True crime makes such a delicious read. And when the bootlegging, gambling, arson, narcotics and murders are taking place in your own city, the action is all the more intriguing, even if the best of it took place decades ago.
St. Petersburg writer Scott M. Deitche, who's extensively researched organized crime since 1996, has just come out with a book that chronicles local mob activity, Cigar City Mafia: A Complete History of Tampa's Underworld (Barricade Books).
The book traces present crime and corruption all the way back to rivalries between Cuban, Italian and Anglo gangs in the 1920s, then to a variety of characters who flourished during prohibition and battled for supremacy of the city's underworld.
Deitche, born and raised in central New Jersey, has done pieces on organized crime for www.ameri canmafia.com, and his research on local mob activity has been featured on Fox-TV and in the Weekly Planet — most notably the cover story "The Mob: A Drive-By Historical Tour of Tampa's Notorious Wise Guys" (www.weeklyplanet.com/2001-04-26/cover.html) — which outed Malio's, the 2001 strip club and the Tahitian Inn among the known haunts of Tampa's made men.
Most recently, the Discovery Channel interviewed Deitche for its new three-hour mini-series Mob Scene.
From 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, Deitche reads from and signs Cigar City Mafia at Inkwood Books.
Pick up a copy and hear first hand about the infamous Trafficante family's rise in Ybor City, back when the tobacco warehouse district was a bustling multi-ethnic community, a little Havana. Then there's the young Italian mob, which had to contend with the old-school underworld, the Cuban Syndicate and thousands of corrupt cops. Add to that some modern-day hits and one begins to wonder if HBO might spin-off a season of The Sopranos set in Ybor City.
Inkwood Books is located at 216 S. Armenia Ave., Tampa. 813-253-2638.
This article appears in Jan 8-14, 2004.