Hello C-Drum, and welcome to the boards.
As you've pointed out, the Shea brothers are obviously based on John and Bobby Kennedy, and Fontane, as we already know, is based on Frank Sinatra.
The character of Carlos Tramonti in this new book is a mirror image of real life New Orleans boss Carlos Marcello. Marcello, like Tramonti, was also deported to the country that he falsely listed as his original birthplace.
Another character in the book, Eddie Paradise, can at times, be compared to the real life Gallo brothers who once ran the Redhook section of Brooklyn. The aquiring of a lion by Eddie Paradise and keeping it in the basement of his club is something that the Gallo crew did in real life.
In this book there is a raid that takes place during a commission meeting in New York, attended by the bosses of the famlies and the character Carlos Tramonti, that is very similar to a real life raid that took place in New York in 1966.
In real life, the raid of that meeting took place in a New York City restaurant called "La Stella" and New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello, along with the bosses of several other families, was in attendance.
If there were ever any doubts of the Johnny Fontane character being based on Frank Sinatra, those doubts will be erased in this book due to the storyline created by Winegardner that touches on some of the things Fontane goes through or went through that compare to many of the things that Sinatra went through in the 1960's in his life.
Hope you enjoy the book. I myself started out enjoying it but found that the farther I got into the book, the harder it became to read. But everyone is different.
If you enjoy real life mob stories and would like to see if you can find similarities to fictional characters in certain books, check out the Organized Crime Real Life Thread right here on these boards.
Please feel free to post any questions that you may have (in the appropriate threads of course
) and enjoy your time here on the boards.
Don Cardi
