In 2014, congressman Jim Traficant dies, and the city that loved him mourns. Why so much love for such a flawed man?

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From Marc Smerling, the creator of Crimetown and The Jinx, welcome to CROOKED CITY.  The Saturday Evening Post dubbed Youngstown, Ohio “Crimetown U.S.A.” It was a mob town. Illegal gambling was so lucrative that a mob war raged for decades, and bodies piled  up. Then, Jim Traficant ran for sheriff, riding into office as the city’s steel industry fell on hard times. Traficant battles the local newspaper, then the FBI, the IRS and finally his own demons as an eight-term, twice-indicted congressman.

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