February 2012 Blog Posts (6)

In 1973, Frank Matthews, history’s first African American drug kingpin, jumped bail in New York City with $15 to 20 million and ostensibly a beautiful girlfriend. Nearly four decades later, the fate of Frank Matthews, the money and the girlfriend, Cheryl Brown, remain a complete mystery. “It’s as if Matthews dropped off the face of the earth,” explained…

By Steven Ralph (He is a beginning writer and will be writing articles on a number of Italian-Australian crimes and criminals, whether overtly mafia related or simply ethnically Italian. Stay tuned for some good stories from the land down under.)

In his classic 1970 work The Criminal Brotherhoods, respected author David Leon Chandler cites information gleaned from…

By David Amoruso

A leader of the Bloods street gang was charged yesterday with three counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder. Ronald Herron (30), also known as “Ra,” “Ra Diggs,” “Ra Digga” and “Raheem,” was also hit with racketeering, murder in-aid-of racketeering, murder conspiracy, robbery, illegal use and possession of firearms, and…

By David Amoruso

The Japanese Yakuza has always lent itself perfectly for visually stunning movies and anime comics. The broad-shouldered gangsters wearing expensive suits and sporting intimidating looks at any outsider who dares to cross an invisible red line. Yet, it is without their suits that the Yakuza members truly become a visual menace.…

By Seth Ferranti

Just like Hollywood catapulted the Italian Mafia into the mainstream with the Godfather movies, New Jack City documented the devastating crack epidemic and the drug crews that terrorized and held court in the city’s projects. Nino Brown was a fictional character, as was his crew, but you didn’t have to look far to find their real life counterparts who dominated the…

This story is excerpted from Krajicek’s new e-book, “Gotti and Me: A Crime Reporter’s Close Encounters With the New York Mafia,” available at Amazon.com and other book websites.

By David J. Krajicek

The mugs of the American Mafia once had the quaint custom of keeping their mouths shut. Mobsters took pride in being tight-lipped, even when…