The most simple thing that keeps my interest is the fact that I DONT know everything. And neither do you. There was a point where I felt like "Wow, I've learned all I could know, I know all these events and when they occurred, etc, etc". Then I found a bunch that knew a lot more than me, and easily disputed what I thought I knew. You're only scratching the surface. Like Yates said, books and news reports, don't even contain half of the history and information of LCN & Organized Crime. You're better off looking up documents, police files (local), FBI files, court transcripts, Confidential informant reports, etc. Things like that help greatly and will offer a bigger insight into LCN & it's relation to the overall world of OC. Another good thing about that is the simple fact that not one report is correct, you'll find many informant reports which conflict each other. What you need to do then, is find more than just two, even if informant stories differ somewhat, try to find the common factor within all reports, and that will lead you to the most likely truth of the matter. That's really the major thing. Don't think you know everything. Simple.

Talking to guys who "may have been in the life" is cool and all, but the fact is, not everyone has that possibility, same as with landmarks. Not everyone has the means to travel. You could try to find something local, if your town ever had a mafia history. Like mines, I live in Long Island, I've recently begun a little project of my own of trying to get photographs, that I'll take myself, of Joe Bonanno's old home in Hempstead, that he used to live in during the 40s & 50s..


And by no means, am I telling you "stop reading books, they offer nothing" when the fact is, you can get a lot of info from books. But another fact is, a lot of whats written in books, is either mistaken, lacking in detail, or just flat out wrong. Some of them, not all of them. What I've found out though, is almost every book has its own flaws.