Bootleggers, gambling ringleaders, arsonists, narcotics dealers, and gang murders - a variety of characters flourished in the era known as Prohibition, and Tampa, Florida, was where they battled for supremacy of the criminal underworld. With meticulous detail, Scott M. Dietche documents the rise of the infamous Trafficante family, ruthless competitors in a "violent, shifting place, where loyalties and power quickly changed. " Ybor City, the region of Tampa known as Little Havana, was a hard-working, multi-ethnic community, pillared by the cigar industry. With ambitions fueled by a lust for power and money, the young Italian mob had to contend with the likes of Charlie Wall, old school dean of the underworld; the Cuban Syndicate, and thousands of corrupt police officers who exchanged loyalties for dollars. Complete with a profile index of each known Trafficante family member, Cigar City Mafia shows readers the local factories, bolita gambling houses, and the Hillsborough River. There a new body floated to the surfact practically every other day
