Author: Martin GoschPublisher: Enigma Books
ISBN: 1936274582
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 470
Book Description
In this true crime classic, out of print since 1981, Lucky Luciano remains a mythical underworld figure.
Bronson's Loose!
Author: Paul TalbotPublisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 0595379826
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 178
Book Description
In the summer of 1974 the movie Death Wish stunned audiences with its powerful story of an enraged businessman who hits the streets with a handgun to avenge the brutal violation of his wife and daughter. The film packed theaters with cheering moviegoers, became one of the highest-grossing and most controversial movies of the year, and turned star Charles Bronson into the hottest screen icon in the world. Over the next twenty years, four increasingly-violent sequels delivered thrills to a growing legion of fans and solidified the legend of Charles Bronson. Now, for the first time, Death Wish fanatics, Bronson cultists, and action movie lovers will discover fascinating information about the series. In exclusive comments, director Michael Winner, actor Kevyn Major Howard, novelist Brian Garfield, and many others reveal what it was like to work on the Death Wish movies with one of the most charismatic and elusive stars of all time. Covering every aspect of all five movies (including unused casting suggestions, deleted scenes and alternate cuts) and loaded with rare advertising artwork, Bronson's Loose!: The Making of the "Death Wish" Films tells the compelling, untold story behind the most explosive action series in film history.
Underboss
Author: Peter MaasPublisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060930969
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 325
Book Description
Sammy the Bull Gravano is the highest-ranking member of the Mafia in America ever to defeat. In telling Gravano's story, Peter Maas brings us as never before into the innermost sanctums of the Cosa Nostra as if we were there ourselves--a secret underworld of power, lust, greed, betrayal, and deception, with the specter of violent death always waiting in the wings.
Joe Valachi's Testimony on the Mafia. Abridged.
Author: Catherine ConnellyPublisher: Createspace Independent Pub
ISBN: 9781482533156
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 392
Book Description
During his testimony Valachi revealed the existence of five crime families in New York and one in New Jersey and named families in Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Tampa, Boston and Providence. He named bosses and underbosses, declared (Correctly) that there were about 2000 made men in New York, and identified 289 of them.
Serpico
Author: Peter MaasPublisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060738189
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 418
Book Description
The 1960s was a time of social and generational upheaval felt with particular intensity in the melting pot of New York City. A culture of corruption pervaded the New York Police Department, where payoffs, protection, and shakedowns of gambling rackets and drug dealers were common practice. The so-called blue code of silence protected the minority of crooked cops from the sanction of the majority. Into this maelstrom came a working class, Brooklyn-born, Italian cop with long hair, a beard, and a taste for opera and ballet. Frank Serpico was a man who couldn't be silenced -- or bought -- and he refused to go along with the system. He had sworn an oath to uphold the law, even if the perpetrators happened to be other cops. For this unwavering commitment to justice, Serpico nearly paid with his life.
For the Sins of My Father
Author: Albert DeMeoPublisher: Crown
ISBN: 0767911296
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
A suspenseful, emotionally charged real-life Sopranos: The son of New York's most notorious Mafia killer reveals the conflicted life he led being raised by a cold-blooded murderer, who was also a devoted family man, and the wrenching legacy of Mafia family life. Al DeMeo will never forget the day in 1992 when a coworker, a fellow trader at the New York Stock Exchange, taunted him with a copy of the hot new book Murder Machine, chronicling the horrific criminal life of DeMeo's father, Roy, the head of the most deadly gang in organized crime. The moment sent DeMeo into a psychological tailspin: How could he have spent his life looking up to, and loving, a vicious killer? For the Sins of My Father recounts the chilling rise and fall of the man who led the Gambino family's most fearsome killers and thieves, through the eyes of a son who had never known any other kind of life. Coming of age in an opulent Long Island house where money is abundant but its source is unclear, Al becomes Roy's confidant, sent to call in loans at age fourteen and gradually coming to understand his father's job description--loan shark, car thief, porn purveyor and, above all, murderer. But when Al is seventeen, Roy's body is found in the trunk of a car, a gangland slaying that places Al between federal prosecutors seeking his testimony and a mob crew determined to keep him quiet. Desperate to abide by the father-son bond, but equally determined to escape his father's dangerous and doomed life, Al Demeo embarks on a courageous quest for the truth, reconciliation, and honor. With the implacable narrative drive of a thriller and the power of a painfully honest memoir, For the Sins of My Father presents a startling and unprecedented perspective on the underworld of organized crime, exposing for the first time the cruel legacy of a Mafia life.
Manhunt
Author: Peter MaasPublisher: iBooks
ISBN: 9780743452687
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
The incredible pursuit of a CIA agent turned terrorist by New York Times best-selling author Peter Maas. Edwin P. Wilson was the Great Gatsby of the spook world, the rogue CIA agent who had already begun to amass a fortune while still in U.S intelligence. His lavish estate outside Washington, D.C. was a favoured gathering place for senators and congressmen, admirals and generals, for key intelligence officers. In addition, Wilson was also raking in millions in the service of the godfather of world-wide terrorism - Libya's Colonel Muamar el-Qaddafi. Wilson seemed above the law. Then, US attorney Larry Barcella discovered Wilson's sinister machinations, and in a chase that would go on for nearly four years and over three continents, Barcella began a manhunt that would not end until Wilson was brought to justice. In MANHUNT, Peter Maas went behind the headlines, gaining access to the secret documentation of Wilson's intelligence career, classified federal investigative reports and sealed court records. And in the course of his exhaustive research into the murky bypaths of espionage and deception, he turned over rocks that official Washington would have much preferred remained in place
Double Cross
Author: Sam GiancanaPublisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1510711252
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 498
Book Description
One of the most feared Chicago mobsters Sam Giancana clawed his way to the top of the Mafia hierarchy by starting as a hit man for Al Capone. He was known as one of the best vehicle escape artists, a tenacious business man, and a ruthless killer. He partied with major stars such as Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe and did business with agents ranging from the CIA to the Vatican to the shah of Iran. When politician Joe Kennedy gave Giancana the chance to use mob muscle to get his son John elected, Giancana jumped at the task. But the Kennedy brothers double-crossed him, waging full-out war on organized crime throughout the United States. And Giancana went after them. Written with suspense and conviction, we learn about how the CIA asked Giancana to assassinate Fidel Castro. The book includes Giancana's testimony about the truth of his involvement in the deaths of Monroe and others, among others. Chuck Giancana, Sam's brother, contributes a unique perspective of the mobs relationship with the Bay of Pigs and many other pivotal events of the 60's and beyond. Double Cross is an eye-opening account of the interworking of the government and the mob and how this relationship has impacted American history.
Five Families
Author: Selwyn RaabPublisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1429907983
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 810
Book Description
The New York Times bestseller chronicling the history of NYC’s infamous five mafia families is now the basis for the upcoming The HISTORY® Channel documentary series American Godfathers: The Five Families. Genovese, Gambino, Bonnano, Colombo and Lucchese. For decades these Five Families ruled New York and built the American Mafia (or Cosa Nostra) into an underworld empire. Today, the Mafia is an endangered species, battered and beleaguered by aggressive investigators, incompetent leadership, betrayals and generational changes that produced violent and unreliable leaders and recruits. A twenty year assault against the five families in particular blossomed into the most successful law enforcement campaign of the last century. Selwyn Raab's Five Families is the vivid story of the rise and fall of New York's premier dons from Lucky Luciano to Paul Castellano to John Gotti and more. The book also brings the reader right up to the possible resurgence of the Mafia as the FBI and local law enforcement agencies turn their attention to homeland security and away from organized crime.
Author: Henry Zeiger