Albert Demeo "For the Sins of My Father"

I just finished the book and I was not that impressed. Maybe my expectations were too high but I thought it would have been more interesting. There were some VERY interesting parts but the book as a whole was ok, not great. Maybe its because I read it just after I finished Murder Machine which was amazing. Parts of Albert's book felt manufactured so although it was certainly based on truth, I wonder how embellished it was. For example, he talks about the "superchargers" that he had installed in his corvette to escape his enemies if need be. You can't put multiple superchargers on a car. They are not turbos. Then he mentions that when Roy and Freddie were talking about killing Big Paul, he states that Freddie said he would "supercharge his motorcycle so they could hit Paul and make a fast getaway". He also used many double entendres throughout the book like claiming that his fathers freind brought over breakfast one morning and he had some "juice" in the car for Roy. Albert claims to have gone out to the car because he was thirsty and didn't know that juice was interest payment? He did a similar thing with "balloons" when his father handed a customer "50 balloons" in an envelope. To me, stuff like that takes away from the integrity of the story since it feels manufactured.

Anyway, that's just my .02. All in all, the book was ok and I would recommend it. Not all books can blow you away.

I'm not sure if Albert DeMeo had a ghostwriter, but I thought the book was well written, even if it was a bit of a whitewash.

But you can't just single out Albert. None of these kids ever want to admit (or believe) that their fathers were pretty much the scum of the earth.

I think Albert did a good job of indirectly admitting that he finally came to grips with who his father really was. I just thought that some of the little antidotes in the book made it seem less genuine but not poorly written.

The parts about killing Chris Rosenberg, Dominick Reggucci and his fathers murder were absolutely worth every penny by themselves.

It was a good book. albert was pretty truthful when it came to his father he did not defend him as innocent. This is unlike Victoria Gotti who even thouhg she finally admits he father was the don still says he is innocent of all the murders her father was clearly involved in. The only thin that i think albert embellished was his father's supposed remorse, From what i've read about demeo and the things he did i dont think he was capable of real remorse

i honestly believe he was remorseful about killing the vaccum cleaner salesman. everyone else was just buisness. i don't think he wanted to kill rosenburg but knew it had to be done felt bad but then moved on.

I thought Alberts book was EXCELLENT.
It gave a real inside look to Roy.
The comments about "juice" and "balloons" made me laugh as it showed a young boy coming to terms with street/mob slang.
I think Roy was remorseful over Ragucci's death but for the wrong reasons.
I think Roy was scared he would get caught and jailed for such a public murder - I dont think he actually cared to much about the young man himself.
I've always said I cant believe he got away with that - I know it was 1979 but jeez!!!!
The only murder Roy was remorseful over in my opinion is Chris's death.
Chris was his longtime buddy and Roy probably could have protected him from harm if he'd been allowed to.........but the Gambino's werent gonna start a war with a drug gang from Florida for Chris Rosenberg!

Good points gary. I agree with ypu that roy was only remorseful in the sense that if he got caught and went to jail he wouldn't be able to protect/support his family, i dont think he gave two shits about Ragucci. Also regarding rosenberg isn't amazing that two psychopaths like Roy and Chris cared so much for eachother lol

That's a good point, Crusher. Psychopaths are often drawn to each other and are quite capable of love. They're just not capable of empathy.

I read the book and I personally think albert demeo is full of shit!!! I don't doubt that roy was a good dad but him carrying a gun at 12 years old and given all those tasks by roy seem a little far fetched for me.. He also has plenty of facts that were in murder machine not matching up with him.. Such as anthony senter being Roy's number 2 after they clipped Chris. There's more but that will take all night!!!

Good post..I agree on all of it !!

Yes I def thought it was a good book but I just have a hard time believing that such a young kid was able to do the things he said he had to do.. Also the stuff about cops surveillance on him and all that shit.. He was a 17 year old kid at that point and the FBI is following him for years after roy got clipped.. Just seems a little out there but I could be wrong.. As for Victoria gotti please don't get me started!! She's a wretched pig

It was a good read but i personally preffered Murder Machine.

I think it was very good book. He was out front about his father, and did not try to portray his father as an innocent. Anyone know of any good books done by mafia family members? I read the Rita Gigante book, I thought it was below average.

I enjoyed reading the book. Not as fascinating as Murder Machine though but just another viewpoint. I am sure there are exaggerations in there, and who can blame him for supportting his father who he clearly loved.

Albert's book is interesting and was well edited-- which we all know is uncommon in contemporary OC literature. I think he lets his dad off too easy but...

"Murder Machine" is invaluable, of course, though Capeci & Mustaine are somewhat clunky sometimes and for city guys, their handle on Brooklyn geography is rather blurry. There's lots of little details they could have included that would clarify things immensely.

Also, I think their coverage the Eppolito hit, shootout with cop, subsequent trial of Nino and finally Roy whacking state witness Patrick Penny was written too sketchily and is unnecessarily confusing. A more careful, detailed summary of the testimony from Nino and Peter Piacenti's murder (Eppolitos), attempted murder (the cop) trial would have been very useful.

[quote=Camarel]It was a good read but i personally preffered Murder Machine. [/quote

Wish i could get Murder machine on Kindle.

DP

I thought it was well written too. As for the content, I liked it from the aspect that he "knew" what his dad did, but was still removed from the true horrors his dad did. I mean, this kid's dad was a psychopath, but he still loved his son. That has to be a heavy burden on anyone's shoulders.

I completely agree. I've read the book, seen his spot on tv, seen his ebay store and I have a very strong feeling of being bullshitted everytime I get near the guy in any manner whether it be by reading or seeing him on the tv or internet. And I've a pretty good bullshit meter for reasons better left unsaid. It seems some people just take everything this guy says and puts out as fucking gospel though and I can't understand why except for the fact that they're either extremely naive or have a bad case of hero worship with the asshole. But yes, I think the guy is full of shit and has made it his lifes work/intent to capitalize off of dads murderous reputation. I have to congratulate him for ripping the public off but I wouldn't subject myself to his bullshit.

I think Murder Machine is one of the very top mob books

Murder Machine was WAY better then Albert DeMeo's book. If i had to pick just one of them to read it would be Murder Machine hands down.

Not really putting DeMeo's book down but i thought Murder Machine was great. One of my favorite mob books.

Demeo is a class a bullshitter, sure his father butchered dozens but i find it hard to beleive like the story about him putting the table and having the "robber" come in to test him, he tries to act like hes ashamed by his pops but he talks like he was an associate and that people refered to him as such and tried making it sound like he was somewhat complicit in the crews crimes. I find it all bullshit and to be honest I hope the part about Senter pistol whipping him is true.

I think you have to look at "For the Sins..." in a different light when you read in. It's very different from Murder Machine but it's supposed to be. It's more about a sons relationship to his criminal father, a relationship which could be extrapolated to any son with a parent who is a criminal. I thought it was really interesting how Roy as a father differs so much from Roy as a criminal. It's the classic example of how a criminal with a family would keep those two worlds apart in his life, almost like how Tony Soprano tries to do in the show. The best part of that book for me was the stuff after his father had been killed. All the legal troubles he was tied up in, etc and how it affected him as an adult.

I have never read it, what does it say about senter pistol whipping him?:)

It has been a while since I read the book but IIRC Senter was hassling him about his dads shylock book and albert was stalling him so he ran him off the road and pistol whipped hin

Okey but was roy dead then? when the whipping happend?

Roy was dead by this time.
The twins had demanded Al hand over his fathers shylock book and tools for removing vehicle VIN numbers.
With Freddie Dinome in jail, The only person Al could turn to was Nino. Al asked Nino where his father kept a stash of guns.
In response to this, Nino sent the twins to run Al's car off the road where they gave him a beating.
Given that Richie Dinome was murdered in his home not long after and the disappearance of "Dracula" - I would say that Al was lucky to get off with only a beating!

how bad did they beat him? andhow old was Albert?

Bad enough to require Hospital treatment.
Al would have only been 17 or 18 at the time!

Do you think joey and anthony are psycopats/sociopats?.

Joey and Anthony back in the day (70's and 80's) were a pair of mean dudes who wouldn't hesitate to kill.
If your a mobster..........you want these two guys in your crew!

Yes i know but does anyone think they would be medically diagnosed as psycopats, socipats or something else like thay would have Antisocial personality disorder?

Psycopaths forsure. Had they grew up elsewhere than new york city, they would of been just straight up serial killers. It seems money came second after killing with these guys.

One more thing I like how at the end of the book Demeo talks about how he saw Senter at some bar sometime in 89 a few months before he was given life, walked up to him and asked him how he was doing in a sarcastic tone and Senter didn't say nothing to him. I find it hard to beleive that Senter didn't stick a fork in his eye, I mean the twins had to of known their days were numbered why not go out with style, I don't know why I have a hard on for Demeo but Its hard for me to like the guy. Had Nino told the twins to specifically kill him im sur they would done it right before having a big dinner.

Joey, buy mostly Senter ran him off the road and gave him a bit of a beating. They were after the stash of "Tagging" tools and fake tags so that they could continue on with the stolen car scam they had been running. They thought Roy had hidden the phony VIN tags in his home

Full-blown psychopaths aren't really functional, and could hardly be expected to run a racket.

Perosnally, I do not think DeMeo suffered from any mental illness. He just liked to kill people, but that doesn't make him insane, just means he got to do what the vast majority of people never get to do, that's all.

Same for the Twins. Although their coke habit certainly would have reduced their inhibitions.

Neither Roy DeMeo or the Gemini Twins would classified as insane under the legal definition.

Psycopaths are functional, the thing with them is they don't feel empathy, not that they like killing, no empathy equals not givimg a fuck about anyone you kill.

I don't feel empathy for the bums I see lying in the gutter, but that doesn't make me a psychopath, does it? I mean are soldiers psychopaths? They kill, some more than DeMeo, and probably do so without a shred of empathy either, but you don't hear people calling them insane or psychotic.

But im sure if someone asked you to kill your best friend you wouldn't no because killing is wrong, but because thats your friend. Now if you didn't have any emotional attachment to anyone, and in a profession where you were told to kill a.k.a. the demeo crew, you would be liable to kill anyone in your path or you were told to kill. People that have corporate jobs and are psychopaths, sociopaths, they don't kill anyone because its not standard business practice, but im sure if fucking their best friend over would advance them in the company they would do it with no second thought. Before my point that I made is forgotten, I stated that psychopaths are functional. But not feeling empathy for someone you dont know is normal, but im sure if that bum was bleeding dying on the road you would help me and feel some sense of sorrow, youre taking my point and making it to broad.

and the soliders are trained not to give a fuck for lack of better terms.

The supposed character traits of psychopaths, as defined by the DSM, are so broad to begin with that practically anyone could be labeled a psychopath for being too full of themselves or for not having excessive emotional attachments.

My point is that it's all so much bunk. I mean The Chin had conned/bribed shrinks into thinking/testifying as to his mental unfitness, had he not?

As for soldiers, I do not believe they are "trained" not to care. Rather they are "born" soldiers. Just like some people are born, that is have an instinctual proclivity, for a certain vocation. In the case of DeMeo and his crew, I think it's safe to say that they were born mobsters, as are, I'm sure, countless others. But unlike the vast majority of people born with the "mobster" gene, they, being favored by chance, had the perfect opportunity to act out on impulses that would otherwise have to be sublimated. That's if you buy into that Freudian psychobabble.

Im not big into Freud and beleive me I hate psycology majors. And you are right im sure 90 percent of mobsters would of killed just as much as the crew if it called for it, the dismembering part is what always gets me though, not only is it probably a horrid smell when doing it, but the fact of dismembering someone is something I cant wrap my mind around. My views on it have changed since I have seen so many Mexican cartel beheading/dismembering videos. And when you actually see it, you got to think that for people to do that all willy nilly like the Demeo crew you got to think that on top of being mobsters, their had to of have a few screws loose with them.

Roy was the real psycho, Anthony, Joey and Chris were just his minions who saw Roy as some sort of father figure and did whatever he wanted them to do. They killed people in such way because Roy told them to and gave them confidence that he knows what he's doing and that these murders won't be noticed by the LE. I think Roy deliberately recruited young punks so that he could train them into anything he wanted and create his personal little army of 'psychos'. Without Roy they would be just some random street punks. After Roy died they didn't do anything special. If they were really serial killers they would probably kill random people in jail and we would here about them.

IMO Roy is the only really 'fascinating' person from that crew, it was basically him who "created" the twins and Chris - he recruited and schooled them, they were his "project". He started all those rackets the crew was involved in and made a ton of money. It was his decision that the crew would operate in this way and others blindly followed him.

What about Borelli, he kind of seems to be overlooked even though he was present for just as many if not more murders. It seems he kind of just was their, and did whatever he was told. He went to jail in '82 and has been there since, but I wonder if the twins would of done away with him like they did Richie Dinome.

As for Albert DeMeo, the problem with his book is that IMO he's full od moral duplicity. In some way, he recognizes that what his father was doing was wrong but on the other hand he wants glamorize "the life" and his father, even if he doesn't do it directly. He boasts about what he himself did and that he was partly involved in crew's business (suppose it's true, which I personally don't believe). I find it unfair that he attacks Capeci for writting that book but he fails to give a single example where Capeci is 'lying' about DeMeo crew activities and murders. He just tries to discredit the book because Capeci didn't "know" Roy as much as he did and that his source was Montiglio who was supposedly a drug addict. He looks down on his coworkers and other people fascinated with Mob and "murder machine" but he's not much better than them selling his father's ties on the internet and his father's legacy in general.

His story about him defying the twins was surely BS too. Anyway, he mentions that the twins filled the crew with many new guys after Roy died. Does anyone here know who these people were, I mean is there any known post-1983 DeMeo crew associate who was close to the twins? From what I understand the crew continued to operate even after Roy's death.

From what I read Borelli seemed to be smarter than the twins. I read somewhere that he didn't stomach the dismembering of the bodies and that he wanted to be a cop and even passed some police entrance exam. Because of that he could never become a made guy. I guess he didn't have the same psycho reputation and/or stayed low key.

Yeah I know Montiglio stated that he didn't like working with Henry because Henry was too laid back, kind of moved at his own pace.

Henry is often overlooked, he was regarded as Roy's best shooter.
Though he made a mistake when he asked Roy for permission to kill Chris.
Henry was pissed that after the Andrei Katz murder when he and Joey went to jail, Chris never provided his (Henrys) family with any money.
I assume Anthony cared for Joey's family?
Henry wanted to clip Chris but Roy went berserk as you might imagine.
Also, After Chris's eventual death, Joey became Roy's number 2 man. Henry didn't get the job because he used to hang with Dom in bars and Roy didn't want Henry telling Dom things incase he passed them on to Nino.

Borelli got screwed, he took that plea in 82 cause roy made hum, he got convicted in 86, and they gave him life plus 150, 15 each for ten counts of car theft. he got the life sentences overturned but still had 150 , had he gotten just one 15 year sentence he would of been out in the 90's.

Henry has actually been eligible for parole since 1996 but has never applied because he knows he'll never get it!

I wonder where he went wrong......

Well to be fair, although never actually convicted of murder it is safe to say he DID commit murder.
I don't suppose he'll ever want to be released.
He's older than the Twins, wont recognise his old neighbourhood, wont have any money.....

Their lucky he got him 150 years or else he would of been out still fairly young.

Demeo crew fates...

Roy-murdered
Dracula-missing since 1983, presumed murdered
Chris-killed by crew
Twins-jail
Henry-jail
Freddie-commited suicide
Richie-murdered
Vito-flipped and later killed whilst robbing a store
Danny Grillo-murdered by crew

What ever happened to Peter Lafroscia or Vito's boyfriend Joey-lee?

Who whacked Dracula?

Also, Montiglio seemed to like working with Borelli. At least they were both in on the protection racket together.

the twins most likley, and montiglio did say that borelli had a laid back attitude and was always late to meetings.

Borelli and Montiglio were closer in age weren't they?

That story Montiglio tells in Dark Visions about shaking down the bar/club owners with Borelli was pretty funny too.

yeah borelli is older by a couple years i think, and is their anywhere i can find dark visions?

I got my copy from the director. Try getting in touch with him maybe?

Something else I was wondering about, why was Gaspipe picked to kill DeMeo and not someone within the Gambino Family?

because he supposedly held a lot of clout with the twins, who were the only people who could get close to roy.

I'm sure Gaspipe had a lot a clout with a lot of people, but I don't recall reading in Murder Machine anywhere that the Twins ever had any interaction with Gaspipe or any other Lucchese members. So I was kind of curious as to why Gaspipe was brought in. I'm guessing because of his "resume?"

Initially Decicco was given the contract but couldn't get close to Demeo.
Then it was offered to to Gotti but he couldn't get close either.
Big Paul was starting to get frustrated when Decicco suggested reaching out to Gaspipe who knew Patty Testa and by extension Joey Testa.
Decicco argued if the job was given to Joey Testa, he would have no problem getting to Roy as he was the crews number 2 guy.
It worked!

I wonder to what extent did Patty Testa have with the crew, when they were all rounded up in '84 he was only charged with a single count of car theft, probably plead out and did a year max. I am also suprised Paul didn't immediatley go after the whole crew.