The worst I ever read was the Sam and Chuck Giancanna book. It was absolutely ridiculous. They claimed he was responsible for Vietnam, had Hoover in their pocket, had all the presidents in their pocket, killed JFK and RFK, had the Catholic church in their pocket, and on and on and on. I can't even remember all the garbage in that one.

On top of it being absolutely stupid, it was vile because there was really a trashy kind of mentality behind it. The subtext was that, yeah, Giancana was a pyschopathic monster, which he most assuredly was--but he was also kind of a hero who could do anything he wanted to anyone at any time. You must fear Giancana! He was a piece of trash.

Jonathan Eig's "Get Capone" was not too good either, the theory it advanced on the St. Valentine's Day Massacre was absolutely ludicrous and I have a hard time believing that Eig himself believed it when he published it. John Binder demolished it in 30 seconds, almost apologetically. But Eig had the right publisher and the book sold, a bunch of know-nothing reviewers gave it the green light.

My favorite book on the mob is "Family Secrets" because it gives such a crystalline view into the recent goings-on of the Outfit. No one had ever, at least in Chicago, spilled it like Nick Calabrese did. And it's also a story about the city, a story about the Chicago of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, that, simply, no longer exists. It's a story about guys who were essentially dinosaurs, living in a different age, long after the world around them had changed.

Binder's "Chicago Outfit" is excellent, a thoroughly researched and succinct history of the Chicago mob from a real expert.

I read a biography on Jack McGurn that was pretty good, no idea how the writer pieced that together. They did a good job though.

I want to read Murder Machine. I'm not that interested in the East Coast mob primarily because it's opening another can of worms and I already waste too much time reading about the Chicago mob, but DeMeo definitely captured my imagination. I Googled some images of the old Gemini lounge, that place is now a church for immigrants!

That's one thing interesting about reading about the mob, it tells the stories of cities, and how they change.