The first book to chronicle the history of the Mafia in Buffalo, NY has hit the bookshelves. "GGangsters and Organized Crime in Buffalo: History, Hits and Headquarters" is the first book to "put it all together," as former Buffalo News reporter Lee Coppola stated.
Buffalo author and tour business owner Michael F. Rizzo spent the last 10 years gathering information from the FBI, books, newspaper articles and listening to tales from others to write this book. "I started the writing 10 years ago," stated Rizzo, "but put it aside for a while. Last fall I decided I wanted to put the story together and approached The History Press who became my publisher."
Rizzo spent the next six months working almost non-stop to complete the book for a summer release. "It was a grueling six months where my family saw little of me at times, but the end product was worth every minute."
The book includes less-known gangsters, but concentrates on the Buffalo Mafia and its former leader Stefano Magaddino and its history from the early 1900s through the 1980s. Hundreds of people are named and dozens of murders, many unsolved, are detailed. The final chapter includes hundreds of addresses for the amateur sleuth to check out.
Although concentrating on Buffalo, the book delves into the Rochester and Hamilton families, which were once under Magaddino's control. "I couldn't write the Magaddino history without including some of the areas he controlled. The man was as powerful as Al Capone, but because he and his people kept out of the spotlight there is little known or written about him."
The 256 page book is action packed, the first of its kind, with 691 references and over 75 photos, some never seen before, and others very rare.
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