Just picked up Capeci and Mustain's Rise and Fall of Gotti for like 30 cents. Great copy too. Cheering. Read it before, but for some reason didn't have it in the collection. Also finally picked up First Family for $5, only read the intro and the first few pages so far, but Im glad I picked it up; a few guys on here mentioned how meticulously researched it is and so far, wow.
Also picked up Senor Nice by Howard Marks. Wasn't too interested in the guy (Id known about him for many years and wondered why his autobiography seems to have only come out so recently) but he was a huge pot dealer back in the day and claims to have maintained contacts with certain mob elements amongst a myriad of other illicit and clandestine organizations. It was only a buck, so I figured why not. I had the loose change.
anybody read El Narco? Im wondering which is the best book about the Mexican drug cartel wars. Not sure which one to get yet.
I haven't read it yet but it does look pretty good. Ive skimmed it a few times at the bookshop but haven't bought it. If I get it before you do, Ill let you know my thoughts (if you do the same for me if you get it first
)
Too much fiction and inaccuracy in the first half to suit me. The Balsamo-Carpozi book has also been published under the titles
Under the Clock and
Crime Incorporated . The early chapters were originally a book in themselves, a paperback title issued by Dell in the early 1970s titled
Always Kill a Brother and dealing with the supposedly continuous gang war between the Irish "White Hand" and Frankie Yale's Mafia group.
Balsamo, whose grandfather was a Brooklyn Mafioso, has done some fine research (especially on Al Capone's early Brooklyn years) but a lot of the early stuff here is just plain wrong and Carpozi's injection of fictional dialogue kills the book historically. The later chapters are just standard NYC Mob history you can find in any Mafia book.
Just Brought.
£1.98 inc postage on Ebay
I didn´t know you had posted in here. Discovered this when I went through this thread. In your posts, not only in this thread, your knowledge in this field shines through...as always.
Mattix,
R.I.P.
Wow. That is possibly the best review Ive ever seen for that book. I got it in a bargain big years ago, and it was one of the first books I got on the mob when my interest was only fledgling. IMO its one of those books which, for dabblers/amatuer mob watchers, is great, offering a a great basis of knowledge on which to build. Of course, once you start digging deeper and discovering better sources, you learn how rudimentary and innaccurate a lot of the information is, and rectify your knowledge accordingly.
I had wondered if the mobster Balsamo in the book was any relation to the author, and also why the first half of the book was written in such a markedly different style to the rest,more like a novel. I must admit, I found also found it somewhat grating when whole conversations and motivations were recorded in an almost cartoonishly mobster vein, but the second half redeemed it for me as any early reader of mob lit.
RIP Mattix.
Yeah that's a good book, read it a couple of times now, there's alot in there which is not in the Goodfellas..
Agreed. One of the best. Easily.
