Mafia Walking Tour March 24, 2012

This popular and exciting tour explores the former social clubs, homes and haunts of some of the most influential 20th century mobsters, while uncovering the truth behind many Mafia legends.

Discuss the Italian immigrant experience and the social, political and economical conditions which allowed organized gangsterism to thrive in the slums of New York City by the turn of the century.

Discussed on tour:
-The seeds of Cosa Nostra in Sicily
-The roots of the Mafia in America
-Origins of the "Five Families"
-The mob's role during Prohibition
-Nationalization of organized crime
-The truth about Hollywood mob movies

The tour is conducted by Eric Ferrara, founder of the Lower East Side History Project, published author and fourth-generation, native New Yorker whose family immigrated to Little Italy in the 1880s. He is a consultant on several movie, tv, and media projects world wide, including HBO's Boardwalk Empire and Warner Brothers' new Great Gatsby.

Official Website: http://leshp.org/walking-tours/60-mafia-tour