A Bloody Business

Description

On the 100th anniversary of Prohibition, learn what really happened. In 1919, the National Prohibition Act was passed, making it illegal across America to produce, distribute, or sell liquor. Men like Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky, Dutch Schultz and Bugsy Siegel, Al Capone in Chicago and Nucky Johnson in Atlantic City, waged a brutal war for power in the streets and on the waterfronts. But if you think you already know this story...think again, since you've never seen it through the eyes of one of the mobsters who lived it. Called 'one of the most significant organised crime figures in the United States', Vincent 'Jimmy Blue Eyes' Alo was just 15 years old when Prohibition became law. Over the next decade, Alo would work side by side with Lansky and Luciano as they navigated the brutal underworld of bootlegging, thievery and murder. Alo's later career included prison time and the ultimate Mob tribute: being immortalized as 'Johnny Ola' in The Godfather, Part II. Introduced to the 91-year-old Alo living in retirement in Florida, Dylan Struzan based this book on more than 50 hours of recorded testimony - stories Alo had never shared, and that he forbid her to publish until 'after I'm gone.' Alo died, peacefully, two months short of his 97th birthday. And now his stories - bracing and violent, full of intrigue and betrayal, hunger and hubris - can finally be told.

Dylan Struzan has been married to Drew for more than 40 years, chasing a shared dream. When asked what it is like to be married to a great artist, Dylan replies that it is a lot of hard work, but the benefits are incredible. She considers her life with Drew an adventure. Oeuvre is, in many ways, a log of that journey thus far.

Dylan Struzan has delivered a soaring treat for those of us who love mobster history, a sprawling saga drawn not from rumor or recycled myth, but directly from the horse's mouth. Her exploration of mob life and the shadow empires the bootleggers built is an exhilarating rush, a must-read. -- Frank Darabont, director of THE GREEN MILE and THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION