disappointed in Valachi Papers book

It was like a long, rambling run-on sentence. I mean, it was ok, I'd give it 2.5 out of 5 stars.

But, I am from the spoiled true crime enthusiast generation. When I got into it in the early 2000's, so much great stuff had come out that, imho, took things to a new level.

scorcese and co had perfected their craft, there were matching books to go with movies, including brasco, etc. Gotti and Sammy was still pretty recent.

I'm sure the book was great back in the day, but imo it doesn't measure up to the best stuff of the last 25 years.

no.... but at the time it was sensational, you have to remember that hoover and the FBI denied organized crime existed, and hoover was outed as turning a blind eye to o.c. for decades.

never forget valachi was the first one to expose LCN, and the initiation rites. and all on T,V, it was indeed a colossal blow to the FBI and exposed hoover.

in 1963..... great stuff!!!

I just got done reading it a couple weeks ago. For the timeframe of the book I thought it was very good.

when it was on tv, was it a huge media event and they aired it at night or....can you tell me anymore about that aspect of it?

If I'm not mistaken it was one of the most watched events at that time. People who had televisions at the time were glued to it during the hearings.
I was not alive at that time but I'm sure someone who was can clarify this.

I thought that o.c. had something on Hoover about his sexual habits

Supposedly pictures of him dressed as a woman and with another man.

That was a myth, supposedly some big LCN names had pictures of Hoover dressed in drag at some of those government dinners and shit. It's all bullshit though, to find some nonexistent ulterior motive for Hoover's denial of the American Mafia. The fact is, he really just didn't know there was an Organized Crime Group that had it's tentacles spread throughout the US. He couldn't fathom at the time the blood relationships, the marriages and most of all business ties that led to NYC being connected to Buffalo, Buffalo being connected to Detroit, Detroit being connected to Chicago, Chicago to Milwaukee, Jersey to NY, NY to Philly, etc, etc. It escaped him altogether really, not only that, but for whatever reason, he really felt like communist infiltration of American Government was the real criminal issue in the US.