Review: Well Researched - Excellent Archaeological Journalism
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 9, 2013
History tells us in 1929 there was a meeting of the minds of American gangsters from across the country in Atlantic City.  It was at these meetings the future of organized crime was discussed and the nation was divvied up among the attendees.  It is also said the gathered criminals figured out a way to streamline their business to introduce a corporate culture which put far less emphasis on the bloody violence which had begun to bring too much heat on those present.For many years this version of events was taken for gospel in mob histories.  In this well researched and thoroughly sourced essay Bill Tonelli dismantles everything we have believed as true up to this point about the big meeting and reassembles the events in a far more historically accurate, but far less colorful way.  In the process he informs the reader just how much of pre-1970 mob history, some claim 70% to 80%, is fabricated.This is an outstanding piece of journalism mostly because it works in the opposite direction of the sensationalism perverting today's news.  Instead of exaggerating and glorifying the events of the 1929 meeting as accounts since then have done, Mr. Tonelli takes all the glamour out of it and does what he is supposed to do, he reports the facts.I recommend this for anyone interested in seeing how quality journalism and research work together to provide an entertaining story.  A great effort by Tonelli.