Smaldone: The Untold Story of an American Crime Family
Kreck reveals the heart and compassion as well as the murders and mayhem behind the scenes as led by this notorious crime family.---Elisa Cohen --North Denver Tribune, "Revealing Smaldone Secrets" 7/02/09If you want to take a walk on the wild side of organized crime set in a venue that hasn't received much national news coverage or commercial fiction acclaim, this book will walk you through some new, unexplored but seamy streets.-- Sheila Propp, Editor, Fairhope Courier  --Baldwin County Now Newspapers, "Crime still doesn't pay" 10/21/09In 1933, after Denver boss Joe Roma was found "slumped in his favorite overstuffed chair in the front parlor,...riddled with seven bullets, six of them to the head," his up-and-coming bootlegging proteges Clyde and Eugene Smaldone took over his profitable operations. Over the years, the brothers and various other family members were frequently in the news, occasionally in jail, and generally in control of their realm. Theirs was an independent operation, but the Smaldones enjoyed the friendship of crime superstar Al Capone and were frequently in cahoots with New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello, to whom Clyde was particularly close. The Smaldones contributed to Denver's municipal ambience positively, too, as restauranteurs and generous contributors to charity. Kreck's detailing of the doings of a relative outpost of the racketeering industry is, besides a rich chapter in Colorado history, an excellent addition to the popular literature on organized crime.  --Booklist (September 15, 2009) of Chicago, IL by Mike Tribby