Originally Posted By: HairyKnuckles
Originally Posted By: SinatraClub
Five Families has plenty of spelling errors. Minor ones, but spelling error's nonetheless. He also pushes the theory that Vito Genovese had Peter LaTempa killed, and inaccurately states that LaTempa had enough poison in his system to kill 8 horses. Which is factually incorrect. LaTempa's autopsy report stated that his stomach contents were simply barbiturates, barbiturates that LaTempa had been prescribed for his stomach issue, and that the amount of them in his system at the time of his death wasn't anything abnormal.


Yes, LaTempa´s death was most likely a result of suicide. Just like ScottD mentioned above, new information is always coming out and rebukes earlier information we thought was correct. It´s not an easy task for an author to pin down a 100 percent accurate mob book, if the author has access to only limited information. Five Familes is an excellent book overall but there are inaccurracies in it too, just like any other mob book, especially the parts where the book deals with the early stuff.



The book Mob And The City, which is still a fairly recent book, and came along after "The Five Families", by C. Alexander Hortis, disputes exactly what I said. Not that his death wasn't a suicide, but that his body didn't contain "enough poison to kill eight horses" which is whats stated by Raab. And that book uses documentation, police files, toxicology reports as well as articles to support whats said in it. Not saying the Raabs doesn't as I know it does. But a more recent book uses actual documents and rules Raabs claim as a misinterpretation of facts. LaTempa's body only contained his prescribed medication.


And I agree. As great as a book that Five Families is, it contains errors, just like any other. That's kind of the point I was trying to make with that post.

Last edited by SinatraClub; 05/11/15 01:34 PM.