Meet Pasqualina Albano, the woman who changed Mafia history.
The Mafia crew of Springfield, Massachusetts became part of the Genovese crime family during Prohibition. Pasqualina is the answer to both “Why?” and “How?”
In 1921, at the start of Prohibition, a young widow in Springfield’s South End inherited the biggest bootleg racket in western Massachusetts. Pasqualina Albano ruled her late husband’s gang of toughs and bootleggers, and directed a war of vengeance against their adversaries.
The “Bootleg Queen,” as the newspapers called her, fought lawmakers, other bootleggers, and even her own family—all for a secret society that would never accept her as a member.
Available in paperback and hardcover at Broadside Books in Northampton, Mass. and on Amazon in Kindle and print formats.
Mafia Genealogy 