Organized Crime, Doused in Guiness

In his 1990 book (with 2006 updates) The Westies: Inside New York's Irish Mob, T.J. English provides a look at an organized crime segment that doesn't usually get much attention. While La Cosa Nostra sucks up most of pop culture's attention with The Sopranos and Marlon Brando making unrefusable offers, the fact is that Irish gangsters were violently prevalent in the Hell's Kitchen area of New York City.

Focusing on two sadistic thugs named Jimmy Coonan and Mickey Featherstone, the book recounts their rise to power through kidnapping, extortion, loansharking, and drug dealing. But what really separated the gang from other street hoodlums was their method of disposing of the bodies: dismemberment. After a colleague was trained as a butcher in prison, the gang figured it was a great way to get rid of the evidence. "No corpus delicti, no investigation," Coonan said.

Gripping and quickly-paced, The Westies: Inside New York's Irish Mob by T.J. English is a fascinating read for people who are interested in organized crime, but want to learn more than bada-bing, bada-boom.