From the late forties to the early sixties in southern California there was one dominant organized crime boss and his name was Mickey Cohen. He fought off all attempts to steal his crown, both from within and from outside the organized crime fraternity.

Cohen had a severe case of OCD, perhaps bought about by his early poverty and STD infection. His OCD would save his life multiple times. Once when a would be Judas shook his hand to mark him for assassination, Cohen immediately left for the bathroom to wash his hands and so missed the ensuing drive-by. Another time Cohen noticed a scratch in his Cadillac fender and bent down to inspect it at the exact time that a rifleman from a rival mob was taking a shot. Some of the attempts on Cohen's life were set up by police.

Loquacious, dangerous and rather greedy the dapper Cohen had his fingers in just about every major criminal enterprise in Southern California. Extortion, loan sharking, bookmaking, gambling, pornography, prostitution, and narcotics were his bread and butter. Cohen's legal businesses included clothing stores and ice cream shops. Cohen also had several links to the film industry. He ran an extremely lucrative sexual blackmail business. One of his employees, an bisexual gigolo named Johnny Stompanato, was the lover of film legend Lana Turner. Stompanato was allegedly killed by Turner's teen daughter. Angry at the lost income, Cohen released private and rather intimate love letters from Turner to Stompanato and threatened to release even more intimate film.

This book details Cohen's rise from desperate childhood poverty to lowly thug and goon to Siegel's gofer and later crime boss in his own right to his fall from grace via federal tax evasion convictions. The second conviction finally reduced and perhaps broke his power. This is the true life story which inspired most of the LA noir film and book stories from LA Confidential to Raymond Chandler's works. There is a lot of information about the LAPD. For whatever reason although I was used to thinking of that department as extremely brutal I didn't think of them as particularly corrupt. This book explodes that misconception. The original crime bosses in LA were often Anglo/Irish high-ranking police officers!

It wasn't until the arrival of Siegel and Cohen that power was passed and even then there remained numerous ties between the criminals, the businessmen, the lawyers, the film studios, the judiciary and the police and prosecutors. Everybody was dirty. This was a fascinating story based on both primary and secondary documents. Tere Tereba did a really good job of setting the stage and telling the story here. I like all the information she dug up on old Hollywood. This book is as much about the underside of Hollywood as it is about organized crime. See if you can find the 60 Minutes interview in which Cohen insults LAPD chief William Parker as "a sadistic drunk degenerate". There are oodles of info on Richard Nixon, Shirley Temple, RFK, Frank Sinatra, Billy Graham and many other famous names. Cohen was always good for a snappy quote. During a Senate hearing when he was accused of living badly and being surrounded by violence, the pugnacious little gangster responded "Whaddya mean surrounded by violence? People are shooting at me!!!"

Almost done with Murder Machine. Very good!

can anyone tell me if larry mazza is finished his book yet.that would be some read.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=jgCpx...fia&f=false - The Mafia Encyclopedia

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=e7inU...amp;redir_esc=y - Mafia: The Government's Secret File on Organized Crime

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TtdrM...p;q&f=false - Mafia Secret Judge: For Members Only

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bDQD1...p;q&f=false - The Godfather

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=s1pKI...p;q&f=false - Cullotta: The Life of a Chicago Criminal.

Paddy Whacked - TJ English
Basically shows how the Irish mob came about. Im almost halfway through and i do not want it to end.

King of Godfathers by Anthony Destefano
I think this book also went by another name but i cant remember. Its about joey Massino. He had a part in the three Capos murders. Also one of my fav books and should read after you read Donnie Brasco

Has anyone read Five Families by Selwynn Raab? Its a very long book and i want to buy it.

Just finished Mafia Prince w/ Leonetti....a lot pictures I never saw before and a lot of good first hand knowledge....a lot aligned with what nick the crow had said

Picked up a copy of Mafia Prince tonight.

where at?

Barnes N Noble. Was there to pick up another book for my dad and checked out the true crime section just to see if there was anything interesting and to my surprise they had 'Mafia Prince'. I figured I was going to have to order it.

Yeah they'll be out of business soon

Blood & Honor/George Anastasia
MOBFATHER/George Anastasia
The Westies/T.J. English
Family Secrets
MOB STAR/Gene Mustain Jerry Capeci
Underboss/Peter Maas,Sammy Gravano
GASPIPE/Phil Something
Black Mass/Dick Lehr
Black Hand(Mexican Mafia,Pelican Bay)/??
ACCARDO/Bill Roemer
The Enforcer/Bill Roemer/about Tony Spilotro
Murder Machine/Capeci,Mustain
Unfinished Buisness/Joe Pistone
Man Of Honor/Joe Bonanno
Cosa Nostra/??
Vengeance Is Mine/Jimmy Frattiano,Michael Zuckerman
Last Days of The Sicilians(based on the Pizza Connection,super interesting)

i got the mafia prince by phillip leonetti. pretty good read, but its 15 to 20 yrs to late. its everything blood and honor and the other books tell. 1 new thing crazy phill convinced me nicky scarfo is a serial killer, which the other books didnt tell much about. like the guy had ticks hated other people having fun or good times he liked misery, loved the lcn more then i think anyone, he did go by the book/rules, but he did go after a few innocents. the letters to his kid and mother is phyco killer,writting from adx cell to your 85 yr old saint of a mother lol. i like that leonetti gave alot of praise to some of the soldiers from his time even saying joe ligambi is a solid guy and was the smartest bookie in south philly when it came to handicapping, he said joe and scarfo liked each other alot and were celle's for yrs. he said the younger narducci is the real threat to become the boss and is a stone killer, the pungs are great guys, couple things about bobby manna and how the genovese controled the philly mob and how scarfo was more of a ny guy then any of the philly guys, then gotti backed john stanfa in a power play, but by that time scarfo manna were gone and chin on trial. he went on about how he loves the merlino's chuck and lawrence but hated joey. when scarfo wanted to kill the merlino phill told him no way and thats when they fell out. he really loved his a.c. crew the merlino's saul kane some guy blade and a few more his uncle did screw stuff up, but he was a good money maker with the unions. scarfo had big plans with ny help.and how he went back to a.c. in 1996 and seen nicky jr. but like all mob rat books he still acts like a killer who wont hesitate to kill anyone for his family even nicky jr.

Thanks for this Pmac. I'm in two minds whether to buy this book or not. But it sounds interesting. Is Nicky Scarfo´s father (Filippo) mentioned in it (as a Mafia member)?

I have it on hold at the library. These books are a dime a dozen today, and usually pretty bad. That's why I borrow them from the library first now. And if they're any good, then I buy them for future reference.

I have the same mindset. Buying books on Amazon or whatever without first being able to check it out (read a few pages from it) is risky. A lot of books goes straight to the trash can when I find them being bad reads.

they only metion scarfo's father once, leonetti said he was a legit guy and quiet. i also read he was a soldier but not acordding to leonetti. but his grandmother scarfo's mother had a whole family of gangster brothers. one thing i picked up was scarfo like to make younge guys, himself getting made at 24. and he made alot of guys and there brothers. there are the pung's milano' narducci grande's and another set.there all on the street now.

I have been meaning to get back to the Library to get in the habit of doing this, you can actually borrow digital books from certain libraries in NYC (It stay un your device until a certain date). This is a cool thing IMO, I want to see this book come out in ebook/kindle format and then try and get it. I looked at a few pages at B&N looks pretty good, and I have mostly seen/read positive reviews about it. Haven't really heard anything negative.



interesting, i always thought scarfo sr's dad was a made guy with the westside

"I have been meaning to get back to the Library to get in the habit of doing this, you can actually borrow digital books from certain libraries in NYC (It stay un your device until a certain date). This is a cool thing IMO, I want to see this book come out in ebook/kindle format and then try and get it. I looked at a few pages at B&N looks pretty good, and I have mostly seen/read positive reviews about it. Haven't really heard anything negative."

I agree. Sounds Interesting. Daps, do you have a link?
Thanks.

Go to an individual library's website and search for an ebook version of the book you want, idk about other states but in NYC you must have a library card. Follow the on screen prompts after you find the ebook and you should be all set.

I started Blood and Power by Stephen Fox recently. I bought it awhile back online. A few people I know who also read mafia books, recommended it.

So is Mafia Prince recommended or what? Also has anybody ever read Fat Vinny Teresa's book My Life In The Mafia? I guess he talks about a lot of familiar names to me in that book,but it doesnt seem to be on the easy-to-find side

That was the first Mafia book I ever read! Found it in a local library over here. I thought it was great at the time. Borrowed it numerous of times. The librarian must have thought I was nuts. But the book (and Teresa´s credibility) has been questioned a lot the last 20, 30 years or so. He did put forward a lot of bold statements; Anastasia´s murderer actually being a Boston guy (Jackie Nazarian), that he held the third spot in the New England mob and giving orders to Jerry Angiulo (although not being made), that John "Futto" Biele was killed on Joe Bonanno´s orders, that Lilo Galante wanted him in his mob, that he had intimate knowledge of Commission meetings held in Boston, that his uncle was an early Boston Mafia leader etc. Some of his claims was discovered outright lies, so the book should be taken with a grain of salt. However, he did provide info on a lot of guys (perhaps as many as 50 guys, I can´t remember exactly) in and with the New England mob, which is always interesting stuff. The book came out in 1973 and I haven´t found a copy of it on the net or anywhere else. I would like to have it in my possession, but just for its sentimental value, not for the dubious claims that can be found in it.

EDIT - Oh, one more thing worth mentioning is that Teresa claimed James Caan, the actor, had a part in the start of the Irish mob wars in the early 1960s. (Not a movie, IRL that is.)

just grabbed Mr.Untouchable the Nicky Barnes book looking forward to reading it

Let me know if thats a good read, please! Im not a Howard Stern fan, however there is a great intervjew with Nicky Barnes on YouTube!

So far it's not all that exciting...

CONTAINS SPOILER INFO : MAFIA PRINCE

I finally finished the book Mafia Prince. I thought the book was pretty good for the fact that it shed some light on things "The Crow or Tommy Del" clearly didn't have knowledge of. They weren't his blood or really in the inner circle till the end. Alot of those Scarfo guys like Faffy who think they're owned something when they come out are in for a rude awakening. The one tape Gary Battaglini said back in the early 2000's that their wasn't any Money left anymore due to the internet doesn't take a Mobguy or rocket scientist to figure that one out.

I also got a kick out of the informants being housed together in Arizona "Sammy the bull", Phillip Lenonetti, Milano, and Willard Moran. I think its funny at the end of the book how they mention the current trials of Nicky Jr. and Ligambi. I give Leonetti credit for going back to old haunts and nobody making a move on him. I found it stranger how the relationship between Nicky Jr. and Phil to be stranger despite his father's request...It really shows how much of a joke LCN became at Phila and how NY wanted nothing to do with Natalie and Merlino..

I got CULLOTTA for Christmas. Going to read it in the next couple of days. Looking forward to it!!

anyone has positive feedback about Gaspipe? I heard a lot of bullshit about it.

Carlo´s book? Well for entertainment purposes only...sure! It´s a good read. But the book is not well researched. A lot of misspelled and/or fabricated names, which is a pain in the ass for anybody who´s trying to use the names in the book for further research. One example is the "Ralph Saleno" guy who witnessed Casso shooting a junkie to death. In the book, it says Ralph Salerno was a made Genovese guy. I suspect Ralph Salerno actually was Ralph Serpico. Another mistake is the spelling of Celambrino, the Genovese captain. In the book, his name was spelled Callinbrano (if memory serves me right).

I thought Gaspipe was a pretty good book from what i remember,was a while ago i read it