Chronicles the many frustrated attempts to recover the treasure that is rumored to lie within the ingeniously elaborate labyrinth of winding tunnels and secret underwater chambers beneath Oak Island

The Big Dig: The 10 Million Search for Oak Island's Legendary Treasure

O'Connor, D'Arcy

Travel

Ballantine Books

Their names resonate with organized crime in Montreal: the Matticks, MacAllisters, Johnstons and Griffins, and Peter Dunie Ryan. They are the Irish equivalent of the infamous Rizzuto and Cotroni families, and the "Mom" Bouchers and Walter Stadnicks of the Hells Angels. Award-winning producer, journalist and author D’Arcy O’Connor narrates the genesis and rise to power of one of Montreal’s most powerful, violent and colorful criminal organizations. It is the West End Gang, whose members controlled the docks and fought the Hells Angels and Mafia for their share of the city’s prostitution, gambling, loan sharking and drug dealing. At times, they did not disdain forging alliances with rival gangs when huge profits were at stake, or when a killing needed to be carried out. 
The West End Gang—the Irish Mafia of Montreal—is a legendary beast. They sprang out of the impoverished southwest of the city, some looking for ways to earn enough just to survive, some wanting more than a job in an abattoir or on a construction site. In that sense, they were no different from other immigrants from Italy and other European countries. A shortcut to wealth was their common goal. And Montreal, with its burgeoning post-WWII population, was ripe for the picking.
The Irish Mob made headlines with a spectacular Brinks robbery in 1976, using the money to broker a major heroin and cocaine trafficking ring. It took over the Port of Montreal, controlling the flow of drugs into the city, drugs which the Mafia funnelled to New York. The West End Gang had connections to the cocaine cartel in Colombia; hashish brokers in Morocco and France; and marijuana growers in Mexico. The gang imported drugs on an enormous scale. One bust that took place off the coast of Angola in 2006 involved 22.5 tonnes of hashish, destined for Montreal. 
The West End Gang is a ripping tale that unveils yet another chapter in Montreal’s colorful criminal underworld.

Montreal's Irish Mafia: The True Story of the Infamous West End Gang

History

Americas

wiley

Examines several theories concerning the underground labyrinth, the ingenious system of dams and subterranean flood tunnels, and the strange assortment of objects found on Oak Island off Nova Scotia and tells of expeditions to uncover the area's secrets

The Money Pit: The Story of Oak Island and the World's Greatest Treasure Hunt

World

Putnam Pub. Group

From the early days as hired muscle for the Italian and Jewish mafias, tunnelling into bank vaults in the '50s and '60s, to the legendary truck heists and bank stick-ups in the '70s, Montreal's Irish mafia-otherwise known as the West End Gang-has managed to pull off some of the most daring and complicated robberies and smuggling operations in Canadian history.
Criminals of every stripe inhabit these pages, from violent stick-up men and drug dealers such as the MacAllister Brothers, to "King of the Port" Gerry Matticks and his highly complex importation schemes, as well as the charismatic "King of Coke" Dunie Ryan, his assassin, Paul April, and his successor, Alan "The Weasel" Ross. Through research and interviews with police investigators, convicted gang associates and others, journalist and author D'Arcy O'Connor narrates the genesis and rise to power of one of Montreal's most colourful and violent gangs: Montreal's Irish mafia.

Montreal's Irish Mafia

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

HarperCollins, Publishers

It started on a summer afternoon in 1795 when a young man named Daniel McGinnis found what appeared to be an old site on an island off the Acadian coast, a coastline fabled for the skullduggery of pirates. The notorious Captain Kidd was rumored to have left part of his treasure somewhere along here, and as McGinnis and two friends started to dig, they found what turned out to be an elaborately engineered shaft constructed of oak logs, nonindigenous coconut mats, and landfill that came to be known as the Money Pit. Ever since that summer day in 1795, the possibility of what might be hidden in the depths of a small island off the south coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, has made it the site of the world's longest, most expensive, and most perplexing treasure hunt. Author D'Arcy O'Connor recounts the fascinating stories and amazing discoveries of past and current treasure seekers who have sought Oak Island's fabled treasure for over two hundred years. It has baffled scientists and madmen, scholars and idiots, millionaires and get-rich-quick schemers, psychics, engineers, charlatans, and even a former president of the United States. The island has consumed the fortunes-and in some cases, the lives-of those who have obsessively set out to unlock its secret. Despite all their efforts, the mystery remains unsolved, and not a single dime of treasure has ever been recovered. The present-day search is an archaeological dig exceeding anything ever done anywhere for similar purposes, and it may well result in the discovery of one of the world's richest and most historically significant treasures. But this is also the story of individuals who have dedicated years of their lives to discover what was buried long ago beneath this strange island. They are driven by a lust for gold, by archaeological curiosity, and by their determination to outwit the engineer who was responsible for the Oak Island enigma.

Secret Treasure of Oak Island: The Amazing True Story of a Centuries-Old Treasure Hunt

LYONS PRESS+

The Lyons Press

La Mafia Irlandaise de Montreal

LA PRESSE (ÉDITIONS)

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