Description

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 devilthe 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 returnLucianos contacts in Italy to track the Nazis movements

Operation Underworld is a tale of espionage and crime like no other the unbelievable firstever account of the Allied war efforts 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