Mobology miscellany

In repose

The Mobology archives consist of catalogs for each of my ten published books, as well as for the Intermezzos that detail my investigative and political activities between books.

This Miscellany page logs columns of a general and personal nature.

* July 17, 2026: John Lewis on accelerating and braking: Remembering Rep. Lewis on the sixth anniversary of his death

* July 13, 2026: Remembering mob expert Carl Shoffler, an arresting officer of the Watergate burglars, who died 30 years ago today: Carl was like a big brother to many of us

* July 5, 2026: 55 years ago, a cargo explosion on I-71 nearly cost me my life: “All I could think was that if the truck blew up, I would lose my job”

* June 14, 2026: This is the 3rd anniversary of Mobology: 156 consecutive weeks that catalog 52 years of fiercely independent investigations: Thank you for your loyal support. . . . Please subscribe and renew.

* June 11, 2026: Honoring POGO’s Danielle Brian, an American hero who continues to make a difference: The public-interest community celebrates Danielle’s honorable and noble career

* June 7, 2026: How a 1985 rivalry between ABC News and 60 Minutes allowed a mobbed-up U.S. Senator to evade exposure: An earlier example of a major public figure using libel litigation to chill the press

* February 22, 2026: Jack Brown and The Black Mafia: The odyssey of a small-time drug dealer who becomes a big-time narcotics trafficker but then winds up flipping and turning state’s evidence

* October 1, 2025: The death of a friend, who owned a small arsenal, and his admonition about guns: “A firearm is a tool, it has one use – to kill”

* August 17, 2025: Authors, journalists, and scholars, et al: Downsizing? Find repositories for your bodies of work: Make your swords and shields public

* August 14, 2025: 1958 Topps football cards: A complete, fully PSA-graded and certified set: Remembering the comparative innocence of sports in America while legalized sports gambling corrupts the institutions of college and professional sports in real time

* August 12, 2025: 51 years ago today: Mickey Mantle was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown: Remembering the innocence of sports in America before it was corrupted by the national legalization of sports gambling

* June 25, 2025: Witnessing history: The opening day of John Dean's testimony before the U.S. Senate Watergate Committee 52 years ago today: Two college buddies attended the Watergate hearings on June 25, 1973

* June 20, 2025: My one and only commencement address: An homage to the graduating children and grandchildren of my family members, friends, colleagues, and Mobology subscribers

* June 14, 2025: In the aftermath of this morning's "politically targeted shootings" in Minnesota: My admonition on FB from March 3, 2016

* May 18, 2025: Remembering the Firestone South Course and a horrible tragedy after the 1966 PGA Championship: The autographs of Tony Lema, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, and Ken Venturi, among other great golfers, were memorialized on my souvenirs

* May 11, 2025: Celebrating the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day), aka "Victory Over Fascism Day": The next world war against fascism is on the horizon

* May 4, 2025: 55 years later: Remembering Kent State. . . . This is a 1982 photograph I took of the May 4, 1970, shooting site at Kent State University

* April 11, 2025: 52 years ago today: My first and only arrest: A benign and minor incident evolved into a major controversy

* January 26, 2025: In 2018, a tweeter claimed that I got whacked a week after the release of my 1989 book about the NFL and the Mafia: I have yet to see his documentation, but here's what I know

* December 15, 2024: This week is my 50th anniversary as an independent investigative journalist: The birth of a cautionary tale

* November 10, 2024: Veterans Day 2024: Honoring my father and his colleagues in the 357th Fighter Group during WWII

* October 6, 2024: Steve Van Zandt loves books and movies about the Mafia: But, like Robert De Niro, he still got conned by The Irishman

* September 29, 2024: The $1,500 contract on my life: I was more upset by the price than the threat

* May 12, 2024: 50 years ago, I ran for a seat in the Ohio State Legislature Confession: "I was once a Republican"

* May 5, 2024: The only known audio and video of the Kent State shootings 54 years ago: Alan Canfora, one of the wounded students, explained the recordings

* April 28, 2024: An existential dilemma: Owing the IRS and a Mafia guy: “Who gets paid first?”

* December 24, 2023: Jerry Garcia, Christmas dinner, and UFOs: The alternative facts of Jerry Garcia, a fan of my 1986 book about Ronald Reagan and the mob

* October 22, 2023: The Mafia and the Congressman: My interview with the late James Traficant

* October 15, 2023: My legal battle with Howard Safir, the former head of the Wit-Sec Program: On being asked to share the risks without knowing what the risks are

* October 8, 2023: “Three of my books about the Mafia are on The Forbidden Bookshelf”: My ongoing battle to vindicate my work

* October 6, 2023: Keith Olberman’s high-flying encounter with Dick Butkus: The late-linebacker reaction to Interference, a book about the NFL and the Mafia

* October 4, 2023: Remembering Jack Tobin: “The Godfather of Mafia Reporters”

* September 24, 2023: My aborted book collaboration with a notorious New York Mafia figure: A tentative agreement followed by a shakedown demand

* September 17, 2023: Working to save an anti-Putin, ex-KGB officer: Gennady Vasilenko exposed Robert Hanssen as a spy

* July 31, 2023: Bill Jahoda: The Chicago Outfit’s “Mister-In-Between”

* July 24, 2023: The 1960 Screen Actors Guild Strike and “The Great Giveaway”: Engineered by Ronald Reagan and Sidney Korshak, according to Richard Walsh of IATSE

* July 22, 2023: Walter Sheridan: The Interim and Final Reports Of The Senate Rackets Committee, 1957-1960

* June 24, 2023: Kebedech Tekleah: A world-class artist after ten years in a forced labor camp

* June 17, 2023: Remembering mob expert Carl Shoffler: The arresting officer at the Watergate burglary, 51 years ago today

* June 16, 2023: “Who the hell are you?”

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