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Gangsters in Paradise is a five-part series in the Palm Springs Desert Sun about Mafia influence in the Coachella Valley — "a very real and violent reality," the paper says in the headline for the piece by Bruce Fessier. The mob came to the desert in the 1960s when a Detroit associate opened a casino in Cathedral City. "Mafia leaders liked to spend their winters in the desert," the paper notes. Part three, upcoming, discusses Frank Sinatra. Part four will look at the police chief in the 1970s and 80s, and the final part will look at kids who grew up in Palm Springs — like Tod Goldberg, the author of "Gangsterland" — and who came to romanticize the mob presence.
