In this intimate true crime biography, the author recounts his great grandfather’s journey from local grocer to Prohibition-era crime boss. Sicilian immigrant “Big George” Niotta did exceptionally well for a grocery wholesaler. That’s because his biggest clients were bootleggers. He delivered hundreds of pounds of sugar to illegal liquor operations across California, supplying an essential ingredient and making sweet profits. But his criminal operations didn’t end there. Niotta rose to prominence thanks to his magnetic charm, collaborating with infamous bootlegger Frank Borgia and influential gambling baron Jack Dragna. Dogged by the IRS, Niotta expanded his enterprise into ringer horses, a multimillion-dollar lottery, and a notorious gambling parlor. Through extensive research and interviews with family members, J. Michael Niotta explores three decades of L.A. crime, including a rare insider's look at the Eagle Brewing Company and other survivors of Prohibition.

This Informer issue focuses on the mafiosi of California, particularly those who relocated to the Golden State after launching criminal careers in other regions. California-related articles include: - Trail of blood: Mafia murder of Barnett Baff linked Corleone, East Harlem and the ghettos of Los Angeles; - Sam Streva and the 'San Pedro gang'; - Was DeJohn a victim of Cheese War? - Golden State often unfriendly to transplanted mobsters; - San Francisco boss Lanza held key role with Colorado's Mafia; - New Orleans connection to San Francisco Mafia. Other articles in this issue: - Reinhold Engel: Forgotten leader of a big-time robbery gang; - Another, other Gentile family; - Police rarely appear on U.S. postage; - New York revolutions in policing and crime.

From 1902 to 1917, the Los Angeles Times sponsored cooking contests. As a result, they published a series of winning recipes. The recipes were local to Southern California, including "Old-Time California, Spanish and Mexican Dishes...Recipes of Famous Pioneer Spanish Settlers." With Hispanic influences, the book contains reciptes such as: Alligator Pear Salad, Chili Con Carne, Enchiladas, Spanish Rice, Frijoles, Albondigas, Chiles Rellenos and Tamale Pie. Much of the ingredients come from California. Listed as on of the one hundred best books on California cooking.

Sugar Ray Robinson was boxing royalty. King of the world. Personality with a punch. Over 25 years he ruled three divisions, from lightweight to middleweight. As a kid he had danced for pennies on the streets of Harlem, and he danced again in the ring from New York and Vegas to Paris and back again. The greatest pound-for-pound fighter in history. After a brilliant amateur career he turned professional in 1940 and won his first 40 contests before Jake LaMotta snapped his streak of 123 fights. He was unbeaten over the next nine years and would beat LaMotta in five of their six fights, taking his middleweight title in the process. One of Ray's toughest fights was with Uncle Sam over his $4 million fight earnings. He built and lost a Harlem business empire before retiring from the ring and entering showbiz. The great fighter proved a philandering husband and a redundant father before settling down with his third wife, Millie, in California where he set up the Sugar Ray Robinson Youth Foundation, teaching kids about sports and life.

The Mediality of Sugar probes the potential of reading sugar as a mediator across some of the disciplinary distinctions in early twenty-first century research in the arts, literature, architecture, and popular culture. Selected artistic practices and material cultures of sugar across Europe and the Americas from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century are investigated and connected to the transcontinental and transoceanic history of the sugar plants cane and beet, their botanical and cultural dissemination, and global sugar capital and trade under colonialism and in decoloniality. The collection contributes to the vision of a Transnational and Postdisciplinary Sugar Studies.

Featuring research from the 2017 research symposium of the Association for Women in Mathematics, this volume presents recent findings in pure mathematics and a range of advances and novel applications in fields such as engineering, biology, and medicine. Featured topics include geometric group theory, generalized iterated wreath products of cyclic groups and symmetric groups, Conway-Coxeter friezes and mutation, and classroom experiments in teaching collegiate mathematics. A review of DNA topology and a computational study of learning-induced sequence reactivation during sharp-wave ripples are also included in this volume. Numerous illustrations and tables convey key results throughout the book. This volume highlights research from women working in academia, industry, and government. It is a helpful resource for researchers and graduate students interested in an overview of the latest research in mathematics.

African-American athletes have played a significant role in the development and popularity of American professional sports, and have encountered numerous obstacles on the road to athletic success. This is the first comprehensive multi-sport biographical dictionary of African Americans who reached the pinnacles of success in their sport. It contains more personal and career profiles of African-American sports greats than are found in any other single source. Biographical profiles of 166 noted athletes, coaches, and administrators in team and individual sports include both Ristorical figures such as Jesse Owens and Satchel Paige and contemporary stars such as Charles Barkley, Ken Griffey, Jr., Michael Jordan, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Shaquille O'Neal, and Emmitt Smith. Forty-four sports historians contributed the colorfully written biographies, which blend both personal background information and athletic career accomplishments. All information is current through the middle of 1995. The dictionary covers the contributions made by African-American greats in football, baseball, basketball, track and field, boxing, wrestling, auto and stock car racing, golf, thoroughbred racing, tennis, cycling, and figure skating. More than two-thirds of the entries represent team sports. The dictionary is organized alphabetically by person. Each colorfully written profile is 800-1,000 words in length and traces the subject's personal life, family and educational background, personal struggles, career accomplishments, records set, statistical data, awards and honors, and overall impact; and features lively quotations by and about the sports luminaries. Each entry contains a handy bibliography of books and articles about the subject. Biographies of managers, coaches, and club executives describe their teams, statistical achievements, accomplishments, strategy, and sports impact. A general introduction traces the historic struggle of African-American athletes in professional and Olympic sports and appendices provide alphabetical listings of biographical entries and entries by sport. A selection of photos complement the profiles. For the sports fan or librarian, this is a first stop for biographical information that captures the personality of the athlete and includes all the pertinent information about his or her accomplishments. It is an essential addition to the reference sections of junior high, high school, and public libraries.

The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873. Debates for sessions prior to 1873 are recorded in The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (1789-1824), the Register of Debates in Congress (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873)

And in this corner, hailing from Black Bottom, Detroit by way of Harlem, with more victories than Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali combined, the greatest fighter-pound for pound-of all time: Sugar Ray Robinson. If imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery then there should be little doubt Sugar Ray Robinson is the greatest and most influential American boxer of all time. Fighters (and the occasional alt-rock band) have been adopting his name, and trying to imitate his inimitable fighting style for decades. Sugar Ray Robinson transcended race and sport to become a celebrity athlete in a way that no one-white or black-had accomplished before him. From his business empire to his prized flamingo pink Cadillac, described as the Hope Diamond of Harlem, Kenneth Shropshire shows Sugar Ray was the trailblazer whom every athlete since has been trying, consciously or otherwise, to emulate.

Here are 50 of America's greatest sports figures, vividly captured in incisive biographical essays, on-the-scene coverage of their triumphs and defeats, and evocative reminiscences--by the New York Times reporters who covered them. 50 black-and-white photos.