Operation Underworld

How the Mafia and US Government Teamed Up to Win World War II

By: Matthew Black

Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross

In 1942, a rational fear was mounting that New York Harbor was vulnerable to sabotage. If the waterfront was infested with German and Italian agents then the US Navy needed a recourse just as insidious to secure it.

Naval intelligence officer Commander Charles Radcliffe Haffenden had the solution: recruit as his own spies, members of La Cosa Nostra. Pier to pier, no one terrified the longshoremen, stevedores, shopkeepers, and boat captains along the harbor better than the Mafia gangs of New York, who controlled the docks in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Haffenden was prepared to make a deal with the devil--the man who put "organized" into organized crime. Even from his cell in Dannemora State Prison, former Public Enemy #1, Charles "Lucky" Luciano still had tremendous power. Luciano was willing to wield it for Haffenden. But he wanted something in return--Luciano's contacts in Italy to track the Nazis' movements.

Operation Underworld is a tale of espionage and crime like no other, the unbelievable, first-ever account of the Allied war effort's clandestine coalition between the Mafia and the US Government to protect New York, vanquish the Nazis by taking the fight to the enemy in the 1943 US invasion of Sicily.

©2023 Matthew Black (P)2022 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Fascinating- who could have guessed

Fascinating story of the US Navy thinking out of the box in order to protect our Eastern shores and locate those in the US who were supplying German U boats American goods off our shores

Must read of the extraordinary WWII Navy/Mafia Partnership

This is the story of how the NY Mafia together with the Navy saved the US Eastern Seaboard from Nazi terrorism stateside as well as regaining control of transatlantic shipping from the disasters of the German U-boat scourge early in WWII.

Superb

An excellent view into a point in history largely unheard of or ignored. Captivating and interesting to the very end.

Well done Unknown History

Overall, excellent. The only reason I didn’t assign five stars was because there were a few times I felt the author got bogged down in unnecessary details. Better editing was needed. I really didn’t need to know the architecture or layout of various NYC buildings, for example. However, I enjoyed learning about how the Mafia grew and how sometimes we have to make deals with the devil.

Great Mafia WW2 History

I really enjoyed this book, the author did a great job. He brought to light lesser know info about the mafia's help during WW2.