Yes,exactly.

Reading Joe Bonanno's book right now. Always interesting to get a first hand account from someone in the know, but my goodness does he yammer on about Sicilian tradition and his own personal stories that aren't mob related. Could have used a better co-writer that kept him on track. I'm just getting to the Castellammarese War part, though. I imagine it gets better.

Oak, I'm confident that everyone on here will agree that J.Bonanno is full of himself & u don't know what 2 believe...if you will notice, he brags he never had anything 2 do w/ drugs when in fact that family huge in the movement & not ONCE does he mention Carmine Galante's name in the whole book.

I'm aware of the charges against the book's accuracy. I don't believe he was ever under any sort of immunity from prosecution so he had to be careful what he said. That's probably why he claimed to be against drugs and kept Galante out of the book. He probably had a lawyer proofread every page. Even though I'm sure he's embellishing, I find his takes on the commission interesting.

I also did enjoy some of the chapters even when i knew he was stretching certain things.

He's a great storyteller, that's for certain. I'm enjoying the read, while keeping in mind that his credibility is practically non existent. Just trying to connect his great stories with the known facts.

So i picked up the big score by destefano about vincent asoro and Lufthansa. Let me start off saying i think queens because of gotti and then massino and friends have had the most published activity of any boro. Just like all the secrets are exposed. This book is more then half stuff youve read in other books about gotti an massino. The stuff about his shitbag cousin valenti is good. He ript of acting boss anthony spero in 1990 for 25k and left his family and nyc for like 20 yrs thats says anuff about him. Comes back only to work for fbi. Valenti new alot about Lufthansa but was ue fed the info did he read it in books did he just listen to his cousins storys. Its a good read you can get it on kindle for like 11 bucks its short. Asoro was a bad ass .

This one is on my to read list.

http://www.popmatters.com/review/al-capones-beer-wars-john-j-binder-chicago-corruption-prohibition/

Born to Steal: When the Mafia Hit Wall Street by Gary Weiss. Great read. Well-written and researched story of a stock broker who worked at mobbed up firms. Encounters with Frank Coppa, Phil Abramo, Sonny Franzese and more. Like Goodfellas meets Boiler Room.

Larry McShane Shares New Book On Vincent "The Chin" Gigante

Been readying a lot of books recently. Just finished Pablo Escobar: My father - his son's book. About to finish At the Devil's Table - the one written by Jorge Salcido who ratted out the Cali cartel godfathers.
But then i started American Desperado which seemed WAY more interesting and I'm halfway in. Joe Roberts has some crazy stories and kinda makes me root for him, but he does embellish a bit I think, when you know a lot about the mob like many members of this forum, you can kinda sniff out the lies somebody has written or when they are exaggerating stuff.

How was Pablo Escobar's son's book? I've been meaning to buy that for a while. I'm reading At the Devil's Table at the moment. So far so good.

American Desperado is one of my favourites. Roberts does have some wild stories, but the co-author does a good job at researching and backing up most of them.

It was very good man. Especially if you know a lot about Pablo, Colombian conflict, etc, I think it was a very good read. Worth it completely. PM me and I'll hook you up free, any ebook you want, epub, pdf whatever.

At the Devil's table is good don't get me wrong, but the story does stretch a little bit sometimes, or maybe it feels that wat to me. American Desperado is just nuts, very good, very fast paced, incredible... and yeah I love the fact that the author looks up and tries to verify everything Jon says. You can tell Jon exaggerates or lies about like 20-30% of the stuff, but it's still good.

Also been meaning to read The Infiltrator, but first after finishing American Desperado, I'll read Rene "Boxer" Enriquez's book, Black Hand. Seems worth it.

Born to Steel sounds interested, I just got the file a few days ago, but I doubt it will be a top priority on my reading list for a while. Wall Street, brokers, etc don't interest me as much.

Killing Pablo was a good read as well !!

American Desperado is a great read, even with the embellishments and BS thrown in. I'd like to read some more stuff from that cocaine era in Miami. There hasn't been any good mafia books since the Leonetti book, though I did enjoy the book by Linda Scarpa Jr a bit. I like to read just about anything to do with true crime and history in general and always looking for recommendations. The biggest disappointment was the Al D'Arco, the guy was around when so much stuff was going down and he puts out a real snoozer.

Gerry I agree 100% I really really enjoyed the book but a lot of good posters here have analyzed his book and they say he was unrelated to Joe Riccobono, and if you go deep into it, if he's willing to lie about the most basic things like his family, then you never know how much is true. Maybe 40-50% of the book? It's true the stories are over the top a lot of them, and I do believe his story in Miami, don't think he lied about most of it, but meeting Pablo a couple of times and all the Ochoas, feels kinda off to me, to be honest. He exaggerated so much stuff and it's like he has to make a point to boast that he's met every famous or infamous person and was not impressed by them. The whole evil vs good morality thing gets old very fast too. And I agree about Al D'arco's book man. I got it on hardcover (I only have like 5 books on hardcover) and I still haven't finished it. Very disappointing considering he was around some old-timers.
Gerry, PM me about ebooks, I got a lot of them, if you're interested in any.

Thanks, I will definitely be PM'ing you about the ebooks, I'm in the middle of book right now, but should finish it up in a day or two. I think I remember reading you had access to the Brotherhoods on ebook, I read it when it first came out, I got it from the library. That book was so good I'd probably read it again, and that is something I rarely do. It's in my top 5 mafia books. I got it up there with the book on Joey Massino, the Phil Leonetti book, Murder Machine, and I liked the book on Casso. I know a lot of people killed the book, but I thought it was a great read. There's a couple really good books on Whitey Bulger too.

Is the author of "American desperado" the same one who was in the "Cocaine cowboys" documentary? I think he said that in his opinion, the real power in the Medellin cartel wasn't Pablo Escobar, but Fabio Ochoa Sr, the father of those brothers; is it true in your opinion? Ochoa didn't get much attention indeed, it's always Escobar and to some extent Carlos Lehder. But, do you think was he really the "power behind the throne" or is it another conspiracy theory?

Dwalin that's Jon Roberts, aka John Riccobono, claims to be related to the Riccobono family, although it's not confirmed.
I know what he said, and I don't know what to make of it. Look, it depends on how you see it... the Medellin cartel was not THAT different from, say, the NY 5 families. The cartel was made up of a couple of different partners who used the same smuggling routes. Pablo was one of them, Carlos Lehder was another, The Ochoa family of course was a big power, but so was the Castano's, along with El Mexicano (the mexican, Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha). These were the main Medellin players. To say who was the REAL power behind the cartel is a complex question. Pablo was the most notrious and filthy rich, but he was constantly engaged in politics and the in war against the government, and ultimately, narcoterrorism. Pablo did have a lot of money but he was also spending so much on his stuff that at any point, I doubt he actually had more than 2-3 billion dollars together. Maybe less.
When he died, he had WAY less than that. Meanwhile the Ochoas had a lot more and still do. So in a way the Ochoas had it better, less heat, more money, a more established power base because they were an old traditional rancher family. The old man, Pablo was respectful of him, but I doubt he had direct control over Pablo, don't think it was the kind of relationship where Fabio Sr could order Pablo around, because they were all partners... it's a business at the end of the day, and they are all dealers, and everybody can do as he pleases. What I'm trying to say is that there was no structure like inside of an Cosa Nostra crime family, but rather it was more horizontal and equal between the partners, although their power varied, some bigger than the others.. one had a lot of money, one had an army of killers, one had the right connections, one had the most labs, the most established routes, etc.

Gerrylang, I can get access to Brotherhoods, it was a great book I know. But for the moment I don't have it, but except for that and Casino, I pretty much have most of the mob books out on ebook, kindle, whatever.

Jorge Ochoa was the leader.

The Coffey Files: One Cop's War Against the Mob. Had some very entertaining stories and interesting info. I did feel that it could have gone into more detail on some things and also should have followed a chronological timeline instead of jumping back and forth. Would definitely recommend it though.

Thanks, I will definitely be PM'ing you about the ebooks, I'm in the middle of book right now, but should finish it up in a day or two. I think I remember reading you had access to the Brotherhoods on ebook, I read it when it first came out, I got it from the library. That book was so good I'd probably read it again, and that is something I rarely do. It's in my top 5 mafia books. I got it up there with the book on Joey Massino, the Phil Leonetti book, Murder Machine, and I liked the book on Casso. I know a lot of people killed the book, but I thought it was a great read. There's a couple really good books on Whitey Bulger too. [/quote]

I recently bought two books on Whitey. I read the G-Men and Gangsters by Dominic Spinale and found it to be a good read & very informative.
The other is Black Mass which I just started to read.

The Invisible Camorra
Neapolitan Crime Families across Europe

http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100235890

The history of the mafia in Los Angeles is relatively untapped.

Anyone ever read this?

http://ew.com/article/1993/04/30/stiffed-true-story-mca-music-business-and-mafia/

Hey hoodlum,I still haven't had the chance to find and read the Crow's book Blood and Honor.I read the preview on the net and I believe it when you say how good it is.I have began reading the Chin's book.What has really sunk in with me is that when Gotti was atop the Gambino's they were so out of their league with the Genovese.I am no Gotti hater but if you look at the top guys for both families it aint even close.You had Gigante,Manna,Benny "Eggs" Mangano,Johhny "Sausage" Barbato,,George Barone,Tony Salerno had just went away and Funzi Tieri just passed.Thats just to name a few.You had young guys atop the the Gambino's like Gotti and Gravano.Now they say Deccicio or however you spell it was sharp but he was killed early on.Those guys were all old timers Gigante had and none would have ever broken the code.No way Gotti wanted to fuck with these guys.i didn't know Manna was so ruthless but if he wasn't taped and put away he would have killed John and Gene Gotti.Just amazing how the Gigante clan had it so together

The 80s Gambinos had NOTHING on the Genovese..as 4 crow's book..Amazon?,theres gotta b an outlet that has it,while ur @ it,look 4 "The Plumber" by Joe Salerno 4 another good inside look @ Scarfo's madness.

Crows blood n honor is probaly the best 1 ever. The chin book is storys youve heard on this site or links to capeci or ny times articles. What crow said was all firsf hand stuff n he didnt hold back and i think he didnt try to make himself better theb anything. Scarfo was a stone cold gangster who loved scam artists like crow who didnt sell dope je let crow into that family. Crow tells you how he went from driving cab to stickups ect. And funny to sometimes.

Then phil leonetti had the courage to write his book after like 25yrs hes shits on crow but you now crow was always in philly when crazy phil was his uncles lapdog. So who do you believe.

Henry Hill's son is writing a book.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/day-first-life-ended-son-11440916

I would've thought that the market for books about the characters he's familiar with would've been saturated ages ago.

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2017/11...ederico-varese/

Book review