All about mafia

I need all the basics about the mafia--all you mafia infomaniacs, please give me all there is to know about it! Like a Mafia for Dummies book. I really need it!!!

Thanks,
Bogus

Read just a few books and you'll know a lot. WISEGUY by Nicholas Pileggi is one I would tell someone to read who wanted to learn about the mafia. It's what the movie Goodfellas was based on. It's got a lot of information about the day to day happenings of the mafia. UNDERBOSS by Peter Maas is also a good one. It's the biography of Sammy "The Bull" Gravano. It's good to learn about the higher ranks of the mafia, since he was underboss to John Gotti.

Those are just two books. There are many good ones about the mafia. Even the fiction books like the ones by Mario Puzo will teach you a lot.

Anything else?

Actually I just want to know the basics, not the people...like the Omerta...

Valachi Papers.....

I'm disappointed to find only two replies...

I have mentioned some ereal live books a while ago. Maybe you will find something there.


Real Live books

An other great book is
The Merger

it contains lots of information about LCN, the Russians mob, the yougoslavians etc.

[ October 09, 2001: Message edited by: Don_Michel ]

Valachi Papers
Underboss
Gangland: how the FBI...
Wiseguy
Donnie Brasco
Boss of bosses: the fall of the godfather : the FBI and Paul Castellano.
I don't want to go to jail: a good novel. (humorous, but...whatever)

basically any "real life", "true crime", etc., story...

[ October 11, 2001: Message edited by: Liz Skywalker ]

Thanks. What's the story the movie Casino was based on?

I thought Bill Bononno's book, Bound by Blood: A Mafioso's Story, was pretty informative. From his point of view anyway, as most of these books are. :rolleyes:

He gives alot of the history of the New York families and how it originated in Sicily. I found it an easy read, well written.