"Mobbed Up" was a very good book, Lilo. It also spawned a pretty good HBO movie starring Brian Dennehy as Presser back in the early '90s. If I'm not mistaken, it was HBO's first mob film. I know it came out a few years before "Gotti," starring Armand Assante.

I remember that movie. Brian Dennehey is always good.

I'll have to find that movie. It rings a bell but I don't think I ever saw it.

Blockbuster still has it, Lilo. Check it out. Like TB said, Dennehy is always good.

http://www.blockbuster.com/browse/catalog/movieDetails/34452

Thx.
Eli Wallach as Bill Presser?
Hmm

Does he get any lines like

There are two kinds of gangsters in this world, my friend; 'those who come by the door: and those who come by the window"

Noted and jotted, thanks once again for the fine recs. I have a tendency to be a concentrated and organized reader. I'll take a subject or subjects and pursue away.

I was thinking about picking up "The Boys from Jersey," but the reviews I read have said the book deals with mostly the trial (longest in American history at the time), and very little to do with the actual crimes and activities of Acceturo crew. There was a movie made about one of the crew and his antics during the trial, Jackie Dinorscio, he represented himself. The movie is "Find Me Guilty," it bombed at the box office, and I've never seen it.

Just ordered "surviving the mob" by dennis griffin. I wil leave a review as to when ive read it leaving feedback

Funny, i have just ordered this off Amazon also. Looks good!

Its a good read mate, have you started it?

I picked up two books last week at a used book store, "Mafia Wife" and "GoodGuys." Mafia Wife was a pretty uneventful read, basically a pity party by Louie Milito's wife. She is another woman who no longer loves the life because she is no longer benefiting from it since her husband is dead, it does give a different perspective of the life. GoodGuys has been a slow read so far, I'm only sixty pages deep though. The book comes off as a typical cop book, the cops are all hard working, and moral tought guys, and everyone else is a piece of shit.

"The Jackie Presser Story", he was a struntz for Cosa Nostra in NY, the Genovese's, "Fat Tony" and "TonyPro" Provenzano, not to forget the Chicago Outfit and Allen Dorfman who also wanted a piece of "the Teamsters Pension Fund Pie"! Anyways, Bill Presser, his father, played by Eli Wallach was a true racket-teer, who took a pinch, kept his mouth shut and did his time like a man...a real stand up guy. He was the real power, Jackie was a joke to the others on the board, but not infront of old man Presser!! The clown of the Teamsters, Jackie got his job through nepotism, the way that always seems to be the easiest, yet ends up costing not only the person given the leadership, but his troops. The book will give you a better idea of how things worked, Presser, the father was a real stand up guy, who made money for everyone, the bosses to the factory workers, amazing man!

In "GoodGuys" Joe Massino is called Joe Messina, and this isn't the only book that has done this. Was this guy so under the radar people didn't know his real name? Or just a case of lazy writers/editors?

No, it's because they played too much GTA IV.

can anyone recommend some really good book the list I have so far is:

Family Secrets
Underboss
Cosa Nostra: A history of the sicilia Mafia
Gaspipe
Blood of honor
Brotherhood

I just don't know which one is a really good book to start off with.

Thank you

I have read five families and love it

Gravano's book is good.
Murder Machine is top notch.
Donnie Brasco is well written

Thank you....I order Murder Machine...lol...Guess it is a great book

It is a great book.
I just wish Henry Borelli or one of the Gemini Twins would talk - they would have some intriguing stories to tell.

I've just picked up two books, which are "Honor Thy Father" by Gay Talese with Bill Bonanno, and "Mafia Princess" by Marisa Merico. I realise there is another book by this title, but written by Sam Giancana's daughter Antoinette. This is not it.

The first is one Ive never been particularly keen to read, knowing as I do the habits of Joe & his son Bill to rewrite their own roles as common gangsters into noble exceptions; however, I am finding myself enjoying it, especially the early parts of the book that describe the Banana Wars, Bonanno's falling out with the Commission & early Bonanno/Maranzano/Castellamarese mafia family history.

Actually, I am far more impressed by this work so far then "A Man Of Honor", which I always thought had been written first. I have since realised that this came first, & also that Joe was apparrantly unhappy with the book, stating to Talese that his son Bill had been "too sincere" with him. Even with the benefit of knowing more now then was then available (for example, the description of Bonanno's attendance at the Hotel de Palmes mafia summit of October '57 as a "visit to childhood friends") i am finding it to be quite good.

The second book, "Mafia Princess" relates the story of an Anglo-Italian womans whose father & other relatives are Calabrian Ndrina, specifically the Di Giovine & Serraino clans which were involved in the series of skirmishes that became known as the Second Ndrangheta War. She is related to a well known female boss, a position much more common in the Caabrian mafia then any other.
So far, meh. Nothing realy interesting. Its picks up a bit when her fugitive father Emilio Di Giovine spends time in America, spedifically New York, where she claims he fell in the Cherry Hill Gambino's (incorrectly describing John Gambino as Carlo's son)as a drug supplier & links him to John Gotti. Its not that the idea of a Calabrian connection to the Cherry Hill crew is so unbelievable, more the idea that an Italian illegal previously unheard of in New York mafia history got so close to Gotti himself, who supposedly "protected" Di Giovine.
Hopefully it picks up soon, because I do find the Calabrian model to be very interesting.

I picked up both these books for a buck each at an op-shop. Cheering eh? Especially since Mafia Princess was only published last year.

Also I picked up & absolutlely demolished "Westies: Inside Hells Kitchen's Irish Mob", TJ English's definitive account of the Westies duing the reign of Jimmy Coonan & Mickey Featherstone. Ive never been too interested in Coonan & co, apart from his dealings with Roy DeMeo, but this was actually one of the best book on OC Ive ever read.

Whole-heartedly agree. If things had gone a bit different for Milito we never would have heard of Linda Milito, since she'd still be a happy mob wife. Nonetheless, her recounting of a mob associates daily-grind is interestng, like makin the rounds on parking meters to cut of the tops & get at the coins. Almost funny.

Yeah, the day to day stuff was pretty interesting, I was surprised that Louie left so little money when he died, him and his wife seemed to have made a good bit of money both legally and illegally, but it seems they spent it just as fast, and Linda had no problems spending it. She talks about her mental illness sparingly in the book, but by the end you can see the woman is really screwed up in the head.

Check out this new book about life inside the Boston Mafia
http://www.authonomy.com/books/34687/dir...-the-hard-way-/

That actually looks pretty good bostonmob.

I recently picked up "Made Men" by Greg B. Smith. Pretty compact little read, and actually not bad. It basically offers a crashcourse on Sam "The Plumber" DeCavalcante and the DeCavalcante Family, while chronicling the exploits of former rising mob star Ralph Guarino by way of main narrative. Starting with his independant schemes and leading to his eventual reporting to Vinny Ocean, all the while wired for sound.

I realised very early on, like most of us,, that the vast majority of mob-lit was centred around New York, so when I come across books dedicated to any Family other then the Five, I snap it. I know the DeCavalcante's are not really all that removed geographically from NY, but the book is still distincly focused on NJ. Cool if thats what you're after.

One of the more interesting characters detailed in the book IMO was low level DeCavalcante associate Joseph "Joey O" Masella. In hock to something like three out of the Five Families, including his own, and forever running around on either mob errands or his own schemes, this guy was the epitome of the mob gopher, the guy always on to this or that, rich one day off a rare win, but always pretty much broke. The guy left behind twenty years after all the guys he grew up with were either made or moved away. His pathetic claims that "They offered to make me, I just didnt want it" just dont hold water with me. What other reason has this guy been hanging round for decades if not vying for a place in that secret boys club, La Cosa Nostra...?

Anyway, also some great info on guys like Vinny Ocean, Tin Ear Sclafani, Anthony Capo, Anthony Rotondo and other guys around them at the time. It even details the sad-but-true occasion when a car full of DeCavalcante wiseguys were recorded wondering aloud if that new television show The Soprano's wasn't just based on them and guys they knew in the neighbourhood.

Incidentally, this may or may not have been entirely true. And though it wasn't mentioned in the book, I believe these recordings were later used against said wiseguys in court, by way of "What do you mean they're not gangters from New Jersey? We have them on tape comparing themselves to gangters from New Jersey!"

All in all, well worth the Twelve Bucks I paid for it.

I Read Valachi Papers. It was certainly interesting, but Valachi seemed to be lacking in depth. At times this was a good thing. Because Valachi will tell the story as he saw it, from a literal perspective, but the reader realizes x character went crazy, y character was scheming even when Valachi doesn't. I'm in the middle of Blood and Honor. Caramandi is a better narrator, but once again, he fails to show remorse when we'd like to see it. I guess that's the price of quoting a gangster. Even if Gravano might have feigned it in Underboss, it's still believable.

I was recommended a book called I Heard You Paint Houses about Frank Sheeran. I wasn't interested at first, but now I realize it might shed some light on the Bufalinos. Is it as good as they say? Is he reliable?

Valachi told what he knew, but in reality, he was too low down in the organization to know a lot. But the FBI ate it all up because they had almost nothing on the inner workings of the Mafia--Hoover simply ignored the Mob until that time.

"Underboss" was an interesting read. Exposed the mind of a psychopathic killer.

"I Hear You Paint Houses" is interesting about how Sheeran got involved with Hoffa, and does shed some light on Russell Bufalino. But it promises to expose Hoffa's killing, and comes up just short. Keep in mind that it was published after Sheeran died.

Reading Valachi's story I get the impression his fellow mobsters only woke him up for the REALLY important meetings..

Do you know who the author was of the book "Mobbed Up" ??

Woohoo i just received Mob Killer and Surviving the Mob, i bought them from ebay