Mafia Life

Mafia Life
Author: Federico Varese
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2018
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0190868937

Today, mafias operate across the globe, with hundreds of thousands of members and billions of dollars in revenue. From Hong Kong to New York, these vast organizations spread their tentacles into politics, finance and everyday life. Criminologist Federico Varese draws on a lifetime's research to give us access to some of the world's most secretive societies. Mixing reportage with case studies and historical insights, this is the story of mafia as it really is: filled with boredom and drama, death and disaster, ambition and betrayal.

The Everything Mafia Book

The Everything Mafia Book
Author: Scott M Dietche
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 382
Release: 2009-03-18
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1605507229

"Millions of television and movie viewers have shown that Americans continue to be fascinated by the remarkableùand often sordidùworld of the Mafia. This book takes you beyond fiction and tabloid accounts and relates the true-life accounts of all the major players in the American Mafia. From Al Capone to John Gotti, you will come away with a better understanding of AmericaÆs most notorious crime families. This book features colorful information on: The Sicilian Mafia The ôFirst Familyö of the American Mafia The ôrealö Untouchables The mob and politicians The five New York families Packed full of up-to-date gangster information, this guide will satisfy even the most ardent true-crime enthusiasts."

Mafia Enforcer

Mafia Enforcer
Author: Cecil Kirby
Publisher: Bantam
Total Pages: 356
Release: 1988
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780553272628

Together, Renner and Kirby team up for a real-life Mafia shocker like no other: a no-holds-barred account of life inside the mob, exploring the secret link between the Mafia and brutal motorcycle gangs. Vividly captures the danger of being an undercover agent in a seedy underworld of bikers and hitmen, where only the ruthless survive.

Secrets of Life and Death

Secrets of Life and Death
Author: Renate Siebert
Publisher: Verso
Total Pages: 356
Release: 1996-11-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9781859840238

This volume focuses on women whose lives are entangled in the workings of the Mafia, drawing on courtroom testimonies, interviews, contemporary journalism and recent research. Individual narratives illuminate women's experiences, both as victims or active opponents.

The Sinatra Club

The Sinatra Club
Author: Sal Polisi
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 464
Release: 2014-02-25
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1451643160

An insider's account of the downfall of the New York mob profiles organized crime at the height of its influence while recounting the author's participation in several lucrative heists and relating his decision to become a federal informant.

Mob Boss

Mob Boss
Author: Jerry Capeci
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 483
Release: 2013-10-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1250037433

Reminiscent of Wiseguy, Mob Boss is a compelling biography from two prominent mob experts recounting the life and times of the first acting boss of an American Mafia family to turn government witness Alfonso "Little Al" D'Arco, the former acting boss of the Luchese organized crime family, was the highest-ranking mobster to ever turn government witness when he flipped in 1991. His decision to flip prompted many others to make the same choice, including John Gotti's top aide, Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, and his testimony sent more than fifty mobsters to prison. In Mob Boss, award-winning news reporters Jerry Capeci and Tom Robbins team up for this unparalleled account of D'Arco's life and the New York mob scene that he embraced for four decades. Until the day he switched sides, D'Arco lived and breathed the old-school gangster lessons he learned growing up in Brooklyn and fine-tuned on the mean streets of Little Italy. But when he learned he was marked to be whacked, D'Arco quit the mob. His defection decimated his crime family and opened a window on mob secrets going back a hundred years. After speaking with D'Arco, the authors reveal unprecedented insights, exposing shocking secrets and troublesome truths about a city where a famous pizza parlor doubled as a Mafia center for multi-million-dollar heroin deals, where hit men carried out murders dressed as women, and where kidnapping a celebrity newsman's son was deemed appropriate revenge for the father's satirical novel. Capeci and Robbins spent hundreds of hours in conversation with D'Arco, and exhausted many hours more fleshing out his stories in this riveting narrative that takes readers behind the famous witness testimony for a comprehensive look at the Mafia in New York City.

Donnie Brasco

Donnie Brasco
Author: Joseph D. Pistone
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2006
Genre: Mafia
ISBN: 9780340922651

In 1978, the US government waged a war against organised crime. One man was left behind the lines. From 1976 until 1981, Special Agent Pistone lived undercover with the Mafia. Only able to visit his young family once every few months, Pistone - under the alias Donnie Brasco - ate, drank, partied, worked and sometimes killed with the wiseguys. He got so close that his Mafia partner, Lefty Ruggiero, asked him to officiate as best man at his wedding. Pistone's eventual testimony, in such spectacular prosecutions as 'the Pizza Connection' and 'the Mafia Commission' resulted in more than 200 indictments and 100 convictions of members of organised crime.

Casino

Casino
Author: Nicholas Pileggi
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 275
Release: 2016-10-18
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1504041623

The true story behind the Martin Scorsese film: A “riveting . . . account of how organized crime looted the casinos they controlled” (Kirkus Reviews). Focusing on Chicago bookie Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal and his partner, Anthony Spilotro, and drawing on extensive, in-depth interviews, the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of the Mafia classic Wiseguy—basis for the film Goodfellas—Nicholas Pileggi reveals how the pair worked together to oversee Las Vegas casino operations for the mob. He unearths how Teamster pension funds were used to take control of the Stardust and Tropicana and how Spilotro simultaneously ran a crew of jewel thieves nicknamed the “Hole in the Wall Gang.” For years, these gangsters kept a stranglehold on Sin City’s brightly lit nightspots, skimming millions in cash for their bosses. But the elaborate scheme began to crumble when Rosenthal’s disproportionate ambitions drove him to make mistakes. Spilotro made an error of his own, falling for his partner’s wife, a troubled showgirl named Geri. It would all lead to betrayal, a wide-ranging FBI investigation, multiple convictions, and the end of the Mafia’s longstanding grip on the multibillion-dollar gaming oasis in the midst of the Nevada desert. Casino is a journey into 1970s Las Vegas and a riveting nonfiction account of the world portrayed in the Martin Scorsese film of the same name, starring Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, and Sharon Stone. A story of adultery, murder, infighting, and revenge, this “fascinating true-crime Mob history” is a high-stakes page-turner (Booklist).

The Witness

The Witness
Author: Robert Borelli
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014-04-11
Genre: Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
ISBN: 9781499108521

Raised in the heart of an aging Brooklyn neighborhood, Robert was a small but fiery, attention-deprived Italian boy, drawn to the flashy lifestyle of neighborhood wiseguys. His early years ushered in the opportunity to become a part of that world, as he began running errands and selling illegal goods for these same men. Simultaneously, his reputation as a fierce fighter grew, and by the time he was a young adult, he had made an impression on influential members of the Gambino crime family. After beating a murder rap, he was on his way to Mafia stardom, mentored and protected by one of the most prominent wise guys In New York City. While the pleasure of notoriety was fulfilling, a powerful addiction to drugs soon overrode it, negating Robert's credibility among his mobster brothers. Even the bond of fatherhood wasn't enough to draw him out of his chemically-dependent prison. In his mind, the situation left him with only two possible conclusions; either he will die overdosing, or the men to whom he swore allegiance will silence him before the drugs have a chance.The Witness is the compelling account of the hard and fast life of an "up-and-coming star" within the Mafia ranks, the downward spiral created by his addiction to drugs, and his spiritual rebirth spurred by the heart-wrenching plea of his little girl.