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Rick's New Book!
 Click to buy! |
There's More Bodies Out There:
the true story of a Mafia associate and a police officer who emerge as suspected serial killers.
"At first, Henkel politely declined my request," Rick Porrello said. "Six months later, I persisted and sent him a page of questions based on three years of investigative research. He claimed there were significant inaccuracies about him, his crew members, and even some of his alleged victims. This book is the true story of one of the country's most dangerous con artists, his police officer partner, the men and women who fell victim to his venom, and the lawmen who persevered to serve justice. 
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Copyright © 1998 - 2016
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John Grisham meets Mario Puzo in this entertaining thriller by the
godson of a real-life Mob boss. Marty English (born Iglesia) is an ad whiz and son
of a Chicago gangster who finds himself entangled with the Mafia after his
father, Tony Iglesia, is poisoned with a potent new drug... Lively and
fast-paced, with enough high-tech drama to enthrall fans of Robin
Cook and Michael Crichton, 30 Seconds delivers suspense and thrills
enough for big-screen treatment.
--Jane Adams
A former FBI agent with Chicago's Organized Crime Squad draws on
official FBI files to chronicle sixty years of mafia bloodshed and
mayhem that reached from Chicago, to Hollywood, to New York, and the man
in charge of it all, Tony Accardo, nicknamed "The Genuine Godfather."
This novel about a New Jersey teenager being taken in by his godfather tells a tale of what it might be like to live with a mob family. 15-year-old Danny loves his new home and extravagant lifestyle, but on a fateful trip one night to the old diner downtown, Danny discovers his godfather makes a living in the Mafia. Trapped between helping his mobster godfather or protecting an undercover FBI agent who saves Danny’s life, Danny has only his friends and his street smarts to rise above a treacherous underground world of crime. 
A true insider's peek into the Federal Bureau of Investigation's
Washington halls of power... Revell served more than 30 years with the
FBI, reaching the second-highest position available in the bureau, that
of assistant director... 
Rick Hornung's riveting account of one of the century's most prominent
celebrity sinners shows how Capone came to see the law as a bully and
crime as a solid way to make a living. As a protégé of gangster John
Torrio, Capone collected illegal bets, thereby learning the skills of
"negotiation and compromise," backed by intimidation and raw force.
Capone followed Torrio to Chicago, where the two ran brothels and,
during Prohibition, imported liquor. Capone quickly outmastered the
master and became the dominant force in Chicago's underworld by swiftly
retaliating against those who encroached on his territory.
Anthony Fiato--"The Animal"--was a real life mob enforcer. His bloody
deeds connected him to so many other mobsters that as a government
witness he enabled the FBI to capture and convict nearly seventy
underworld figures. Fiato was a tough kid from Boston's Hanover Street
area who was envious of the underworld figures who wore the sharpest
suits, the most expensive shoes, and attracted the prettiest women.
At the age of seventeen he moved to Hollywood and by twenty he had been
indoctrinated into the Mafia life on both coasts. Fiato grew up admiring
tough, on-screen personas of actors such as Robert Michum. As an adult
he would find himself working with such real-life mobsters as Anthony
"The Ant" Spilotro, John Rosselli, Mike Rizzitello, and Peter Milano.
The Animal In Hollywood is the true story of Fiato's explosive career in
the mafia on both coasts. A tale of sex and violence, Fiato's biography
recounts his adventures in frank and chilling detail. 
The Mafia and a real estate company are about to join forces. Gregory Crow is one of the owners of the real estate company and he has no idea what is happening around him. Or does he? He tries to forget through nearly suicidal levels of chemicals that he's the center of it all.
In Being Oscar,one of America’s most celebrated criminal defense attorneys recounts the stories and cases of his epic life. The Mafia’s go-to defender, he has tried an estimated 300 criminal cases, and won most of them. His roster of clients reads like a history of organized crime: Meyer Lansky, Nicky Scarfo, and “Lefty” Rosenthal, as well as Mike Tyson and boxing promoter Don King, along with a midget, a dentist, and a federal judge.
A tale of good and evil, of corruption and deceit, of prejudice,
politics, and power, this compelling account scrutinizes the immensely
lucrative Nevada gambling industrys struggle to maintain legitimacy or
at least the appearance of it.
"After completing his state prison sentence, Mark is transferred to serve his federal time at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, where he is assigned a position as an orderly helping care for infirm inmates. While there, he befriends Gambino Capo Greg DePalma, Trafficante family associate Sam Cagnina and, ultimately, John Gotti. As Mark’s sentence counts down, he finds himself entangled in a ploy by José Reyes, incarcerated drug kingpin-turned-informant who is determined to help the FBI entrap Gotti and his son in a murder-for-hire scheme. Thrust into a web of conspiracy, can Mark maintain his principles to outmaneuver Reyes and the FBI to save himself and these aging mobsters during Gotti’s last days?
In the spring of 1988, Boston Globe reporters Dick Lehr and Gerard
O'Neill set out to write the story of two infamous brothers from the
insular Irish enclave of South Boston: Jim "Whitey" Bulger and his
younger brother Billy. Whitey was the
city's most powerful gangster and a living legend--tough, cunning,
without conscience, and above all, smart. Billy, president of the state
Senate, was a political heavyweight in Massachusetts. These facts alone
make for an intriguing story, but as authors Dick Lehr and Gerard
O'Neill found out, this was only the beginning.
Paul Castellano headed New York's most powerful Gambino crime family for more than ten years. On December 16, 1985, he was gunned down in a spectacular shooting on Manhattan's fashionable East Side. At the time of his death, Paul Castellano was under indictment. So were most of the major Mafia figures in New York. Why? Because in 1983 the F.B.I. had a hidden microphone in the kitchen of Castellano's Staten Island mansion. The 600 hours of recordings led to eight criminal trials. And this book. Agents Joe O'Brien and Andris Kurins planted that mike. They listened to the voices. Now they bring you the most revealing look inside the Mafia ever...in the Mafia's own words.
Bill Bonanno, 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.
Absorbing story of how the FBI developed a new mode of attack on the New Jersey
crime family--and then failed to make its case in court. Rudolph covers organized crime for Newark's Star-Ledger.
Once the FBI had admitted, during the mid-70's, that there was such a thing as the mafia, it began insinuating
undercover agents into crime families, especially--in the mid-80's--into the Lucchese family, which had a lock on
New Jersey rackets such as loan- sharking, gambling, fraud, extortion, and drug-dealing. Masterminded by FBI agent
Dennis Marchalonis, the government operation was carried on with such enormous secrecy--it had been decided to make a
case against an entire crime family and wipe it out all at once, a historic decision--that FBI agents might find themselves
under surveillance by two or three other legal agencies.
The cop who took on Nicodemo Scarfo chronicles Scarfo's nefarious
business dealings and describes how he hunted down Scarfo and some of
the most evil and peculiar men, including Harry ""the Hunchback""
Riccobene, Teddy Di Pretoro, and Salvatore ""Salvy"" Testa.
Longish but well-observed slice of life, as a boy grows up with two heroes
of conflicting nature and
beliefs--his loving, hard-working father, and the neighborhood capo, who
takes him as a personal
protégé. Written by Palminteri, and based on his play; an impressive
directorial debut for De Niro,
who brings a keen eye and equally strong sensibility to this potent (but
ultimately upbeat) material.
Incidentally, to re-create the Bronx of the 1960s, De Niro had to shoot this
in Brooklyn and Queens!
Beatty gives the most forceful performance of his career as Benjamin
``Bugsy'' Siegel, the fabled
crackpot gangster who helped build Las Vegas. Long but well-told tale
manages to dodge gangster
clichés. Beatty and Bening set off sparks together (just as they did in real
life), and a strong
supporting cast fleshes out James Toback's intelligent script...
This is, by far, the most informative biography on the legendary gangster
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. It
looks at his life as a mobster, and as a business man and of coarse, as a
ladies man. Hard to believe
how such a charming and dapper man could be what he was. This is a must see
piece for anyone
who is interested in history, Las Vegas, Bugsy, the mob, .....You'll enjoy
this..I guarantee!!!
Book Description
Now in its 7th printing - inludes more gangsters! Newly footnoted and expanded bibliography!
New FBI documents! More detailed information about the alleged plot to assassinate Adolph Hitler!
While doing research for this book, Prof. Robert Rockaway interviewed old-time Jewish mobsters and their families.
He never knew what his subjects would say or do, so he came prepared for any eventuality.
Director Martin Scorsese reunites with members of his GoodFellas gang
(writer Nicholas Pileggi; actors Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Frank
Vincent) for a three-hour epic about the rise and fall of mobster Sam
"Ace" Rothstein (De Niro), a character based on real-life gangster Frank
"Lefty" Rosenthal. (It's modeled after on Wiseguy and GoodFellas and
Pileggi's true crime book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas.) Through
Rothstein, the picture tells the story of how the Mafia seized, and
finally lost control of, Las Vegas gambling. The first hour plays like a
fascinating documentary, intricately detailing the inner workings of Vegas
casinos... 
Pileggi, author of the best-selling Wiseguys (1986), which
was filmed by Martin Scorsese as Goodfellas unravels the tale how a team
of Chicago mobsters headed west to conquer Vegas again. Filmed as CASINO
(directed by Scorsese and starring Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, and Sharon
Stone).
John J. Binder's book, The Chicago Outfit is a real treat for anyone who loves gangsters and has a special interest in Chicago gangland. He not only sites interesting facts, includes a wealth of captivating photographs and mug shots, but his analysis of the Chicago gangs is fascinating and informative. A great illustrative book that is a must have. Highly recommended (Amazon.com reviewer)
About the Author
Finally, a book that explains what the mafia is and how it operates without assuming you know the lingo and the main characters. The many examples from real events in organized crime bring the text to life and make it not only understandable but enjoyable to read as well. This is a book for those casually interested in the mafia and for the "expert" as well. Capeci not only walks the mafia novice through a mob induction and the rules that govern it's members but also reveals the real killers in a major mafia hit. For the price it's a "must" buy for all those interested in the mob.
GEORGIA DURANTE ~ Model, Mafia Wife, Mother, and Stunt Driver - has packed a lifetime of
lessons into forty-eight years. This is the true story of one of Hollywood's
most successful female commercial stunt drivers. A woman who can dominate a
two-ton vehicle at high speeds, but off road has careened from one emotional
head-on collision to another. The story, told from a woman's point of view,
chronicles the life of a battered woman as she struggles to break the abusive
cycle while engineering her escape from the Mafia underworld.
The extraordinarily captivating memoir of the remarkable jewel thief who robbed the rich and famous while maintaining an outwardly conventional life-an astonishing and completely true story.
A reexamination of the Mafia's role in the
assassination of John F. Kennedy discusses Jack Ruby's criminal activities, his
top-level Mafia ties, and how the Warren Commission blatantly covered up the
evidence.
It was the brainchild of FBI Director J. Edgar
Hoover: the Top Echelon Informant Program. Under its protective umbrella,
dangerous felons were courted and coddled and given free reign to commit the
worst crimes imaginable in exchange for damning insider information about the
bosses of organized crime. Dangerous conmen and sociopaths, like South Boston's
James "Whitey" Bulger, became Bureau-supported criminals kingpins, indulging in
robbery, extortion, even murder under the eyes of the FBI. Only now, forty years
after the program was first conceived, is the true story of blood and madness
being told and an account made of the bodies left in its wake.
The fantastic story of the U.S.'s undeclared war against Cuba, including an
expanded section on the CIA's role in the assassination of JFK. "Deadly Secrets
is a warning as well as terribly exciting reading".--Studs Terkel. National
radio and TV coverage.
In Deal with the Devil, five-time Emmy winning investigative reporter Peter Lance draws on three decades of once secret FBI files—and exclusive new interviews—to tell the definitive story of Gregory Scarpa Sr., aka "The Grim Reaper;" a Mafia capo, who "stopped counting" after 50 murders, while secretly betraying the Colombo crime family as a Top Echelon Criminal Informant for the Bureau.
Former decorated Marine and FBI Special Agent John Booker spent years infiltrating the Italian Mafia. But when a few random corpses begin to ferment a New York landfill, the Bureau has enough of Booker’s antics. He is transferred to an office job on the Joint Terrorism Task Force where his new boss is a rigid bureaucrat indirectly responsible for the deaths of two undercover agents, one of which was Booker’s mentor. Booker’s life changes when he meets a sexy Egyptian professor with a past. When the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is murdered by muggers, Booker begins to unravel an international plot designed to slowly destroy America from the inside out. But Booker can’t convince his bosses, and the FBI suits force Booker to go rogue. He teams up with two salty Cleveland Police officers and FBI agents Gwen McNulty and Fred Gregory to save the country. He has a chance meeting with CIA operations officer Frank Nash who asks Booker, “What if a few terrorists were both brilliant and organized?” “Then,” Booker concedes. “The United States would be in a world of shit.”
Buried under decades of stereotype and parody, the true history of the female companions of the Great Depression's bank-robbing gang is uncovered. Don't Call Us Molls carefully examines the legacy of the Dillinger women using eyewitness and descendants' accounts as well as courtroom and prison records. This book explores the collective experience of these fugitives and offers a thoughtful, well-informed commentary on past attitudes toward the marginalized women of the day-the lawbreakers, the informers, and a lone female sheriff. FBI memos, court transcripts, and never-before-published photos reveal the events experienced by women under siege, resurrecting historical figures and their private behavior. This history lays bare the personal lives of the wives and girlfriends of the public enemies of the 1930s and examines how their conflicting loyalties were challenged and exploited by unrelenting pressure of the United States government to betray their men.
This is the only biography of Ness, separating man from myth. The
product of three years of research, Eliot Ness: The Real Story separates
the man from the myth. This book traces the life of Eliot Ness from his
childhood in a Scandinavian suburb of Chicago through his service as a
Federal Prohibition Agent in the Windy City.
Are you one of the millions of television and movie viewers who scours the shelves for Mafia movies - both new and old? Do you ever wonder how much of these Hollywood dramas are real? Do they accurately capture this remarkable - and often sordid - world? The Everything® Mafia Book takes you away from fiction and tabloid and introduces you to the true-life accounts of the major players in the American Mafia. From Al Capone to John Gotti, you’ll learn to separate truth from myth and gain a better understanding of America’s most notorious crime families.
Be careful to pay attention to the warning in this book about how you can be
illegally prosecuted for not paying taxes and may have to pay stiff penalties
and serve some jail time. You've got to ask yourself, is it really worth it?
Schiff lays down a very thorough argument that the federal government taxes us
when it is unconstitutional to do so and that is why the legal language in IRS
tax code does not say you are "required" to pay your taxes. Instead they say
taxation is based on the Orwellian doublespeak term "Voluntary Compliance".
Big-time mobsters, All-American athletes and high-powered lawyers are but
a few of the intriguing characters who appear in Porter's well-researched,
action-packed account of the 1978-1979 Boston College point-shaving scandal.
Porter, a veteran sportswriter and columnist, traces the scandal from its
creation in the summer of 1978 through the trials of the players and mobsters in
1981; particularly fascinating is his exploration of how the scam affected the
players mentally and the relationship between them and the gangsters...
(Publisher's Weekly)
![From the Dead [Paperback]](images/From_the_Dead.gif)
Hooking up with his old boyhood pal was a last-gasp idea, but Vince Berardi needed money, and Feeno Bannon, the one-time-ne'er-do-well, had loads of it. As president of a bank full of Teamsters deposits, Bannon and his mobster buddies shelled out unpaid loans to Las Vegas casinos, fancy resorts and mob-owned restaurants. So helping Berardi secure a Teamsters loan to build houses in the New Jersey Pine Barrens would have been easy, until Bannon is snuffed out by the mob as an FBI informant helping to finger the murderers of former Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. Bannon runs from both the mob and FBI, hiding under their noses in Atlantic City casinos, and when their search gets hot, he goes underground in the Pine Barrens. "From the Dead" blends true crime — what happened to Hoffa — with fictional characters based on true-life figures, set in New Jersey, Philadelphia and the Detroit area.
... a book that has kept me laughing for years... Breslin has captured a
time and a mindset that are, believe it or not, already mostly gone.
Debunking the glorification of mobsters in THE GODFATHER, here is a
riotously funny but far more truthful portrait of the petty, far from
brilliant men who made up so much of the mob... jbk@corcoran.com
This book is the first comprehensive account of three centuries of thug life in the city where America began. In chilling new detail, veteran Boston journalist George Hassett reveals the legendary crime stories of Boston - from Prohibition to the Mafia, the Irish Gang War to Whitey Bulger. The forgotten chapters of Boston gang history are also covered - from the role of street gangs in the American Revolution to Chinatowns infamous Tong Wars to the murder of number king Daddy Black - it is all here. Every neighborhood, every era, every gangster.
The story of Don Vito Corleone, the head of a New York Mafia family, inspired some of the most successful movies ever. It is in Mario Puzo's The Godfather that Corleone first appears. As Corleone's desperate struggle to control the Mafia underworld unfolds, so does the story of his family. The novel is full of exquisitely detailed characters who, despite leading unconventional lifestyles within a notorious crime family, experience the triumphs and failures of the human condition. Filled with the requisite valor, love, and rancor of a great epic, The Godfather is the definitive gangster novel.
GoodFellas chronicles
the life of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) from his dreams of being a gangster, to his adoption by a local "family" led by Paul
Cicero (Paul Sorvino), and his 30 years in the Mafia Family ending with his life in the Witness Protection Program.
Great performances by Joe Pesci as Tommy De Vito, the psycho mobster and Lorraine Bracco who plays Karen, Henry's wife.
As mob families go, the Philadelphia Mafia is the most dysfunctional
family of all--with brother turning against brother, sons turning on
their fathers. In 1993 an embittered legacy of rivalry and hatred
exploded in a brutal, bloody battle between Old-World mobster John
Stanfa and the young, flamboyant Joey Merlino. However, this would be
warfare different than any before. This time, the FBI had it all down on
tape--over 2,000 hours worth.
Narrated by the
visionary founding member, Hell's Angel provides a fascinating all-access
pass to the secret world of the notorious Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club. Sonny
Barger recounts the birth of the original Oakland Hell's Angels and the four
turbulent decades that followed. Hell's Angel also chronicles the way the
HAMC revolutionized the look of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle and built what
has become a worldwide bike-riding fraternity, a beacon for freedom-seekers the
world over.
Readers who remember Breslin's first Mafia novel, The Gang That Couldn't
Shoot Straight (1969), will want to check out the New York columnist's
fictional take on the Mob's last days. New Yorkers and Mafia mavens will
know where Breslin is headed once they discover that his capo--Fausti ("the
Fist") Dellacava--spends much of the book dressed in pajamas and robe,
gulping Thorazine... (BookList)
Book Description
From his curved-glass desk in a casino overlooking the Atlantic City boardwalk, Jackie “Disaster” DeSesto—an ex-welterweight boxing champ and former top flack for the Atlantic City Police Department—has a great view of the hustlers he now makes his living nailing. Jackie runs Allegation Sciences, a crisis management firm known for helping businesses with uncomfortably public problems. That’s why Sally Naturale, America’s deliciously loathsome doyenne of good taste and wholesome living, hires him after a pregnant South Jersey woman blames her miscarriage on Sally’s organic soy milk. Jackie doesn’t buy the poor woman’s story and, worse, he doesn’t buy Sally Naturale’s version either. His suspicions are confirmed when assassins from the Jersey Pine Barrens try to kill him one night in his sleep. So with his band of subversives (a.k.a. the Imps), Jackie embarks on a gonzo damage control campaign to vindicate Sally and catch the folks who are trying to drag him down with her.
An insider's account of the Mafia and its workings is culled from a
former mobster who became an FBI informant and documents the careers of
such notorious figures as Paul Castellano and John Gotti.
The story of fearless Irish-American racketeer Danny Greene who takes on the mob. The end result is the fall of several Mafia families and the defection of high-ranking mobsters. Author Rick Porrello is a veteran cop who wrote about his mob roots in The Rise and Fall of the Cleveland Mafia. To Kill The Irishman has been optioned for a major motion picture.
The Last Godfather is the epic inside story of the rise and fall of Joseph Massino, written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who interviewed Massino's family and friends, as well as law enforcement officials and confidential sources. It’s the story of the brutal mob war that made Massino head of the Bonanno family and the most powerful gangster in America. The family made millions of dollars smuggling heroin into the U.S. and running rackets involving loansharking, gambling, theft, and extortion. Ultimately, The Last Godfather is a Shakepearean tragedy of epic proportions, as Salvatore “Good Looking Sal” Vitale, Massino’s childhood friend and brother-in-law, cooperates with the FBI to convict him on charges of racketeering and murder.
Robert "Bobby" Simone draws upon a 35 year career
as a practicing criminal defense attorney to write a unique, informative, and at
times alarming expose and anecdotal description of the criminal justice system
in The Last Mouthpiece. This book reads more like a film noir script than a
history of the law as we encounter "Phil "The Chicken man" Testa, Nick the
Blade, Hunchback Harry, and a series of other real-life mob characters and their
cadres.
Here is a new, updated edition of award-winning columnist Jack Newfield’s best-selling biography of America’s boxing mogul, the source for the Emmy-winning movie Don King: Only in America.
Although there have been countless movies, television programs and books about the Mafia,
with the exception, perhaps of The Sopranos, little has been told about the affect these men of violence have on their
wives and children.
I'm the author of "Mafia and Mafiosi" and would like to share with you some
quotes from the reviews the book got in the press:
Review
A true docudrama of the life of New York City narcotics detective Michael Palermo. Detective Palermo built his career on his unique ability to inhabit two worlds at once: the world of law enforcement and the underworld of New York’s crime family organizations. Palermo participated in over two thousand arrests while maintaining close relationships with the kingpins of organized crime—ties that allowed him to stay one step ahead of the rest of the New York City Police Department. This true crime drama takes you inside the police force at its most corrupt and into the dark and dirty world of dons, consiglieres, underbosses, button men, soldiers, and cowboys.
"Having lived in Las Vegas for most of my
life, Ms. Scott's book brings back vivid memories of the spoiled kids of our
town's originating citizens. Susan Berman, may she rest in peace, was one of
those kids who was raised in the lap of luxury only experienced by the sons and
daughters of the Vegas Mafia. Often times the hoods would use their kids as
status symbols, providing the best schools, clothes, cars, etc., to impress
their hoodlum friends."
For more than 35 years, Oscar Goodman was the country's pre-eminent defense attorney for alleged gangsters... Though no further connection between Goodman and the Mafia has even been proved, the famous litigator has often been accused of being more than just a mouthpiece for organized crime... After scores of unlikely courtroom victories, Goodman pulled of an even more unlikely career change. Twice elected mayor of Las Vegas, he went from legal spokesman for the most notorious crime figures of our era to political spokesman for the most notorious city in the country. Of Rats and Men is the story of Mafia informants, made men, overzealous government agents, a courtroom wizard, and the "happiest mayor in America." It's the biography of Oscar Goodman.
James Tucci, trial lawyer and raconteur, takes you on an underworld journey,
from a mob kingpin's humble beginnings in Sardinia, Italy, to his meteoric rise
through the ranks of the Mafia, seemingly ending with his daughter seated at the
height of legitimate corporate power and prestige. Tucci paints a vivid picture
of a Mafia Don's undoing... the violent torture and murder of an underling, who
has gone into the drug business for himself, stealing profits from the family.
In PADDY WHACKED, bestselling author and organized crime expert T. J. English brings to life nearly two centuries of Irish American gangsterism, which spawned such unforgettable characters as Mike "King Mike" McDonald, Chicago's subterranean godfather; Big Bill Dwyer, New York's most notorious rumrunner during Prohibition; Mickey Featherstone, troubled Vietnam vet turned Westies gang leader from Hell's Kitchen; and James "Whitey" Bulger, the ruthless and untouchable Southie legend. This is an epic story of corrupt politics, wanton murders, gambling empires, notorious brothels, tough women, and hard-drinking pugilists from the underbelly of America's most dangerous cities -- including New York, Boston, New Orleans, Chicago, Kansas City, and Cleveland. 
Investigative reporter Whitlock (MediScams) switches from his usual subject of crime to crime-busting as he "honors and celebrates members of the law enforcement community who have distinguished themselves and their departments by acting in a courageous manner under extraordinary circumstances."
Amid his efforts to expose the Russian mob, Robert I. Friedman learned
from the FBI that "the most brilliant and savage Russian mob
organization in the world" had put a $100,000 price on his head. Reading
"Red Mafiya," it's not hard to see why: this is a brave book about a
troubling subject. Friedman, a freelance journalist, describes the
research behind it: "I ventured into the Russians' gaudy strip clubs in
Miami Beach; paid surprise visits to their well-kept suburban homes in
Denver; interviewed hit men and godfathers in an array of federal
lockups; and traveled halfway around the world trying to make sense of
their tangled criminal webs, which have ensnared everyone from titans of
finance and the heads of government to entire state security services.
Their racket involves heroin smuggling, weapons trafficking, mass
extortion, and casino operation, among other activities."
Blending financial sophistication with bone-crunching violence, the
Russian mob has become the FBI's most formidable criminal adversary,
creating an international criminal colossus that has surpassed the
Colombian cartels, the Japanese Yakuzas,
the Chinese triads, and the Italian Mafia in wealth and weaponry,"
writes Friedman. They've even penetrated professional hockey, as
Friedman shows in an eye-opening chapter ("Federal authorities have come
to fear that the NHL is now so
compromised by Russian gangsters that the integrity of the game itself
may be in jeopardy").
The story of Angelo "Big" Ange Lonardo (mob boss and one-time highest ranking government cooperating witness) and the rise of the once-mighty Cleveland La Cosa Nostra. Centered around the author's descendants, the Porrello brothers - early mob leaders and Prohibition era bootleg battles.
Albert
Fried's book recalls the rise and fall of an underworld culture that bred some
of America's greatest racketeers, bootleggers, gamblers, and professional
killers, spawned by a culture of vice and criminality in New York's Lower East
Side and similar environments in Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, Detroit, Newark,
and Philadelphia. An important dimension is added to this story as the author
discusses Italian gangs who teamed up with their Jewish counterparts.
By now, everyone knows the story of the mob’s involvement in Las Vegas’s growth from quiet desert town to “Sin City”—the gambling capital of the world, and the fastest growing cities in the country. There have been countless movies glamorizing Vegas’s early years. At the end of one of those movies, Casino, you see a hotel come down and a voice describe the end of the mob-era in Vegas. That was hardly the end of the Las Vegas story; in fact, it was probably just the beginning.
A detailed biography based on extensive research and interviews with Kennedy family
members and intimates recounts the sex life of patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy, the story
behind his daughter Rosemary's illness, and his anti-Semitism and Nazi sympathies.
Stricken Yet Crowned is the true story of one woman's heroic journey through life carrying the terrible burden of having been raped as a child. Author Michell Spoden speaks very candidly about how somebody broke into her Cleveland, Ohio home one night and brutally took her innocence. Nothing would ever be the same in her life. Throughout her search for the truth about who the perpetrator was, many years passed without a definite answer. Her number one suspect was the Mafia, due to her step father's involvement and the very fact that he was under FBI investigation after the murder of the infamous Danny Greene. Despite being led down one dead end after another, the time and barriers to her cold case being solved did not stop her from finding out what actually happened. Today, Michell Spoden claims that ÒVictory is now,Ó through the healing power of God and a strong conviction to not be silenced. Michell has even decided to come forward and speak about her experience and what it means to be a rape victim and constantly struggle with reality. She is in the prime of her life and her message is one of hope and empowerment, not self-pity. This is a must read book for anyone who has ever known somebody that has been raped or experienced rape themselves
Rick Cowan was a young NYPD detective in 1992 when he dropped by a Brooklyn waterfront warehouse to investigate a recent fire bombing-only one in a string of interviews he considered routine. But what he found there was far from routine, for it would take him on a five-year odyssey and nearly cost him his life. In fact, he had stumbled upon the lead of a lifetime-the suspicion that he might unearth the hard evidence police and federal agencies alike had been chasing for decades: the proof of collusion among the mob families to extort billions from the nation's most influential corporations that call New York their home.
Author Cherie Rohn divulges the true story of William Slick Hanner, and how he
gained insider access to the Mafia. Slick's adventures run the gamut as he
becomes a poker cheat bordello chauffeur, and eventually, Jerry Lewis's
bodyguard.
A different breed of Mafia novel, a young Italian prizefighter, the son
of a Mafia don discovers his real father was a Jewish gangster murdered by the
dons he has known all his life. Davey Rossi is forced to choose between who he
was and who he is. Leo Rutman's literary style re-awakens the old Jewish and
Italian ganglands of early 1960s New York City with a tough, gritty, yet
romantic atmosphere.
When we think gangster, hood, or wiseguy, we often associate these
characters with
such names as Capone, Luciano, or even Corleone. However, when organized
crime reared its ugly head in the late 1920s in Brooklyn, at the
foundation were men like Meyer Lansky and Ben Siegel--both Jews. Rich
Cohen's romantic account of Jewish gangsters, Tough Jews, brings to life
the story of Jewish involvement in the world of organized crime
Book Description
Book Description