Recently released

Recent work

Horsefeathers! section is added to the American Mafia history website. The section explores underworld legends that are exaggerated, unsupported by evidence, contradicted by evidence and blatantly false. Each item is ranked on a scale of one to four feathers for unreliability. At its launch, the section linked to three underworld legends. (Dec 2023)

Chicago's man in Vegas: Anthony Spilotro. Originally written in 2006 and first revised in 2007, this online article has received an extensive makeover, including dozens of source citations. Spilotro, the Chicago mobster selected to protect Outfit interests in Las Vegas casinos, was a focus of the popular movie, Casino. (Oct 2023)

Informer's 2023 issue becomes available in magazine, electronic magazine, hardcover, softcover, ebook and audiobook formats. For the issue, I researched and wrote these articles: "End of the Whyos," "Bandits' Roost," "John H. McGurk and Bowery's Suicide Hall," "The death and life of hero/hoodlum Monk Eastman," "Italian gang chief with an Irish name," "Sai Wing Mock and the New York Tong Wars," "Racketeering future was molded in young Lansky's neighborhood," "Butcher wasn't from the Five Points." (Sep 2023)

Biography of Joseph Tocco, Prohibition Era gangster of Detroit becomes available online. Intro: "Giuseppe 'Joe' Tocco parked his trademark scarlet sedan on Wyandotte’s Antoine Street near the intersection with McKinley. It was about half past nine, Monday night, May 2, 1938 - the last night of Tocco's life..." (Sep 2023)

Morello prison file - the Atlanta Federal Prison records of 1910 U.S. Mafia boss of bosses Giuseppe Morello are published online. Collection of documents (in PDF format) include administrative reports, letters, visitor logs, criminal record, application for clemency, etc. (Jul 2023)

About my books

Book covers

Mafia: The Necessary Reference to Organized Crime, published by Millennium House, examines the major events and figures within the various forms of worldwide organized crime, including the Italian-American Mafia.

Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia by Thomas Hunt and Martha Macheca Sheldon is the historical biography of a 19th century pioneer of commerce and patron of the fledgling American Mafia. It tells the story of the business and political influences on the growth of the New Orleans Mafia and the events surrounding the 1891 Orleans Parish Prison lynchings.

DiCarlo: Buffalo's First Family of Crime by Thomas Hunt and Michael A. Tona is a two-volume historical biography of Buffalo's Capone, Joseph DiCarlo. The colorful life story, which includes events in Sicily, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and across New York State, is used as a window into the history of Buffalo's Magaddino Crime Family and the larger American Mafia.

Wrongly Executed? The Forgotten Context of Charles Sberna's 1939 Electrocution by Thomas Hunt provides the historical background of the controversial capital punishment case. The story involves celebrity attorneys, Mafia bosses, violent political radicals, media giants and ruthless establishment figures, all set in a period in which Americans sought stability and order after years of political upheaval, economic depression and Prohibition Era lawlessness.

Informer: The History of American Crime and Law Enforcement published and edited by Thomas Hunt has been released in magazine and electronic magazine formats since its birth in 2008, but recent issues have also been released in book form. The 2020-2023 issues are available in trade paperback format, and the 2022 and 2023 issues are available in hardcover.

Thomas Hunt

Tom Hunt

Building upon a lifelong interest in organized crime history, Thomas Hunt began actively researching and writing about the subject in 2002. Since that time, he has maintained and expanded a popular website on American Mafia history and has participated in other online projects, he has written and co-written several books, he has edited and published a crime history journal and has contributed articles to other periodicals, and he has assisted in the work of notable crime history authors.

BOOKS

Hunt coauthored (with Martha Macheca Sheldon) Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia, released in 2007. The book was silver medalist in the 2008 Independent Publisher Book Awards. In 2009, his brief history of the U.S. Mafia was included in Mafia: The Necessary Reference to Organized Crime, published by Millennium House. A revised second edition of Deep Water was published the following year. Hunt coauthored (with Michael A. Tona) the two-volume DiCarlo: Buffalo's First Family of Crime, released in 2013. In 2016, Hunt authored Wrongly Executed? The Long-Forgotten Context of Charles Sberna's 1939 Electrocution. Book forewords have been contributed to Colorado's Carlino Brothers: A Bootlegging Empire by Sam Carlino (2019) and In Our Blood: The Mafia Families of Corleone by Justin Cascio (2023).

PERIODICALS

Hunt launched a crime history journal, Informer, in the fall of 2008. He has served as editor and publisher of the journal since that time. (Beginning in 2020, issues have been released as books, in addition to their traditional magazine format.) Hunt has contributed crime history articles to On the Spot Journal, Tampa Mafia Magazine and Cigar City Magazine, in addition to his own Informer.

ONLINE

Hunt's American Mafia history website, Mafiahistory.us, went online in 2002 and has grown to include many dozens of feature articles, as well as brief biographies, government documents, photographs, book reviews, and an extensive bibliography. Hunt has published a number of other websites and blogs, including Writers of Wrongs, Mob-News and BuffaloMob. He has moderated discussion groups on organized crime history and maintains a presence on Facebook, Mastodon, BlueSky, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

RESEARCH/EDITING

His research and/or editing assistance has been acknowledged by a number of other authors, including David Critchley (The Origin of Organized Crime in America), C. Alexander Hortis (The Mob and the City), Christian Cipollini (Lucky Luciano), Gavin Schmitt (The Milwaukee Mafia), William J. Helmer and Rick Mattix (The Complete Public Enemy Almanac), Patrick Downey (Legs Diamond: Gangster), Sam Carlino (Colorado's Carlino Brothers), Jon Black (Secret Societies), John Oller (Rogues' Gallery), Frank Hayde (Mafia Dreams), Justin Cascio (In Our Blood: The Mafia Families of Corleone).

PERSONAL

A native of the Bronx, New York, and a longtime resident of western Connecticut, he currently resides in central Vermont with his wife Anna. They have three grown children. Hunt holds a bachelor's degree in History and Journalism from Charter Oak State College in Connecticut. He worked for many years in community journalism positions in Fairfield and Litchfield Counties in Connecticut and in Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess Counties in New York.

Hunt is a member of the American Philatelic Society (since 1995) and of the U.S. Chess Federation (since 2021).

 

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