Excerpt appears in Mafia history journal

An excerpt from Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia appears in the current (summer 2010) issue of Informer: The Journal of American Mafia History (see cover at left). The excerpt, entitled, "America's First Mafia War," deals with a Reconstruction Era conflict between factions of the Crescent City's Sicilian underworld. The result of the gang warfare was the overthrow of the old Mafia order led by the Agnello family of Palermo and the establishment of a new criminal society that grew to influence communities from the Florida Gulf coast to southern California.

The issue may be purchased online through the MagCloud service. Visit http://informer.magcloud.com/ to preview or purchase.

Hunt discusses Danbury CT murder

The 1909 Mafia murder in Danbury, Connecticut, was the discussion topic at the Danbury Museum and Historical Society on Oct. 8, 2009. Thomas Hunt, coauthor of Deep Water, spoke to a small audience of 15 people about the slaying of farmer Giovanni Zarcone and that event's connections to the Morello Mafia organization of New York. He traced Zarcone back to his Sicilian roots in Bagheria and tracked his eventful life from his arrival in Manhattan in 1901, through the infamous Mafia Barrel Murder of 1903 to his ambush on a quiet country road on July 27, 1909.

On the 100th anniversary of the Danbury murder, Hunt published a detailed history of the event in his quarterly periodical, Informer: The Journal of American Mafia History. The Oct. 8 discussion was arranged by Brigid Guertin and Diane Hassan of the Danbury Museum and Historical Society.

The text of his Oct. 8 remarks can be downloaded through the Scribd.com service:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20841805/1909-Mafia-Murder-in-Danbury-text

(A free Scribd account is required for download.)

The July issue of Informer, featuring the history of the Zarcone murder, also can be downloaded from the Scribd.com service:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20054920/Informer-v02n3-2009-July