Suburban Gangsters

Suburban Gangsters By: Michael P. Dineen Sometimes in life the direction you choose could come down to making a choice that at the time didn’t seem like a big deal, only looking back you knew it wasn’t smart. Had his conversation gone differently with his father in the spring of 1985, Patrick may never had become a criminal. While shooting hoops with his old man that breezy afternoon in April, they struck up a conversation. Patrick had been kicked out of Walt Whitman High School a few months earlier, but had been working full-time ever since. He was working hard at the time and would have kept at it. But his dad’s rejection, and the way he did it, burned Patrick badly. Patrick doesn’t blame his dad for becoming a criminal, but that was the final straw. Somehow, he was determined to find a way to get that Mustang GT his dad wouldn’t cosign for him. Selling cocaine would help him to achieve that. That’s when he began hustling. This was just the beginning of Patrick’s drug selling days. He sold and trained and trained and sold. He worked with the cops, the FBI, and the DEA. It may feel like a quick high. You may think just one more big sale and you can get out. But you’ll learn that the life of drugs and crime doesn’t pay.

Discusses gangs found in affluent communities and their activities, skinhead gang members, prevention strategies, and profile of affluent gang members.

His name might not have the same notoriety that belonged to Al Capone or John Wayne Gacy, but Silas Jayne's life carved a similarly brutal arc through the Windy City's history. Even the mob was reluctant to compete with a man who burned his own horses alive for insurance money and ordered the assassination of his own brother in the same unhesitating fashion that he reportedly axed a flock of geese when he was six. Protected by bribery and intimidation, Jayne preyed on the innocence of the girls who took riding lessons in his stables and remained perversely untouched in the background of infamous Chicago crimes like the Schuessler-Peterson murders and the disappearance of candy heiress Helen Brach.

Over the years many things went down in the "Old". Now running his own gang operation amongst his two best friends & three girlfriends he had at the time. Success, respect, and money is what they all wanted, yet Wavy was much more persistent. Coming from a great family background that presented great leadership skills, along with street knowledge he was way ahead of the game. Knowing this Wavy used his power to his advantage. Setting up one of the biggest robberies that would change his life forever. Who would have known one situation would not only turn into a greater opportunity, but more dilemmas to go along with it? From day one homies turning into snitches to many failed relationships. With one motive in mind, some turn of events becomes inevitable. Would the life of being a Suburban Gangsta pay off?

More than eighty percent of American cities with a population of 100,000 or more report gang activity. Most of these gangs are made up of members who are eight to twenty-two years old. These statistics point to a larger unfortunate truth, at some point, our youth will have an encounter or an experience with gangs. It is important that they understand this world and how it operates. This collection of essays helps readers navigate the issues. Readers will analyze whether gangs are a growing suburban problem, if gang activity is increasing among girls, the role of immigration and gang activity, and measures that reduce gang involvement. Colorful photographs, charts, graphs, and images reinforce the text and present essential data.

This two-volume set integrates informative encyclopedia entries and essential primary documents to provide an illuminating overview of trends in gang membership and activity in America in the 21st century. Gangland: An Encyclopedia of Gang Life from Cradle to Grave includes extended discussion of specific gangs; types of gangs based on ethnicity and environment (rural, suburban, and urban); recruitment and retention methods; leadership structure and other internal dynamics of various gangs; impacts of gang membership on extended family; the historical evolution of gangs in American society; depictions of gang life in popular culture; violent and nonviolent gang activities; and programs, policies, agencies, and organizations that have been crafted to combat gang activities. In addition, the encyclopedia includes a suite of primary sources that offer a look into the personal experiences of gang members, examine efforts by law enforcement and public officials to address gang activity, and address wider societal factors that make eradicating gangs such a difficult task.

Love. Violence. Destiny. These powerful themes ricochet through Lorenzo Carcaterra’s new novel like bullets from a machine gun. In Gangster, he surpasses even his bestselling Sleepers to create a brutal and brilliant American saga of murder, forgiveness, and redemption. Born in the midst of tragedy and violence and raised in the shadow of a shocking secret, young Angelo Vestieri chooses to flee both his past and his father to seek a second family—the criminals who preside over early 20th century New York. In his bloody rise from soldier to mob boss, he encounters ever more barbaric betrayals—in friendship, in his brutal business, in love—yet simultaneously comes to understand the meaning of loyalty, the virtue of relationships, and gains a perspective on the lonely, if powerful, life he has chosen. As the years pass, as enemies are made and defeated, as wars are fought and won, the old don meets an abandoned boy who needs a parent as much as protection. By taking Gabe under his wing and teaching him everything he knows, Angelo Vestieri will learn, in the winter of his life, which is greater: his love for the boy he cherishes, or his need to be a gangster and to live by the savage rules he helped create. A sweeping panoramic with riveting characters, a unique understanding of the underworld philosophy, and a relentless pace, Gangster travels through the time of godfathers and goodfellas to our own world of suburban Sopranos. But this is more than just an authentic chronicle of crime. Setting a new standard for this acclaimed author, Gangster is a compassionate portrait of one man's fight against his fate—and an unforgettable epic of a family, a city, a century.

Collecting the performance work of Alan Moore, the Hugo-Award winning author of WATCHMEN, in a graphic storytelling format, as he explores the America's love affair with Gangland mobsters and the modern notion of romance. From the mind of Alan Moore, the Hugo Award-winning author who defined modern graphic storytelling with such works as WATCHMEN and LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, comes three mind-expanding tales adapted by his longtime collaborator Antony Johnston into full sequential stories. Original presented as performance works by the author himself, this original graphic novel is a twisting, brilliant rumination on society from the 1920s era Chicago-style killings of the story "Old Gangsters Never Die" to the powerful, modern namesake piece, "Another Suburban Romance." A mesmerizing tour de force that no Moore fan will want to miss!