Mike Dash

Before Al Capone and Lucky Luciano, there was the one-fingered, cunning Giuseppe Morello and his murderous coterie of brothers. Had it not been for Morello, the world may never have heard of men of honour, the code of omertaor Mafia wars. This explosive book tells the story of the first family of New York, and how this extended close-knit clan of racketeers and murderers left the backwaters of Sicily to successfully establish themselves as the founding godfathers of the New World. First Family will explain in thrilling, characterful detail how the American Mafia established itself so successfully. Combining strong narrative and raw violence - set against the raucous bustle of early twentieth-century New York, and the impoverished rural life of nineteenth-century Sicily - this impeccably researched, groundbreaking study of a crucial period of American history is a compelling portrait of the early years of organised crime.

In the 1630s, visitors to the prosperous trading cities of the Netherlands couldn''t help but notice that thousands of normally sober, hardworking Dutch citizens from every walk of life were caught up in an extraordinary frenzy of buying and selling. The object of this unprecedented speculation was the tulip, a delicate and exotic Eastern import that had bewitched horticulturists, noblemen, and tavern owners alike. For almost a year rare bulbs changed hands for incredible and ever-increasing sums, until single flowers were being sold for more than the cost of a house. Historians would come to call it tulipomania. It was the first futures market in history, and like so many of the ones that would follow, it crashed spectacularly, plunging speculators and investors into economic ruin and despair. This is the history of the tulip, from its origins on the barren, windswept steppes of central Asia to its place of honor in the lush imperial gardens of Constantinople, to its starring moment as the most covetedand beautifulcommodity in Europe. Historian Mike Dash vividly narrates the story of this amazing flower and the colorful cast of charactersTurkish sultans, Yugoslav soldiers, French botanists, and Dutch tavern keeperswho were centuries apart historically and worlds apart culturally, but who all had one thing in common: tulipomania.

En 1628 el Batavia ,un gran barco cargado de plata y piedras preciosas,dejó las costas de Holanda con rumbo a Java.En el navío viajaban hombres, mujeres y niños,en total un grupo de unas doscientas almas que cayeron bajo el hechizo de Jeronimus Corneliszoon,que pronto revelaria sus dotes de lider y mas tarde su faceta de psicopata.El 4 de junio de 1629 el Batavia encallo en un arrecife de coral,y mientras el capitan se embarcaba en busca de auxilio,toda la tripulacion busco refugio en una de las pequeñas islas. Lo que sucedio en aquella pequeña isla solo cabe en las peores pesadillas y en el animo de un demente:115 personas fueron torturadas y asesinadas por una camarilla de marineros guiados por Corneliszoon y los pocos supervivientes quedaron trastornados el resto de sus dias.

When the Dutch East Indiaman Batavia struck an uncharted reef off the new continent of Australia on her maiden voyage in 1629, 332 men, women and children were on board. While some headed off in a lifeboat to seek help, 250 of the survivors ended up on a tiny coral island less than half a mile long. A band of mutineers, whose motives were almost beyond comprehension, then started on a cold-blooded killing spree, leaving less than 80 people alive when the rescue boat arrived three months later. BATAVIA'S GRAVEYARD tells this strange story as a gripping narrative structured around three strong principal characters: Francisco Pelsaert, the cultivated but weak-willed captain; Jeronimus Cornelisz, a sinister apothecary with a terrifying personal philosophy influenced by Rosicrucianism who set himself up as the ruler of the island; and Wiebbe Hayes, the only survivor with the courage to fight Jeronimus's band. The background to these events, including the story of the Dutch East India Company, and the discovery of Australia, is richly drawn.

Before the notorious Five Families dominated U.S. organized crime, there was the one-fingered criminal genius Giuseppe Morello and his lethal coterie. Combining first-rate scholarship and pulse-quickening action, Mike Dash brings to life this little-known story, following the rise of the Mafia in America from the 1890s to the 1920s, from the villages of Sicily to the streets of Little Italy. Using an array of primary sourceshitherto untapped Secret Service archives, prison records, and interviews with surviving family membersDash has written a groundbreaking account of the crucial period when the criminal underworld exploded with fury across the nation.

A vivid narration of the history of the tulip, from its origins on the barren, windswept steppes of central Asia to its place of honor in the lush imperial gardens of Constantinople, to its starring moment as the most covetedand beautifulcommodity in Europe.In the 1630s, visitors to the prosperous trading cities of the Netherlands couldnt help but notice that thousands of normally sober, hardworking Dutch citizens were caught up in an extraordinary frenzy of buying and selling. The object of this unprecedented speculation was the tulip, a delicate and exotic Eastern import that had bewitched horticulturists, noblemen, and tavern owners alike. For almost a year rare bulbs changed hands for incredible and ever-increasing sums, until single flowers were being sold for more than the cost of a house. Historians would come to call it tulipomania. It was the first futures market in history, and like so many of the ones that would follow, it crashed spectacularly, plunging speculators and investors into economic ruin and despair. This colorful cast of characters includes Turkish sultans, Yugoslav soldiers, French botanists, and Dutch tavern keepersall centuries apart historically and worlds apart culturally, but with one thing in common: tulipomania.

The true story of the mad heretic who led historys bloodiest mutiny - An adult version of LORD OF THE FLIES that is, moreover, entirely true Evening StandardWhen the Dutch East Indiaman Batavia struck an uncharted reef off the new continent of Australia on her maiden voyage in 1629, 332 men, women and children were on board. While some headed off in a lifeboat to seek help, 250 of the survivors ended up on a tiny coral island less than half a mile long. A band of mutineers, whose motives were almost beyond comprehension, then started on a cold-blooded killing spree, leaving fewer than 80 people alive when the rescue boat arrived three months later. BATAVIAS GRAVEYARD tells this strange story as a gripping narrative structured around three strong principal characters: Francisco Pelsaert, the cultivated but weak-willed captain; Jeronimus Cornelisz, a sinister apothecary with a terrifying personal philosophy influenced by Rosicrucianism who set himself up as the ruler of the island; and Wiebbe Hayes, the only survivor with the courage to fight Jeronimuss band. The background to these events, including the story of the Dutch East India Company, and the discovery of Australia, is richly drawn.

They called it Satans Circusa square mile of Midtown Manhattan where vice ruled, sin flourished, and depravity danced in every doorway. At the turn of the twentieth century, it was a place where everyone from the chorus girls to the beat cops was on the take and where bad boys became wicked men; a place where an upstanding young policeman such as Charley Becker could become the crookedest cop who ever stood behind a shield. Murder was so common in the vice district that few people were surprised when the loudmouthed owner of a shabby casino was gunned down on the steps of its best hotel. But when, two weeks later, an ambitious district attorney charged Becker with ordering the murder, even the denizens of Satans Circus were surprised. The handsome lieutenant was a decorated hero, the renowned leader of New Yorks vice-busting Special Squad. Was he a bad cop leading a double life, or a pawn felled by the sinister rogues who ran Manhattans underworld? With appearances by the legendary and the notoriousincluding Big Tim Sullivan, the election-rigging vice lord of Tammany Hall; future president Theodore Roosevelt; beloved gangster Jack Zelig; and the newly famous author Stephen CraneSatans Circus brings to life an almost-forgotten Gotham. Chronicling Charley Beckers rise and fall, the book tells of the raucous, gaudy, and utterly corrupt city that made him, and recounts not one but two sensational murder trials that landed him in the electric chair.

Lhistoire vraie de la plus folle et de la plus cruelle des mutineries menée par un hérétique qui se prenait pour Dieu.En 1629, affrété par des marchands hollandais, le Batavia file vers lîle de Java.

A fascinating exploration of human greed and self-delusion and also a tribute to our ageless search for beauty DEBORAH MOGGACH.In 1630s Holland thousands of people, from the wealthiest merchants to the lowest street traders, were caught up in a frenzy of buying and selling. The object of the speculation was not oil or gold, but the tulip, a delicate and exotic bloom that had just arrived from the east. Over three years, rare tulip bulbs changed hands for sums that would have bought a house in Amsterdam: a single bulb could sell for more than 300,000 at todays prices. Fortunes were made overnight, but then lost when, within a year, the market collapsed.Mike Dash recreates this bizarre episode in European history, separating myth from reality. He traces the hysterical boom and devastating bust, bringing to life a colourful cast of characters, and beautifully evoking Hollands Golden Age.

From the bestselling author of Tulipomania comes Batavias Graveyard, the spellbinding true story of mutiny, shipwreck, murder, and survival.It was the autumn of 1628, and the Batavia, the Dutch East India Companys flagship, was loaded with a kings ransom in gold, silver, and gems for her maiden voyage to Java. The Batavia was the pride of the Companys fleet, a tangible symbol of the worlds richest and most powerful commercial monopoly. She set sail with great fanfare, but the Batavia and her gold would never reach Java, for the Company had also sent along a new employee, Jeronimus Corneliszoon, a bankrupt and disgraced man who possessed disarming charisma and dangerously heretical ideas. With the help of a few disgruntled sailors, Jeronimus soon sparked a mutiny that seemed certain to succeedbut for one unplanned event: In the dark morning hours of June 3, the Batavia smashed through a coral reef and ran aground on a small chain of islands near Australia. The commander of the ship and the skipper evaded the mutineers by escaping in a tiny lifeboat and setting a course for Javasome 1,800 miles northto summon help. Nearly all of the passengers survived the wreck and found themselves trapped on a bleak coral island without water, food, or shelter. Leaderless, unarmed, and unaware of Jeronimuss treachery, they were at the mercy of the mutineers.Jeronimus took control almost immediately, preaching his own twisted version of heresy hed learned in Hollands secret Anabaptist societies. More than 100 people died at his command in the months that followed. Before long, an all-out war erupted between the mutineers and a small group of soldiers led by Wiebbe Hayes, the one man brave enough to challenge Jeronimuss band of butchers.Unluckily for the mutineers, the Batavias commander had raised the alarm in Java, and at the height of the violence the Companys gunboats sailed over the horizon. Jeronimus and his mutineers would meet an end almost as gruesome as that of the innocents whose blood had run on the small island they called Batavias Graveyard.Impeccably researched and beautifully written, Batavias Graveyard is the next classic of narrative nonfiction, the book that secures Mike Dashs place as one of the finest writers of the genre.

Una exhaustiva investigación nunca antes realizada sobre los orígenes de la mafia estadounidense, tantas veces retratada en el cine y la televisión.Esta es la historia de los criminales más violentos y eficaces de la historia de Estados Unidos, y de como consiguieron salir de las aguas sicilianas para establecerse con exito en Norteamerica. Y al mismo tiempo, es la historia de una familia: la primera familia del crimen organizado en Nueva York, un extenso y unido clan de extorsionadores y asesinos que abandonaron su hogar en el legendario corazon de la mafia, Corleone, para convertirse en los padrinos fundadores del nuevo mundo. Mucho antes que los Soprano, que el Padrino o que las cinco familias que han dominado el crimen organizado en Estados Unidos durante medio siglo, mucho antes que todos ellos, llegaron Giuseppe Morello y sus sangrientos hermanos.Por primera vez, un libro se nutre de archivos estadounidenses e italianos casi desconocidos, de documentos desclasificados de los servicios secretos, de los archivos policiales y judiciales neoyorquinos, asi como de entrevistas con los ultimos supervivientes de la familia Morello-Terranova, para contarnos el nacimiento de Little Italy y sus clanes mafiosos.La critica ha dicho... Un libro excelente de un historiador britanico cuya capacidad para la investigacion carece de limites. Dash se ha sumergido en toneladas de material para emerger con una obra de historia divulgativa en lo que probablemente sea el trabajo definitivo sobre la cuestion en los años venideros.The Washington Post Arrebatador, convincente, absorbente.The New York Times Cercana, personal, y repleta de detalles..., Dash constituye una rareza: es un metodico investigador y un escritor capaz de esculpir esta historia con una pluma tan perfecta y afilada como un estilete. Su estilo narrativo es novelistico, una apariencia desmentida por las extensas y precisas notas explicativas, que lo equiparan con algunos de los mas reputados escritores sobre la mafia.Toronto Globe & Mail

Una exhaustiva investigación nunca antes realizada sobre los orígenes de la mafia estadounidense, tantas veces retratada en el cine y la televisión. Esta es la historia de los criminales más violentos y eficaces de la historia de Estados Unidos, y de como consiguieron salir de las aguas sicilianas para establecerse con exito en Norteamerica. Y al mismo tiempo, es la historia de una familia: la primera familia del crimen organizado en Nueva York, un extenso y unido clan de extorsionadores y asesinos que abandonaron su hogar en el legendario corazon de la mafia, Corleone, para convertirse en los padrinos fundadores del nuevo mundo. Mucho antes que los Soprano, que el Padrino o que las cinco familias que han dominado el crimen organizado en Estados Unidos durante medio siglo, mucho antes que todos ellos, llegaron Giuseppe Morello y sus sangrientos hermanos. Por primera vez, un libro se nutre de archivos estadounidenses e italianos casi desconocidos, de documentos desclasificados de los servicios secretos, de los archivos policiales y judiciales neoyorquinos, asi como de entrevistas con los ultimos supervivientes de la familia Morello-Terranova, para contarnos el nacimiento de Little Italy y sus clanes mafiosos. La critica ha dicho...Un libro excelente de un historiador britanico cuya capacidad para la investigacion carece de limites. Dash se ha sumergido en toneladas de material para emerger con una obra de historia divulgativa en lo que probablemente sea el trabajo definitivo sobre la cuestion en los años venideros.The Washington Post Arrebatador, convincente, absorbente.The New York Times Cercana, personal, y repleta de detalles..., Dash constituye una rareza: es un metodico investigador y un escritor capaz de esculpir esta historia con una pluma tan perfecta y afilada como un estilete. Su estilo narrativo es novelistico, una apariencia desmentida por las extensas y precisas notas explicativas, que lo equiparan con algunos de los mas reputados escritores sobre la mafia.Toronto Globe & Mail