I have finished reading "La Source". I bought a copy in French while i was in Montreal on holidays.

I am slightly disappointed as Andrew Scoppa didn't really gave that much info as i expected. It seems that he used the journalists as much as they used him. Overall the book gives a interesting account of the Montreal Mafia after Rizzuto's reign but there isn't much inside information.

One thing that was particularly intresting though is the confirmation that there are no longer any made guys in Montreal. The Montreal Mafia is made of various italian guys which have no official affiliation to any family and who do not form an actual family in the sense of the 5 families for example. They don't have induction ceremonies but somehow they still feel they belong to a single entity which is loosely structured.

Anyone read Gotti wars by the fed prosecutor Gleeson?

Truthfully, the subject matter bores me these days. Plus ,books revolving around trial proceedings tend to be boring also. I'll get it for my mob book collection but I'll wait until its cheaper on the 2nd hand market.

Any reviews?

Are there any books by/ about genovese associates ? Can't think of any or even made guys. Chin, Vito, costello, Valachi . Have books also there's a book about Boot Boiardo. Which for a book from 2014 I've not seen for anything much cheaper than its new price of £30 odd . Hardly any UK 2nd hand. Good opening chapter free on Google books

New e-book available on Amazon today — link below is to the Amazon US site.

The Buffalo Mafia: The Return Of Organized Crime To The Queen City
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BP9KYP2H

The ebook version of Early Organized Crime in Detroit: Vice, Corruption and the Rise of the Mafia by James Buccellato is on sale right now. The prices below are even cheaper than when I bought it on sale this past October.

https://www.amazon.com/Early-Organized-Crime-Detroit-Corruption-ebook/dp/B01AHKRBUO (USD$2.19)

https://www.amazon.ca/Early-Organized-Crime-Detroit-Corruption-ebook/dp/B01AHKRBUO (CAD$2.99)

https://www.kobo.com/ww/en/ebook/early-organized-crime-in-detroit-1 (USD$2.99)

https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/early-organized-crime-in-detroit-1 (CAD$3.73)
______________

The ebook version of Motor City Mafia: A Century of Organized Crime in Detroit by Scott Burnstein is also on sale right now.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0093CHZ2W (USD$2.19)

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0093CHZ2W (CAD$2.99)

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/83002f19-4a7f-40f9-9fa3-8213f5dbf3f4 (USD$2.99)

https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/83002f19-4a7f-40f9-9fa3-8213f5dbf3f4 (CAD$3.73)

^^^ e books are so cheap. I wish I was into them, because of the price difference.
But you can't beat a physical book. Even when every new mob book is on YouTube as a audiobook, I'd still rather pay for a book.

Posted this before but can't believe Larry Mazza's book is not available as a physical book. Wonder why? The guy had a better story to tell than most..

Going to read Boston mob by Songini next, seems decent from the little dip I had. Revolves around Barboza, it seems. Be hard to better HITMAN/ Martorano, that's a great book.

Are there any decent personal account books by any Sicilian/ Boot of Italy mafia(+ the others) members? Like, Underboss - SG .

Anything where the subject has some decent stories to tell, talks about his mafia/ camorra/ n' dran?????? family. The characters, feuds,scams etc
Got the books about Riina + Provenzano . But I'd like to read about lesser known guys.

In English or American.

** got White Shotgun ' the Sicilian mafia in their own words '. Which is good for dipping into, here and there. ---//-- ------//----- is DeMeo crews 'doing the houdini '. lupara bianca

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL AT GBB

For anyone interested you can read Pleasant Avenue Connection book on Internet archive. More about police corruption and heroin than lcn. Is ok but glad I never paid circa £300 for a copy. Its not really a mafia book.

Has anyone read THE MAFIA LIBRARY books?

They've a gambino and Genovese , maybe others.

Are they actual book or more Petepiece type lists, events ? Petepiece has only the Genovese family left to do of the 5 families. Not really books ,to me, just info ,lists .

Pretty much the same but the Decavaclante was interesting

Received my copy of Petepieces' new The Genovese family book.
Super chunky, double the pages of the others in the series.
Also the order in which the books were published was like the ranking of the family's.
Colombo, bonnano, lucchese, gambino, Genovese.

Wonder if he'll carry on. Philly, Decavalcantes etc

Got the Galante book, the cigar . It's by the persico book guys. Although it's hardback.
Also got the book about the Sicilian guy Ronsivalle. The guy who killed for the pizza connection guys.

Currently reading Breaking the mob, by a Philly cop in the Scarfo years. Its good but then again I also liked the book by that Salerno rat ,the plumber. Even though his mob life didn't encompass much bar the falcone murder.

finished the new D'Elia book, its not very good. The book said that Barbara wasn't a boss rather a Magaddino capodecina.

Most mob books suck in my opinion. Almost none of them are as detailed as I'd like them to be. A lot of authors think that a 100 to 200 page book will suffice, when it needs at bare minimum to be 300, if not 400 or 500 pages. For example, if I wrote a book on the Lucchese Family right now, best believe it's going to start from its very very beginnings, in painful details as much as possible, all the way to the latest piece of news of the Family, with every little bit of detail that I could possibly muster along the way. Maybe that's why I like books like The 6th Family or The Outfit by Gus Russo so much, I feel like they come pretty close to the quality of Mafia book I'm looking for.

I just published a book on the history of the Mafia that focuses on gangsters who came from Corleone, Sicily. Some of the chapters are focused on Corleone, most of it is looking at their spread across the United States. It's a very comprehensive look at the mafiosi from one city, and uses the examples to prove broader hypotheses about how the Mafia originated and is organized. It's the result of years of research and I can't wait to hear what people have to say about it. The book is titled IN OUR BLOOD: The Mafia Families of Corleone. There are print and e-book formats available. The e-book edition has links to the genealogical profiles of the people who are named in the book. Available on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CMZZK5W9?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

I’m sure this book has been mentioned somewhere on the 80 previous pages here but I thought I would ask it for a fresh opinion and fresh replies.
One of the first mob books I read, and really enjoyed- Roemer- Man against the mob, but I’ve heard some people say he was a liar and a fraud.
can I get everybody else’s opinion on that book, and Bill Roemer?
I enjoyed feeling we were seeing the inner workings of the Outift and hearing what they heard on the bug.
I did read his Vegas mob war book also.

When Gangland Was Jewish
Two exuberant new books chronicle the heyday of New York City’s criminal underworld on the Lower East Side.

THE TALENTED MRS. MANDELBAUM: The Rise and Fall of an American Organized-Crime Boss, by Margalit Fox

THE INCORRUPTIBLES: A True Story of Kingpins, Crime Busters, and the Birth of the American Underworld, by Dan Slater

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/16/...9U0.MjwM.cEdnMfAgM-LM&smid=url-share

Millspgh I thought roemers book was excellent as well. Those calling him a liar are pretty funny since they’re not even in postion to know. We’re they on his detail? Lol just like most here they don’t know, or don’t want to believe so they resort to putting the book, person down. Good book

Anyone here recommend the
BORGATA books by Louis Ferrante

First one which goes from 1860s /1960s
or

2nd one that covers 60s onward.

Is he the guy who was related to Phillip Giaccone?

That Frank Dimatteo author has a book coming out on

RED HOOK.

But he's already written a book on Gallos and that area .

He's written his first and second books on the area; this is the 3rd. I don't get it. The Galante book was the best. He and the co-author really did their homework scouring every FBI report and arrest records going back to his teen years. The book is without a doubt an 8 to 10 given Galante info is the same historical points over and over.

I really enjoyed STEEL CITY MAFIA: BLOOD, BETRAYAL & PITTSBURGH’S LAST DON by Paul Hodos. Very well written and does excellent job taking the reader through the 80s, 90s and early 2000s.

Currently reading CITY of BETRAYAL " The Genovese family's Springfield crew". - Nick Parisi.

Really like this book, roughly from 60s to Arillota era .

The Patriaca clan is also written about a lot.

Also got authors Mafia Confession book as well, which is about an earlier Springfield era.
Not read it yet, though.

** hàs anyone found a way to read LIFE magazine August 30 1968 20+ page article on John Franzese?
for free, that is. Done a quick search couldn't find a pdf.

Greatly appreciate this discussion and a well-researched mob book. Here's a new one for 2025: "Mafia Mistaken: Why Everything You Think You Know About Italian American Organized Crime is Wrong" by John de Luca. Gutsy claim in the title, right?

I think folks here will find it refreshing. It dispels a LOT of myths and also, most significantly, talks about the MODERN mafia. It doesn't just present some historical tales from the 1930s and 1970s or whatever.

The chapters are also designed to be cheeky, I think. They are:

“The Mafia Doesn’t Exist”
The Etymologies Are Bullshit
The FBI Uses the Wrong Name
Life Imitates Art – Too Much
Omertá Is a Myth
You Can’t Believe the Tell-Alls
The Mob Isn’t Really Nationwide Anymore
Some “Families” Were Glorified Crews
The “Commission” Is Largely Powerless
How Giuliani Became Mayor
Mobsters Are Like Strippers
You Should Not Join the Mob
But You Could Start Your Own Franchise
The Government Is the Mafia
The Mob Has No Purpose

I believe the ones that are most controversial, but which need to be said, are:

You can't believe the tell alls. So many ex mobsters and associates have YouTube channels. So much of it is nonsense.

The mob isn't nationwide anymore. It's really just a Philly and NY phenomenon. Even Chicago and New England are shells.

The chapter on why folks shouldn't join the mob is an explanation of its decline.

Hope folks enjoy it.

"LITTLE VIC" AND THE GREAT MAFIA WAR

From award-winning New York Daily News reporter Larry McShane, the gritty, bloody, first definite biography of one of the Mafia's deadliest contenders for boss, "Little Vic" Orena, who battled it out in the streets with Carmine "The Snake" Persico for control of the Colombo Family and triggered the bloodiest Mafia war of our times . . .

June 20, 1991. A five-man hit team waited in a car outside the Long Island home of Victor Orena, the acting crime boss of the Colombo crime family. Orena recognized the vehicle—and managed to escape with his life. But it was just the beginning. Over the next year, more shots would be fired in what would become the last major mob war in New York’s crime-soaked history—and one of the bloodiest. The war ended with Orena’s 1992 arrest and conviction for racketeering. But the full story of “Little Vic’s” astonishing rise and fall has never been told. Until now . . .

With shocking new revelations from Orena’s son Andrew, this eye-opening account takes readers inside the criminal underworld of New York’s infamous “Five Families” from the point of view of one of its rising stars. The grandson of Sicilian immigrants, Victor Orena ingratiated himself with the local Mafiosi during his teens, ultimately aligning himself with the Colombos. Ascending the ranks, he eventually became acting boss of the family when its don Carmine “The Snake” Persico was sentenced to prison. But as Persico struggled to maintain control from behind bars, Orena decided to seize that power for himself—launching a ruthless mob war the city would never forget.

It's all here: the Mafia hits, the FBI stings, the bullets and the backstabbings. Featuring a rogues gallery of legendary mobsters—from the Gallo brothers to the Gambinos and John Gotti.

@NYMafia
Just got my copy of the above book^^^, haven't read it yet but it's a thin book.

Same guy who wrote the CHIN book, which was ok but how could it not be , given the subject.
Just read to much like it was cobbled together from newspaper articles.
Then again I think the author was a newspaper journalist.

Also waiting for MAFIA TAKEDOWN which is out end of march. ( not the garbage industry book).

True. I haven't read it, but I'll take your word for it.

Also, I haven't heard about MAFIA TAKEDOWN. Give me a heads up when it comes out, ok?

SUNSHINE STATE MAFIA

Another new book about the underworld that was released this past year is “SUNSHINE STATE MAFIA” written by Doug Kelly. This paperback provides a general overview of organized crime in the State of Florida through the decades; not only about the Italian Mafia, but the author also includes interesting background stories about the Jewish Mob, the Cuban Mob, the Dixie Mafia, semi-independent racketeers and more. As the subtitle of the book states, it is, “A History of Florida’s Mobsters, Hit Men & Wise Guys.”

In the book’s bibliography, the author writes, “I could list hundreds of sources available online that I researched, an advantage in terms of time and travel that authors nowadays enjoy. However, the following links are examples that I found particularly interesting and informative.”

Author Doug Kelly then proceeds to list various websites/articles that he is referring to. Doug was nice enough to name our Button of the New York Mafia website, as well as our link thenewyorkmafia.com with the words (highly recommended) in parentheses.

Doug was also kind enough to send us a personalized copy of the book with the following inscription written to me on the inside cover, “To ‘The Other Guy’, Big thanks for your images, support and encouragement. Omertà, Doug Kelly”

For those interested, the book is 180 pages long. When it was first released the price was $28.00. But they now offer a 25% discount online for $21.00 in paperback. Kindle is offering it for $18.99.

We wish Doug much success with this book and the best of luck in the future.