This guy is seriously the biggest tool. From the way he talks to the actual information he produces and then acting like he knew all the people he was talking about ie Tommy Lucchese "he was a stone cold killer and he'd kill ya in a heart beat" ...Which it seems like he says that about every single mobster on the mobsters documentaries. I don't even think Lucchese was even that known for being a 'stone cold killer' but of course you had to be and that goes with the territory back in the day..

But this guy sucks! Only Raab is real.

Lol that's funny. He does say that stuff all the time in every documentary.

I think it was Luciano who said three finger brown was one of his favorite hitmen. So there must be some truth to that.

But volkman is a funny character on the documentaries.

That NYPD detective is good. What's his name...Coffrey or something like that.

Yeah, Detective Coffee is interesting as he had his hands right in the middle of all the investigations and doesn't come across as a guy with a big ego. Volkman always seems to have that smirk on his face

Volkman I think died of Aids recently

Not cool pimpanella..

I'm reading Gangbusters after I'm done with King of the Godfather's.

I have reservations after reading some reviews of it....

He always says "hed kill ya in a heartbeat" about everyone. I like watching joe coffey but he does the same thing "hed kill ya in heartbeat" to make it seem more interesting, i guess it works to an extent but ernest is the worst offender of this phenomena.

Hahaha Raab is the best.

I would let Selwyn Raab have me.

The court channel/TRUETV had a july 4th special like 10 years ago...I taped it...Coffey and Cutler were interviewed...Coffey bashes Gotti relentlessly as a pee brained thug and then slobbers all over Paul Castelanno, calling him a gentleman, having conversations with him during breaks in court etc..Then when the broad interviewing mentions killing his son in law and saying that doesn't sound so gentlemanly to me, he responds by saying ''well you have to know the circumstances'' lol

Joe Coffey is the New York officer. He certainly should know about these guys because he had first-hand knowledge.

Volkman's mannerisms may be a turn-off to viewers. He also is somewhat dogmatic with the information he purposes to know.

Frank Santorsola the undercover cop who claims to have infiltrated the DeCavalcantes comes pretty close... "They would rather break your arm and beat you to death with it, than.. make love to a woman."
Jesus, Frank no shit... especially if you have done something to deserve it.

Going down on a woman is an offence punishable by murder.

Volkman comes across as a jerk in those TV programs with that silly laugh of his. But he did a damn good job writing "The Heist," an excellent account of the Lufthansa heist that should be of interest to any Goodfellas fans.

Absolutely. Cummings and Volkman did a great job there, especially their description of what happened to Theresa Ferrara, which was largely left out by Hill over the years (and should give mob apologists pause, but that's neither here nor there).

But overall, I agree with the consensus here. Volkman doesn't come across as very likable, and the shoddy job he did with "Gangbusters" hurts his credibility more than anything else.

Didn't Capeci say that Volkmans books were inaccurate? There were a lot of mistakes according to Capeci in a book of him. When Volkman was confronted by Capeci he just said it was the fault of the editor.

I think Capeci even coined the Volkie awards in his Honor

Yeah I wasn't sure if that was him, thanks for confirming.

This excerpt was published in Gangland on 1/4/1999

"Last year in Gang Land was either the year of the stool pigeon or the year of the jailbird. Take your pick. It doesn't matter. These birds of the same feather are getting harder to tell apart through their sheer stupidity.
Speaking of sheer stupidity, we start our look at the past year by presenting Gang Land's first annual Ernest Volkman award to John Lombardi. The Volkie, we're sad to say, will be an annual award to the so-called journalist who makes the most mistakes and comes up with the most unadulterated drivel in one article, book, or television appearance or who consistently exhibits the wretched and pathetic journalistic non-skills of Ernest Volkman".

In his awful book, "Gangbusters," Volkman, (Gang Land, Nov. 2) made so many factual errors that you'd need a computer and a couple of cyber geeks to count them. Under a threat of a lawsuit from a couple of gangsters, Volkman, his publisher, and Penthouse Magazine -- which printed excerpts from the book -- had to publicly fess up to the erroneous drivel.

You have hacks like Volkman and the late Phil Carlo. But there are also good ones like Raab, Capeci, and Robbins.

u can put George Anastasia in that group aswel

Whats everyones opinion on Thomas Repetto? Seem him on a few mob docs says hes a mob author but not sure of what book.. Anyone ever read anything he wrote? Any recommendations?

He wrote a book about the origin of the mob that's pretty good. He also wrote a follow-up book that's okay but not quite as good as the first since it covers ground that's already been gone over several times by other authors.

Thanks for the reply snakes.. Is the first book called "American Mafia"? U recommend giving it a read?

Yeah, it's a pretty good overview of the mob in the first half of the twentieth century.

Phillip Carlo is seriously a joke. His subject matters are interesting but he was such an inarticulate p.o.s.