The Corporation

January 15, 2018
A stout but fast-moving tale of criminal misdoings from Havana to Manhattan and beyond, courtesy of a Cuban crime boss with a plan.The corporation of the title is not one that Citizens United directly benefits, but it has plenty of political dimensions all the same. This corporation is the Cuban exile version of the Mafia, and its adventures and misadventures might make Don Corleone blanch. At the center of the action is a former police officer who, having fought against Fidel Castro at the Bay of Pigs and logged time as a bagman for corrupt superiors, set up shop in the United States. By English's (Whitey's Payback, 2014, etc.) account, Jose Miguel Battle y Vargas (1929-2007) reshaped the angles of the Cuban addiction to bolita, a simple lottery game, to work the gambling racket--and then other vices, including, in time, the trade in cocaine. Still young when he started, he "conveyed leadership through his demeanor and gravitas rather than inspiring rhetoric or brilliant business strategies." The business turned violent, and Battle dealt decisively with his many enemies, one of whom killed his brother; as English writes of two of Battle's soldiers, "they had done so many killings together in the last few months, they hardly needed to talk about it. It was all second nature." Naturally, Battle had it in mind to take revenge on Castro as well as keep his empire afloat. Had the movie not had an earlier model, he might have made a good study for Scarface. Still, as will happen, the Corporation fell apart under the strain of rivalries, power struggles, and legal interference only to be supplanted by other criminal organizations. English capably covers half a century of criminal enterprise, avoiding the cliches of the true-crime genre while stocking his narrative with familiar players: the capos and goons, the cops and informants, a mistress or two, and John F. Kennedy.Add another Mafia to the list (Italian, Irish, Russian...), then. Fascinating reading for true-crime buffs.

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January 29, 2018
Petty gambling leads to grand theft, arson, and dozens of murders in this sprawling true-crime saga. Journalist English (Havana Nocturne) recounts the career of José Miguel Battle, aka “El Gordo,” a refugee from Castro’s Cuba (and Bay of Pigs veteran) who became the boss of bolita, an illegal lottery popular among Cuban exile communities in Miami. By the 1980s, the pastime swelled to a billion-dollar industry and sparked conflicts between rival New York City bolita outfits, with assassinations galore and a rash of arson that killed innocents. Battle’s story reads like an ultraviolent mashup of The Godfather, Scarface, and Bugsy, with plenty of gore, colorful characters, and intricate subplots: the loose-cannon protégé of Battle who started going after the bosses; Ernestico, the drug dealer who killed Battle’s brother Palulu and survived umpteen retaliatory hit attempts; Battle’s Peruvian casino venture, where he wallowed in cocaine and paranoia; mob-linked anti-Castro terrorists; Miami cops who spun wiretaps, stakeouts, and a source code-named “Sexy Cubana” into a RICO case. English stuffs in so much material that the thread sometimes gets lost, but his vast narrative is rich enough to keep the pages turning.

Starred review from April 1, 2018

Writer English (Havana Nocturne) has scored gold again, with this latest book that explores Cuban mobsters in America following the exodus after Fidel Castro's revolution. The book centers on the criminal career of Jos� Miguel Battle, a cop under the Batista regime, a Bay of Pigs survivor, and hero to Cuban exiles in the States. Battle was quick to organize the bolita, a form of the Cuban lottery in Union City, NJ. His criminal enterprise grew rapidly into a fully formed mafia, known as the "Corporation," or Compania, which spread across Cuban communities even into south Florida. Havana's version of the Godfather, Battle was a mob boss with far-reaching influence--American law enforcement was aware of his organization, a target of President Reagan's Select Committee on Organized Crime. He served two years in prison on a 30-year murder conviction, pled guilty on racketeering charges in 2006, and was sentenced to 20 years. Battle died in prison in 2007. VERDICT Riveting nonfiction worthy of the best creative storyteller. English's extensive notes and documentation result in a first-rate saga of crime and corruption that is further testament to the author's reputation among the nation's most accomplished writers. [See Prepub Alert, 9/25/17.]--Boyd Childress, formerly with Auburn Univ. Libs., AL

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2018

One of international crime expert English's four New York Times best sellers, Havana Nocturne examined U.S. mobsters in Cuba when the revolution broke. Here he flips to the United States, starting in the 1980s, to relate the history of the Cuban American mob. Films rights have been sold to Paramount, with Benicio Del Toro starring and Leonardo DiCaprio producing; with a 75,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.