Ovid Demaris (6 September 1919 – 12 March 1998 as Ovide E. Desmarais) was a native of Biddeford, Maine and an author of books and detective stories. A former United Press correspondent and newspaper reporter, he wrote more than thirty books and hundreds of newspaper articles. He graduated from College of Idaho in 1948 and Boston University in 1950. Previous to that, he had served in the United States Army Air Forces.
His most important works were of a historical or biographical nature about the Mafia and other gangland characters. He is most noted for The Last Mafioso, his biography of Jimmy Fratianno, and for The Green Felt Jungle, his expose on Mafia operations in Las Vegas.
1960: Lucky Luciano, Monarch Books
1961: The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case, Monarch
1961: The Dillinger Story
1964: The Green Felt Jungle, Pocket Books, Montreal 1964; written with Ed Reid
1965: The Toughest Customers
1967: Jack Ruby, Da Capo Press, written with Garry Wills
1969: Captive City: Chicago in Chains, Sphere Books Limited
1970: Poso del Mundo: Inside the Mexican–American border, from Tijuana to Matamoros ISBN 0-671-78066-2
1970: America the Violent, Cowles Book Co.
1974: The Lucky Luciano story (The Godfather series), Belmont Tower Books
1974: Dirty Business: The Corporate-Political Money-Power Game, Harper's Magazine Press
1975: The Director. An Oral Biography of J. Edgar Hoover
1977: Brothers in Blood, The International Terrorist Network ISBN 0-684-15192-8
1978: Judith Exner: My Story, Grove Press, with Judith Exner
1980: The Last Mafioso, The Treacherous World of Jimmy Fratianno. Bantam Books ISBN 0-553-25474-X
1986: The Boardwalk Jungle, Bantam Books
1994: J. Edgar Hoover: As They Knew Him, Avalon Publishing Group
1957: Ride The Gold Mare
1957: The Hoods Take Over
1958: The Lusting Drive
1959: The Long Night
1959: The Slasher
1960: The Extortioners
1960: The Enforcer
1960: The Gold-Plated Sewer
1961: Candyleg (Alternative Title: Machine Gun McCain)
1963: The Parasite
1965: The Organization (Alternative Title: The Contract)
1966: Fatal Mistake
1971: Mason’s Women
1972: The Overlord
1973: Legs Diamond
1983: The Vegas Legacy
1988: Ricochet
1958: Gang War - based on the novel The Hoods Take Over
1969: Machine Gun McCain - based on the novel Candyleg
