What are some of the essential mafia/organized crime movies, TV shows, books, or documentaries that you'd recommend to the MR community? Why should they check it out? 

For me, the gold standard is The Godfather (part 1). 16 years ago, I first showed up on the old site after seeing The Godfather for the first time and doing a search for online mafia games. Not only was the story excellent, but you had some amazing acting as well: Brando won Best Actor, and three others were nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Duvall, Caan, and Pacino). Objectively, it's one of the best movies ever made.

What are some other classic additions to the mafia canon you'd recommend? 

Or what lesser known mafia-related works might you recommend for the community to check out?

I recommend looking at the Valachi Papers, both the book and the 1972 film (starring Charles Bronston). The movie is a bit campy but entertaining. Joe Valachi was a soldier in the Genovese family, his testimony is really what opened up the understanding of American Mafia to the general public.

I don't think I know anything too onscure.  Of the ones I think we all know I think I enjoyed The Sopranos the most.  I liked the way they had the mafia aspect to it, but also the way it portrayed it and how it looked in a family.  I'm sure many of us know the struggles that the Soprano family saw.

Goodfellas. I prefer it over the Godfather imo.

I would definitely recommend reading and watching about the Bath Avenue crew. A very interesting group of young and limitless guys who joined the New Jersey crime family. They speak a lot about how they have done things and what is the life about.

Like Tommy said, I prefer Goodfellas over Godfather, I feel like it really portrays the life for what it was with Henry Hill and the Lucchese family at the time. Also, I'd recommend watching Michael Franzese, though it's not a film, the guy gives some insight into the mob and what it was like on his YouTube channel.

A book I really enjoyed was "Gaspipe: Confessions of a mafia hitman" by Philip Carlo. Held my interest well. 8/10.

my 1st mafia media was Godfather , i would watch that show over and over. Now i watch history channel about all the mafia person. I would love get them on DVD godfather set. I love all mobster media shows.

Godfather 1 and 2 GoodFellas Casino

And as far as shows The Sopranos or BoardWalk Empire

If you watch the right movies, you can get a good education on the history of the mafia. The Godfather trilogy showed the origins and the evolution into the mid-20th century.  Critics have said that The Sopranos was a very accurate portrayal of modern organized crime, and that seems to be a reasonable assessment.

i would personally recommend Michael Franzese's youtube channel, i get a lot of insight on how to increase realism in my RP's,. i'll put a link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqdnwGg7-Qw

His father was a real legend, I'll tell you thet. he was a man of his word, he was the man. Hell he took 50y and he kept his mouth shoot. Like Michael said he went out with his boots on. And that story with Merlin is funny as hell. Who didn't saw him, go and watch, it's quality content.

Some really great suggestions here- many of them seem to be set in the 50's and 60's. Any particular recommendations for the prohibition era the game is set in?

Kates, there is the tv series called Making of The Mob which details the rise of Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Vito Genovese, and Frank Costello. The impact they had on Chicago as well, it was pretty interesting a lovely watch. Has some pretty interesting details that clear some things up and actually shed some light on some things as well.

There is also a season which details the rise of 'The Outfit' in Chicago as well. I prefer that one though.

There are lot of series, But from movies id recommend the godfather series, Casino,Bronx tale. Great movies. For series theres The Sopranos, and some other ones but Im not fond of series tbh