In the preface to this book Newton defines organized crime as “any significant criminal activity planned and carried out for profit by a cohesive group of conspirators” (p. 2). Newtown took on a great endeavour in compiling this chronology that spans organized crime (as he defines it) activity from antiquity to the twenty‐first century. The author is not new to crime reference books having written numerous other titles including The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (Newton, 2000). Entries are arranged in chronological order and demonstrate that organized crime is “as old as human society” (p. 1). The first entry describes the selling of cannabis seeds in ancient China circa 6,000 BCE and the last entry describes the 2010 debut of the HBO show, Boardwalk Empire, a fictionalized account of an actual mobster who ran the Atlantic City underworld during the 1920's.
Newton takes 8,000 years of organized criminal history and includes a variety of events in this chronology including the invention of a particular weapon (such as the Thompson submachine gun in 1919) or drug (the patent for the drug later known as ecstasy was first filed in 1913). Other events covered include the birth and death of crime figures, the advent of state lottery systems, movie debuts related to organized crime or criminals and major incidents related to organized crime such as murders, bombings, trials, etc. Many interesting facts are included in these entries that range in length from a sentence to longer paragraphs. A few examples: In 1444 the Town of Sluis, Holland (well‐known to this reviewer) conducted the first document public lottery (not known by the reviewer); gang warfare is not a new phenomenon but has existed for decades. In 1920's California many gangs comprised rival Chinese immigrants long before the Crips and the Bloods formed in Los Angeles.
This work is meticulously researched and the entries encompass many areas. The twentieth and twenty‐first centuries predominate and cover over 200 pages. Some typographical errors and word omissions were discovered in the entries that should have been caught by better editing. This resource covers many international events well but in terms of film and other media the coverage tends to focus mainly on American films and television shows. American mafia‐themed films such as Goodfellas and the Godfather series are included in this work. There is no mention of the Italian miniseries La Piovra (the Octopus) that ran on the RAI channel (Italian state television) during the 1980's‐1990's that gives an excellent fictionalized account of the rise of the mafia during the twentieth century.
In compiling this anthology Newton drew on hundreds of different resources from newspaper, books, magazines, academic journals and government documents. He also notes that some dates and events are not exact for a variety of reasons including the secretive nature of much of the conspiratorial activity covered in this work. The lengthy bibliography alone would serve as an excellent tool for anyone conducting research on organized crime. There is also an extensive index that further manifests how much effort was put into compiling this work. Highly recommended for public libraries and academic libraries especially those that support the study of criminology, administration of justice and history.
