The Mob And Me

Author : John Partington,Arlene Violet
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2010-09-14
Category : True Crime
ISBN : 1439167761

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The Mob and Me by John Partington,Arlene Violet Pdf

This revealing first-person narrative, by one of the founders of the Witness Protection Program and a personal protector to more than five hundred informants, offers an eye-opening, dead-on authentic perspective on the safeguard institution. How did law enforcement’s frustration with the criminal underworld and a serpentine series of hit-or-miss rules and mistakes give rise to one of the most significant and endlessly fascinating government-run programs of the 20th century? In 1967, U.S. Marshal John Partington was given the task of overseeing the protection of the wife and young daughter of renowned mobster Joe “The Animal” Barboza, now an informant with a bounty on his head. It wasn’t Partington’s first time guarding underworld witnesses. But this time was different. It was at the behest of Senator Bobby Kennedy that Partington became the architect of a new high- threat program to get the bad guys to testify against the worse guys. Lifelong protection in exchange for the conviction of the upper echelon of organized crime would require a permanent identity change for every member of the witness’s family, a battery of psychological tests for re-assimilation, and a total, devastating obliteration of all ties with the past. With no blueprint for success, it created a logistical nightmare for Partington. He would have to make up the rules as he went along, and he did so without the luxury of knowing whom he could really trust at any given time. And so, the Witness Protection Program was born. The account John Partington tells of the next thirty years of his life is a never-before-seen portrait of members of the underworld and law enforcement—from Joe Valachi, the first mobster to violate the “omerta,” the sacrosanct code of silence, to high-profile informant and NYPD narcotics detective Bob Leuci, immortalized in Prince of the City. He reveals the details of the protection provided such significant figures as Watergate players to Howard Hunt and John and Maureen Dean. Ultimately, Partington delivers the unvarnished truth of the Program, from the heavily-shielded delivery of witnesses to trial, to countless death threats, to managing an ever- rotating crew of U.S. Marshals, to the step-by-step procedure of reinventing his sometimes dangerous, sometimes terrified charges and their families as uncomplicated suburbanites. These would be the guarded new neighbors just across the street bearing secret histories—uncomfortable actors in a play that would run for the rest of their lives. Lifting a cloak of confidentiality and controversy, The Mob and Me immerses readers in the rarified, misunderstood world of Witness Protection—at once human, dangerous, intimate, surprising, and stone-cold violent.

Author : Tommy James
Publisher : Scribner
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2011-02-15
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 1439172889

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Me, the Mob, and the Music by Tommy James Pdf

Now in paperback, after five hardcover printings, Tommy James’s wild and entertaining true story of his career—part rock & roll fairytale, part valentine to a bygone era, and part mob epic—that “reads like a music-industry version of Goodfellas” (The Denver Post). Everyone knows the hits: “Hanky Panky,” “Mony Mony,” “I Think We’re Alone Now,” “Crimson and Clover,” “Crystal Blue Persuasion.” All of these songs, which epitomize great pop music of the late 1960s, are now widely used in television and film and have been covered by a diverse group of artists from Billy Idol to Tiffany to R.E.M. Just as compelling as the music itself is the life Tommy James lived while making it. James tells the incredible story, revealing his complex and sometimes terrifying relationship with Roulette Records and Morris Levy, the legendary Godfather of the music business. Me, the Mob, and the Music is a fascinating portrait of this swaggering, wildly creative era of rock ’n’ roll, when the hits kept coming and payola and the strong-arm tactics of the Mob were the norm, and what it was like, for better or worse, to be in the middle of it.

Author : Karen Gravano,Lisa Pulitzer
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
Page : 217 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2012-02-14
Category : True Crime
ISBN : 9781250015204

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Mob Daughter by Karen Gravano,Lisa Pulitzer Pdf

From Karen Gravano, a star of the hit VH1 reality show Mob Wives, comes a revealing memoir of a mafia childhood, where love and family come hand-in-hand with murder and betrayal. Karen Gravano is the daughter of Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, once one of the mafia's most feared hit men. With nineteen confessed murders, the former Gambino Crime Family underboss—and John Gotti's right-hand man—is the highest ranking gangster ever to turn State's evidence and testify against members of his high-profile crime family. But to Karen, Sammy Gravano was a sometimes elusive but always loving father figure. He was ever-present at the head of the dinner table. He made a living running a construction firm and several nightclubs. He stayed out late, and sometimes he didn't come home at all. He hosted "secret" meetings at their house, and had countless whispered conversations with "business associates." By the age of twelve, Karen knew he was a gangster. And as she grew up, while her peers worried about clothes and schoolwork, she was coming face-to-face with crime and murder. Gravano was nineteen years old when her father turned his back on the mob and cooperated with the Feds. The fabric of her family was ripped apart, and they were instantly rejected by the communities they grew up in. This is the story of a daughter's struggle to reconcile the image of her loving father with that of a murdering Mafioso, and how, in healing the rift between the two, she was able to forge a new life.

Author : Jerry Capeci,Tom Robbins
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 481 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2013-10-01
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781250037435

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Mob Boss by Jerry Capeci,Tom Robbins Pdf

Reminiscent of Wiseguy, Mob Boss is a compelling biography from two prominent mob experts recounting the life and times of the first acting boss of an American Mafia family to turn government witness Alfonso "Little Al" D'Arco, the former acting boss of the Luchese organized crime family, was the highest-ranking mobster to ever turn government witness when he flipped in 1991. His decision to flip prompted many others to make the same choice, including John Gotti's top aide, Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, and his testimony sent more than fifty mobsters to prison. In Mob Boss, award-winning news reporters Jerry Capeci and Tom Robbins team up for this unparalleled account of D'Arco's life and the New York mob scene that he embraced for four decades. Until the day he switched sides, D'Arco lived and breathed the old-school gangster lessons he learned growing up in Brooklyn and fine-tuned on the mean streets of Little Italy. But when he learned he was marked to be whacked, D'Arco quit the mob. His defection decimated his crime family and opened a window on mob secrets going back a hundred years. After speaking with D'Arco, the authors reveal unprecedented insights, exposing shocking secrets and troublesome truths about a city where a famous pizza parlor doubled as a Mafia center for multi-million-dollar heroin deals, where hit men carried out murders dressed as women, and where kidnapping a celebrity newsman's son was deemed appropriate revenge for the father's satirical novel. Capeci and Robbins spent hundreds of hours in conversation with D'Arco, and exhausted many hours more fleshing out his stories in this riveting narrative that takes readers behind the famous witness testimony for a comprehensive look at the Mafia in New York City.

Author : Gordon Korman
Publisher : Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2012-12-11
Category : Juvenile Fiction
ISBN : 9781423141259

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Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman Pdf

Vince Luca is just like any other high school guy. His best friend, Alex, is trying to score vicariously through him; his brother is a giant pain; and his father keeps bugging him to get motivated. There is just one thing that really sets him apart for other kids—his father happens to be the head of a powerful crime organization. Needless to say, while Vince''s family''s connections can be handy for certain things (like when teachers are afraid to give him a bad grade), they can put a serious crimp in his dating life. How is he supposed to explain to a girl what his father does for a living? But when Vince meets a girl who finally seems to be worth the trouble, her family turns out to be the biggest problem of all. Because her father is an FBI agent—the one who wants to put his father away for good.

Author : Dennis N. Griffin,Andrew DiDonato
Publisher : Huntington Press Inc
Page : 278 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781935396383

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Surviving the Mob by Dennis N. Griffin,Andrew DiDonato Pdf

What do you do when the law wants you behind bars and the New York crime families want you buried? Surviving the Mob is a cautionary tale of the harsh reality of a criminal, inmate, fugitive, and witness who -- so far -- has lived to tell the tale.

Author : Alex Ferrari
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2018-12-15
Category : Criminals
ISBN : 194808063X

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Shooting for the Mob by Alex Ferrari Pdf

A bipolar gangster, a naive young film director, and Batman--what could go wrong? Alex Ferrari is a first-time film director who just got hired to direct a $20 million feature film. The only problem is that the film is about Jimmy, an egomaniacal gangster who wants the film to be about his life in the mob. From the backwater towns of Louisiana to the Hollywood Hills, Alex is taken on a crazy misadventure through the world of the mafia and Hollywood. Huge movie stars, billion-dollar producers, studio heads, and, of course, a few gangsters populate this unbelievable journey down the rabbit hole of chasing one's dream. Would you sell your soul to the devil to make your dream come true? By the way, did I mention that this story is based on true events? No, seriously it is.

Author : Colin Meloy
Publisher : HarperCollins
Page : 432 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2017-10-24
Category : Juvenile Fiction
ISBN : 9780062342478

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The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid by Colin Meloy Pdf

From the creators of the New York Times bestselling Wildwood Chronicles comes an original, humorous, and fast-paced middle grade novel about a band of child pickpockets—imagine The Invention of Hugo Cabret meets Oliver Twist. It is an ordinary Tuesday morning in April when bored, lonely Charlie Fisher witnesses something incredible. Right before his eyes, in a busy square in Marseille, a group of pickpockets pulls off an amazing robbery. As the young bandits appear to melt into the crowd, Charlie realizes with a start that he himself was one of their marks. Yet Charlie is less alarmed than intrigued. This is the most thrilling thing that’s happened to him since he came to France with his father, an American diplomat. So instead of reporting the thieves, Charlie defends one of their cannons, Amir, to the police, under one condition: he teach Charlie the tricks of the trade. What starts off as a lesson on pinches, kicks, and chumps soon turns into an invitation for Charlie to join the secret world of the whiz mob, an international band of child thieves who trained at the mysterious School of Seven Bells. The whiz mob are independent and incredibly skilled and make their own way in the world—they are everything Charlie yearns to be. But what at first seemed like a (relatively) harmless new pastime draws him into a dangerous adventure with global stakes greater than he could have ever imagined.

Author : Michael Franzese
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 1993-11-01
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 0517111527

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Quitting the Mob by Michael Franzese Pdf

Author : Russell Shorto
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2021-02-02
Category : History
ISBN : 9780393245592

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Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob by Russell Shorto Pdf

A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2021 Family secrets emerge as a best-selling author dives into the history of the mob in small-town America. Best-selling author Russell Shorto, praised for his incisive works of narrative history, never thought to write about his own past. He grew up knowing his grandfather and namesake was a small-town mob boss but maintained an unspoken family vow of silence. Then an elderly relative prodded: You’re a writer—what are you gonna do about the story? Smalltime is a mob story straight out of central casting—but with a difference, for the small-town mob, which stretched from Schenectady to Fresno, is a mostly unknown world. The location is the brawny postwar factory town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The setting is City Cigar, a storefront next to City Hall, behind which Russ and his brother-in-law, “Little Joe,” operate a gambling empire and effectively run the town. Smalltime is a riveting American immigrant story that travels back to Risorgimento Sicily, to the ancient, dusty, hill-town home of Antonino Sciotto, the author’s great-grandfather, who leaves his wife and children in grinding poverty for a new life—and wife—in a Pennsylvania mining town. It’s a tale of Italian Americans living in squalor and prejudice, and of the rise of Russ, who, like thousands of other young men, created a copy of the American establishment that excluded him. Smalltime draws an intimate portrait of a mobster and his wife, sudden riches, and the toll a lawless life takes on one family. But Smalltime is something more. The author enlists his ailing father—Tony, the mobster’s son—as his partner in the search for their troubled patriarch. As secrets are revealed and Tony’s health deteriorates, the book become an urgent and intimate exploration of three generations of the American immigrant experience. Moving, wryly funny, and richly detailed, Smalltime is an irresistible memoir by a masterful writer of historical narrative.

Author : Richie Salerno
Publisher : WildBlue Press
Page : 383 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2020-09-08
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781952225314

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From the Mob to the Movies by Richie Salerno Pdf

The veteran character actor recounts the epic adventure of his life from the NYC mob and prison life to making movies with Hollywood legends. You might know him as the character Tony Darvo in the movie Midnight Run, but before he played tough guys in the movies, Richie Salerno was born into the real-world Brooklyn Mafia. Some of New York’s most notorious gangsters were his uncles, aunts, cousins, and family friends. For a time, it looked like he was heading for a life in the family business. During a stint in prison for theft, Richie managed to turn his life around. Using the tailoring skills he learned from his father and butchering abilities he picked up from his father-in-law, he ingratiated himself with the warden and guards, and survived his 120 month sentence without a scratch. After his release, he scored an audition for the Sidney Lumet film Serpico starring Al Pacino. That audition turned into a long career as a character actor in major Hollywood films. In From the Mob to the Movies, Richie recounts his journey from the mean streets of Brooklyn and as a child of the mob to the silver screen.

Author : Nicole Fox
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 338 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2020-05-27
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9798649103503

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Unprotected with the Mob Boss (Alekseiev Bratva) by Nicole Fox Pdf

My enemy's daughter. My unprotected bride.Allison thinks that this is a fair world, that justice exists.I'm here to show her there is no such thing as innocence.In my world, it's might makes right.Kill or be killed.And I've caused my fair share of bloodshed.But when I discover her with an innocent man's blood on her hands, We both know that there's only one way out of this mess: On her knees before me.So I give her an offer she cannot refuse.Become my wife.Carry my baby.Or prepare to suffer the consequences.A police chief's daughter makes a terrible mistake-and finds herself at the mercy of a ruthless Bratva mob boss, in this standalone, bad boy mafia romance from bestselling author Nicole Fox. Can Lev twist Allison to the breaking point? Or will his fake wife end up on top?Find out in UNPROTECTED WITH THE MOB BOSS.

Author : Gianni Russo,Patrick Picciarelli
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2019-03-12
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781250181411

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Hollywood Godfather by Gianni Russo,Patrick Picciarelli Pdf

Hollywood Godfather is Gianni Russo's over-the-top memoir of a real-life mobster-turned-actor who helped make The Godfather a reality, and his story of life on the edge between danger and glamour. Gianni Russo was a handsome 25-year-old mobster with no acting experience when he walked onto the set of The Godfather and entered Hollywood history. He played Carlo Rizzi, the husband of Connie Corleone, who set her brother Sonny—played by James Caan—up for a hit. Russo didn't have to act—he knew the mob inside and out: from his childhood in Little Italy, where Mafia legend Frank Costello took him under his wing, to acting as a messenger for New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello during the Kennedy assassination, to having to go on the lam after shooting and killing a member of the Colombian drug cartel in his Vegas club. Along the way, Russo befriended Frank Sinatra, who became his son's godfather, and Marlon Brando, who mentored his career as an actor after trying to get Francis Ford Coppola to fire him from The Godfather. Russo had passionate affairs with Marilyn Monroe, Liza Minelli, and scores of other celebrities. He went on to become a producer and starred in The Godfather: Parts I and II, Seabiscuit, Any Given Sunday and Rush Hour 2, among many other films. Hollywood Godfather is a no-holds-barred account of a life filled with violence, glamour, sex—and fun.

Author : Michael Franzese
Publisher : Thomas Nelson Inc
Page : 175 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2010-10-06
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781595554277

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I'll Make You an Offer You Can't Refuse by Michael Franzese Pdf

What can a one-time mob boss teach you about how to run a business? I'll Make You an Offer You Can't Refuse, written by a former member of the Colombo crime family, promises an insider's view of the mob that will change the way you do business forever. The first thing you'll learn? Get a plan, work it hard, be smart, and surround yourself with people who know how to help you reach your goals--people like Michael Franzese. At the height of his involvement in the mafia, Franzese ran rackets that earned him millions of dollars every week. After serving his time, Franzese quit the mob and dedicated his life to making a positive impact on the world by sharing what he's learned along the way. Now, he's a consultant who has helped everyone from high-powered executives to small business owners learn how to make the most out of their businesses--and, more importantly, how to do it honestly. As one of the few who quit the mob and lived to tell his story, Franzese has a unique perspective on how the mafia does business. Packed with hard-won experience, street smarts, and just a pinch of philosophy, I'll Make You an Offer You Can't Refuse shares the professional advice (and the life lessons) that Franzese learned firsthand, including: The importance of cutting to the chase The value of having a good crew How to start learning from your failures The danger of bending the rules How to come out ahead in your negotiations Why you should lead with your brain instead of your mouth How to think about real success Business is business. Let your friend Franzese give you a tip or two about how to run yours better.

Author : Catherine Wismer
Publisher : James Lorimer & Company
Page : 274 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2014-10-10
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781459406520

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Sweethearts by Catherine Wismer Pdf

Toronto was Boomtown in the 1960s. The city was growing quickly, gobbling up farmland for suburbs, pushing through expressways, knocking down neighbourhoods to make way for high-rise apartments. With the rapidly growing population, there was huge demand for new housing. Toronto needed apartments, lots of them. It was a perfect market for a new kind of housing – high-rise apartments, replacing older low-density houses and sitting alongside the expressways in the suburbs. Housing was a great business for making lots of money, quickly. Young entrepreneurs, many of them Jewish, seized the opportunities. But when they went looking for financing, their projects didn’t fit the rules and regulations of the banks and the insurance companies. So they turned to other sources of funds. Like John Pullman, who came to Toronto with money to lend that belonged to mob genius Meyer Lansky and his associates. Source of the cash: the mob’s profitable gambling operations in the U.S and the Caribbean. Building high-rise apartments takes lots of construction workers. Toronto attracted thousands of immigrants, many from Italy, ready and willing to work. Unscrupulous subcontractors found it easy to exploit labourers who spoke little English. The men were ripe for unions, and union leaders saw the opportunity. But residential construction unions in Toronto had close Mob ties. Corrupt officials could extract money from the developers as well as their members. Extortionists, hit men, mysterious fires, accidents, wildcat strikes – it was a wild scene. Writer Catherine Wismer follows all these threads in her fascinating account of this colourful and little-known episode in Toronto’s colourful history.