Download or read book Sinatra Gotti and Me written by Tony Delvecchio and published by . This book was released on 2011-01 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is a story of a man who came from humble, tough circumstances and who tried to make something of himself doing the best he could with what he had. He didn't pick the easiest way or the most obvious way too often. He did things the Tony way, which was off the wall and pure genius at the same time. This is a guy who once told me he figured out early on, 'The right way is the wrong way for me.' "Yes, this book is about Sinatra and Gotti, but what might have brought you to page one isn't what makes this story impossible to put down. This is an American story, and a great story at that." -Pat Cooper Jilly's was one of the most popular, famous, as well as notorious nightclubs in New York City during the 1960s, and then again in the late 1970s when it was revived by Tony Delvecchio and Tony Fusco, and hosted by its namesake, Jilly Rizzo, the best friend of Frank Sinatra. The renovated Jilly's once again became the hotspot for A-List celebrities, gangsters, regulars, and wannabes. From John Gotti to Sinatra himself, Jilly's was the place to be - and proprietor Tony Delvecchio ran it day and night with the able service of the fabulous Jilly Girls, plus a few bartenders provided by Mr. Gotti, before his days as the "Teflon Don." Sinatra, Gotti and Me is a lost piece of American pop culture, a missing first-hand glimpse into the lives of the Rat Pack and a long illustrious list of American entertainment, political, sports, and organized crime icons. This is Tony Delvecchio's eye-witness story, unflinchingly told in his own words to author Rich Herschlag.
Download or read book The Sinatra Club written by Sal Polisi and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-02-25 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An insider's account of the downfall of the New York mob profiles organized crime at the height of its influence while recounting the author's participation in several lucrative heists and relating his decision to become a federal informant.
Download or read book Sinatra and Me written by Tony Oppedisano and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-06-28 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An intimate, revealing portrait of Frank Sinatra-from the man closest to the famous singer during the last decade of his life. More than a hundred books have been written about legendary crooner and actor Frank Sinatra. Every detail of his life seems to captivate: his career, his romantic relationships, his personality, his businesses, his style. But a hard-to-pin-down quality has always clung to him-a certain elusiveness that emerges again and again in retrospective depictions. Until now. From Sinatra's closest confidant and an eventual member of his management team, Tony Oppedisano, comes an extraordinarily intimate look at the singing idol. Deep into the night, for more than two thousand nights, Frank and Tony would converse-about music, family, friends, great loves, achievements and successes, failures and disappointments, the lives they'd led, the lives they wished they'd led. In these full-disclosure conversations, Sinatra spoke of his close yet complex relationship with his father, his conflicts with record companies, his carousing in Vegas, his love affairs with some of the most beautiful women of his era, his triumphs on some of the world's biggest stages, his complicated relationships with his talented children, and, most important, his dedication to his craft. Toward the end, no one was closer to the singer than Oppedisano, who kept his own rooms at the Sinatra residences for many years, often brokered difficult conversations between family members, and held the superstar entertainer's hand when he drew his last breath. Featuring never-before-seen photos and offering startlingly fresh anecdotes and new revelations that center on some of the most famous people of the past fifty years-including Jackie Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Sam Giancana, Madonna, and Bono-Sinatra and Me pulls back the curtain to reveal a man whom history has, in many ways, gotten wrong"--
Download or read book Sins of the Father written by Nick Taylor and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-01-31 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of how Sal Polisi—a member of a New York crime family and author of The Sinatra Club—turned his back on the mob and spoke out against organized crime. As a wiseguy for some of New York’s biggest crime families, “Crazy Sal” Polisi couldn’t imagine another way of life—until the day he was busted and faced life behind bars. Then he decided it was time to talk, not so much for himself, but for the sake of his two teenaged sons. Forced to assume a new identity and moving from town to town in the middle of the night, his sons chose to stand by their father. In exchange for federal protection, Polisi took a huge gamble—he decided to testify against John Gotti, the reputed head of New York’s powerful Gambino family. As packed with shocking insider details as Nicholas Pileggi’s Wiseguy and as gripping as The Godfather—only true—Sal Polisi’s story marks his captivating transformation from ruthless criminal to devoted father and crusader against organized crime.
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 When the Balls Drop written by Brad Garrett and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-05-05 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An honest look at life's second half from Everybody Loves Raymond TV sitcom star and comic Brad Garrett"--
Download or read book The Lufthansa Heist written by Henry Hill and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-08-01 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inside story—from the organizer himself--of the largest unrecovered cash haul in history. This full account brings readers behind the heist memorialized in Goodfellas, a crime that has baffled law enforcement for decades. From Henry Hill himself, The Lufthansa Heist is the last book he worked on before his 2012 death. On December 11, 1978, a daring armed robbery rocked Kennedy Airport, resulting in the largest unrecovered cash haul in world history, totaling six million dollars. The perpetrators were never apprehended and thirteen people connected to the crime were murdered in homicides that, like the crime itself, remain unsolved to this day. The burglary has fascinated the public for years, dominating headlines around the globe due to the story’s unending ravel of mysteries that baffled the authorities.One of the organizers of the sensational burglary, Henry Hill, who passed away in 2012, in collaboration with Daniel Simone, has penned an unprecedented “tell-all” about the robbery with never-before-unveiled details, particulars only known to an insider. In 2013, this infamous criminal act again flared up in the national news when five reputed gangsters were charged in connection to the robbery. This latest twist lends the project an extraordinary sense of timing, and the legal proceedings of the newly arrested suspects will unfold over the next year, continuing to keep the Lufthansa topic in the news.
Download or read book Making Jack Falcone written by Joaquin "Jack" Garcia and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2023-03-07 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fascinating work offers the untold true story of the highly decorated FBI agent who goes deep undercover to bring down one of La Cosa Nostra's most notorious crime families.
Download or read book The Chronicles of The Last Jewish Gangster written by Myron Sugerman and published by . This book was released on 2019-06-21 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Myron Sugerman's memoir, The Last Jewish Gangster: From Meyer to Myron, is more than just a riveting account of the author's nearly sixty-year career as an international outlaw in the field of slot machines and casinos. Its Also a fascinating meditation on a variety of themes: aging, respect, adventure, greed, and man's tendency to be his own worst enemy. Although it is chock-full of hilarious anecdotes about Mr. Sugerman's hapless cohorts in what he calls "disorganized crime," the book also contains life lessons for those perceptive enough to look for them--lessons on how to differentiate calculated risk taking from compulsive gambling, and how to maintain one's place in the world as one grows older. The Last Jewish Gangster follows its author from 1959 to the present day as he travels the globe from Europe to Africa to South America to Asia, rubbing shoulders with dangerous men and legendary mob figures like Longie Zwillman, Meyer Lansky, Joe "Doc" Stacher, Gerry Catena, Tony Bananas Caponigro, Tommy Ryan Eboli, and many others. The story covers everything from his dealings with the fearsome Cali Cartel to his attempt to help famous Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal track down the Angel of Death, Josef Mengele in Paraguay. The remarkable book contains something to pique the interest of any reader--Gritty crime stories, harrowing adventure, twentieth century history, and the Jewish religious philosophy--and the perspective of a man who has lived a long life and seen more than most of us have even imagined seeing.
Download or read book Double Cross written by Sam Giancana and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most feared Chicago mobsters Sam Giancana clawed his way to the top of the Mafia hierarchy by starting as a hit man for Al Capone. He was known as one of the best vehicle escape artists, a tenacious business man, and a ruthless killer. He partied with major stars such as Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe and did business with agents ranging from the CIA to the Vatican to the shah of Iran. When politician Joe Kennedy gave Giancana the chance to use mob muscle to get his son John elected, Giancana jumped at the task. But the Kennedy brothers double-crossed him, waging full-out war on organized crime throughout the United States. And Giancana went after them. Written with suspense and conviction, we learn about how the CIA asked Giancana to assassinate Fidel Castro. The book includes Giancana's testimony about the truth of his involvement in the deaths of Monroe and others, among others. Chuck Giancana, Sam's brother, contributes a unique perspective of the mobs relationship with the Bay of Pigs and many other pivotal events of the 60's and beyond. Double Cross is an eye-opening account of the interworking of the government and the mob and how this relationship has impacted American history.
Download or read book Killing the Mob written by Bill O'Reilly and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Instant #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly bestseller! In the tenth book in the multimillion-selling Killing series, Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard take on their most controversial subject yet: The Mob. Killing the Mob is the tenth book in Bill O'Reilly's #1 New York Times bestselling series of popular narrative histories, with sales of nearly 18 million copies worldwide, and over 320 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. O’Reilly and co-author Martin Dugard trace the brutal history of 20th Century organized crime in the United States, and expertly plumb the history of this nation’s most notorious serial robbers, conmen, murderers, and especially, mob family bosses. Covering the period from the 1930s to the 1980s, O’Reilly and Dugard trace the prohibition-busting bank robbers of the Depression Era, such as John Dillinger, Bonnie & Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby-Face Nelson. In addition, the authors highlight the creation of the Mafia Commission, the power struggles within the “Five Families,” the growth of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover, the mob battles to control Cuba, Las Vegas and Hollywood, as well as the personal war between the U.S. Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and legendary Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. O’Reilly and Dugard turn these legendary criminals and their true-life escapades into a read that rivals the most riveting crime novel. With Killing the Mob, their hit series is primed for its greatest success yet.
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 Frank written by James Kaplan and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 802 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frank Sinatra was the best-known entertainer of the twentieth century—infinitely charismatic, lionized and notorious in equal measure. But despite his mammoth fame, Sinatra the man has remained an enigma. Now James Kaplan brings deeper insight than ever before to the complex psyche and turbulent life behind that incomparable voice, from Sinatra’s humble beginning in Hoboken to his fall from grace and Oscar-winning return in From Here to Eternity. Here at last is the biographer who makes the reader feel what it was really like to be Frank Sinatra—as man, as musician, as tortured genius.
Download or read book The Accidental Gangster written by Ori Spado and published by WildBlue Press. This book was released on 2019-11-12 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of a Hollywood fixer who wound up in the sights of the FBI. In this memoir, Orlando (Ori) Spado honestly recounts his humble beginnings from the small town of Rome in upstate New York, and his journey to becoming known as “The Mob Boss of Hollywood.” It is a candid account documenting his fall from a well-known Hollywood fixer mixing with A-list celebrities to serving 62 months in Federal prison, and ultimately making a determined comeback. “For nearly forty years Orlando ‘Ori’ Spado was a friend and associate of John ‘Sonny’ Franzese, underboss of the Colombo organized crime family. His relationship with Sonny brought him to the attention of the FBI, and eventually led to his being indicted with Sonny on federal RICO charges, and imprisoned. In The Accidental Gangster Ori provides the details of his time in ‘the life’ and his long battle with the FBI—whose overwhelming resources made it a fight that was impossible to win.”—Nick Pileggi, author of Wiseguy “Orlando ‘Ori’ Spado had been a thorn in the side of the Los Angeles field office of the FBI for almost two decades before they finally took him down. Accidentally or not, Ori was a quintessential Mob character, complete with a pinkie ring and a slow, steady deliberate voice whether speaking with friends or foes. But like so many other ‘Good Fellas,’ he was set up by a friend’s son. You will have to read the book to find out who set him up. Enjoy!”—John Connolly, New York Times-bestselling author of Filthy Rich
Download or read book Notorious C O P written by Derrick Parker and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2007-04-01 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout his career, Derrick Parker worked on some of the biggest criminal cases in rap history, from the shooting at Club New York, where Derrick personally escorted Jennifer Lopez to police headquarters, to the first shooting of Tupac Shakur. Always straddling the fence between "po-po" and NYPD outsider, Derrick threatened police tradition to try to get the cases solved. He was the first detective to interview an informant offering a detailed account of Biggie Smalls's murder. He protected one of the only surviving eyewitnesses to the Jam Master Jay murder and knows the identity of the killers as well as the motivation behind the shooting. Notorious C.O.P. reveals hip-hop crimes that never made the paper—like the robbing of Foxy Brown and the first Hot 97 shooting—and answers some lingering questions about murders that have remained unsolved. The book that both the NYPD and the hip-hop community don't want you to read, Notorious C.O.P. is the first insider look at the real links between crime and hip-hop and the inefficiencies that have left some of the most widely publicized murders in entertainment history unsolved.
Download or read book Eleven Days to the Promised Land written by Dino Pavlou and published by . This book was released on 2021-03-31 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eleven Days to the Promised Land is a timely realization of past and present times, a fascinating tale of how an impoverished boy from a civil war-torn and lawless country could find and appreciate tranquility, love, and success in America. He plunges into New York City in 1952 carrying along bad memories. In a new world fresh with possibilities, he holds fast to his father's promise of the American Dream, a dream that takes him far beyond anything he could have ever imagined. But amidst the exciting rise to triumph and success, tragedy strikes again, and the demons of his past return in vivid color to haunt him. Lost and bereft of his emotional compass, the man who thought he had it all loses his spirit. Is there a spark left in him to rise again? I want to share my story. One that's meant to bring the reader through the journey of my youthful desperation into a life of hope and inspiration. From a rustic childhood in my Greek village to the glittering heyday of NYC supper clubs. I want to share it all. The captivating, the heartfelt, the poignant, as well as uproariously amusing episodes involving world-famous icons and infamous personalities into whose orbits I was pulled. Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Anthony Quinn, George Steinbrenner, Audie Murphy, Mafia members, and more. All well known names. Except for mine. My name is Dino Pavlou and this is my story.
Download or read book Me the Mob and the Music written by Tommy James and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-01-25 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sensational ’60s music memoir—part rock & roll fairytale, part mob epic—that “reads like a music-industry version of Goodfellas” (The Denver Post). Tommy James was the 60’s pop icon behind timeless hits like “Hanky Panky,” “Mony Mony,” “I Think We’re Alone Now,” “Crimson and Clover,” and more. These songs helped define the era, and they have been covered by artists ranging from Billy Idol to Tiffany to R.E.M. But just as compelling as the music itself is the life Tommy James lived while making it. In Me, the Mob, and the Music, James reveals his complex and sometimes terrifying relationship with Roulette Records and Morris Levy, the legendary Godfather of the music business. It is a fascinating portrait of this swaggering era of rock ‘n’ roll, when concerts were wild and the hits kept coming—while, just backstage, payola schemes and mafioso tactics were the norm.
