A question: when they have interests in construction or other legitimate businesses, do they formally own companies registered to them or do they use front men while they are formally unemployed themselves, like in Italy? For example, Toto' Riina was one of the most powerful mobsters, but formally he was just a peasant without property, what about American mobsters, Casso and Gravano in this case?

When Sammy flipped, that was huge news. I really didn't know much about Casso flipping until Carlo's book came out. It wasn't followed by the media much, possibly because Gotti was a better known.

Carlo continually wrote about how Casso was respected for being fair on his deals. And how feared he was on the streets. Next thing you know, Jimmy Hydell was hired to whack Casso, by Angelo Ruggiero, over a bad drug deal (according to some theories). In addition, D'Arco bought some H from Casso, and it turned out to be crap. He got his money back, but still....

And while D'Arco was in jail, Casso was doing heroin deals with his son- without clearing it with D'Arco, first. And then, he wanted Al to cover the $80k that his son owed Casso for past drug deals. D'Arco was really pissed and felt disrespected. Casso would have gone nuts if someone was doing drug deals with his son behind his back.

I've just ordered my first Mafia book in a while, has anybody read this??

IIRC, Casso hid his money behind other people.

There was a nice house in LI, which was officially in the name of a business, for which he was a salesman. To appease the IRS, they had a room designated for a showroom, and Casso was a salesperson entertaining clients there. Both Casso and his wife kept their expensive clothes and jewelry in another person's apartment.

Casso put a townhouse in the name of his associate, Burt Kaplan. I believe in the end, after Casso flipped... Kaplan double crossed him and kept the townhouse. (Kaplan eventually received payment of around $600k.)

Just finished the Al D'Arco book and it's fucking GREAT. The trick is-- likely thanks to Al's amazing memory + co-writer Tom Robbins adding texture to Capeci's mob stuff-- it's a great Brooklyn/NYC memoir/history, not just a crime story.

1000% recommended, especially for those with an interest in context as well as action; read that way, the first part of the book which some found slow is just as interesting-- maybe even moreso-- than the rise & fall & revenge acting boss Al...

Also, though, we all know Casso was fucking psycho, this is a reminder of how crazy Amuso was too, almost up there with Persico.

I thought differently. Much of the history parts in the book are old stories being told again, for hundreth time. The authors made it seem as if Al D'Arco was teling tales never told before. They also make D'Arco sound like a hero, and the toughest of the tough. In one passage, he yells at Casso, and Casso turns meek. In others, Amuso is shown as so afraid of him he can't look him in the eye. A few ok parts, but not a very worthwhile book.

I hear you, Jace, but I think there's a limit to how much the authors can challenge Al or any other subject; it's up to us to determine whether Al's interpretation is believable.

Also, there are, unfortunately, limits of how many new stories we can turn up on dead men but it still needs to be put out. I don't know that, for that kind of book, you want Capeci/Robbins stopping to say "as explained in Selwyn Raab..."

One area where will differ is Al's non-crime autobiography: the neighborhoods and the the particulars of that type of immigrant family are NOT well-served in literature or in history; that's why I say it's a great addition to the BROOKLYN history shelf, period, in addition to its virtues as crime book.

I'm assuming the additional civic/social history are Tom's doings, since we know Capeci's style from his other books, though I think Al's unusual intellectual interests, for a gangster, are part of it also. (Like Fat Pete Chiodo too; wasn't he supposed to be a big reader?)

The book was hard to take seriously for this exact reason. Phillip Carlo wrote this book as if he were the captain of the Casso fan club:

"He became the mobster most talked about, pointed at, admired—a man of respect everyone wanted as a friend. If Casso became an enemy, you had to leave town or you were quickly dead. Unlike John Gotti, however, Casso didn’t flaunt himself."

"Though he didn’t officially have his own borgata, when Casso came to sit-downs, he was treated with the deference owed a respected boss. He was a nine-hundred-pound gorilla, a wise, wary mafioso."

"Gravano, like DeMeo, met all his obligations when dealing with Gaspipe. He, like DeMeo, respected Gaspipe, knew his reputation, and didn’t try to fuck him. He understood that doing that was a one-way trip to the morgue."

Lol, these exact quotes (and many others) left me rolling my eyes over Carlo's writing. Here's another one.....Tony Ducks badly wanted Casso to be his successor. When Casso declined, Ducks was saddened. But he promoted Amuso to the top spot only because he knew Gas would be there to advise and guide him. Based on Gas's involvement as an advisor, the family would be in good hands. (ROFL)

That's why I usually refer to the Gaspipe book as an autobiography, not a biography. It's as if Carlo just took whatever came out of Casso's mouth as fact with zero checking. There was no mention about how the leadership of Vic/Gas nearly brought down the family, and they'll go down in history as among the worst bosses in LCN.

I believe to get the full story on the Luccheses (or close to it), one needs to read both Carlo and Capeci's books. The one discrepancy that still confuses me is the physical description of D'Arco. Carlo described him as mousy and nerdy, which resulted in his nickname, The Professor. Capeci described him as a fitness nut, always pounding on the heavy bag, and bullied people in jail.

Yeah you could tell that the writing was very biased in the Casso book.

I guess Carlo had to be a little biased having grown up with the Casso family what with their parents being friends and neighbors.
Of course this doesn't make it right, but anyway I enjoyed reading the book. You know most books are going to have a little bias.

Of course. I also enjoyed the book a lot.

Agreed. In fact, that has to be why Gas gave Carlo the shot to write about his life story. He knew that Carlo was a family friend and would present Casso in a biased manner. The book has warts but it was a good read. Better than D'Arco's book, imo.

I wish Carlo went into more detail about how Casso was screwed by the feds after flipping. He briefly glossed over simply telling the truth about Gravano and McCane, getting in a fight in prison, and smuggling in contraband (although everyone did it), and snitching on the Colombo's murder plot against Judge Nickerson. There has to be much more to the story.

Anyone have more believable details on how and why Gas was rejected from the government witness program?

had anybody here read rita gigante's book?

I barely made it through it and was dissappointed.

ive been reading Before Bruno Vol, 3 by Celeste Morello and its really a great book. The Philadelphia family is very interesting period, but before Bruno is an era that you never hear much about.

The time period is between 1946-1959.

I never read Volumes 1 or 2.. I most likely will, but i was so interested in the time period when Bruno became the boss that I decided to just read book 3 first..

As I mentioned above, Carlo was somewhat biased on the Casso book yet it was still a very interesting read. On his book about Tommy Pitaro, he received criticism o tbecause Pitaro said he lied about his {Pitaro) crimes. As I spent 2 months in Attica prison (With the Army) we noted that nearly all of the prisoners said that they were innocent and were falsely accused by liars. 'Given this background, I would give more credibility to Carlo than Pitaro.

Pitera was a psycho. I wouldnt believe anything that came out of his mouth.

I'm reading the Pitera book now. Pretty good read but as usual Carlo plays hard and fast with facts, especially with background history. Who recounts the history of Bonnanos without even mentioning the Banana Wars? He also refers to Joe Bonnano as the "retired boss" as if he wasn't forced out of the family and exiled out of NYC. I mean when you're talking about the politics of that family those are some pretty important facts to gloss over.

I've just finished reading mob boss , I found it a really entertaining read . Most of it was common knowledge but there r some stories I hadn't read before , I would recommend the book 7/10 . I've been reading this thread and regarding the casso amuso takeover , tony ducks never wanted to hand the reigns over to amuso / casso , when he knew he was getting 100 years he elected Anthony buddy luongo boss of the family , shortly after that amuso and casso had him whacked , when this happened tony ducks felt he had no choice but to hand over the family to them , casso was the most powerful guy in the family at that time

has anybody read "Quitting the Mob" from Michael Franzese? Any recommendations? or just the same was he in all his interviews constantly repeats?

I enjoyed his bio. I especially liked when he went into details about his dad, Sonny, and how he went from being a powerful mob figure to be in and out of jail. Michael basically said that the higher ups in the Colombo family were concerned about Sonny's ambition and power, so they found a way to keep him in jail....reminded me of a real life Feech La Manna.

Personally, I didn't like the stuff about falling in love with his wife, Camille, and how she was the inspiration for him going straight. It bordered on a romance novel when he was going on and on about his love for her.

Does he admit that he cooperated with the Government?

That's because a lot of that part was bullshit. He played up the Born-Again-Christian angle to the hilt. But the truth is, he met her through a wiseguy in the movie business .

According to his wifes book Franzese was cellmates with Rosario Gambino when they were both at Terminal Island. Camille and Gambino's wife Pina were hanging out together in LA according to her book and it sounded like the 2 families were pretty friendly. But if Franzese was a rat why would they put him in a cell with a guy like Gambino and not in protective custody?

Check out 37:52 on the Nat Geo sow. A quote from the United States Attorney:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq9jfi8XXyc

I know...i've seen that before. It just doesn't make sense to me that the feds would put a rat in a cell with a mafioso like Gambino. I don't know...it just seems odd to me.

Heres where Franzese's wife talked about Gambino and his wife.

http://books.google.com/books?id=oG-ngNrfQVYC&pg=PA109&lpg=PA109

I seem to recall that he met her through a movie, but didn't realize that a wiseguy introduced them!

I read the book around twenty years ago, so my memory may be off. But speaking of his movie biz.... wasn't he business associates with the guy who played Luca Brasi in GF1? And I believe that he said that Luca was a connected man.

Has anyone read "The Boys In Chicago Heights" (about the Outfit crew of the same name)? Worth picking up?