Deep Water wins Silver Medal

Deep Water is the Silver Medalist in the South Region Nonfiction category of the 2008 Independent Publisher Book Awards. The final "IPPY" competition results were announced this afternoon. Awards Coordinator Jim Barnes noted that this year's contest attracted more than 3,100 entries.

"The quality of entries this year is totally amazing, and we're seeing better designed books, reading higher quality writing and being exposed to a more widely diverse collection of concepts," he said. "We've been impressed with the in-depth research in our nonfiction and current events entries..."

Deep Water selected as IPPY semifinalist

Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia has been selected as a semifinalist in the Independent Publisher Book Awards. Competing in the South Region Nonfiction category, Deep Water is one of five category semifinalists. Final award winners will be announced May 23, 2008.

This year's Independent Publisher Awards competition drew in 3,100 entries from 49 U.S. states and 17 other countries. Gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded in each category. The awards presentation is scheduled for May 30 at BookExpo America in Los Angeles.

Hunt interviewed for Newsday article

Thomas Hunt, coauthor of Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia and publisher of The American Mafia website ( http://www.onewal.com/ ) was interviewed recently by reporter Keiko Morris for a New York Newsday story.

Giovanni Zarcone, resident of Brooklyn and owner of a Manhattan butcher shop, was among those arrested in connection with 1903's infamous Barrel Murder. Secret Service agents keeping an eye on the activities of the Morello Mob, a band of counterfeiters and extortionists, noticed Barrel Murder victim Benedetto Madonia in the company of the Morello group within Zarcone's butcher shop the night before Madonia's lifeless body was found on a New York streetcorner crammed into a barrel. They surmised that a wagon belonging to Zarcone had been used to move the remains. They couldn't make the charges stick, however. Zarcone and the rest of the accused were let go.

Over the next few years, several of the suspects died violent deaths. Investigators decided that the Morello Mob was eliminating witnesses to the Madonia murder. Though Zarcone moved himself and his family to a farm in Danbury, CT, the Morello Mob appears to have caught up with him there. He was shot to death outside of his home in the summer of 1909, his body dropped at the front doorstep.

Thomas is a longtime researcher into the activities and personalities of the Morello Mob. Some of his work can be found at the still under construction Caged Wolves website ( http://www.cagedwolves.com/ ).

Deep Water shines a "penetrating light"

“In their frank telling of Macheca's epic life story, authors Thomas Hunt and Martha Macheca Sheldon shine a penetrating light into the shadowy dealings of Gilded Age New Orleans. They present a convincing case for the inextricability of organized crime and organized politics in that era... Along the way, they document some of the more significant and colorful events in Louisiana history.”

- Joseph Maselli
FounderAmerican Italian Renaissance Foundation
New Orleans, LA

Positive review from Blogcritics

Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia earned very favorable notice from Blogcritics.org reviewer Scott M. Deitche.

"...This is one of the more foundational organized crime books ever written...," Deitche wrote in a review published yesterday. "Thomas Hunt brings the story alive through his rich attention to details. You can practically smell the fetid air of the New Orleans waterfront."

"...Rich familial history [is] intertwined with the background history," Deitche noted. "I think in teaming with Martha Macheca Sheldon, Hunt made a smart move. Anecdotal family stories bring a dimension to the Macheca saga that you rarely get from a general Mafia book. Not wanting to lavish too much praise on the authors, but it's always exciting to find a new way to approach a subject..."

The review concluded, "Deep Water is a worthy addition to the organized crime canon and the greater body of books on Civil War-era America."

The full text of the review is available online at: Blogcritics.org.

The review already has been picked up and republished on Boston.com (the Boston Globe's website) and Cleveland.com (the Cleveland Plain Dealer's website).

Scott M. Deitche is an authority on organized crime. He is the author of two books on the Tampa, Florida, crime family: The Silent Don and Cigar City Mafia.

St. Louis event a "huge success"

Martha signs a copy of Deep Water.

We wish to express our thanks to all who came out to tonight's reading/booksigning event in St. Louis, MO. Management of the Ladue Crossing Barnes and Noble was surprised by the large turnout and termed the event a "huge success." We also wish to thank Jennifer L. Lynch, community relations manager of the Barnes and Noble store, for her assistance in planning the event.