Episode 92 - Dr. James Buccellato Early Organized Crime in Detroit

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Slurred Words podcast. This weeks episode is Dr James Buccellato, author of Early Organized Crime in Detroit: Vice, Corruption and the Rise of the Mafia. James is a faculty member in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northern Arizona University. James taught at the Irvin D. Reid Honors College at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI for several years. He researches and writes about the politics of crime. His book, Early Organized Crime in Detroit: Vice, Corruption and the Rise of the Mafia was released on The History Press back in 2015. The book explores Detroit's stuggle with gang violence, public corruption and the politics of vice during the tumultuous first half of the 20th century and includes rarely published images from the area.

Italian American Organized Crime in America is one of my favority history topics and I was exstatic when I stumbled upon James' book about Detroit. As we discuss in this podcast, Detroit usually plays third fiddle in the discussion of Italian American organized crime behind New York City and Chicago. His book is very informative about the early rise of organized crime in Detroit. It especially caught my eye, while reading the book, that he writes about his great grandpa and great uncles.

Before we get to the conversation with James I first have to announce the winner of the HomeGrown Brewing Companys Mug Club membership giveaway.
And the winner of the exclusive mug club membership from HomeGrown Brewing company is Chris Broomhead!

Thanks to all the folks who participated in this first giveaway! I plan to have more in the future so make sure you keep an eye out on all my social media platforms @BillsBeerReport.