Download or read book Jerry Capeci s Gang Land written by Jerry Capeci and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2003 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An entertaining and provocative collection of columns by the seasoned New York crime reporter offers a close-up look inside the world of the Mafia to reveal the inner workings and everyday operations of underworld crime and present intimate portraits of such key figures as John Gotti and Sammy "the Bull" Gravano. Original.
Download or read book Mob Boss written by Jerry Capeci and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-10-01 with total page 483 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reminiscent of Wiseguy, Mob Boss is a compelling biography from two prominent mob experts recounting the life and times of the first acting boss of an American Mafia family to turn government witness Alfonso "Little Al" D'Arco, the former acting boss of the Luchese organized crime family, was the highest-ranking mobster to ever turn government witness when he flipped in 1991. His decision to flip prompted many others to make the same choice, including John Gotti's top aide, Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, and his testimony sent more than fifty mobsters to prison. In Mob Boss, award-winning news reporters Jerry Capeci and Tom Robbins team up for this unparalleled account of D'Arco's life and the New York mob scene that he embraced for four decades. Until the day he switched sides, D'Arco lived and breathed the old-school gangster lessons he learned growing up in Brooklyn and fine-tuned on the mean streets of Little Italy. But when he learned he was marked to be whacked, D'Arco quit the mob. His defection decimated his crime family and opened a window on mob secrets going back a hundred years. After speaking with D'Arco, the authors reveal unprecedented insights, exposing shocking secrets and troublesome truths about a city where a famous pizza parlor doubled as a Mafia center for multi-million-dollar heroin deals, where hit men carried out murders dressed as women, and where kidnapping a celebrity newsman's son was deemed appropriate revenge for the father's satirical novel. Capeci and Robbins spent hundreds of hours in conversation with D'Arco, and exhausted many hours more fleshing out his stories in this riveting narrative that takes readers behind the famous witness testimony for a comprehensive look at the Mafia in New York City.
Download or read book Mob Star The Story of John Gotti written by Gene Mustain and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2002-07-01 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He was a little-known wiseguy out of Howard Beach, Queens, who blasted his way into the public eye with the assassination of Gambino Family boss Paul Castellano in December 1985, a rubout that’s the stuff of Mafia legend. Ruthless, cunning, and tougher than the streets that produced him, John Gotti seized control of the nation’s most powerful crime family, beat the law on rap after rap, and became an American legend. First published in 1988 and fully revised and updated for this edition, Mob Star traced John Gotti’s spectacular rise and eventual downfall after the betrayal of his closest ally, Salvatore “Sammy Bull” Gravano. At his death, ten years after he was jailed for life and four years after he began battling cancer, John Gotti was still the biggest name in today’s Mafia.
Download or read book Murder Machine written by Gene Mustain and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1993-07-01 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The inside story of a single Brooklyn gang that killed more Americans than the Iraqi army."—Mike McAlary, columnist, New York Post They were the DeMeo gang—the most deadly hit men in organized crime. Their Mafia higher-ups came to know, use, and ultimately fear them as the Murder Machine. They killed for profit and for pleasure, following cold-blooded plans and wild whims, from the mean streets of New York to the Florida Gold Coast, and from coast to coast. Now complete with personal revelations of one of the key players, this is the savage story that leaves no corpse unturned in its terrifying telling. INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS
Download or read book Gangland Gotham written by Allan R. May and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-08-12 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Organized crime and the mob figures who run it have long captured the imagination of the American public, appearing since the early twentieth century as characters in a host of popular books, movies, and television programs. But often what the public knew of such figures and their criminal careers was as much myth as fact. This book offers highly readable, carefully researched biographies that dispel the the myths but preserve the fascination surrounding 10 infamous New York mob leaders of the twentieth century. Each in-depth biography will help interested readers understand how and why each of these men achieved special notariety within the world of organized crime. Each biography describes the early years of each man, assessing how he came to a criminal career; his rise to prominence within the mob, providing reaction from those who knew him and witnessed his actions; and the last years of his career, assessing why it ended as it did. Each biography is illustrated with a picture of its subject and concludes with a listing of additional information resources, both print and electronic. A detailed subject index provides further access to the large amount of information contained in each biography. A timeline allows readers to quickly and easily track the birth, death, and important events in the life of each mobster.
Download or read book NYPD Confidential written by Leonard Levitt and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2010-11-23 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the rivalry of New York City's police commissioner and mayor for control over and credit for the city's police force, identifying disturbing cover-ups and corrupt practices that are undermining the NYPD's effectiveness and honor.
Download or read book Gotti written by Jerry Capeci and published by Random House. This book was released on 2013 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He was the most famous and infamous mobster since Al Capone. A stylish, expensively groomed Godfather who beat rap after rap to become a legendary figure to the public, and a nightmare to the forces of law and order. John Gotti was the original New York Untouchable -- a Godfather who laughed at the law. He rose from the streets of Queens to head America's most powerful crime family -- and his path there was littered with bodies. This title offers account of the brutal story of John Gotti.
Download or read book King of the Godfathers written by Anthony M. DeStefano and published by Kensington Publishing Corp.. This book was released on 2008-06-01 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Last Of The Old-World Mob Bosses--And The Ultimate Betrayal For more than twenty years, Joseph "Big Joey" Massino ran what was called the largest criminal network in the U.S., employing over two hundred and fifty made men and untold numbers of associates. The Bonanno family was responsible for over thirty murders, even killing a dozen of its own members to enforce discipline and settle scores. He would be brought down by Salvatore "Good Looking Sal" Vitale, the underboss who was not only Massino's closest and most trusted friend, but also his brother-in-law. In the end, facing the death penalty and the prospect of leaving his family penniless, Massino started talking to the FBI--the first Mafia Godfather to break the sacred code of omerta, and the end of a centuries-old tradition. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Anthony DeStefano, who interviewed Massino's family and friends as well as law enforcement officials and confidential sources, King of the Godfathers is the story of the brutal mob war that made Massino head of the Bonanno family and the most powerful gangster in America. "The best and last word on the subject." --Jerry Capeci, Gangland News.com and bestselling co-author of Murder Machine With 16 Pages of Revealing Photos! Anthony Destefano was part of the team of New York Newsday reporters who won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the August 1991 subway crash in Manhattan. He covers organized crime for Newsday and was the lead reporter on several major criminal trials, including that of subway gunman Bernhard Goetz. He lives in New Jersey.
Download or read book The Mob and the City written by C. Alexander Hortis and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2014-05-06 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Forget what you think you know about the Mafia. After reading this book, even life-long mob aficionados will have a new perspective on organized crime. Informative, authoritative, and eye-opening, this is the first full-length book devoted exclusively to uncovering the hidden history of how the Mafia came to dominate organized crime in New York City during the 1930s through 1950s. Based on exhaustive research of archives and secret files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, author and attorney C. Alexander Hortis draws on the deepest collection of primary sources, many newly discovered, of any history of the modern mob. Shattering myths, Hortis reveals how Cosa Nostra actually obtained power at the inception. The author goes beyond conventional who-shot-who mob stories, providing answers to fresh questions such as: * Why did the Sicilian gangs come out on top of the criminal underworld? * Can economics explain how the Mafia families operated? * What was the Mafia's real role in the drug trade? * Why was Cosa Nostra involved in gay bars in New York since the 1930s? Drawing on an unprecedented array of primary sources, The Mob and the City is the most thorough and authentic history of the Mafia's rise to power in the early-to-mid twentieth century.
Download or read book Garden State Gangland written by Scott M. Deitche and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-12-08 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mafia in the United States might be a shadow of its former self, but in the New York/New Jersey metro area, there are still wiseguys and wannabes working scams, extorting businesses, running gambling, selling drugs, and branching out into white collar crimes. And they are continuing a tradition that’s over 100 years old. Some of the most powerful mobsters on a national level were from New Jersey, and they spread their tentacles down to Florida, across the Atlantic, and out to California. And many of the stories have never been told. Deitche weaves his narrative through significant, as well as some lesser-known, mob figures who were vital components in the underworld machine. New Jersey’s organized crime history has been one of the most colorful in the country, serving as the home of some of the most powerful, as well as below-the-radar, mobsters in the Country. And though overshadowed by the emphasis on New York City, the mob and New Jersey have, over the years, become synonymous, in both pop culture and in law enforcement. But for all the press that has been dedicated to the mob and New Jersey, for all the law enforcement activity against the mob, and for all the pop culture references, there has never truly been an examination of the rise of the mob in New Jersey from a historical perspective. Until now. In Garden State Gangland, Scott M. Deitche sets the historical record straight by providing the first overall history of the mob in New Jersey, from the early turn of the century Black Hand gangs to the present, and looks at how influential they were was, not only to goings-on the Garden State but across the New York metro region and the country as a whole.
Download or read book Mafia Summit written by Gil Reavill and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-01-22 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mafia Summit is the true story of how a small-town lawman in upstate New York busted a Cosa Nostra conference in 1957, exposing the Mafia to America In a small village in upstate New York, mob bosses from all over the country—Vito Genovese, Carlo Gambino, Joe Bonanno, Joe Profaci, Cuba boss Santo Trafficante, and future Gambino boss Paul Castellano—were nabbed by Sergeant Edgar D. Croswell as they gathered to sort out a bloody war of succession. For years, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had adamantly denied the existence of the Mafia, but young Robert Kennedy immediately recognized the shattering importance of the Appalachian summit. As attorney general when his brother JFK became president, Bobby embarked on a campaign to break the spine of the mob, engaging in a furious turf battle with the powerful Hoover. Detailing mob killings, the early days of the heroin trade, and the crusade to loosen the hold of organized crime, fans of Gus Russo and Luc Sante will find themselves captured by this momentous story. Reavill scintillatingly recounts the beginning of the end for the Mafia in America and how it began with a good man in the right place at the right time.
Download or read book Gangland New York written by Anthony M. DeStefano and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-07-01 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Get a taste of New York’s underworld by seeing where mobsters lived, worked, ate, played, and died. From the Bowery Boys and the Five Points Gang through the rise of the Jewish “Kosher Nostra” and the ascendance of the Italian Mafia, mobsters have played a major role in the city’s history, lurking just around the corner or inside that nondescript building. Bill “the Butcher” Poole, Paul Kelly, Monk Eastman, “Lucky” Luciano, Carlo Gambino, Meyer Lansky, Mickey Spillane, John Gotti—each held sway over New York neighborhoods that nurtured them and gave them power. As families and factions fought for control, the city became a backdrop for crime scenes, the rackets spreading after World War II to docks, airports, food markets, and garment districts. The streets of Brooklyn, swamps of Staten Island, and vacant lots near LaGuardia Airport hosted assassinations and hasty burials for the unlucky. The bloodlettings, arrests, and trials became front-page fodder for tabloids that thrived on covering Mulberry Street. Chinese, Russian, and Greek mobsters rose to prominence and wrought bloody havoc as well. Each of the book’s five sections—one for each borough—traces criminal activities and area exploits from the nineteenth century to now. Everyone knows about Umberto’s Clam House in Little Italy, but now you can find Scarpato’s restaurant in Coney Island where Joe Masseria was killed by henchmen of Salvatore Maranzano, who in turn died in a Park Avenue office building at the hands of “Lucky” Luciano a few months later. From the Bronx to Brighton Beach, from New Springville to Ozone Park, here is a comprehensive, on-the-ground guide to mob life in the Rotten Apple.
Download or read book Wised Up written by Charlie Wilhelm and published by Pinnacle Books. This book was released on 2004 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Baltimore mobster Charlie Wilhelm reveals in his own words the details of hiswild life in crime and his desperate struggle for redemption.of shocking photos. Original.
Download or read book Crimetown U S A The History of the Mahoning Valley Mafia Organized Crime Activity in Ohio s Steel Valley 1933 1963 written by Allan R. May and published by . This book was released on 2013-07-01 with total page 629 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Crimetown, U.S.A." is a narrative of organized crime in Youngstown, Ohio and the surrounding Mahoning Valley during the years 1933 to 1963. It begins with the Valley's participation in the Midwest Crime Wave of 1933-34, describing the demise of the legendary bank robber "Pretty Boy" Floyd. This is followed by the demise of one of the Valley's own in the brutal slaying of "Happy" Marino, which also happens to be one of the Valley's few gangland murders in which all the participants were tried, convicted and sent to prison. The mid-to-late 1930s is chronicled showing the dominance of the ethnic-based lottery houses, which operated in Youngstown. These operations came to end after a run-away grand jury created enough interest to draw the governor's attention. The late 1940s saw the height of popularity of the infamous Jungle Inn gambling den, located just over the Mahoning County line in Trumbull County. The history of this establishment is chronicled in "Welcome to the Jungle Inn," also by Allan R. May, and is a companion book to "Crimetown U.S.A." describing the history of organized crime in Warren and Trumbull County, Ohio. By the end of the 1940s the citizens of Youngstown put a new mayor in City Hall. Charles Henderson ran on the platform of "Smash Racket Rule" in the city. The man he brought in to do the "smashing" was Edward J. Allen. The feisty and fearless police chief began by chasing out two-thirds of the Valley's "Big 3," including Mafia member Joe DiCarlo, who muscled into the race wire service and controlled the local bookmaking. This period was followed by what was known as the "bug" craze, which was the Valley's nickname for the numbers game or policy, as it was also known. The battle for dominance resulted in a bombing war throughout the 1950s for supremacy in this field by the city's top policy racketeers, Sandy Naples and Vince DeNiro. By the end of the 1950s, Youngstown had become known as "Bomb Town." In the early 1960s, the bombs that were used to scare the competition were now being used to eliminate it. A wave of vicious killings took place, some taking the lives of innocent people. No murder was more notorious than the November 1962 car-bombing that took the lives of "Cadillac Charlie" Cavallaro and his 11-year old son. The senseless killing shocked the country and brought national attention to Youngstown. It also brought the city an everlasting and despised nickname, "Crimetown, U.S.A."
Download or read book Vinny Gorgeous written by Anthony M. DeStefano and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2013-07-02 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vain man of good looks but no family ties to the Mob, Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano worked his way up to acting boss of the Bonanno crime family, becoming its leader when official boss Joseph Massino went to prison in 2003. When the Mafia was crawling with secret operatives and informants caving to government pressure to flip, Basciano steadfastly obeyed the code of La Cosa Nostra. “I got faith in one guy,” he said during a secretly taped meeting. That man was Massino, head of the Bonanno borgata. But for all his loyalty, Basciano was still a hot-headed, cold-blooded killer, which ultimately led to his arrest and downfall. Then in a remarkable betrayal that rocked the Five Families to their foundations, Massino secretly cooperated with the FBI—the first head bossever to roll over. As a result, Basciano faced the death penalty, but a federal jury, disturbed by the prosecution’s use of deadly criminal informants, reached a surprising verdict. Here from veteran crime author Anthony M. DeStefano comes the riveting story of the last true believer in the Mob’s cult of brotherhood and his betrayal at the hands of the only man he ever trusted.
Download or read book For the Sins of My Father written by Albert DeMeo and published by Crown. This book was released on 2003-09-09 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A suspenseful, emotionally charged real-life Sopranos: The son of New York's most notorious Mafia killer reveals the conflicted life he led being raised by a cold-blooded murderer, who was also a devoted family man, and the wrenching legacy of Mafia family life. Al DeMeo will never forget the day in 1992 when a coworker, a fellow trader at the New York Stock Exchange, taunted him with a copy of the hot new book Murder Machine, chronicling the horrific criminal life of DeMeo's father, Roy, the head of the most deadly gang in organized crime. The moment sent DeMeo into a psychological tailspin: How could he have spent his life looking up to, and loving, a vicious killer? For the Sins of My Father recounts the chilling rise and fall of the man who led the Gambino family's most fearsome killers and thieves, through the eyes of a son who had never known any other kind of life. Coming of age in an opulent Long Island house where money is abundant but its source is unclear, Al becomes Roy's confidant, sent to call in loans at age fourteen and gradually coming to understand his father's job description--loan shark, car thief, porn purveyor and, above all, murderer. But when Al is seventeen, Roy's body is found in the trunk of a car, a gangland slaying that places Al between federal prosecutors seeking his testimony and a mob crew determined to keep him quiet. Desperate to abide by the father-son bond, but equally determined to escape his father's dangerous and doomed life, Al Demeo embarks on a courageous quest for the truth, reconciliation, and honor. With the implacable narrative drive of a thriller and the power of a painfully honest memoir, For the Sins of My Father presents a startling and unprecedented perspective on the underworld of organized crime, exposing for the first time the cruel legacy of a Mafia life.
Download or read book Take the Cannoli written by Sarah Vowell and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-12-17 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wickedly funny collection of personal essays from popular NPR personality Sarah Vowell. Hailed by Newsweek as a "cranky stylist with talent to burn," Vowell has an irresistible voice -- caustic and sympathetic, insightful and double-edged -- that has attracted a loyal following for her magazine writing and radio monologues on This American Life. While tackling subjects such as identity, politics, religion, art, and history, these autobiographical tales are written with a biting humor, placing Vowell solidly in the tradition of Mark Twain and Dorothy Parker. Vowell searches the streets of Hoboken for traces of the town's favorite son, Frank Sinatra. She goes under cover of heavy makeup in an investigation of goth culture, blasts cannonballs into a hillside on a father-daughter outing, and maps her family's haunted history on a road trip down the Trail of Tears. Take the Cannoli is an eclectic tour of the New World, a collection of alternately hilarious and heartbreaking essays and autobiographical yarns.
