In the series finale of Gangland, there is a deadly stand-off between Kato and Polo, forcing Star to make a decision. With both men demanding her love and loyalty, she has no other option but to figure out which one is worthy. With her sister missing, she is also racing against time to find her but when she does, it may be too late. This tragic story of Chicago gang life comes to a close and just like in real life, many don't make it to the end. Does Star have what it takes to survive or will love and gang lead her to the last days of her life?
New Zealand's underworld of organised crime and deadly gangs 'The best true-crime book of the year by a long stretch.' - Steve Braunias, Newsroom 'A series of rip-snorting yarns about gangs, drugs, fancy cars, wads of cash, violence, and guns - Aotearoa New Zealand style.' - Simon Bridges New Zealand is now one of the most lucrative illicit drug markets in the world. Organised crime is about making money. It's a business. But over the past 20 years, the dealers have graduated from motorcycle gangs to Asian crime syndicates and now the most dangerous drug lords in the world - the Mexican cartels. In Gangland, award-winning investigative reporter Jared Savage shines a light into New Zealand's rising underworld of organised crime and violent gangs. The brutal execution of a husband-and-wife; the undercover cop who infiltrated a casino VIP lounge; the midnight fishing trip which led to the country's biggest cocaine bust; the gangster who shot his best friend in a motorcycle shop: these stories go behind the headlines and open the door to an invisible world - a world where millions of dollars are made, life is cheap, and allegiances change like the flick of a switch.
As the queen of the Gangstress, Star’s entire life has suddenly changed. She’s swapped out her impoverished lifestyle for one filled with luxury and prestige. However, it also came with the constant threat of violence. Life with Polo is like living with a ticking time bomb, and it doesn’t take her long to realize that she’s caught up in a situation that may kill her if she doesn’t find a way out in time. When she finds real love with the unlikeliest person, she is hopeful that her luck will change. Unfortunately, that’s not at all the case. Kato awakes from his coma and Polo is eager to find out the details of what exactly happened the night that his brother was killed. Being able to claim Star was the trophy he was seeking, but the nagging in his mind about what really happened to Mink just won’t go away. When he forces Star to assist Kato in gaining back his memory, he unknowingly lays the foundation for an unforeseen romance that just may be the end of them all. Now awake, Kato’s struggle to fully recover from the injury that nearly claimed his life becomes the least of his worries. Once he receives news from a reliable source that the Disciples have a betrayer in the midst, he wants nothing more than to get to the bottom of it and take out revenge on the person whose loyalty is in question. After finding out that it may be his own best friend, Polo, behind it all, he finds himself on the brink of initiating an all-out war in the streets. To make matters worse, his growing feelings for Star only further complicate the situation when he suspects that she’s being abused. Will his budding love affair with Star be the one thing capable of bringing the entire Disciple organization down?
Inner city communities in the US have become junkyards of dreams, to quote Mike Daviswastelands where gangs package narcotics to stimulate the local economy, gunshots occur multiple times on any given day, and dreams of a better life can fade into the realities of poverty and disability. Laurence Ralph lived in such a community in Chicago for three years, conducting interviews and participating in meetings with members of the local gang which has been central to the community since the 1950s. Ralph discovered that the experience of injury, whether physical or social, doesn t always crush dreams into oblivion; it can transform them into something productive: renegade dreams. The first part of this book moves from a critique of the way government officials, as opposed to grandmothers, have been handling the situation, to a study of the history of the historic Divine Knights gang, to a portrait of a duo of gang members who want to be recognized as authentic rappers (they call their musical style crack music ) and the difficulties they face in exiting the gang. The second part is on physical disability, including being wheelchair bound, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among heroin users, and the experience of brutality at the hands of Chicago police officers. In a final chapter, The Frame, Or How to Get Out of an Isolated Space, Ralph offers a fresh perspective on how to understand urban violence. The upshot is a total portrait of the interlocking complexities, symbols, and vicissitudes of gang life in one of the most dangerous inner city neighborhoods in the US. We expect this study will enjoy considerable readership, among anthropologists, sociologists, and other scholars interested in disability, urban crime, and race."
Fifteen-year-old Jade Flynn and three other girls were the sole occupants of the fourth floor of St Nicholas Care Home for Children. They were forced to take part in 'special community projects' - drug dealing, money laundering, gun running. Required to work for a man they called The Geezer. Until a shocking event made them rebel. Steal something that wasn't theirs. So they ran. Disappeared. 10 YEARS LATER . . . Jade Flynn is now living a respectable life as Jackie Jarvis and is getting married. She invites her three best friends to be her maids of honour. But someone else turns up as well - The Geezer. He'll kill them, unless they do one last job for him, then they can return to their normal lives. But can they trust him? This time if they disappear they won't be coming back . . .
Throughout the United States, there is no single major metropolitan area more closely connected to organized crime's rapid ascendancy on a national scale than New York City. In 1920, upon the advent of Prohibition, Gotham's shadowy underworld began evolving from strictly regional and often rag-tag street gangs into a sophisticated worldwide syndicate that was--like the chocolate egg crème--incubated within the confines of its five boroughs. New York City Gangland offers an unparalleled collection of rarely circulated images, many appearing courtesy of exclusive law enforcement sources, in addition to the private albums of indigenous racketeering figures such as Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Al "Scarface" Capone, Joe "The Boss" Masseria, "Crazy" Joe Gallo, and John Gotti.
Daisy Sullivan's father was one of London's most infamous gangsters. Haunted by his violent death she vows to live a respectable life. That is until the day her mum, who abandoned her when she was young and who she barely remembers, barges back into her life. It doesn't take Daisy long to realise that her mum is the Queen-pin of a prostitution ring with links to high society and the head of one of London's most feared underworld families - the Kings. Soon she is drawn into their next criminal act - a bank job. A job that turns out to be no ordinary robbery. Soon she is running for her life and the only person she can trust is up and coming gangland bad boy, Ricky Smart. Now she has to use every dirty trick her dad ever taught her to stay alive . . .
After choosing to forsake all and be with the man she loves, Janelle begins to navigate her life with the realization that bringing Outlaw into her life will ensure that nothing will ever be the same and her future will be anything but what she expected it to be. But did she ever expect for everything to continue as usual being that she is an assistant district attorney who fell for the most dangerous and unpredictable of the Murray brothers? And would Outlaw really have it any other way? Carmella is stuck in a situation she doesn't want to be in when the harmless photos she thought she was taking in order to fluff up her bank account end up being part of a major marketing push for the type of 'flicks' she never would have wanted to be placed in. With her face all over the nation as a triple X company's next major star, Carmella falls back on old habits in order to cope. But with her life spiraling out of control, will Cree decide to stick it out with her and help pull her through or will he abandon her when she needs him most? Sidney is hit with the reality of how big, or stupid, Yolo's heart is when he brings LaTrese into his home in order to care for her while he seeks revenge on the man who abused her. But Sidney's suspicions tell her that LaTrese's story doesn't add up and there is something else hiding beneath the surface. Will she find out about the secrets that LaTrese is hiding? And when she does... will Yolo understand that the woman he once loved may actually be the enemy he never saw coming?
It was one of the most brutal killing crusades that Britain has ever seen. Two cruel brothers and their henchmen, synonymous with robbery, torture and bribery, presided over a murderous reign so brutal that Nottingham became forth in the UK's gun crime league. This is just one of the shocking true stories contained in this chilling book.Having delved into the minds of world's most notorious murderers and published his findings in the best-selling Talking with Serial Killers, renowned true-crime author Christopher Berry-Dee now turns his attention to the machinations of the gangster's mind and documents the extent of their cruelty and brutishness. From Tam McGraw, one of Scotland's most infamous gangsters, to 'public enemy number one' Kenny Noye, every type of British gangster is examined. Although they are all very different, they do share a particular trait: a willingness to do anything to get what they want. While the reader may be able to breathe a sigh of relief that the characters in this book have been banished from our streets, gangalnd UK is also a sharp reminder of the dangers still out there. Here are htr startling portaits of thos eciminals who we would rather dorget...but won't be able to.
From Jewish clothing merchants to Bangladeshi curry houses, ancient docks to the 2012 Olympics, the area east of the City has always played a crucial role in London's history. The East End, as it has been known, was the home to Shakespeare's first theater and to the early stirrings of a mass labor movement; it has also traditionally been seen as a place of darkness and despair, where Jack the Ripper committed his gruesome murders, and cholera and poverty stalked the Victorian streets.In this beautifully illustrated history of this iconic district, John Marriott draws on twenty-five years of research into the subject to present an authoritative and endlessly fascinating account. With the aid of copious maps, archive prints and photographs, and the words of East Londoners from seventeenth-century silk weavers to Cockneys during the Blitz, he explores the relationship between the East End and the rest of London, and challenges many of the myths that surround the area.
