Nearly every site I use to keep track of and read up on American LCN has been posted already. Although I dont think I've seen Mary Ferrel posted yet. A great historical site. And DapperDon's blog makes a good starting point as an archive old news articles.
The forums are also a great way to keep up to date. This one, Real Deal and the old Gangsters Inc site hosted by Tripod.
Ivy, have you ever thought about writing a book on any OC topic/individual? There is not a topic that I have come across that you haven't been able to provide any insightful information.
Thanks. I like reading and writing but I really don't know if there's anything original I could offer. My thing is just sort of sifting through all the info in an effort to get at the truth. But I guess a lot of mob books are essentially that - info taken from other books, taken from other books, etc. If I ever did, it would probably be something about the modern day mob. Like from 2000 to the present. No use in going back further since all of that has been hashed and rehashed and done to death.
I would so read that. Im waiting for a Five Families update, since that seems to go up to about '05 and lots of stuff has happened since then. Something covering things like the extended Gotti Jr trials, Tommy Shots' case, Mafia Takedown Day, etc would be great.
You're right about so much mob. lit being simple collations of many others. As was mentioned on the other forum, books can take you only so far in independant research. The Australian OC stuff Im working on is a prime example (though understandably not as interesting to everyone) where a handful of books repeat the same inaccuracies again and again, leading back to one early authors mistake. Contempory news articles, obituaries, census and police reports can shed light on certain esoteric matters that are seemingly shrouded in conjecture.
