The Neighborhood Outfit: Organized Crime in Chicago Heights (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780252080296)

From the slot machine trust of the early 1900s to the prolific Prohibition era bootleggers allied with Al Capone, and for decades beyond, organized crime in Chicago Heights, Illinois, represented a vital component of the Chicago Outfit. Louis Corsino taps interviews, archives, government documents, and his own family's history to tell the story of the Chicago Heights "boys" and their place in the city's Italian American community in the twentieth century.

Debunking the popular idea of organized crime as a uniquely Italian enterprise, Corsino delves into the social and cultural forces that contributed to illicit activities. As he shows, discrimination blocked opportunities for Italians' social mobility and the close-knit Italian communities that arose in response to such limits produced a rich supply of social capital Italians used to pursue alternative routes to success that ranged from Italian grocery stores to union organizing to, on occasion, crime.

Author: Louis Corsino
ISBN-10: 0252080297
ISBN-13: 9780252080296
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Language: English
Published: 11/01/2014
Pages: 176
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.50d