Tomorrow I’ll be reviewing Motor City Shakedown, author D.E. Johnson’s sequel to his debut novel, The Detroit Electric Scheme. Today, I am pleased to turn the blog over to Dan to talk a little crime… old style.
Carte blanche to write anything I want? Okay, how about Detroit crime—old style?
My new book, Motor City Shakedown, is set in Detroit’s first mob war. My protagonist, Will Anderson, is thrown into the middle of this bloody fight between the Adamo and Gianolla gangs. I’ve stayed close to the historical record, with the exception of throwing my fictional characters into the mix (and adding a bit of dramatic effect).
Here’s what really happened:
In the early 20th Century, the mob was really just a bunch of street gangs. The Sicilians were the most prominent, and were what was known at the time as “Black Hand” gangs. The Black Hand would walk into a business, usually one run by a fellow Sicilian, and tell them that, for a small weekly fee, they would protect the business and its employees from the bad elements in the neighborhood—namely, themselves. If the business owner refused, his place might burn down, his employees might get beaten, or worse.
Vito Adamo was the cream that first rose to the top of the Detroit rackets. He was a Sicilian immigrant who came to the Detroit area sometime around the turn of the century. By 1910 he was known as the “White Hand.” Adamo protected businesses from the Black Hand—for a fee. Oh, and it was his own Black Hand gang he was protecting the businesses from. He got it coming and going. (more…)
