The Artichoke Wars

Episode Notes

Notes go hereBooks: Garcia, Chris. Food and Crime: Pen and Sword, 2023. Available on Amazon: https://amazon.com/Food-Crime-Theft-Poisoning-Murder/dp/1399063529. Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne. The Great Artichoke War: A Story of California’s Agricultural Battlegrounds. University of California Press, 2010. Available at: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520274771/the-great-artichoke-war.

Hurtado, Albert. Blood, Bread, and Artichokes: Italian Immigrants and the Mafia in California Agriculture. Stanford University Press, 1998. Available at: https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=2983.

Academic Journals and Articles: Lombardo, Robert. "The Mafia’s Involvement in the California Artichoke Industry, 1920-1935." Journal of American History, vol. 89, no. 2, 2002, pp. 456-480. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/jah/article/89/2/456/812209.

Smith, Jeffrey. "Ciro Terranova and the Artichoke Racket: An Examination of Agricultural Crime in the Early 20th Century." Agricultural History Review, vol. 47, no. 1, 1999, pp. 53-68. Available at: https://www.bahs.org.uk/AGHR/ARTICLES/47_01.pdf.

Guglielmo, Thomas. "Mafia Monopolies: The Case of the California Artichoke Wars." Italian American Review, vol. 27, no. 4, 2004, pp. 15-39. Available at: https://calandrainstitute.org/iar/volume-27-issue-4/.

News Articles and Reports: Brass, Alan. "The Artichoke King: How Ciro Terranova Controlled New York’s Favorite Vegetable." The New York Times, April 12, 1935. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/1935/04/12/archives/the-artichoke-king-how-ciro-terranova-controlled-new-yorks.html. Valentine, Sue. "California’s Bloody Artichoke Wars: A Battle for Control of a Crop." Los Angeles Times, May 7, 1932. Available at: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1932-may-07-mn-33507-story.html.

Martin, Jill. "Fiorello La Guardia’s War on the Artichoke Mafia." New York Daily News, July 19, 1935. Available at: https://www.nydailynews.com/archives/la-guardias-war-artichoke-mafia-article-1.1449041 . Documentaries and Media Coverage: PBS. "The Artichoke Wars: America’s Strangest Agricultural Conflict." American Experience, 2009. Available at: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/artichokewars/.

History Channel. "The Mafia’s Green Gold: The Story of the Artichoke Wars." History’s Mysteries, 2011. Available at: https://www.history.com/shows/historys-mysteries/season-11/episode-8.

Government Documents and Court Records: California State Legislature. "Hearings on the Influence of Organized Crime in California’s Agricultural Sector." Sacramento: California State Printing Office, 1932. Available at: https://www.library.ca.gov/california-government-documents/.

United States Senate. "Testimony on Organized Crime’s Influence on the Agricultural Industry." Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1935. Available at: https://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/organisedcrime.pdf.

Dissertations and Theses: Rogers, Emily. "Mafia and Agriculture: The Artichoke Wars as a Case Study." PhD dissertation, University of Southern California, 2016. Available at: https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/digital/collection/p15799coll3/id/89662.

Turner, Kevin. "The Economic Impact of the Artichoke Wars on California Agriculture." MA thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 1994. Available at: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7dx6m1df.

Websites and Online Resources: California State Archives. "The Artichoke Wars Collection." Accessed August 2024. Available at: https://www.sos.ca.gov/archives/collections/agricultural-history/artichoke-wars/.

Monterey County Historical Society. "The History of Artichoke Cultivation in Monterey County." Accessed August 2024. Available at: https://www.mchsmuseum.com/artichoke-history/.

Mafia Wiki. "Ciro Terranova and the Artichoke Racket." Last modified June 2024. Available at: https://mafia.wikia.org/wiki/Ciro_Terranova_and_the_Artichoke_Racket.

Magazine Articles: Davis, John. "How the Artichoke Became the Mafia’s Favorite Vegetable." Smithsonian Magazine, May 2017. Available at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-artichoke-became-mafias-favorite-vegetable-180963466/.