Sunshine State Mafia

Inside accounts and little-known stories of criminal networks in Florida’s past A vivid, wild ride through a century of Mafia lore, this book tells stories of organized crime rings that have settled in Florida and made the state their base of operations for bootlegging, gambling, extortion, money laundering, and drug running. Sunshine State Mafia divulges the hidden history of the mob from the Keys to Pensacola and Jacksonville. Featuring Al Capone and crime rings in Miami and South Florida, the Trafficante family in Tampa, Harlan Blackburn and his gambling empire in Orlando, and many more individuals both infamous and little-known, this book explains how and why mob bosses from northern states came to Florida in the early 1900s—they saw the state as a respite from cold weather and a good place to evade law enforcement. The cast of characters in these stories includes cops, sheriffs, prosecutors, judges, and politicians who took bribes or even conspired with criminals. Doug Kelly