Friends of Ours

Friends of Ours

Every mob story leaves fingerprints. Some are buried in court records, FBI files, and yellowed newspaper clippings. Others live in the minds of the writers who spend years chasing the truth through smoke-filled histories, whispered legends, and forgotten crimes. Friends of Ours is where those storytellers step out of the shadows. Here, CrimeAndCocktails.net sits down with the authors, historians, and researchers who have dedicated themselves to uncovering the men, murders, betrayals, and empires that shaped organized crime. Through exclusive interviews, we explore the stories behind their books, the investigations behind their discoveries, and the realities hidden beneath decades of myth. Pull up a chair, pour yourself something strong, and meet the people who know where the bodies are buried—even if they only found them in the archives.

Fred "Killer" Burke
The Story That Wouldn't Stay Buried: Chriss Lyon, Fred "Killer" Burke, and the Hunt That Changed a Town
C.F. Marciano
Some stories begin with a newspaper clipping. Others begin with a police file gathering dust in an archive. For author Chriss Lyon, it began with her grandmother. When Lyon was only seven years old, her...
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Frank “The Dasher” Abbandando: Murder, Speed, and the Machinery of Murder, Inc.

C.F. Marciano

Frank “The Dasher” Abbandando: Murder, Speed, and the Machinery of Murder, Inc.Frank “The Dasher” Abbandando looked like the kind of

From the Boys

Anthony Strollo: The Smiling Traitor Who Vanished Into the Night

C.F. Marciano

Anthony Strollo: The Smiling Traitor Who Vanished Into the NightAnthony “Tony Bender” Strollo smiled like a man who knew secrets.And

From the Boys

Martin “Buggsy” Goldstein: The Quiet Killer of Murder, Inc.

C.F. Marciano

Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein: The Quiet Killer of Murder, Inc.The most dangerous gangsters are not always the loudest men in the

From the Boys

Louis “Little New York” Campagna: Chicago’s Quiet Executioner

C.F. Marciano

Louis “Little New York” Campagna: Chicago’s Quiet ExecutionerLouis Campagna never needed headlines.  That was one of the reasons he lasted

From the Boys

Johnny “The Fox” Torrio: The Professor of the Underworld

C.F. Marciano

Johnny “The Fox” Torrio: The Professor of the UnderworldJohnny Torrio did not look like a gangster.  That was part of

From the Boys

Joe Valachi: The Man Who Broke Omertà

C.F. Marciano

Joe Valachi: The Man Who Broke OmertàJoseph Valachi did something the Mafia considered unforgivable.He talked.Not in whispers behind closed doors.

From the Boys

About Me

C.F Marciano

C.F Marciano

C.F. Marciano is a mob historian with a taste for the dark, smoky corners of New York’s underworld—and the cocktails that fueled it. Known for his gritty, unapologetic style, Marciano writes mafia blogs that bleed with bullets, bourbon, and betrayal. His book Make Him a Drink He Can’t Refuse blends true crime and booze with the precision of a made man mixing a Manhattan. With a razor-sharp focus on the New York Mafia of the 1930s through the 1960s, Marciano doesn’t just tell mob stories—he pours them straight up, no chaser.

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