GANGLAND THE LAWYERS

Softcover. SIGNED. Gangland figures cannot function without their lawyers - their mouthpieces - who speak for them in court, obtain bail, throw doubt on the evidence and, if all that fails, try to obtain a reduced sentence. However, in the Underworld, this is only half the job. Although many lawyers are honest, for Gangland figures, possibly the best lawyer is dishonest - a 'shyster' - who will act as a go-between with the police, provide false alibis, bribe and intimidate witnesses, jurors and judges and, from time to time, finance and set up robberies and burglaries. Occasionally these lawyers - who may by then have even become judges - will kill on their own or their client's behalf, or may even be killed themselves. In this book James Morton brings us the stories of mob lawyers such as Frank Ragan, the Florida lawyer who acted for 3 mob leaders, Santos Trafficante, 'Three Fingers' Lucchese and Carlos Marcello. From James Sawyer, the barrister and forger involved in the First Great Train Robbery, to the American Judge, Joseph Peel, who had his co-judge killed. From New South Wales's Murray Farquhar, involved with the state's top drug dealers, to Illinois Judge Thomas J. Maloney, currently serving 16yrs. for corruption. A worldwide history of these individuals and their tawdry stories. Illus., Bibliog. and Index. 344pp. trade p/back. Nr. F. With tipped-in label SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR.