Blood and Power: Organized Crime in Twentieth-Century America

A triangular collusion among politicians, law enforcers and crooks enables organized crime in the U.S. to flourish, asserts Fox ( The Mirror Makers: A History of American Advertising ). In a well-researched, engrossing, often-startling chronicle based on interviews, unpublished manuscript collections and Congressional records, the author alleges underworld involvement by numerous well-known figures, past and present, among them entertainers (Milton Berle), journalists (Walter Winchell), boxers (Floyd Patterson) and several U.S. presidents (FDR, Truman, JFK). He explores the ethnic and class dimension of organized crime, from Irish, Jewish and Italian bootleggers of the Prohibition era to the latest influx of newer immigrant groups, especially Latin and Asian gangsters. Deploring the cult of ``Mafia chic'' and the romanticization of criminals, Fox, in this quietly sensational account, leaves no doubt that the mob is still a national cancer. Photos. ( July )