How ya doing John? Bored? By the way, I filed a formal report...keep it up, should be fun to watch.

I have mentioned this before, the Vinnie "Gorgeous" book is very interesting and is a good read but as I said, I think there is much more to the Vinnie Basciano life to tell about.
The Massino book was also a good read. Mob Killer is excellent and does a good job of telling the story of this nut case mob killer Charles Carniglia.
I read the Alite book last week and have started the Junior Gotti book yesterday. The Alite book is good but you have to accept that there is exaggerations and lies in it.-worth buying. ON the Jr. Gotti book, I am only 25% into it. It is very well laid out and written and I think does what it is intended to do and that is to make Jr look like the boy next door. He tells a good story but I was annoyed to see his comments that the Gambino family and his in particular detest anyone who is involved with drugs in any way. I think it has been pretty well documented that the mob regularly deals in drugs. So...Philly, enjoy your shipment of books

[quote=bigboy]I have mentioned this before, the Vinnie "Gorgeous" book is very interesting and is a good read but as I said, I think there is much more to the Vinnie Basciano life to tell about.


I just finised this book recently and also found it interesting and a good read.

What more do you feel or know is left or left out, would find that interesting also.

Can someone chime in? I would like to know if this book is anywhere as good as it's been hyped up to be:

Lucky Luciano: Mysterious Tales of a Gangland Legend

This book claims to have never before seen photos and never before heard information, as pertains to Salvatore Lucania.

Is it true?

PS: Please don't give away the books secrets here, if any. Thanks

New Milwaukee mafia book, will be available on Kindle soon, a little later (in March) also in paper form:
http://www.amazon.com/Milwaukee-Mafia-Mo...milwaukee+mafia

Not to be confused with another Milwaukee mafia book by the same author which is mostly a collection of pictures.

Yeah I wouldn't get on the phone and cry with him or anything I heard this guy who goes on mafia message boards and sticks up for child molesters and pretends to be an ex cop does that .... I wouldn't do that

A bit strange Joe Aiello is on the cover of a Milwaukee mob book? Is there any other connection btw him and Millwaukee than Milwaukee gunman Angelo La Mantio?

Besides of Aielo being Cosa Nostra he was solely a Chicago bootlegger.

"DiCarlo" is the most comprehensive, impressively-sourced mob book I've ever laid eyes on.

there are 2 Dicarlos though right? one pre 1938, one post 1938, are they both worth getting?

Is it set up like Raab's "Five Families"? Or a nonfiction that follows the same lines?

gotti jr. says in his book the Gambino family detested drugs?does he mention his uncles dealing in heroin, or ruggerio selling heroin? his dad took heroin profits.

this guy don't sound to sharp, I think will pass on his book.

I'm embarassed to admit I skipped past 5 families probably the only forumer who forgot to read it.

It's a biography of Joseph DiCarlo on the same level as any great historical novel because it's so in depth. You're not just getting bit and pieces of the mobster's criminal lives but their personal lives as well. So therefore you get a lot more info than you would find in most any other mob book. A good example of the attention to detail in this book is every pistol permit or every mobster and where they got it issued is included. There's also a ton of information on the Castellamarese war from primary sources, lots of info that wasn't even in the Valachi Papers. And in general it talks so much more about what really made the mobsters function rather than just who got murdered and when.

It is two parts. The first part begins when DiCarlo is born in Sicily and ends right after prohibition when the mob moves to gambling. The second book is the 30's to the 60's. I would definitely get the first one and see what you think. It's the best researched mob biography Ive read. There's 150 pages of citations and its telling of the Castellamarese war and the prohibition era was is second to none.

What I like best is it took the Buffalo mob, which no one has ever been so interested in, and made it interesting.

Insane prices for the Frank "Buster" Wortman book:

http://www.amazon.com/Frank-Buster-Wortm...+buster+wortman

400 dollars!!!

Last November it was about 20 or something and I was too lazy to get it!!! My eternal gratitude to anyone who manages to find a link to a shop with a "normal" price for this book. I see this damned "400$" everywhere I click

Lol, you ain't the only one. I was going crazy about Five Families since I never read it and when I got it, I read a chapter or two and then forgot about it.
It was good, it's just that I already know most of the things, especially early-era Castellammarese war and 30-40's stuff. Of course I'll finish it, but I might probably have to skip a chapter or two to hold my interest.

That's what I hate about some Mafia books, they go into a prelude and basically ancient history of the mob even when the book's about something/somebody else entirely. When you know this stuff already like most of us, it's very boring to read about it again and again on every book, the same shit, just phrased differently.
Which is why I enjoyed a lot more books like Donnie Brasco, Wiseguy, Underboss and even some of Philip Carlo's like Gaspipe. They are more concise, articulate and on-point and they don't go into a prelude about the Commission's origin whenever it's first mentioned.
Also, reading about a mobster's bio is always interesting, but I don't want to know every single detail, like when did Casso or Massino hit puberty or had their first crush, come on.

I had the same reaction at first. But, the real value of "Five Families" is the much later stuff--for example, how the FBI finally got its ass in gear; how Giuliani put together the Commission case, and all the machinations of the Mob from the Seventies onward. Priceless stuff.

Just finished Peter Lance's Deal With The Devil.

I must say, his expose, if you can call it that, is explosive. The reason why, is that literally on practically every page, he is documenting a lie, proving that someone lied because they contradicted themselves somewhere along the way.

But he doesn't prove the premise of the book which is to shew that FBI handler DeVecchio intended to make Scarpa the boss of the Colombo family so that he could have a top echelon mole on the Commission. It's just not believable. Not because it isn't feasible, but rather because you need more evidence to prove so far reaching a goal.

Peter's evidence for this grand scheme on DeVecchio's part is simply that DeVecchio might have had something to do with instigating the opening shots of the 3rd Colombo war. But even if true, it only proves that DeVecchio wanted to foment a war. The rest is literary sensationalism.

The book is a confusing difficult read. I can't believe I got through it. One paragraph might contain only two very long sentences.....no exaggeration. Here is a sample of a Peter Lance paragraph that just makes you shake your head in anguish...

""While that piece seemed somewhat sympathetic to Cutolo's point of view, for most of the year Capeci had been merciless covering another scandal out of 26 Federal Plaza that seemed designed by the feds to explain the leaks now threatening so many war prosecutions. A year before Cutolo's acquittal, Detective Joe Simone, who with his partner, had been responsible for a third of the collars during the conflict, was shocked to learn that he was the target of FBI charges that he'd sold his badge to the Colombos."" - Deal With The Devil by Peter Lance.

Unbelievable.

The whole book is written in the above manner. Literally. It's an aggravating book to read. You can't read it fast. If you do, you will just be reading words with no coherent meaning. Each paragraph will confuse you (no matter what speed you read), and you will need to circle back and reread sentences and paragraphs 2 and 3 times over and over to grasp the main idea and move on. I don't know why Peter Lance wrote the book that way. His writing style makes me think that he had no idea what he was writing about.

Alfa you agree that if anyone wants to know about the Colombo war and whose who this is the only book. I don't think scarpa could make any power moves. I just Read gotti wanted him dead in 88 89. But let it go. For all gotti hits he sub out a few to other families. Willy boy. Weiss. Think he knew orena had to do it. I thought it was interesting. And I read cicales book it 50 pages 10 about him. He says about 2000 massino told rizzuto to open a strip club up there. I'm positive the Montreal posters could answer if rizzuto secretly owned a strip club or 2 up there. He says rizzuto was still sending Christmas tribute till he went to jail which I believe maybe not a lot but something and Vinny gorg took a loan of George from Canada cause he new he was a dead man. How you write a mob book and not include your induction. Books real bad its like a long running article. If you don't want to talk about the mafia in the Bronx don't write a book. He pics an chooses what to say or what the feds allow him to. And he shits on everyone in the family like he was the only killer when that's a family that's function in all 5 boros+

A new book about Al Capone's brother Vincenzo who chose a different path in life by kicking the butt of his brother's "colleagues":

http://www.amazon.com/Two-Gun-Hart-Long-...ard+hart+capone

Interesting, I never knew Capone had an "antimafia" brother. Will be definitely buying the book. By the way, is it true what wikipedia says, that he was kicked out of Homer, Nebraska law enforcement just because of his brothers' reputation? What bastards, can't even let a person to make up for the family's negative reputation.

It's funny you mention Gotti because Deal With The Devil downplays Gotti's involvement in Colombo family politics. I think that position shows a bit of naivete on Peter Lance's part. Once Orena was in trouble, he ran to the Commission, not Carmine Persico. So obviously other family bosses were behind the attempted rise of Little Vic Orena and his attempt at a bloodless coup by polling the captains. Orena was a puppet.

I finished reading king of the godfathers. Is there any point to buy the rise and fall of Joey massino or are they pretty much the same things?

It's pretty much the same thing. The book you read by DeStefano, i think is the better one out of the two, but if you have the time to kill and a couple bucks than it's worth it.

Ok thanks. I'm reading the enforcer tony Spilotro right now. Not bad so far. I like the roemer books so far. I read the tony Accardo one he had and that was pretty good as well.

Its pretty good. When Roemer stays out of his namedropping and sidestories he provides interesting inside stuff. His books should have been edited a bit more though. His Accardo book is good. Spilotro is described as scum in The Enforcer but Accardo who most likely was just as evil is portrated with admiration. He came across some bad fellas in his days Roemer: spilotro, accardo, Gus Alex, mad Sam, phil alderiso, buccieri and even Joe bonnano.

Yes very true. I just finished enforcer. Was a good read. I'm gonna order man against the mob and war of the godfathers. Any info on them? I'm sure I'll like them being that I enjoyed his two that I did read.

Havent read them yet. Going to. Interested in everything about The Outfit.

Saw this book about history of organized crime in Seattle, centered mostly on Frank Colacurcio and characters he interacted with:

http://www.amazon.com/Seattle-Vice-Strip...ds=seattle+vice

However, I noticed some reviewers say too much facts in the book sound like unverified gossip. If you have read it, could you tell me how many errors are there? It's one thing if they just got some details wrong, it's another if half of the book is made up.
I checked some pages available for free and saw Jerry Langella being labeled as a GAMBINO member and being suspected in ordering the hit on Joe Barboza (why would New York care about a hit in San Francisco that came from Providence?). If that's the only MAJOR error and if it's not claimed to be the truth, but just gossip, I can "forgive" the book, but if all of it is like that, I would better save the money.
On the other hand, it's the only book on Seattle gangland, so it's tempting, but only if most errors are minor.

Has anybody read this, could you express your judgement?

P.S. Maybe they confused Langella with Angiulo, since both were named Gennaro?

War of the Godfathers is fiction. Avoid it.

Ok snakes thanks. I think that one got bad reviews on amazon.

I had a chance to get a few books I haven't read since where I live it's very tough to find any OC books, especially about the American CN. I got Murder Machine, Mob Killer, Al D'arco's book, Vinny Gorgeous and Gotti's Rules.

I also wanted to get Casino the book and maybe Phil Leonetti's one since I've always found the Philly mob pretty interesting.
I've already read many of the books mentioned here, but they have always been ebooks in PDF format, EPUB, etc so these are my first real hardcover books.

I had a look at each of them, they seemed alright. About 10 pages in M.Machine, it's real damn good.

I downloaded "Anthony's boy" by Joey Calco. He supposedly wrote it himself and it shows. Not really well written, however I did enjoy reading it. It is another take about the Bath Avenue crew. If you get in Kindle it is only about $4.00, so you can't go wrong.
explains why he had to murder his best friend.