Download or read book Godfathers Of The Night In the Shadow of The Mafia written by Nick Christophers and published by . This book was released on 2019-09-17 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For past generations, we've been intrigued and mesmerized by hidden roots of the "Cosa Nostra". While the infamous life of the Italian Mafia, has been the forefront of these stories, there is a hidden gem of an untold organization of world domination crime, "Godfathers of the Night", organized criminal groups well-entrenched in the largest Greek urban centers.The silent partners of the mob world, have operated internationally for decades, and have been instrumental in many ways. Yet only known of behind the closed doors with the traditional mafia. The ice breaking thriller, "Godfathers of the Night, In the Shadow of the Mafia" takes you behind those closed doors on a historical and terrifying journey, of this crime syndicate.The names of Spiro Velentzas, Willie Kazonis and Harry Peetros, traditionally are not the household names that come to mind, when we think "Mafia." The front-page legacies of John Gotti, Jimmy Coonan, Tony Accardo, Angelo Bruno and Jerry Angulio, have had mobster fans captivated for generations and all have worked with the Greek crime element. But behind the veil of Mafia secrecy lies an old-world culture of Mafia, the untold story of the other godfather's, from Philadelphia to Athens. Within the pages of, "Godfathers of the Night, In the Shadow of the Mafia" is a raw and captivating look in the window of their organizations that stems from Greece across the oceans to Australia and into Canada. A shadowy crime element that has remained an unpublished tale, until now. Within the pages of this book are personalized accounts and stories from leaders, and mobsters, who've worked with the "Godfathers of the Night", including FBI recordings that depict a brutal imagery into their operations, and connections to various Italian and Irish Mafia families.
Download or read book Hollywood Godfather written by Gianni Russo and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hollywood Godfather is Gianni Russo's over-the-top memoir of a real-life mobster-turned-actor who helped make The Godfather a reality, and his story of life on the edge between danger and glamour. Gianni Russo was a handsome 25-year-old mobster with no acting experience when he walked onto the set of The Godfather and entered Hollywood history. He played Carlo Rizzi, the husband of Connie Corleone, who set her brother Sonny—played by James Caan—up for a hit. Russo didn't have to act—he knew the mob inside and out: from his childhood in Little Italy, where Mafia legend Frank Costello took him under his wing, to acting as a messenger for New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello during the Kennedy assassination, to having to go on the lam after shooting and killing a member of the Colombian drug cartel in his Vegas club. Along the way, Russo befriended Frank Sinatra, who became his son's godfather, and Marlon Brando, who mentored his career as an actor after trying to get Francis Ford Coppola to fire him from The Godfather. Russo had passionate affairs with Marilyn Monroe, Liza Minelli, and scores of other celebrities. He went on to become a producer and starred in The Godfather: Parts I and II, Seabiscuit, Any Given Sunday and Rush Hour 2, among many other films. Hollywood Godfather is a no-holds-barred account of a life filled with violence, glamour, sex—and fun.
Download or read book The Trafficantes written by Ron Chepesiuk and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this page-turning narrative, noted true crime writer Ron Chepesiuk chronicles the story of one of history's lesser known but most important mob dynasties. For nearly seven decades, Santo Trafficante, Sr. and his son, Santo, Jr. were prominent gangsters on the Tampa crime scene. Santo, Sr. arrived in Tampa in 1902 and settled in the Ybor City area where he slowly began his climb to the top of the Tampa mob scene. Along the way, he became a clever and ruthless gangster who preferred to operate in the shadows. By the mid 1920s, Santo, Sr. had become a powerful force in the Tampa mafia. Two decades later, the U.S. government reported that he was "strongly suspected of having financed important narcotics transactions." During Tampa's "Era of Blood" from 1930 through the 1950s, in which several local gangsters were murdered, Santo, Sr. emerged as Tampa's most powerful mobster. He would remain so until his death in 1954. His successor, Santo, Jr., lead the Tampa mob for more than three decades and became involved in some of history's most seminal events. They include mob dominance of the gambling scene in pre-Castro Cuba, the CIA plots to kill Castro, the spectacular mob hit of godfather Albert Anastasia in 1957, the famous mob meeting at Apalachin in upstate New York that followed shortly after, the John F. Kennedy assassination, and the development of narcotics networks in Latin America and Southeast Asia, among others. Unlike most other godfathers, Santo, Jr. never spent more than a night in an American jail. When he died in 1987, organized crime expert Ralph Salerno described Santo, Jr.'s death as "the end of an era" and the godfather as "the last of the old time (gangland) leaders." In vivid prose and concise detail, Chepesiuk weaves the fascinating story of the legendary gangsters, the Trafficantes. "Ron Chepesiuk's book on the Trafficantes takes the reader behind the headlines to the real story, uncensored and without filters. The book is fast-paced with fascinating factual details told in Chepesiuk's trademark tell-it-as-it-is writing style. A must read for true crime aficionados." --Elle Andra-Warner, author of several best-selling books, including Edmund Fitzgerald: The Legendary Great Lakes Shipwreck and The Mounties; Robert Service.
Download or read book Mafia Ties The Greek Syndicates written by Nick Christophers and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2020-07-16 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For past generations, we've been intrigued and mesmerized by the hidden roots of the "Cosa Nostra". While the infamous life of the Italian Mafia, has been the forefront of these stories, there is a hidden gem of an untold organization of world domination crime, "Mafia Ties - The Greek Syndicates", organized criminal groups well-entrenched in the largest Greek urban centers. The silent partners of the mob world, have operated internationally for decades, and have been instrumental in many ways. Yet only known of behind the closed doors with the traditional mafia. The ice-breaking thriller, "Godfathers of the Night, In the Shadow of the Mafia" takes you behind those closed doors on a historical and terrifying journey, of this crime syndicate. The names of Spiro Velentzas, Willie Kazonis, and Harry Peetros, traditionally are not the household names that come to mind, when we think "Mafia." The front-page legacies of John Gotti, Jimmy Coonan, Tony Accardo, Angelo Bruno, and Jerry Angulio, have had mobster fans captivated for generations and all have worked with the Greek crime element. But behind the veil of Mafia secrecy lies an old-world culture of Mafia, the untold story of the other godfather's, from Philadelphia to Athens. Within the pages of, "Mafia Ties - The Greek Syndicates" is a raw and captivating look in the window of their organizations that stems from Greece across the oceans to Australia and into Canada. A shadowy crime element that has remained an unpublished tale, until now. Within the pages of this book are personalized accounts and stories from leaders, and mobsters, who've worked with the "Greek syndicates", including FBI recordings that depict brutal imagery into their operations, and connections to various Italian and Irish Mafia families.
Download or read book Godfather of Night written by Kevin Pappas and published by Little, Brown Young Readers. This book was released on 2009 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than a gripping tale, this work unveils the Greek-American crime syndicate and takes readers to a dark place where high-level crime, government corruption, and family secrets collide.
Download or read book Godfather of Night written by Kevin Pappas and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the explosive story of one man's rise, fall, and redemption, and an astonishing insight into the world of the Greek mafia.
Download or read book Mafia Prince written by Phil Leonetti and published by Running Press Adult. This book was released on 2014-04-29 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: MONEY, MURDER, AND MACHIAVELLIAN MAYHEM ... CONTAINS A NEW EPILOGUE Mafia Prince is the first person account of one of the most brutal eras in Mafia history—“Little Nicky” Scarfo's reign as boss of the Philadelphia family in the 1980s—written by Scarfo's underboss and nephew, “Crazy Phil” Leonetti. The youngest-ever underboss at the age of 33, Leonetti was at the crux of the violent breakup of the traditional American Mafia in the 1980s when he infiltrated Atlantic City after gambling was legalized, and later turned state's evidence against his own. His testimony led directly to the convictions of dozens of high-ranking men including John Gotti, Vincent Gigante, and the downfall of his own uncle, Nick Scarfo—sparking the beginning of the end of La Cosa Nostra (the insiders' term for the Mafia, translated as “This Thing of Ours”).
Download or read book In the Godfather Garden written by Richard Linnett and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2013-04-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Godfather Garden is the true story of the life of Richie “the Boot” Boiardo, one of the most powerful and feared men in the New Jersey underworld. The Boot cut his teeth battling the Jewish gang lord Abner Longy Zwillman on the streets of Newark during Prohibition and endured to become one of the East Coast’s top mobsters, his reign lasting six decades. To the press and the police, this secretive Don insisted he was nothing more than a simple man who enjoyed puttering about in his beloved vegetable garden on his Livingston, New Jersey, estate. In reality, the Boot was a confidante and kingmaker of politicians, a friend of such celebrities as Joe DiMaggio and George Raft, an acquaintance of Joseph Valachi—who informed on the Boot in 1963—and a sworn enemy of J. Edgar Hoover. The Boot prospered for more than half a century, remaining an active boss until the day he died at the age of ninety-three. Although he operated in the shadow of bigger Mafia names across the Hudson River (think Charles "Lucky" Luciano and Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, a cofounder of the Mafia killer squad Murder Inc. with Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro), the Boot was equally as brutal and efficient. In fact, there was a mysterious place in the gloomy woods behind his lovely garden—a furnace where many thought the Boot took certain people who were never seen again. Richard Linnett provides an intimate look inside the Boot’s once-powerful Mafia crew, based on the recollections of a grandson of the Boot himself and complemented by never-before-published family photos. Chronicled here are the Prohibition gang wars in New Jersey as well as the murder of Dutch Schultz, a Mafia conspiracy to assassinate Newark mayor Kenneth Gibson, and the mob connections to several prominent state politicians. Although the Boot never saw the 1972 release of The Godfather, he appreciated the similarities between the character of Vito Corleone and himself, so much so that he hung a sign in his beloved vegetable garden that read “The Godfather Garden.” There’s no doubt he would have relished David Chase’s admission that his muse in creating the HBO series The Sopranos was none other than “Newark’s erstwhile Boiardo crew.”
Download or read book Mafia written by A.G.D. Maran and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-09-02 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The pre-dawn arrests of the last remaining mafiosi in December 2008 signalled the end of the Sicilian Mafia as we know it. In Mafia: Inside the Dark Heart, A.G.D. Maran charts the complete history of the world's most infamous criminal organisation, from its first incarnation as an alternative form of local government in the Sicilian countryside and arguable force for 'good' to the more familiar form that has been immortalised in films such as The Godfather, and its final defeat after a long-awaited change of attitude by the Italian government. The author has used his many Italian contacts and a decade of exhaustive research to bring to life the story of the Sicilian Mafia while also exploring the links to the Cosa Nostra in America. Along the way, he asks many provocative questions, including: Why was Lucky Luciano, the father of modern organised crime, freed from a life sentence in America and deported to Italy, allowing him to organise the international drug trade? Was the Mafia involved in the death of Pope John Paul I? Why did the Mafia murder Roberto Calvi, known as God's Banker? What is the relationship between the Mafia and Freemasonry? Why did successive Italian governments fail to tackle the Mafia? Why did it take 40 years to find the Last Godfathers? These and many other riveting issues are covered in Maran's refreshing new take on a perennially enthralling subject.
Download or read book The Ganja Godfather written by Toby Rogers and published by Trine Day. This book was released on 2015-03-01 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Genovese mob-scion Silvio Eboli lived within the shadows of history, and now for the first time, the untold story of a mafia legend is revealed. The Ganja Godfather is the story about an ongoing organized criminal operation, in real time with firsthand accounts and experiences by award-winning author and investigative journalist, Toby Rogers. Shadowing the Ganja Godfather, Rogers witnesses it all standing next to the Boss himself: violence, drugs, celebrities, girls, construction hustles, crime-family business meetings and social gatherings. From strip clubs in Atlantic City to Sunday night dinner with the wife and kids, Rogers experiences whatever the Ganja Godfather does on any given day. As exhilarating as Silvio's life had become, it certainly was much more stressful behind the scenes. Being the Empire State's spliff king was undoubtedly the hardest job in New York. And it was only after Silvio finally got to the top of the mountain that he realized just how easy it was to fall over the edge. With a wife and kids, dysfunctional family business obligations, and an out-of-control social life all pulling him in conflicting paths, Silvio struggled keep the empire moving forward without detection from law enforcement. But when he was introduced to a Colombian cocaine princess with aspirations to become a model, he saw an opportunity to expand the family's profit margins to unimaginable heights and risked it all despite the collision course with disaster he saw right before him.
Download or read book The Narcodollar Chieftains The Narcotics Godfathers written by and published by Dorrance Publishing. This book was released on with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Company She Keeps written by Georgia Durante and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-10-07 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A female Goodfellas—the true story of A supermodel turned getaway driver for the mob. All-American beauty Georgia Durante was one of the most photographed models in the country when she married mobster Joe Lamendola. It plunged her into a world she never dreamed of—and one she feared she’d never survive—as a getaway driver for the Mafia and an eyewitness to unspeakable violence, brutality, and murder, as she came to understand the terrifying risk of being married to the Mob.
Download or read book Mob Daughter written by Karen Gravano and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2012-02-14 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Karen Gravano, a star of the hit VH1 reality show Mob Wives, comes a revealing memoir of a mafia childhood, where love and family come hand-in-hand with murder and betrayal. Karen Gravano is the daughter of Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, once one of the mafia's most feared hit men. With nineteen confessed murders, the former Gambino Crime Family underboss—and John Gotti's right-hand man—is the highest ranking gangster ever to turn State's evidence and testify against members of his high-profile crime family. But to Karen, Sammy Gravano was a sometimes elusive but always loving father figure. He was ever-present at the head of the dinner table. He made a living running a construction firm and several nightclubs. He stayed out late, and sometimes he didn't come home at all. He hosted "secret" meetings at their house, and had countless whispered conversations with "business associates." By the age of twelve, Karen knew he was a gangster. And as she grew up, while her peers worried about clothes and schoolwork, she was coming face-to-face with crime and murder. Gravano was nineteen years old when her father turned his back on the mob and cooperated with the Feds. The fabric of her family was ripped apart, and they were instantly rejected by the communities they grew up in. This is the story of a daughter's struggle to reconcile the image of her loving father with that of a murdering Mafioso, and how, in healing the rift between the two, she was able to forge a new life.
Download or read book A Man of Honor written by Joseph Bonanno and published by St. Martin's Paperbacks. This book was released on 2013-06-04 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Friendships, connections, family ties, trust, loyalty, obedience-this was the 'glue' that held us together." These were the principles that the greatest Mafia "Boss of Bosses," Joseph Bonnano, lived by. Born in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, Bonnano found his future amid the whiskey-running, riotous streets of Prohibition America in 1924, when he illegally entered the United States to pursue his dreams. By the age of only twenty-six, Bonnano became a Don. He would eventually take over the New York underworld, igniting the "Castellammarese War," one of the bloodiest Family battles ever to hit New York City... Now, in this candid and stunning memoir, Joe Bonanno-likely a model for Don Corleone in the blockbuster movie The Godfather-takes readers inside the world of the real Mafia. He reveals the inner workings of New York's Five Families-Bonanno, Gambino, Profaci, Lucchese, and Genovese-and uncovers how the Mafia not only dominated local businesses, but also influenced national politics. A fascinating glimpse into the world of crime, A Man of Honor is an unforgettable account of one of the most powerful crime figures in America's history.
Download or read book An Offer We Can t Refuse written by George De Stefano and published by Faber & Faber/Farrar, Straus, Giroux. This book was released on 2007-01-23 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mafia has maintained an enduring hold on the American cultural imagination--even as it continues to wrongly color our real-life perception of Italian Americans. Journalist and cultural critic De Stefano takes a look at the origins and prevalence of the Mafia mythos in America. Beginning with a consideration of Italian emigration in the early twentieth century and the fear and prejudice--among both Americans and Italians--that informed our earliest conception of what was the largest immigrant group to enter the United States, De Stefano explores how these impressions laid the groundwork for the images so familiar to us today and uses them to illuminate and explore the variety and allure of Mafia stories. At the same time, he addresses the lingering power of the goodfella cliché, which makes it all but impossible to green-light a project about the Italian American experience not set in gangland.--From publisher description.
Download or read book Night Life written by David C. Taylor and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2015-03-17 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "New York City in 1954. The Cold War is heating up. Senator Joe McCarthy is running a witch hunt for Communists in America. The newly formed CIA is fighting a turf battle with the FBI to see who will be the primary US intelligence agency. And the bodies of murdered young men are turning up in the city ... [NYPD cop Michael] Cassidy is assigned to the case of Alexander Ingram, a Broadway chorus dancer found tortured and dead in his apartment in Hell's Kitchen ... Why are the FBI, the CIA, and the Mafia interested in the death of a Broadway gypsy?"--Amazon.com.
Download or read book Midnight In Sicily written by Peter Robb and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2014-08-05 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year From the author of M and A Death in Brazil comes Midnight in Sicily. South of mainland Italy lies the island of Sicily, home to an ancient culture that--with its stark landscapes, glorious coastlines, and extraordinary treasure troves of art and archeology--has seduced travelers for centuries. But at the heart of the island's rare beauty is a network of violence and corruption that reaches into every corner of Sicilian life: Cosa Nostra, the Mafia. Peter Robb lived in southern Italy for over fourteen years and recounts its sensuous pleasures, its literature, politics, art, and crimes.
