the book about nick the crow caramandi and his time in philly mob written by george anastasia.

what a read! after reading leonetti's book there was a lot that wasnt said that was included in this book. was written in 91 so everything was still fresh also.

also what a spiteful prick delgiorno was! he deserved whacking!

Real good book. One of my favorites and the one i always recommend to guys asking which book on the philly mob they should read first.

i completely agree. caramandi is not really bothered about what you think of him so he has no reason to lie or miss stuff out and hes also in the trenches in s philly so can see everything. leonetti is not in philly and a lot of the book is self serving and im guessing he has forgotten stuff. eg joey merlino asking phil whether he wants to look at his car in florida and from that scarfo suspects treason in chuckie and the merlinos (or used this as an excuse to rid himself of chuckie).or when phil tells the crow that spike digregio only has to worry about nicky scarfo and flares up about the crow about him.

http://articles.philly.com/1987-10-30/ne...salvatore-testa


the bit where it said 2 hours away from philly is like europe to this guy made me lol! the typical south philly guy sounds hilarious!

Fantastic book.It contains many story lines and details not even mentioned in other books about the same era.In general,I loathe Rats,but the Crow is quite the character,which adds to the book's overall quality.Strangely enough,there was even a guy in my old neighborhood (West Side of Buffalo)who was running one of the Crow's tried and true scams in the same exact fashion at the same time(phony diamond ring)----made me wonder if they knew each other and was a further addition to the intrigue the book held for me personally !!!

Fantastic book , also mafia wipeout by Donald cox is a great book about the Philly mob

Wipeout,while containing a few annoying little mistakes---like implying that friends referred to Phil Testa as "Chick",as in short for Chickenman(ROTFLMAO)is also very good.Lots of detail on the Salvie Testa hit and the Rouse extortion---- 2 of the seminal events in the downfall of the despotic Nicky "Shoe Lifts" Scarfo.The "Chick" on that restaurant booth bug transcript was Frank "Chickie" Narducci.Joseph Ciancaglini Sr. was also called "Chickie"(as was my own father,incidentally)by all who knew him.

I've read this and also the new Mafia Prince book about Phil Leonetti. I thought this was better.

Although Leonetti has some disparaging things to say about Nicky the crow in his book, it just seems to me like Nicky was more involved in what was going on in South Philly during the 1980's while Phil was more out of the loop.

Nicky the crow is a self confessed con artist however I did find this to be pretty believable and is very much worth reading.

Phil's book more from a boss or underboss point of view and his relationship and falling apart with nicky .. Blood and honor more a street guys point of view .. I guess it's obvious and goes without saying but my own 2 cents. It seemed to me like Leonetti didn't trust crow from the start or didn't like his scheming...for crow it was all about hustling where Leonetti was more about construction and infiltrating unions , not fake 1000 bills or whatever they were that crow was dealing

Blood and Honor is better then Mafia Prince, but both books are from two different point of views. I like B&H better because it is a view from the low level guy, who hustles 24/7 just to make sure that the top guys are happy.

I agree with you Leo, Phil seems more out of the loop during that time, but had more knowledge about the happining's in the other nearby families as well as the lucrative construction and union deals taking place.

Blood & Honor is easily one of the best mob books out there, and definitely the best Philly book. Also, Tommy DelGiorno's sons had written into journal form about life with dad, and some time later they got together with George Anastasia telling him they wanted to make their life story into a book and it turned out really good it's called Mob Father. Tommy Del as a family man was actually no family man at all he was an abusive drunk piece of shit and treated the younger guys around him in his mob crew like Nicky Milano better than his own sons. Makes for a great read though

I agree with everyone that it's the definitive Philly Mob book, the way I think the Sixth Family is the definitive book on the Montreal mob. Are there any other books people think are definitive for other mobs?

Five Families by Raan is good. Huge book. Pretty well researched.

I have read the Sixth Family, but I heard there is an even more complete book, including the more recent events, called Mafia Inc.

For some other definitive mob books, I read:

1) "Nothing personal, just business" by Kenneth Dickson about the Licavoli mob in Toledo.

2) "Gangs of St Louis" by Daniel Waugh: the title says it all, but it covers only the period until the end of Prohibition. However, there is also a book by Tim Richards "Crooks Kill, Cops Lie" about the later period.

3) "Crimetown USA" by Allan May about organized crime in Youngstown.

There are many books about Boston, don't really know which could be called "definitive". Most are about Bulger, one entirely about Jerry Angiulo, another one all about Barboza etc.

By the way, is the book "Rogue Mobster" by Mark Silverman and Scott Deitche any good? I am interested because it seems to be the only book dedicated to the post-Patriarca period of the Providence mafia, but I read Mark Silverman isn't always reliable, for example he claims he is a non-Italian made member.

Does anyone know if there are books about the mafia in San Francisco or Los Angeles?

Dwalin2011, Most books about Los Angeles are written about Mickey Cohen, Benny Siegel, Chicago's operations there as well as Joe Bonanno's attempt to take over Los Angeles rackets allegedly. The two books I recommend you read are The Last Mafioso by Ovid Demaris about Jimmy Fratianno, and Breakshot: A life in the 21st Century American Mafia by Kenny Gallo and Matthew Randazzo. Not much is written about San Francisco, but Animal: The Bloody Rise and Fall of the Mob's Most Feared Assassin by Casey Sherman, which details the life of Joe Barboza, has some history of the Lanza crime family in it. If there is going to be a book on the Lanza crime family, I hope Lee Housekeeper does it. I believe he was the one that found that San Francisco soldier, Salvatore Taranto was an informant before he passed away in 71, who's information led to the Feds knowing Lanza was well liked by nearly all the bosses in the States, Sicily and had many deals going on with Bonanno, Catena, Gambino, Lucchese, Marcello, Patriarca, Civello, Cerrito and Palermo.

On Philadelphia, was Casella acting alone in Testa's hit or was the Genovese family playing Casella like they did with Caponigro?

From Leonetti's book it seems the murder of Testa was strictly a philly thing. Leonetti said the plan was to kill Testa so that Casella would take over and then hand it over to Chickie Narducci. Supposedly Narducci was going to give Casella a million to hand it over and walk away. I'm not sure if thats totally true but that seems to be what Leonetti (and Scarfo) thought.

Only reason Casella wasn't killed was because he was connected to some capo in the Genovese family that got him a pass according to Leonetti. But they ordered Casella to never return to philly and to just retire and move to florida. I think i got that right...someone can correct me if i'm wrong on it.

Rogue Mobster is a good book but yes Silverman's versions of several events is challenged a lot. He claims the bosses of the New England family inducted him into the mob because they wanted him to relay info to them on his own crew of wannabe gangsters who were at odds with the actual mob. He also makes Paul DeCologero out to be the head of the renegade faction, which is also up for dispute along with many other things he says in this book. Again, he claims he got made, which would make him the only guy with a Jew last name to ever accomplish that and the reason he says they made him is almost an insult to the reader's intelligence if you ask me. I honestly just enjoyed reading it because a main person in the book was a good friend of mine while I was in prison so it was kinda cool him being a big part of the story. Anyway there is a handful of books about LCN in San Francisco and Los Angeles a good one is called Vengeance Is Mine about Jimmy The Weasel Fratianno