Gary Krist's Prologue Of Empire Of Sin

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Prologue Gary Krist's thesis for the prologue of Empire of Sin is the campaign against the so called Italian underworld- part of a larger effort by the respectable white establishment to maintain control of their city from the forces of vice, crime, and corruption that had roiled New Orleans for the last thirty years. The prologue starts off with the discovery of Italian immigrants, Joseph and Catherine Maggio found gruesomely murdered behind their grocery store in a predominantly Italian and poor immigrant area. Frank T. Mooney the police superintendent suspects the case was an obvious robbery and Joseph Maggio's brother was a suspect of murder. For example, Mooney discovered that Andrew Maggio had been seen taking a straight razor from his shop, which happened to be one of the murder weapons. Mooney had a strong incentive to see Andrew Maggio as the perpetrator of the murder and noted it as a revenge killing. According to Mooney, there was a series of unsolved attacks on Italian grocers in the past years. To add to this, the police have been trying to fight against the Italian organization to end the epidemic of murder and blackmail in the New Orleans' …show more content…

Tom Anderson was a well-known entrepreneur and a business model for the vice industry. Anderson supplied expensive, high quality goods to markets where demand was unlimited. To add on, Anderson's drinking, prostitution, and gambling establishments had no competition to deal with. Profits were growing for the Anderson's creations due to this new era of vice tolerance. For instance, the business people of New Orleans turned the city into a so called virtual supermarket of sin to cater to the socioeconomic status. Although Tom Anderson generally prospered in this era he did have a few setbacks. Anderson got divorced and remarried at least two or three times and had to deal with the loss of his mother back in January

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