YOUNGSTOWN — Organized crime author Allan R. May said many people in the Mahoning Valley, which once was a hotbed for the mob, still look back on that time with fondness.

“When I’m up in Cleveland — I’ve done a couple of books on Cleveland (organized crime) — there just isn’t the interest there as there is down here,” said May, who spoke Tuesday to the Youngstown Press Club on the topic, “Musings on the Mob and the Mahoning Valley” at the Tyler History Center.

May added: “As to why people are so interested, I guess it’s because it’s a small town and people grew up in it and are so familiar with the characters. It could be nostalgia. It’s hard to say. A lot of people have their own opinions on what went on. But when people come up to me here and talk about a (mobster) from the past, nine times out of 10, they have something nice to say about them.”

Among May’s six organized crime books are two on the Mahoning Valley: “Welcome to the Jungle Inn,” about the notorious Mafia gambling den in Liberty, and “Crimetown U.S.A.,” which is a history of the Valley’s involvement with organized crime from 1933 to 1963.

May said he is planning on doing another book on Valley mobsters that picks up where “Crimetown” left off — shortly after the notorious car bombing in November 1962 that killed “Cadillac” Charles Cavallaro and his 11-year-old son, Tommy.

May said “Crimetown” came about when he was working with someone on a book on organized crime in Pittsburgh and the Valley, with May handling the part on the Valley.

“Once I got down here and doing the research, there was just so much crime” that I decided to write the book myself on the Valley, May said.

May said that Sandy Naples, who ran Youngstown in the 1950s for the Pittsburgh Mafia before his March 11, 1960, murder was “probably the most widely known gangster in the Mahoning Valley.”

Naples was the “first victim of the 1960 mob war,” May said.

May said that Don Hanni Jr., the attorney and former Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman, was among the more colorful characters he interviewed when conducting research on organized crime in the Valley in later years.

May said he wanted to interview Orlando “Orlie” Carabbia, who with his brothers at one time controlled illegal gambling in the Valley, before his 2021 death.

May said Carabbia asked him to “show me some respect,” meaning to give him money, for an interview, which he declined to do.

“As I’m walking out, I said to myself, ‘I’m going to get even with him by describing him as the Fredo of the Carabbia brothers,'” May said.

In the book and movie, “The Godfather,” Fredo is the weakest and least intelligent brother of the Corleone crime family.