In the United States, criminals have managed to put together an organization which is at once a nationwide illicit cartel and a nationwide confederation. This organization is dedicated to amassing millions of dollars by means of extortion, and from usury, the illicit sale of lottery tickets, chances on the outcome of horse races and athletic events, narcotics and untaxed liquor.
The author, a sociology professor, takes to the streets of Seattle for interviews and observations.
His research shows very clearly that organized crime really consists of a coalition of politicians, law-enforcement people, businessmen, union leaders, and (in some ways least important of all) racketeers. Who dominates the coalition varies from city to city and from time to time. In New York Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello may have been more powerful than anyone else in the city during their reign. But in Chicago and Gary, Indiana, it is politicians who for many years have had the ultimate and most important practical control of organized crime.
Author(s): William J. Chambliss
Edition: 2
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Year: 1988
Language: English
Commentary: Appendices
Pages: 312
Tags: Politics;History;Political corruption;Graft;Criminals;Fixers;Bribery;Payoffs;Organized Crime;Gambling;Cardrooms;Bookmaking;Usury;Prostitution;Drug Trade;Police;CIA;Drug trafficking;Illicit drugs;Drug policy;Corruption;Narcotics trade,
Contents
PREFACE
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Introduction
1 You Can Get Anything You Want if You’ve Got the Bread
2 Being in the Business of Vice
3 Profits and Payoffs
4 The Crime Network
5 Maintaining Control
Bureaucracy Affords Discretion
6 The Network Comes Apart
The U.S. Attorney Cometh
Police Vibrations
SEATTLE POLICEMEN GUILTY
7 The Higher Circles
Outside Connections
After Prohibition
Endorsement
FBI Affidavit
Nixons Plane
Corroboration
Watergate
8 The State and Organizing Crime
Opium and the Vietnam War
Michael Hand Goes to Australia
9 The Enemy Is Us
Crime and Structural Contradictions: A Theory
Conclusion
SOURCE NOTES
Appendixes
A NOTE ON THE SOURCE MATERIALS
APPENDIX A
“Dave Beck and Labor Politics” from Murray Morgan, Skid Road (New York: Ballantine Books, 1951), pp. 241-47
APPENDIX B
Selections from Interviews
Police Department Memos from 1962 to 1963
APPENDIX D
Public Cardroom
and Panorama License Holders, 1968
APPENDIX E
Letter from Ernest A. Jonson, Public Accountant, to Albert D. Rosellini
APPENDIX F
Attorney General John O^ConnelPs White Paper
to the People of Washington
APPENDIX G
The Investigative Task Force Report of the Seattle Police Department, September 14, 1970
The Investigation
