This is my first-ever post... and I am honored and grateful that you have invited me to your daughter's wedding-- I mean, to this bulletin board service-- and I hope your first child is a masculine child.

However, since I can't guarantee the gender of your offspring, a few book reviews will have to do as my first, respectful offering...

Here are a few titles that I haven't seen mentioned yet.

Joe Dogs: The Life & Crimes of a Mobster by Joseph Iannuzzi

The author of this book was a Florida-based associate of the NYC Gambino Family who ultimately turned against that organization and testified against its members in Federal Court. His main point of connection with the Gambinos came in the form of a button man named Tommy Agro, who was apparently a rather vicious gangland specimen indeed. However, it's interesting to note that Iannuzzi also cruised and schmoozed with others, up to and including even the famous Joe N. Gallo-- much to Joe's ultimate regret...

This book makes for an interesting read, as it provides one with a perspective that is more akin to that of the street soldier who deals with violence frequently and directly than the lofty administrator, who is more likely to be found scheming than actually pulling triggers, swinging baseball bats, or wielding spluttering chainsaws.

The scenarios depicted by Joe Dogs are frequently gritty, nasty, and violent, and so this book is necessarily more sensational than scholarly insofar as its literary formula is concerned.

It's hard to say how great a fountain of truth and veracity Mr. Iannuzzi may or may not have been, or how accurate his biography might be. Ultimately, I would suspect that he probably lies just about as much as any other gangster would-- meaning that he lies a lot. Caveat emptor!

My Life in the Mafia by Vincent Charles Teresa

This book, once trumpeted as being the most insightful written account of the doings of traditional North American organized crime families, was ultimately doomed to be exposed as being more well-stocked with baloney than a corner delicatessen. However, it's still worth reading (despite the proven embellishments of its motor-mouthed author), as there are all kinds of more verifiable tidbits to be found here and there-- some of which include major players such as Raymond Patriarca and Carmine Galante.

Vinnie Teresa, like Joe Valachi before him and the dozens who followed him, became a government witness deluxe. At one point, he even gave sworn deposition to a congressional committee, which, to everyone's delight, he regaled with all sorts of unlikely stories that included accounts of such shenanigans as his use of piranha fish to stimulate reluctant loan shark debtors to cough up the vig. But again, much of what he had to say was ultimately questionable. Not that the feds balked all that much at the time...

Vinnie has also managed to stay in the Witness Protection Program-- a thing that Joe Dogs can't claim to have accomplished.

All in all, this is an okay read, especially if you're interested in the guys and their games as were to be found in New England about thirty years ago.

Sam the Plumber by Henry A. Ziegler

This is a very interesting book even though it is not as juicy as the two titles above. Essentially, it consists of bits and pieces of transcripts that reproduced the conversations recorded between Sam DeCavalcante and various minions of his eponymous family, which are presented alongside filler material provided by the author. This filler material purports to explain just what Sam and those crazy boys from Jersey were actually talking about at the time-- and I think the author did a pretty good job of it, all things considered.

This book made me squirm as I read it, not that there's anything by way of explicit blood and guts to be found within its pages. Instead, I found myself feeling uncomfortable at times to see poor Sam expose his true, somewhat callow and egregious nature, to something as harsh, heartless, and unforgiving as a an aggravatingly well-planted FBI bug. You just can't help but feel sorry for this hapless paisan, Sam the Plumber.

As the book winds on, we find that this minor don is something of an emotional whirlwind. He is by turns grandiose or humble, ecstatic or depressed, commanding or overwhelmed. But I'll give the guy this much: he was indeed true to the code and creed of his corrupt way of life.

Although it's fun to see Sam cavorting at times-- once having two different women on two different phone lines, and switching back and forth between them to tell them how much he loved them and how special they were-- the most important sections of the book deal with Sam's liaison with the Really Big Boys of the National Commission, a group that Sam is clearly overawed by.

Sam ends up serving as a would-be intermediary to the crafty Joe Bonanno during the infamous Banana War, and it's very interesting to watch the gyrations that ensue as Sam even tries to subvert an undecided Bonanno solider into abandoning his loyalty to his boss, Joe Bananas.

Therefore, this book will probably appeal to those of you who have already read and enjoyed Joe's autobiography, A Man of Honor, and are already acquainted with Joe's haughty and disdainful attitude towards Sam and the way that Joe fumed at even the idea of talking seriously with such small fry.

By reading this book, we get a whiff of Sam's take on the whole business of being the message boy of his gods in the city. In keeping with his moody comportment, Sam is by turns fairly glowing with pride or he is burdened by the great responsibility of it all. And most of the time, one can tell that he's also scared silly. But then, I'd have been scared too!

I do recommend that people interested in the Banana War read this one. It's solid gold.

and finally we have:

Mafia Kingfish by John H. Davis

This book was mainly written to try and "prove" that Carlos Marcello-- the Big Daddy in the Big Easy-- was up to his quivering jowls in the assassination of JFK. To this end, the author does an acceptable job, although I am not willing to sit here and write that I believe all of his theories are correct. However, it does make for an interesting read, especially if one is given to speculation concerning the apparent conspiracy that killed the president. But to this reviewer, the background provided by Mr. Davis as to the origins and makeup of the New Orleans family-- said to be the first mafia family in the United States-- is the most fascinating material in the book.

Carlos Marcello was easily one of the most interesting of the great dons of yesteryear, and the near-flamboyance of both Carlos and the organization he heads comes across loud and clear. It's strange to say that the NOLA mob had attributes that fairly mirrored the environment from which they sprang: exotic New Orleans. But there you have it.

This becomes especially apparent when one takes stock in just how much de boys seem to enjoy talking about food!

This book is also interesting in that we get to see what sort of connections Carlos had with his counterparts in the Big Apple-- especially Frank Costello-- and also as we come to find that while Carlos was probably one of the most autonomous bosses in the United States, he was still sometimes subject to the influence of the national commission. An account of the famous raid at the La Stella restaurant in 1966 is provided to this end, and it makes good reading in itself.

Frankly, I wish Mr. Davis had decided to write a more general sort of book about the wily Uncle Carlos, and to have refrained from trying to tie the old boy to every sensational political murder of the 1960's this side of Rafael Trujillo. But because the style of the writing is so coherent-- and as free of sensational influences as a document of this nature could hope to be-- I do recommend it.

And that's it for now, goombata... see you in church!