Author : Charles Rappleye
Publisher : Doubleday Books
Page : 458 pages
File Size : 13,23 MB
Release : 1991
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN :
Life story of Johnny Rosselli whose mob career spanned five decades.
Author : Kenny Gallo
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 516 pages
File Size : 27,37 MB
Release : 2010-11-30
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1439195838
Gallo made millions for New York's Colombo Mafia family before becoming an undercover FBI informant. In "Breakshot," he captures the American underworld in all its tawdry spectacle.
Author : Selwyn Raab
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 810 pages
File Size : 48,30 MB
Release : 2014-05-13
Category : True Crime
ISBN : 1429907983
The New York Times bestseller chronicling the history of NYC’s infamous five mafia families is now the basis for the upcoming The HISTORY® Channel documentary series American Godfathers: The Five Families. Genovese, Gambino, Bonnano, Colombo and Lucchese. For decades these Five Families ruled New York and built the American Mafia (or Cosa Nostra) into an underworld empire. Today, the Mafia is an endangered species, battered and beleaguered by aggressive investigators, incompetent leadership, betrayals and generational changes that produced violent and unreliable leaders and recruits. A twenty year assault against the five families in particular blossomed into the most successful law enforcement campaign of the last century. Selwyn Raab's Five Families is the vivid story of the rise and fall of New York's premier dons from Lucky Luciano to Paul Castellano to John Gotti and more. The book also brings the reader right up to the possible resurgence of the Mafia as the FBI and local law enforcement agencies turn their attention to homeland security and away from organized crime.
Author : Mike Dash
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 391 pages
File Size : 28,99 MB
Release : 2011-06-09
Category : True Crime
ISBN : 1849835861
Before Al Capone and Lucky Luciano, there was the one-fingered, cunning Giuseppe Morello and his murderous coterie of brothers. Had it not been for Morello, the world may never have heard of 'men of honour', the code of omertaor Mafia wars. This explosive book tells the story of the first family of New York, and how this extended close-knit clan of racketeers and murderers left the backwaters of Sicily to successfully establish themselves as the founding godfathers of the New World. First Family will explain in thrilling, characterful detail how the American Mafia established itself so successfully. Combining strong narrative and raw violence - set against the raucous bustle of early twentieth-century New York, and the impoverished rural life of nineteenth-century Sicily - this impeccably researched, groundbreaking study of a crucial period of American history is a compelling portrait of the early years of organised crime.
Author : Nisa Santiago
Publisher : Melodrama Publishing
Page : 221 pages
File Size : 41,35 MB
Release : 2018-01-16
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1620780941
Blast from the Past Payback is a bitch named Maxine. She’s a once-demure law student who’s finally free after serving time for a murder she didn’t commit. Maxine has a score to settle, and she’s now driven to return the favor of destruction. Her kill list, unknowingly financed by her frenemy, Layla, is steadily shrinking with bodies dropping all over NYC. Scott and Layla West have buried their children one-by-one from what appears to be random accidents. With the top Mafioso distracted by grief and territory battles, a traitor has infiltrated the tight-knit organization. Scott and Layla’s misfortunes only multiply when they realize they’ve been targeted all along.
Author : Albert Fried
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 374 pages
File Size : 13,95 MB
Release : 1993
Category : History
ISBN : 9780231096836
Albert Fried recalls the rise and fail of an underworld culture that bred some of America's most infamous racketeers, bootleggers, gamblers, and professional killers, spawned by a culture of vice and criminality on New York's Lower East Side and similar environments in Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, Detroit, Newark, and Philadelphia. The author adds an important dimension to this story as he discusses the Italian gangs that teamed up with their Jewish counterparts to form multicultural syndicates. The careers of such high-profile figures as Meyer Lansky, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, and "Dutch" Schultz demonstrate how these gangsters passed from early manhood to old age, marketed illicit goods and services after the repeal of Prohibition, improved their system of mutual cooperation and self-governance, and grew to resemble modern business entrepreneurs. A new afterword brings to a close the careers of the Jewish gangsters and discusses how their image is addressed in selected books since the 1980s. Fried also examines the impact of films such as The Godfather series, Once Upon a Time in America, and Bugsy.
Author : Lee Server
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
Page : 545 pages
File Size : 27,58 MB
Release : 2018-11-13
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0312566689
A rich biography of the legendary figure at the center of the century’s darkest secrets: an untold story of golden age Hollywood, modern Las Vegas, JFK-era scandal and international intrigue from Lee Server, the New York Times bestselling author of Ava Gardner: Love is Nothing... A singular figure in the annals of the American underworld, Johnny Rosselli’s career flourished for an extraordinary fifty years, from the bloody years of bootlegging in the Roaring Twenties--the last protégé of Al Capone—to the modern era of organized crime as a dominant corporate power. The Mob’s “Man in Hollywood,” Johnny Rosselli introduced big-time crime to the movie industry, corrupting unions and robbing moguls in the biggest extortion plot in history. A man of great allure and glamour, Rosselli befriended many of the biggest names in the movie capital—including studio boss Harry Cohn, helping him to fund Columbia Pictures--and seduced some of its greatest female stars, including Jean Harlow and Marilyn Monroe. In a remarkable turn of events, Johnny himself would become a Hollywood filmmaker—producing two of the best film noirs of the 1940s. Following years in federal prison, Rosselli began a new venture, overseeing the birth and heyday of Las Vegas. Working for new Chicago boss Sam Giancana, he became the gambling mecca’s behind-the-scenes boss, running the town from his suites and poolside tables at the Tropicana and Desert Inn, enjoying the Rat Pack nightlife with pals Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. In the 1960s, in the most unexpected chapter in an extraordinary life, Rosselli became the central figure in a bizarre plot involving the Kennedy White House, the CIA, and an attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro. Based upon years of research, written with compelling style and vivid detail, Handsome Johnny is the great telling of an amazing tale.
Author : S. J. Peddie
Publisher : Citadel Press
Page : 365 pages
File Size : 34,66 MB
Release : 2022-03-29
Category : True Crime
ISBN : 0806541628
“Couldn’t put it down.” —Nicholas Pileggi, author of Wiseguy (Goodfellas) and Casino The extraordinary life and times of a legendary crime boss who refused to squeal—but who finally agreed to talk to an award-winning New York Newsday reporter shortly before his death at age 103 . . . John “Sonny” Franzese reportedly committed his first murder at the age of fourteen. As a “made man” for the Colombo crime family, he operated out of his Long Island home specializing in racketeering, fraud, loansharking, and other illicit deeds he would deny to his dying day. His career in organized crime spanned over eight decades—and he was sentenced to fifty years in prison for robbery charges. But even behind bars, Sonny Franzese never stopped doing business . . . This is the true story of an old-school mafioso as it’s never been told before. Newsday reporter S. J. Peddie interviewed Franzese in prison—and uncovered a lifetime of shocking secrets from the legend himself: * Why FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had a very personal interest in Sonny. * How Sonny managed to juggle numerous affairs with women, including a famous model. * How Sonny spent a third of his life in prison—and still managed to earn untold millions for the mob. * How Sonny accidentally revealed some of his worst crimes—to a “friend” wearing a wire. Through it all, Franzese refused to break the Mafia’s code of silence. Authorities believe he may have murdered, or ordered the murders of, forty to fifty people. Yet he earned a grudging respect from law enforcement and an absolute reverence from his fellow gangsters. Eventually he managed to outlive them all—until his death in 2020 of natural causes, a rare event in the Mafia. Thanks to a series of exclusive firsthand interviews, the astonishing life story of John “Sonny” Franzese can be told in all its bold, brutal, and blood-spattered glory. This is a must-read for anyone fascinated with Mafia history—and a rare look inside a criminal mind that has become the stuff of legend.
Author : Nisa Santiago
Publisher : Melodrama Publishing
Page : 212 pages
File Size : 11,56 MB
Release : 2017
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1620780917
Author : Bill Bonanno
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
Page : 376 pages
File Size : 49,70 MB
Release : 1999-04-15
Category : True Crime
ISBN : 0312264437
No one can tell the true story of the Mafia in America better than Bill Bonanno. He was there. He lived it. Bill Bonanno was born into a world of respect, tradition, and honor. The son of legendary mafioso Joe Bonanno, Bill was a "made" member of the Mafia by the time he was in his early twenties. He was rumored to be the model for The Godfather's Michael Corleone and was the subject of Gay Talese's best-selling Honor Thy Father. Now retired, Bill is finally ready to give an eyewitness account of his life as a high-ranking captain in the Bonanno crime family, one of America's most powerful Mafia syndicates. He takes you inside the mob at its peak, when New York's Five Families-Bonanno, Gambino, Colombo, Lucchese, and Genovese-not only dominated local businesses, but also controlled national politics. For the first time, Bill Bonanno discloses the machinations behind his marriage to Rosalie Profaci (niece of the powerful don Joe Profaci), and even that cemented the alliance between the two Families with all the pomp and circumstance of a royal wedding. From the truth about the mysterious disappearance of his father to a startling disclosure about he mob's participation in the Kennedy assassination, Bill Bonanno lays bare the inner workings of his chaotic, violent, and surprisingly human world with unparalleled detail and insight. Bound By Honor not only recounts Bill Bonanno's tumultuous life, but also is an engrossing chronicle of organized crime. Bonanno's story provides a remarkable glimpse into all of the intriguing personalities of the underworld of yesterday to today, from Bugsy Siegel to John Gotti. This book is a must for readers of Mario Puzo, Gay Talese, Nicholas Pileggi, and others who have written abut the Mafia, but who have never been in the eye of the storm in quite the same way as Bill Bonanno in Bound By Honor.
