Books about Rum runner from Amazon.com

Think you're a smuggler? With that box of Cuban cigars or those unclaimed duty-free souvenirs from last summer's trip to Paris? Untaxed and untraced commerce-call it contraband-is a trillion-dollar-per-year global business New technologies to discover and curb smuggling are met by equally well-equipped perpetrators, determined to stay below the radar.

With its long coastline, hundreds of remote landing strips and airports clogged with sun-seeking tourists, Florida is a superhighway of smuggling. It is easy to move illegal goods like weapons, drugs, slaves, exotic birds and flowers; all while avoiding the best efforts of U.S. and international customs authorities.

Who does this smuggling? Well one Florida governor and the wife of another, for starters. Hardscrabble commercial fishermen, Spanish explorers, Mafia mobsters, crew chiefs for fruit pickers, respected attorneys, just about everybody in Florida is a smuggler.

Smuggling touches every major episode in Florida's history; it's discovery and settlement, the Seminole Wars, and the Civil War were shaped by smugglers. The state's repeated land booms-including today's-are heavily influenced by smuggler profits. Today's business economy is warped by the manipulation of smugglers laundering their profits.

Stan Zimmerman means neither to vilify nor glorify these entrepreneurs. Nor does he intend to leave any stoned unturned or suitcase unopened. With stories of drug runners and prostitute pushers along side the exploits and follies of Florida's elite, we are able to see why throughout its long history, Florida has always been a true "smuggler's paradise.".
Price: $15.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The Purple Gang was a loosely organized confederation of mobsters who dominated the Detroit underworld and whose tentacles reached across the country. Throughout the years, beginning with prohibition, successfully distilling alcohol and branching out into liquor- running from Canada (with the Capone organization of Chicago), kidnapping, and labor racketeering, the Purple Gang prevailed.

The mob self-destructed by the time of World War II, but a number of former Purples would go on to become nationally known underworld figures, some indicted and convicted as recently as 1996.

This is the hitherto untold story of the rise and fall of one of America's most notorious criminal groups. In an era that resembled the Wild West, with post World War I America groping for its identity, chaos was the rule. And in Detroit's underworld, the Purple Gangsters were the rulers.

Paul Kavieff has devoted ten years to the research and writing of this book. He has spent extensive periods in the archives of the Michigan State Police, Federal Bureau of Prisons, and the police departments of many Michigan cities..
Price: $105.25 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The Confessions of a Rum-Runner is an authentic journal of liquor smuggling during Prohibition (1920-1933). The author went into rum-running for the excitement and the chance to make money quickly. In time he built up a successful organization and carried on a business running into millions of dollars. After amassing a fortune, he called it quits, married the woman of his dreams, and opened a famous hotel in Africa. First published in the summer of 1928, The Confessions of a Rum-Runner is the most insightful account of the inner workings of smuggling during Prohibition ever written..
Price: $16.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

During Prohibition (1920- 1933) it was illegal in the United States to sell, manufacture, or transport liquor. It was not illegal to buy or drink it-and America was thirsty! In September 1923 Scotsman Alastair Moray set out from Glasgow to the United States on board the 187-foot, four-masted schooner Cask loaded with thousands of cases of fine Scotch whiskey. The trip that was supposed to take three-months lasted eleven, and Moray detailed each day’s activity in brilliant fashion. First published in 1929, The Diary of a Rum-Runner has been fully researched and updated with new information which confirms, and expands upon, Alastair Moray’s incredible, yet true, account of his time as a rum-runner..
Price: $13.73 [Notify me when price goes down.]