The Boardwalk Jungle; How Greed, Corruption, and the Mafia turned Atlantic City into the Boardwalk Jungle

Toronto: Bantam Books, 1986. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Good. Jim Osborn (Author photograph). xii, 436 pages. Author's Note. Index. Inscribed by the author on the fep. Inscription reads for Doris Schortman, another opus for your collection--warm regards, your pal, Ovid Demaris 3-14-86. Based on interviews and other research, this expose links glamorous Atlantic City gambling to organized crime and political corruption. Ovid Demaris (6 September 1919 - 12 March 1998 as Ovide E. Desmarais) was a native of Biddeford, Maine and an author of books and detective stories. A former United Press correspondent and newspaper reporter, he wrote more than 30 books and hundreds of newspaper articles. He graduated from the College of Idaho in 1948 and Boston University in 1950. Previously, he had served in the United States Army Air Forces. His most important works were of a historical or biographical nature about the Mafia and other gangland characters. He is most noted for The Boardwalk Jungle, about Atlantic City, The Last Mafioso, his biography of Jimmy Fratianno, and for The Green Felt Jungle, his exposé on Mafia operations in Las Vegas. From a Publishers Weekly article: Demaris writes a sizzling expose about Atlantic City. Although casino gambling in that resort city is less than 10 years old, the annual take amounts to some $2 billion. And, of the 10 gaming palaces now in operation, most have ties to either organized crime or to figures whose backgrounds are unsavory, charges Demaris. He shows that big money overcomes all opposition: many casinos open with temporary licenses, spend millions on their buildings, hire hundreds of workers and then apply for permanent status; the state control commission is not likely to deny approval under such circumstances. And, while the high rollers arrive via free jets and the low rollers via day-trip buses, Atlantic City has become a boardwalk jungle; there has been no filtering down of casino prosperity to local residents, according to the author. Well-researched, providing documentation to support its allegations, this book is an eye opener.