publisher : Dundurn
Page : 195 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 1996-07-26
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781550022490

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Whisky and Ice by C. W. Hunt Pdf

During the 1920s, Ben Kerr was known as the ?King of the Rumrunners” and was put at the top of the most wanted list by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Author : Charlie Angus
Publisher : Between The Lines
Page : 159 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : Electronic books
ISBN : 9781896357492

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Mirrors of Stone by Charlie Angus Pdf

Mirrors of Stone delves into the many ethnic cultures that thrived in the mining areas of Northern Ontario from the 1920s to the 1960s. The stormy history of hardrock mining camps has never fit into the comfortable cliches by which Canada tells its story. Angus unearths the dark sides of this history-the wild tales of bootleggers, mobsters, and prostitution rings' and in so doing opens up new ways of seeing Ontario's history and culture. This is Angus' third work on the economic and cultural history of Northern Ontario, and the second collaboration between Angus and Louie Palu. We Lived a Life and Then Some (BTL, 1996) tells the marvelous story of Cobalt, Ontario, and Industrial Cathedrals of the North (BTL, 1999) portrays in images and words the ghostly mining structures now largely abandoned in the north.

Author : Edward Butts
Publisher : Dundurn
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2008-02-12
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1770704949

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Running With Dillinger by Edward Butts Pdf

This book picks up where The Desperate Ones: Canada’s Forgotten Outlaws left off. Here are more remarkable true stories about Canadian crimes and criminals — most of them tales that have been buried for years. The stories begin in colonial Newfoundland, with robbery and murder committed by the notorious Power Gang. As readers travel across the country and through time, they will meet the last two men to be hanged in Prince Edward Island, smugglers who made lake Champlain a battleground, a counterfeiter whose bills were so good they fooled even bank managers, and teenage girls who committed murder in their escape from jail. They will meet the bandits who plundered banks and trains in Eastern Canada and the West, and even the United States. Among them were Same Behan, a robber whose harrowing testimony about the brutal conditions in the Kingston Penitentiary may have brought about his untimely death in "The Hole"; and John "Red" Hamilton, the Canadian-born member of the legendary Dillinger gang.

Author : Margaret Houghton
Publisher : James Lorimer & Company
Page : 140 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2002-10-22
Category : History
ISBN : 1550287737

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Hamilton Street Names by Margaret Houghton Pdf

Beach Boulevard, Mud Street, Sulphur Springs Road, Paradise Road, the Jolley Cut -- street names are a vivid and living embodiment of a city's history, of the dreams, passions and workaday concerns of its citizens. Love, murder, betrayal, political intrigue -- all are present in this engaging new book about Hamilton's past. Most Hamiltonians know that MacNab Street was named after Allan Napier MacNab, a famous native son, but who were the people who gave their names to James, King or Barton streets, Fennell Avenue, or Kitty Murray Lane? Street names offer a unique, meandering path through Hamilton's fascinating past, full of curious biographical culs-de-sac and occasional sweeping historical vistas. Hamilton Street Names includes more than 120 routes in the new city. Each alphabetically organized entry offers fascinating insights into the city's social, political, cultural or military history. Richly illustrated with archival photographs, this book offers fascinating views into the past of the new Hamilton.

Author : John Robert Colombo
Publisher : Dundurn
Page : 296 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 1999-05
Category : True Crime
ISBN : 0888822057

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Mysteries of Ontario by John Robert Colombo Pdf

This book brings together some 500 accounts of strange events and eerie experiences in the province.

Author : Rose Keefe
Publisher : BookCaps Study Guides
Page : 117 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2020-09-12
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 8210379456XXX

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Bessie Perri by Rose Keefe Pdf

★★★ Behind every smart man is a smarter woman ★★★ Rocco Perri was the Al Capone of Canada. Without him, the American market of alcohol would be a little...dry. Rocco is frequently cited as the most successful bootlegger of Canada, however, for one important reason: his wife, Bessie Perri. If Rocco was the King of Bootlegging, Bessie was the obvious queen. With page-turning suspense, this gritty book looks at the brains behind Canadian bootlegging and how her cutthroat ways forever changed the landscape of both prohibitions.

Author : James Dubro
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 1988
Category : Criminals
ISBN : UOM:39015014944642

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Mob Mistress by James Dubro Pdf

Author : James Morton
Publisher : Sphere
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0751522376

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Gangland International by James Morton Pdf

Beginning with the changing definition of organised crime, this history traces the complex links, trading and even homage which extends between the criminals of one country and another. Morton also looks at local gangs and their international links.

Author : Bill Freeman,Marsha Aileen Hewitt
Publisher : James Lorimer & Company
Page : 178 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2016-03-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9781459409460

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Their Town by Bill Freeman,Marsha Aileen Hewitt Pdf

This book is a classic of its kind -- a no-holds-barred portrait of Hamilton civic life in the 1970s. The focus is on power -- and the powerful. On the surface, power was wielded by the city's businessman-mayor, a business-oriented city council, and a Liberal Party machine fronted by prominent cabinet minister John Munro. Behind the scenes Bill Freeman and Marsha Hewitt found a fascinating set of characters and organizations. They offer a history of organized crime in Hamilton from its rum-running heyday of Rocco Perri to Johnny Papalia and his associates in the 1970s. Freeman and Hewitt provide a critical analysis of The Hamilton Spectator's often unquestioning support of the business agenda for the city, which produced the ruinous demolition of the downtown core and its replacement with Jackson Square. They also examine the labour movement's role in civic life. A chapter on the John Munro political machine, written by Henry Jacek, shows how politics is integrated into the power structure of the city. The book tells the story of key development projects of the 1960s and 1970s that were supposed to transform the central city. The account of the notorious contracts for dredging Hamilton Harbour is compelling reading. The authors look closely at the winners and losers in these projects. Today, Hamiltonians can make their own judgments about the long-term impact of these projects on their city.