Overview

No Haven is the story of how the Mafia operated in New Haven, told through the experiences of some of the key players in the Connecticut organized crime scene. From the 1930s, Connecticut became a region where Mafia families like the Genoveses, Gambinos, Colombos, and Patriarcas shared turf for most of the twentieth-century—at times, working together with enough profits to go around and, at other times, descending into open war to rival that experienced in any major city. Representing the Genoveses, Midge Renault reigned supreme over the city thanks to his reputation for wanton violence. At the same time, Colombo capo Ralph ‘Whitey’ Tropiano maintained a lower profile, which belied his reputation is a vicious killer. It was his lieutenant, Billy ‘The Wild Guy’ Grasso who ultimately rose to the top of the heap, though. When Grasso signed up with the Patriarca Family out of New England, he began a campaign of conquest that only ended when his body was found on a riverbed outside of Hartford in 1989. These events take place in a city going through transformative urban renewal and social change, in a concerted effort to make it America’s “Model City.”

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9781538192900

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Told as a narrative history, No Haven recounts a century of mob infiltration in New Haven, Connecticut by organized crime families from neighboring states. New Haven has a legacy of mob involvement stemming from overlapping organized crime influences from surrounding New York City, Providence, and Boston. Using three major mobsters from the Genovese, Profaci, and Patriarca families as prime examples, this book offers a fascinating look into how multiple illicit activities produced self-interest, occasional allies, and sometimes brutal murder. At its core, this is the story of a city that suffered for many decades from the impact of organized crime. --Jay S. Albanese

No Haven is a fascinating and gripping account of a little known segment of the mob. Paul Bleakley 's research is top drawer. I highly recommend his book. --Jeffrey Sussman, author of Tinseltown Gangsters, Sin City Gangsters, Boxing and the Mob, and Big Apple Gangsters Told as a narrative history, No Haven recounts a century of mob infiltration in New Haven, Connecticut by organized crime families from neighboring states. New Haven has a legacy of mob involvement stemming from overlapping organized crime influences from surrounding New York City, Providence, and Boston. Using three major mobsters from the Genovese, Profaci, and Patriarca families as prime examples, this book offers a fascinating look into how multiple illicit activities produced self-interest, occasional allies, and sometimes brutal murder. At its core, this is the story of a city that suffered for many decades from the impact of organized crime. --Jay S. Albanese, Wilder School of Government & Public Affairs, Virginia Commonwealth University; former chief, International Center at the National Institute of Justice; author of Organized Crime from the Mob to Transnational Organized Crime and Transnational Crime in the 21st Century

Author Information

Paul Bleakley is assistant professor of Criminal Justice and University Research Scholar at the University of New Haven. He is vice chair of the American Society of Criminology’s Division of Historical Criminology. Paul has worked at universities in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Before entering academia, he worked as a journalist in both London and Sydney. He is the author of several books on historical crime, including Under a Bad Sun (2021) and The Australian Gamble (2023).

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