Sometimes spelling inaccuracies, grammar, false information gets so bad in this genre in the book department. As I stated in another thread which reminded me of this annoying facet, I own roughly 50-60 organized crime books (around 50 hard copies and 10-12 kindle). I think all but one or two have obvious and embarassing spelling errors. Sometimes incorrect spelling and grammar are combined with false information making you want to throw the book down.

Examples:

Lion in the Basement (horrible book anyways, horrible plot, too many errors to count)

Any book by Philip Carlo

Castellano is spelled "Castalano" in "The Company She Keeps" by Georgia Durante

The list goes on and on...Post any books and the inaccuracies they have in this thread

In Philip Carlo's books (and some others too), many soldiers are automatically upped to the rank of "capo" to increase their importance.

In Manhattan Mafia Guide by Eric Ferrara it says the DiPalermo brothers allegiance was to the Bonanno Family. Incorrect.

Inaccuracies are the rule, not the exception, in OC books. Part of it is because OC people aren't the types to leave their collected papers and letters to college and university libraries for people like us to peruse. Very few have ever sat for interviews, and those who did (like Joe Colombo and Joey Gallo) paid the price. So, OC writers tend to be tabloid journalism types, who just run with what they think they have, and play for sensationalism.



That's standard procedure for the (mostly) hack writers who write about OC. Case in point: Hank Messick wrote a book on Meyer Lansky, claiming he was the boss of OC in America and was "worth $300 million." Robert Lacey, one of the very few competent writers in this genre, and the author of the outstanding"Little Man - Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life," questioned Messick about that figure. Messick told Lacey that he'd heard that figure second- or third-hand and ran with it because it was "an impressive number." Lacey did solid research and found that Lansky, at his peak, was worth no more than $5 -6 million--not chickenfeed, but hardly the stuff of $300 million. But that big figure stuck with Lansky, and it was responsible for the Justice Department hounding him for years.

either in Made Men by Greg Smith or Manhattan Mafia Guide by Eric Ferrara it says that the reason Gaspipe was named Gaspipe was because his father owned a gas company. Incorrect. Everyone knows why his father was called gaspipe.

Right, I was gonna say which I forgot to mention to theorize in my original post was that the reason as you summarized was because a lot of it is left to the imagination and there is no paper trail so a lot of it is hearsay. Good example with Meyer Lanksy.

You better make a thread called "Accuracies in Organized Crime Books" so we can point out the shit they actually get right.

Likely to be a very short thread...

More about Lansky:

Lansky tried for Israeli citizenship in the early '70's. He was denied, but he appealed to Israel's High Court. While his appeal was working through the court, he thought it would be helpful to allow an Israeli journalist, Uri Dan, to write an "authorized" biography of him. Dan didn't know anything about US organized crime, and he was gaga that the Great Meyer was "telling all" . So Lansky BS'd him up, down and sideways:

Lansky told him that Abner (Longy) Zwillman, the undisputed boss of Newark NJ "ran with my gang when we were teenagers." Oh, Meyer: In order for Zwillman to "run with your gang when you were teenagers," and before the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, and the Washington Bridge were built between NJ and NY, Zwillman would have had to take a bus, a subway, a ferry and two more buses to get to NY's Lower East Side to "run with your gang"--at least a two-hour-plus commute each way.

Lansky also told Dan that he and Bugsy Siegel were great pals of Al Capone because Bugsy "sheltered Capone in his house on 14th Street in 1919," while Capone was on the lam, and just before he left for Chicago. Lansky said Bugsy bought Capone's train ticket. Yeah, Meyer. Right, Meyer. Sure, Meyer: Bugsy Siegel, born February 29, 1906, was all of 13 years old in 1919. Know any 13-year-olds who own houses on 14th Street? And where did Bugsy get the money for Snorky's train ticket to Chicago? From his Bar Mitzvah money?

Gimme a break...

Solid info Turnbull..I recall reading The Last Mafioso by Ovid Demaris and from my limited knowledge I didng notice amy glaring errors in that book and I mentioned on another thread "i heard you paint houses" and "five families" not having any glaring errors and bein two of my favs, but maybe u or someone else can correct me on that

Solid point by Extortion tho like dont these book companies employ editors to check this shit I mean the genre is called "true crime"

Yes, Five Families is the ONLY book I've come across that doesn't have spelling errors or at least of what we know false information either.

I have found Raab to CONSISTENTLY be the best OC writer/historian...IMO he is superior to Capeci/Anastasia as those guys seem to be more motivated by $$/hype than just mere facts.

Five Families has plenty of spelling errors. Minor ones, but spelling error's nonetheless. He also pushes the theory that Vito Genovese had Peter LaTempa killed, and inaccurately states that LaTempa had enough poison in his system to kill 8 horses. Which is factually incorrect. LaTempa's autopsy report stated that his stomach contents were simply barbiturates, barbiturates that LaTempa had been prescribed for his stomach issue, and that the amount of them in his system at the time of his death wasn't anything abnormal.

I can speak to this with some authority.

On typos, etc. - that is a product of the editor and way books are published. Things get rushed through the process. At some point, as an author, you've gone through the book so many times and ran spell check that you can't do it anymore and need a professional editor to hack it up. Some are better than others. My editor for The Silent Don did a great job. My current editor for Cocktail Noir, is fantastic. It really depends. And it's not just mob books, it's all books.

Some typos do not get picked up by spellcheck. My two big typos are typing "form" instead of "from", and dropping an "s" from a previous word onto the beginning of the word "in", which is 'sin'-spelled correctly!

Accuracy - The field of mob writing is constantly shifting with new information, new 'rats', new people coming forward. The narrative often changes, as do the facts. Generally it's minor stuff, but sometimes not. You are always limited by the information you have available to you as a researcher or writer.

Sometimes it's lazy research for sure. Sometimes it's not vetting sources you cite. But most of the time, it's because you have limited information at the time you write.

Yes, LaTempa´s death was most likely a result of suicide. Just like ScottD mentioned above, new information is always coming out and rebukes earlier information we thought was correct. It´s not an easy task for an author to pin down a 100 percent accurate mob book, if the author has access to only limited information. Five Familes is an excellent book overall but there are inaccurracies in it too, just like any other mob book, especially the parts where the book deals with the early stuff.

@ScottD: i've recently read "Silent Don", great book overall! There are rumors that ragano was much more involved in criminal activity with trafficante as he'd ever admitted, what are you thinking on this matter? I haven't read his "mob lawyer" book yet, but i dont think there is sth. in i dont know yet.
Do you have any new books coming out this year?

mickey2 - Thanks for the praise on The Silent Don. I think Ragano was likely involved more than he let on in the early years. I do know he tried to distance himself in later years and was forced into representing Trafficante again.

My new book will be out in the fall.

Cocktail Noir http://www.amazon.com/Cocktail-Noir-Scott-Deitche/dp/194194700X

scott any luck with cadilac franks book aint he down the cape. the storys been beat to death but i would give it a read. and if limone steps down that guy vinny could take the seat i think but would pass. when that guy spunky gonna plead out for the joker machines.

No plans on a Cadillac Frank book. Next book is re-pitching my Jersey mob history and a few others.

I remember reading something plausible about Lansky , I don't know maybe it isn't , but the writer obviously said his wealth was way overstated but that he still died a well off man , can't remember the exact number but something like $10M or so , maybe less . Anyway because of the biz he was in , most of his assisted assets had to be in someone else's name and I think Meyers brother ended up with a lions share and he ran off with it , stiffing Meyers daughter and others .

Outside of dying broke which I have some doubt with as Meyer was smart and likey would have been investing his illegit $ into some legit stuff over a # of years , the above story sounds like something that was probably a somewhat frequent Occurance in his line of work

According to Robert Lacey, his biographer, Lansky was worth no more than $5 - 6 million at his peak, and substantially less over his later years because the Justice Dept. kept hounding him, which limited his ability to operate his usual rackets. His legal fees in his unsuccessful appeal of Israel's denial of his citizenship request, and his successful defense of four felony charges against him when he returned to the US, drained his assets. According to Lacey, he blew his last $50 grand on an unsuccessful operation to correct a chronic neurological condition in his ne'er do well son, Buddy. After his death, his widow, Teddy, though he must have had a lot of money stashed away somewhere, but neither she, nor Vincent (Jimmy Blue Eyes) Alo were able to find it. As far as I know, his brother, Jake, was always loyal to him.

This may have been brought up before,but I've always thought that the story of bugging Castellano's house was a good example of the BS content in Mob books. One version involved breaking in and planting a bug disguised as a floor lamp. I think this was in "Mob Star". The other version (might have been Boss of Bosses,not sure) involved a fake TV repair done under the nose of Tommy Billoti.

I can see minor differences in narratives,but these are two diametrically opposed stories.

Does anybody have any insight as to which of the two is accurate,or is there yet another story?

The book Mob And The City, which is still a fairly recent book, and came along after "The Five Families", by C. Alexander Hortis, disputes exactly what I said. Not that his death wasn't a suicide, but that his body didn't contain "enough poison to kill eight horses" which is whats stated by Raab. And that book uses documentation, police files, toxicology reports as well as articles to support whats said in it. Not saying the Raabs doesn't as I know it does. But a more recent book uses actual documents and rules Raabs claim as a misinterpretation of facts. LaTempa's body only contained his prescribed medication.


And I agree. As great as a book that Five Families is, it contains errors, just like any other. That's kind of the point I was trying to make with that post.

One of the most inaccurate books I read on Organized Crimes was Goombata: The Improbable Rise and Fall of John Gotti and His Gang" a book so poorly researched that John Gotti himself made mention of the fact that they got the birth country of origin of his father incorrect. I came across several examples of inaccuracies before I got to the third chapter.

ive read raganos book "mob lawyer" the most astonishing thng about this book is raganos take on the jfk murder. ragano says trafficante told him in a deathbed confession that trafficante and carlos narcello conspired to murder the president.

also ragano says jimmy hoffa told him to ask Marcello and trafficante to arrange the killing of kennedy.

interesting read, later ragano got on the wrong side of trafficante, and his wife despised him.[ trafficante]

i know, i saw his interview. its also on youtube. and its mentioned in various jfk books, also in lamar waldrons book which i recommend on the jfk matter

mickey, what's the name of lamar waldrons book ? I want to read it.

there you go binnie.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Hidden-History-JFK-Assassination/dp/161902439X

Business or blood states george from canada was killed for what he said about the drug use of a gambino...not true it was tg from bonannos. Many other flaws in this book.

ive read it, it shows how the FBI and CIA lied to the warren commission, and gave them really nothing. Oswald was a CIA trained operative. but, that's for another thread, you and I are on the same page regarding the assassination.

Frank Ragano was either simply wrong or out and out lied in his book "Mob Lawyer" when he said Trafficante confessed to him while in his (Ragano's) car while in Tampa four days before Trafficante died. Trafficante was getting dialysis treatments in Miami -- almost 300 miles away -- then was taken to a Houston hospital where he died. Trafficante's daughters said it never happened since he couldn't have been in Tampa. Ragano said there were three people who would verify his story, but when challenged couldn't name them. So either he got the date and location totally confused (but refused to admit his mistakes) or lied to market the book.