I enjoyed the book as far as it went but one thing that drove me up the wall was Roemer's habit of attributing thoughts or quotes to people when he wasn't there and they never talked to him. He does this with Accardo quite a bit.

Someone who orders people to get tortured in ways that were even cruel in the middle ages I don't really consider a good bad guy.

Well apart from some minor ignorant things, it was a nice book to read. I still think he is the better good bad guy, if you compare to Scarfo, Casso etc.

I am now reading Blood and Honor, its a very nice book. But Anastasia repeats the same thing over and over again, its annoying sometimes. Instead of letting the story flow, he interrupts with stuff that are not directl related to the story up ahead. But so far so good, wonderful book.
I feel like i am a member of the hit team, send by Scarfo to stalk the victims.

I read "The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano," and thought it was very good. I wonder if it would be redundant to read "The Real and Fake Gangster."

in reading "I Heard You Paint Houses," and the mob's assertion that they were the mastermind behind JFK's murder, I never heard their POV regarding Oswald and his role. I mean, I "get" why they wanted Oswald to play the patsy - to focus all the attention on Oswald takes the attention away from the mob, and that's a good thing.

But why would Oswald submit to "being" the patsy? What's in it for him, aside from a long prison sentence? Oswald must have known he would never get away with it. His wife Marina wasn't "provided" for with a huge bankroll. It is for "this" reason why I disbelief the Mafia's claim to the murder of John F. Kennedy.

We'll never know. I don't think the Mob or elements of the Mob could have done it alone. But every good patsy has one thing in common.

They never know that they're the patsy until it's far too late..

No, it wouldn't.

"The Real and the Fake Gangster" was an excellent book. "Last Testament" was a fairy tale, albeit an enjoyable read.

"The Real and the Fake Gangster" actually points out many of the blatant errors in "Last Testament." You should read it for that reason alone.

It would take a work the size of the Encyclopedia Brittanica to discuss all the blatent errors in all the organized crime books.

wow, good to know! Guess I'll be entering the world of Charlie Lucky once more.

Figures that Hollywood would decide to make a film adaptation on the fairy tale: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1056090/

blatant errors, or outright falsehoods - like the one where Luciano says he ain't never killed a man by his own hand; or like the one where Luciano says he never used junk except for the one time his doctor shot him up with morphine the time he was beat up by Maranzano and his men; or like the one where…

Afternoon Gents,

New to the forums.

A few of books i've been reading recently and enjoyed are -

The Butcher (About Petoria)
The Iceman (About Kuklinski)
Gaspipe (About Casso)

All written by Phillip Carlo, really good reads.

Currently reading "The Westies" by T.J English and again finding it very hard to put down, its about the West Side Irish Mob, Coonan and Featherstone and the likes, recommend highly.

English

The last few days I've been reading "Making Jack Falcone." Does anyone know if Greg DePalma was really shelved? DePalma was a character, and had lot of energy for a guy his age, to come out at his age and get his old rackets back and grab new ones is impressive. I love the part where he swears to the director of the long term care place that he is trying to get his son into that he is no longer involved with the life, and left it when he son got messed up, and no wiseguys will be there. The director grudgingly accepts it, but its only a matter time before Greg makes the place his meeting spot and has a bunc of wiseguys coming and going!

I have never read the book but I thought DePalma dided in jail.

I have never looked into the russian mob are they anything like the italians or are they totally different.

He did, he died sometime in the fall of 2009. I don't know how DePalma was never whacked, his big mouth got a lot of guys taken down on numerous occasions. Nino Gaggi told his family if Greg ever calls tell him I'm not home, and Jr Gotti said they should collect money to buy Greg his own talk radio station.

Being an American of Italian ancestry I'm more interested in the American and Italian mafia, so that is what I mostly read about. I have read "Red Mafiya," the so called Russian mafia, is really a Jewish mafia if you ask me. They haven't been around very long, so it hard to get a grasp of their thing. I've read a few books about current day Russia and they were pretty good. The way of Russia is so foreign to me its hard to get really into it at time though. With other groups they just haven't been around as long as the Italian mafia, so its not easy to follow their history, like you can with the mafia. They don't seem to have the characters like Luciano, Joe Adonis, Gambino, Genovese, Gotti, the Chin, Gaspipe Casso, etc.

Just flew through a book called "double deal" its the story of a guy named michael corbitt. He was a crooked cop who became police chief of a squad outside of chicago. If you are interested in the outfit circa 70's-80's its a Pretty damn good read

I also just picked up a book called " Deadly Silence" Its a book i have been wanting for awhile but couldnt find. I paid like $50 for a very good hardcover copy. It was published around 1991 and is co written by antonio nicaso. It chronicles the history of the mob in montreal since the early 1900's and gives you a lot of insight into not just montreal but the hamilton ontario mob and the connection with the maggadino family. can't wait to dive into it....

I picked up "The Brotherhoods," The true story of two cops who murdered for the mafia today. This is the first book I read on the "mafia cops."

I've read them all, and "The Brotherhoods" is probably the best of the lot. You'll get a real good feel for 1980s Brooklyn by reading it.

Jimmy Breslin's "The Good Rat" is written more like a novel, in Breslin's inimitable sarcastic style. If you like him, you'll like the book. But if you don't, you won't. Breslin has a love him or hate him writing style and personality.

"Friends of the Family," by Tommy Dades, was written with the usual bullshit, ex-cop, pseudo bravado. But it was pretty damn entertaining.

"Mob Cops," by Greg B. Smith, was the worst of the lot. The constant back and forth shifting between past and present was annoying as Hell. No wonder it was a straight to paperback "quickie" type bio. For a journalist, Smith is very erratic. I thought he did an okay job with "Made Men."

THE BROTHERHOODS is one on my list. I have read THE GOOD RAT though, i like Breslin's style!

I should try to read up on the mafia cops.
Those 2 guys were worse than Casso in my opinion.
Casso was a gangster - a bad guy.
Those 2 cops were SUPPOSED to be the good guys - the guys you turn to for help.

The Brotherhoods is actually my all time favorite mafia book. It's got everything.

Other books I recommend
Takedown by Rick Cowan
Blood & Honor by George Anastasia
Mr. Capone by Robert J. Schoenberg
Gotti by Jerry Capeci
The Valachi Papers by Peter Maas
Born To Steal by Gary Weiss

Guys, hows the book of Andrew DiDonato?
And there is a DVD out there to, but cant seem to find them on ebay or in Holland. Amazon is out for me.

I wish someone would do a book on Tony Mirra or Gerrard Pappa.
2 guys I'd like to know more about

I enjoyed The Brotherhoods, got through it pretty quick whilst on my last holiday.

Has anyone read "Making Jack Faclone" about the guy who went undercover in the Gambino's? Its been recomended to me but i dont really trust the source!

Making Jack Falcone is a good book, it does repeat itself and has 40% story of the agent before he went undercover in the Gambinos. A movie is in production to.

Thanks for the info. I've not really read much on him so might give it a go. Im not really inrested in the 40% bit but I guess it all helps to set the scene!

A film too eh? Sounds interesting. I see they are also making a film of So I Hear You Paint Houses aswell now, cant wait for that one for the cast alone!

Give it a try, you will like it. The Gambino part is nice.

As for the movie, looks good and there are a couple of good mob movies coming out this year.
Check Kill the Irishman to, its about Danny Greenes war against the italian mafia in Cleveland.

Books i have loved...


Joe dogs (the story of gambino associate Joseph iannuzi)

Blood and honor (scarfo mob)by george anastasia

Mobfather (story of Tommy DelGiorno's family) by George Anastasia

The Sixth Family (Rizzuto family bio)

The first Family (story of the morello gang late 1800's and early 1900's)

Mr. Capone by Robert J. Schoenberg (the best capone book out there IMO)

Mafia Dynasty (Story of the gambino family)

Murder Machine (Story of roy demeo and his gang)

Tough Jews by Rich Cohen

The Mad ones (Story of the gallo brothers) by tom folsom

My Life In The Mafia (the story of vincent teresea)

The Underboss (Story of Gennaro anguilo/boston mob) by Gerard O'neil & Dick Lehr

The Mafia And The Machine (Story of the Kansas City Mob)

The Last Godfather (story of Joe massino) by Anthony DeStefano

A Matter Of Honor By Remo remo franceschini (Police detective that went after gotti)

Meyer lansky Mogul of the mob (great bio on lansky)