A monthly multimedia exploration of popular literature and film with d.a.i.-teacher Scott Stelle. Join us in a lively, spirited exploration of crime fiction and history. In all the big American cities, there has always been a connection between business, crime and politics. By the 1920s, this shadowy and unstable alliance extended everywhere across the country. While gangsters needed politicians for protection against the courts and police, the politicians needed money and help mobilizing voters on election day. Information flows in two directions: from the criminal milieu to the police, and from the authorities to the underworld. This symbiotic reality of criminal and government infiltration creates material corruption and moral ambiguity because money also flows in both directions. This quarter we will explore the thin borderline between the law through works of fiction, true crime and film.
1.10.: Leo Katcher – The Big Bankroll: The Life and Times of Arnold Rothstein (1959, film King of the Roaring 20's, 1961): Leo Katcher tells the story of Arnold Rothstein (1882-1928), a gangster, businessman, and gambler who became the head of the Jewish mafia in New York City during the 1920s.
5.11.: Robert Fish – Mute Witness (1963, film Bullitt, 1968): A New York police officer is forced to watch over Mafia boss Johnny Rossi while he waits to testify before the crime commission. When Clancy finds Rossi dead in his Hotel room, he starts an investigation and brings justice to those accountable.
3.12.: Peter Maas – The Valachi Papers (1968): Peter Maas writes about the former Mafioso Joe Valachi, a low-ranking member of the New York-based Genovese crime family, who became the first crown witness against the Italian Mafia in the U.S.
• In English
• Location: d.a.i. hall
