What follows is a primer on how to write and research a Killing book—or any work of popular history, for that matter.
Start with the topic and outline. The authors of this series share many tasks, but those two jobs belong to Bill O’Reilly and officially start the ball rolling. Then comes the research, which falls to Martin Dugard. The overarching subject matter is first observed at a distance, with the reading of books telling the story in broad strokes. Wikipedia is often consulted for context before beginning the deep dive into a topic. The idea is to get an initial picture of the story that is about to be told.
As the writing process begins, the research becomes line by line, with the authors poring over every word for flow and accuracy. It used to be necessary to travel the world in search of newspaper libraries and archives, but that task is now almost completely possible with a simple Google search.
Over the course of the ten Killing books, the research has followed a simple formula consisting of travel to places of interest, archives, books, newspapers, primary sources, and relentless Internet searches to obtain as many specific details as possible.
Killing the Mob was researched in the same manner, yet proved far more difficult. Due to the shadowy nature of organized crime, there are few records of time and place and very few accurate firsthand accounts of life in the Mob. There is also the matter of separating truth from legend, which is incumbent in any lifestyle fraught with such secretive tension. Such a unique historical record made this the most daunting book of the series, requiring endless cross-referencing of facts and dates between those sources that do exist in order to divine the truth. During the writing process, the authors made a point to present the facts, but to also note opposite theories if the details are too vague to support one viewpoint or another.
Not to say that the authors are the first to travel down this path. Of note, the Mob Museum in Las Vegas is not only a fascinating place to visit, but its comprehensive website offering details and chronology into the Mafia is extremely well researched and well written. So too the FBI website, known as the Vault, which offers thumbnail sketches into criminals and historic gangland events. The digitizing of many archives and newspaper libraries makes it possible to read federal case files and quote verbatim from congressional testimonies.
And it needs to be said that if you’re ever in Gibsland, Louisiana, make the time to pay a visit to the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum.
As noted in the subsequent bibliography, the authors pored through a small library of books on organized crime. All are worthy. Special thanks to Thomas Maier for an advance copy of Mafia Spies.
The authors would also like to thank Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for his personal insights.
Adler, Tim. Hollywood and the Mob: Movies, Mafia, Sex, and Death.
Bernstein, Lee. The Greatest Menace: Organized Crime in Cold War America.
Bonanno, Bill. Bound by Honor: A Mafioso’s Story.
Bonanno, Rosalie, and Beverly Donofrio. Mafia Marriage.
Borne, Ronald F. Troutmouth: The Two Careers of Hugh Clegg.
Bosworth, Richard J. B. Mussolini.
Cain, Michael. The Tangled Web: The Life and Death of Richard Cain—Chicago Cop and Hitman.
Cashill, Jack. Sucker Punch: The Hard Left Hook That Dazed Ali and Killed King’s Dream.
Collier, James Lincoln. Louis Armstrong: An American Genius.
Collins, Max Allan, and A. Brad Schwartz. Scarface and the Untouchable: Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the Battle for Chicago.
Dallek, Robert. An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917–1963.
Dannen, Frederic. Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business.
DeStefano, Anthony M. Gotti’s Boys: The Mafia Crew That Killed for John Gotti.
Dickerson, James L. Dixie’s Dirty Secret: The True Story of How the Government, the Media, and the Mob Conspired to Combat Integration and the Vietnam Antiwar Movement.
Eghigian, Mars, Jr. After Capone: The Life and World of Chicago Mob Boss Frank “the Enforcer” Nitti.
Fulsom, Don. The Mafia’s President: Nixon and the Mob.
Gambetta, Diego. Codes of the Underworld: How Criminals Communicate.
Gentry, Curt. J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets.
Gorn, Elliott J. Dillinger’s Wild Ride: The Year That Made America’s Public Enemy Number One.
Gosch, Martin A., and Richard Hammer. The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano.
Guinn, Jeff. Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde.
Hack, Richard. Puppetmaster: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover.
Hauser, Thomas. Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times.
Horne, Gerald. Class Struggle in Hollywood 1930–1950: Moguls, Mobsters, Stars, Reds, and Trade Unionists.
Humphrey, Hubert H. The Education of a Public Man: My Life and Politics.
Jacobs, James B. Mobsters, Unions, and Feds: The Mafia and the American Labor Movement.
Kaplan, James. Sinatra: The Chairman.
Kessler, Ronald. The Secrets of the FBI.
________. The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded.
King, Jeffrey S. The Life and Death of Pretty Boy Floyd.
Lehrer, James. Tension City: Inside the Presidential Debates.
Levy, Shawn. Rat Pack Confidential: Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter, Joey, and the Last Great Showbiz Party.
Maas, Peter. The Valachi Papers.
Madinger, John. Confidential Informant: Law Enforcement’s Most Valuable Tool.
Mahoney, Richard D. The Kennedy Brothers: The Rise and Fall of Jack and Bobby.
________. Sons and Brothers: The Days of Jack and Bobby Kennedy.
Maier, Thomas. Mafia Spies: The Inside Story of the CIA, Gangsters, JFK, and Castro.
Mappen, Marc. Prohibition Gangsters: The Rise and Fall of a Bad Generation.
McNicoll, Susan. Mafia Boss Sam Giancana: The Rise and Fall of a Chicago Mobster.
Mee, Bob. Ali and Liston: The Boy Who Would Be King and the Ugly Bear.
Moldea, Dan E. The Hoffa Wars: The Rise and Fall of Jimmy Hoffa.
Newton, Michael. The Mafia at Apalachin, 1957.
Norris, John. Mary McGrory: The Trailblazing Columnist Who Stood Washington on Its Head.
O’Brien, Michael. John F. Kennedy’s Women: The Story of a Sexual Obsession.
Oliphant, Thomas, and Curtis Wilkie. The Road to Camelot: Inside JFK’s Five-Year Campaign.
Palmero, Joseph A. In His Own Right: The Political Odyssey of Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
Pietrusza, David. 1960: LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon.
Posner, Gerald. Motown: Music, Money, Sex, and Power.
Purvis, Alston. The Vendetta: Special Agent Melvin Purvis, John Dillinger, and Hoover’s FBI in the Age of Gangsters.
Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires.
Reavill, Gil. Mafia Summit: J. Edgar Hoover, the Kennedy Brothers, and the Meeting That Unmasked the Mob.
Remnick, David. King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero.
Reppetto, Thomas. Bringing Down the Mob: The War Against the American Mafia.
Roemer, William F., Jr. Accardo: The Genuine Godfather.
________. The Enforcer: Spilotro: The Chicago Mob’s Man Over Las Vegas.
Rovner, Eduardo Sáenz. The Cuban Connection: Drug Trafficking, Smuggling, and Gambling in Cuba from the 1920s to the Revolution.
Russell, Thaddeus. Out of the Jungle: Jimmy Hoffa and the Remaking of the American Working Class.
Russo, Gus. The Outfit: The Role of Chicago’s Underworld in the Shaping of Modern America.
________. Supermob: How Sidney Korshak and His Criminal Associates Became America’s Hidden Power Brokers.
Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr. Robert Kennedy and His Times.
Server, Lee. Handsome Johnny: The Life and Death of Johnny Rosselli: Gentleman Gangster, Hollywood Producer, CIA Assassin.
Short, Martin. The Rise of the Mafia: The Definitive Story of Organized Crime.
Sifakis, Carl: The Mafia Encyclopedia.
Skousen, W. Cleon. True Stories from the Files of the FBI.
Sloane, Arthur A. Hoffa.
Sneddon, Rob. The Phantom Punch: The Story Behind Boxing’s Most Controversial Bout.
Stewart, Tony. Dillinger, the Hidden Truth: A Tribute to the Gangsters and G-Men of the Great Depression Era.
Summers, Anthony. Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover.
Summers, Anthony, and Robbyn Swan. Sinatra: The Life.
Theoharis, Athan. From the Secret Files of J. Edgar Hoover.
Theoharis, Athan, Tony G. Poveda, Susan Rosenfeld, and Richard G. Powers, eds. The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide.
Thomas, Evan. Robert Kennedy: His Life.
Thompson, Douglas. The Dark Heart of Hollywood: Glamour, Guns and Gambling—Inside the Mafia’s Global Empire.
Thompson, Julia A. The Hunt for the Last Public Enemy in Northeastern Ohio: Alvin “Creepy” Karpis and His Road to Alcatraz.
Tosches, Nick. The Devil and Sonny Liston.
Tuohy, Brian. The Fix Is Still In: More Corruption and Conspiracies the Pro Sports Leagues Don’t Want You to Know About.
Tye, Larry. Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon.
Vaccara, Stefano. Carlos Marcello: The Man Behind the JFK Assassination.
Waldron, Lamar, and Thom Hartmann. Ultimate Sacrifice: John and Robert Kennedy, the Plan for a Coup in Cuba, and the Murder of JFK.
Wallis, Michael. Pretty Boy: The Life and Times of Charles Arthur Floyd.
Wannall, Ray. The Real J. Edgar Hoover: For the Record.
Watts, Steven. JFK and the Masculine Mystique: Sex and Power on the New Frontier.
Williams, Paul L. The Vatican Exposed: Money, Murder, and the Mafia.