I just finished the book by Al D Arco, I thought it was very good, I like Jerry Capeci he is a very readable author. Al D Arco seemed to be a pretty straight shooter as well as intelligent. He was used by Casso and Amuso and those two guys were paranoid along with just being sheer greedy. They wanted to wack everyone and they made up reasons but the real reason for many of their murders was to take the spoils from the victims wether it be a loanshark book, business legal, illegal.
I dont picture Al D arco as a loudmouth, bully type of gangster. I know for fact he did sanitize a little of his history especially when it came to Babania. Al may have been in the Babania biz a little deeper than he let on , in the book he kind of makes it seem like he attempted 2 deals that had bad product but the 3rd deal was with a guy who had inadvertently got hooked up with a UC DEA agent. Funny thing is the guy that got Al involved with the babania conspiracy case also got a whole bunch of other guys pinched from the Genovese and Gambino familys. Frank Solimene was the guys name and he was always listed as a fugitive from the indictment truth be known if it could be proven Frank Solimene was more than likely in a shallow grave somewhere when the indictments came out.
The interesting part of Al D Arcos book though is that he was born in 1932 so he was able to meet the OG players and here their stories, he passsed them on to us and for that I thank him.
I dont blame him for flipping, he played by the rules and he was going to get murdered for it, I dont care how tough anyone is more than likely they would have done the same.