Yep Jimmy makes himself look better just like Gravano did and all the others do as well. It makes them feel better about turning, it's just a human reaction.

As for him talking about Blackie taking out Nardi, Jimmy was floating around Cleveland according to the FBI IIRC around that same time. I think he had more to do with those bombings than he lets one believe. Most want to discount him like Gravano because they had so much info.

In regard to the Hortis book - Though I've not read the book yet, I can say from inside the 'authors circle' there are definitely some disputes and shall we say... not so kind disagreements over how great or not great it is. Also, I am no magician, do not claim to be a god of research, but I'm pretty confident that most books on the old mob, mine included, offer interesting material - to be further discussed and researched. Things I put in my Luciano book could, quite honestly, be found but apparently I am the only one who looked in the right places, but I will never claim to have some magical special powers! I just did what I did and hope readers find some interesting new stuff.

If I had to choose just one, which book should I get?

The Good Rat - Jimmy Breslin
Al D'Arco - Jerry Capeci
Five Families - Selwyn Raab
Mob Star - Jerry Capeci

http://alfalib.com/book/88354.html

Found a PDF for The Good Rat by Jimmy Breslin. His writing style is less accessible than Capeci.

My friend is trying to write a book about our neighborhood where we grew up as kids. I think the name that he wants for it is "the death of a neighborhood"

Who knows whether he will ever finish it or not.

If he does it will from when we were kids and then continue from there. It would be something no one has every seen before except it was touched on in Once upon a time in America.

But his version would shoot any other version to shit.

I might even read it and I don't read books. Check that I would probably not read a book they put me to sleep.

But if they made a movie on it. No one would even remember goodfellas after seeing it pretty sure about that.

Five Families, for sure. It gives you a crash course on the NYC mob from pre-Commission (although there are other books that go into greater detail there such as Critchley's The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891-1931 and Mike Dash's The First Family: Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder and The Birth of the American Mafia) all the way to post-911.

I'd actually get Capeci's other book on Gotti, called Gotti: Rise and Fall. It only covers up until Gotti's imprisonment but that's about all you need anyway. It goes into much more detail than Mob Star.

Thanks, Snakes.

Just reading The Good Rat..

Noticing a lot of inaccuracies; like Gotti was in the social club and De Cicco was waiting in the car when he was blown up.

And Eppolito and Caracappa pulling the trigger on Hydell.

I'm only 85 pages in.

I love the good rat, and have read it several times, but I always just skip over Breslin's silly anecdotes and just read the testimony excerpts.

Kaplan is really interesting and his testimony is amazing. Breslin has some funny stories, but they don't really compare...

These are all great books, but I agree Five Families is the best one and the one you should read first.

I thought some of the authors he disagreed with (or refuted) wouldn't be very happy about it. And I'd also be interested to know which points those authors now disagree with him on.

He tried to refute points from some of my favorite mafia books, such as Five Families (which most people agree is one of the best books on the mob).

I really liked the Alphonse D'Arco book. I know it got mixed reviews on Amazon and here where people thought it was boring or did not contain a lot of new info. But I liked reading about how he grew up as a first generation Italian-American, and what life was like for Italians/Italian-Americans in a large city at the time.

Any upcoming mafia books that aren't out yet but you think are going to be good?

Has anyone read Lynda Milito's book ? How is it ?

The Arm has some work for you if you are willing to get your hands dirty.

Thanks I found him ! Whatt do you mean the arm has dirty work who are you referring too ?? I'm just looking for work a legit job.! Sarcasm I hope ! Hopefully you don't know something about him that I don't thanks again !

http://www.amazon.com/Lucky-Luciano-Mysterious-Gangster-Legend/dp/1939521122

1 month old, was i heard is that this book has a lot of untold storys and new found, never heard facts in it

same author

http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Inc-Chris-C...7245&sr=1-1

coming 2015

Wow!! Really happy to be here guys. Loved reading about the US underworld (particularly pre-1980's LCN) since I was a kid. My access to material was pretty limited then, but in the past few months I have picked up a few of the books mentioned on this thread, and have several more on the way after reading some reviews here.

The Last Mafioso - My first book about the Mafia; re-reading it again now and still enjoying it. Lots of side-stories that kinda seem pointless (Sinatra drove my car)but will always be one of my sentimental favorites.

Wiseguy - I saw Pileggi on the Today Show promoting the book and got it ASAP. Great book in general but story is boring - obviously never a made guy (Hill) and heard lots of stories afterwards that I don't recall being in the book (Vario sleeping with Karen) and then plenty of 'conflicting facts' from HH after his 'fame'.

Casino - I like it better than Wiseguy but ordered The Black Book and the Mob after someone here recommended it to get a better picture of that era (one of my favorite).

Five Families - just got it recently (last 3 months) and use it as a encyclopedia of sorts...will read it cover-to-cover soon.

The Outfit - Started reading this (great history of Chicago 'underworld' before the fire) but put it down when some other books came in....will get back into it and use as reference

The last Testament of Luciano/
Lucky Luciano The Real and Fake Gangster - reading these at the same time to cross-reference the tales...Luciano's version (or is it??) and an independent 'historian'. He is the all-time greatest (IMO) and both are keeping me very interested.

I don't wanna get whacked on my first day for runnin' my mouth too much so I will not go into the books I have on the way, but as I read them I will contribute my two cents.

Again, very glad to see this forum is as active as it is and looking forward to learning more about my favorite part of American history.

Really enjoyed Mafia Prince even though Phil tries to make himself look "innocent". Id like to read Joey Cantalupo's book since he had some interesting stories on Crime inc

now reading bill bonannos "Bound by Honor: A Mafioso's Story" - very amusing to read. He tells basically the same story his father came up with in his 90minutes interview, bonannos were never involved in narcotics. 1 site about galante, his actions were not sanctioned, but he was obv not killed by bonanno either, bill states that his father said: its to late already, damage has been already done.. duh! not convincing at all

I am going to finish my Luciano biographies this weekend and I am trying to decide which of these books to read next -

Blood and Honor

Family Secrets

Mob Boss

Takedown


Any opinions would be appreciated - I also have Crimetown USA, Man of Honor, and The Black Book and the Mob but I think I want to read some others first.

I got the Gotti book by Capeci and Mustain.

Is there much to look forward to from a guy that thinks he knows pretty much all there is to know about Gotti from dozens and dozens of articles and news clippings on Google?

I am 3/4 of the way thru Lucky Luciano - The Real and Fake Gangster and it's a pretty good book. Each chapter has it's own 'notes' at the end of the book with sources (usually referencing a police report or newspaper article). A couple of the stories I had never heard before were interesting, but I had some issues with both of these 'new tales'. The first one involved an ambush of Frank Nitti that 'sprayed him with bullets' (doesn't mean he was hit) after Nitti walked out of a meeting where Luciano had given him an ultimatum (I can't find anything written about Nitti that even mentions the particular dispute) and there is nothing in the chapter notes that mention the incident). I don't want to ruin the book so I will just say the second new tale involves Luciano taking a midnite flight cross-country to possibly be responsible for a female brothel owner's mysterious death hours before she was to meet with police.
I hate to review a book 3/4 of the way into it but I just wanted to share what I have read so far. It had been my experience that when any historical figure is 're-visited' over and over again, the stories can over-lap in a good way or a bad way. If there were six books coming out over the next 2 years about George Patton, I don't think you would find out much we didn't already know. But with people whose lives are a little less 'on-the-record' (gangsters) then perhaps you would find a series of new releases less repetitive. However, when the book in question makes an effort to document through chapter notes a majority of his material, I get suspicious when the most compelling story (the dispute with Nitti) seems to be 'too new ' - and I tend to think of that as a red flag.

Sorry about the length but I just wanted to share my thoughts -

Five Families - Selwyn Raab

very good written, but poor on some subjects, for example there are only like 3 pages about bugsy siegel..bug and meyer gang, hollywood george raft, vegas, flamingo to expensive, shot and killed. to be short.

Thanks alot for this. Have any other pdf's by chance?

Takedown is my favorite out of these

He only focused on the Five Families... it's in the title. If you want to read about Jewish gangsters you will need to go somewhere else.

Reading Carlo's Pitera book, don't know why I didn't listen to everyone. This thing is steaming pile.

I have not read it; but based on the reviews I read on amazon there are better books out there to read.