Anthony M. DeStefano

An excellent look into the life and times of one of the original Mafioso's, Vito Genovese. The author seems to leave no stone unturned, as he delves deeply into Genovese's story. You will witness his coming up in the Mafia, as well as the tactics and strategies he employed to rise and to stay in power. A incredibly ruthless man!
I was impressed with the author's research. He even managed to unearth information about Genovese's history and duplicity in Italy during World War II. All in all, a very thorough biography.
If you are interested in the "golden age" of the Mafia, this would be a good book to read!… (mere)

Man, this book suffers from false advertising. MOB KILLER: THE BLOODY RAMPAGE blah blah blah -- you'd think this book was about Kuklinski, or at least his equal. Alas, Charlie Canigs is hardly the larger-than-life character that is The Ice Man. We're pretty sure he killed four people (possibly five, but he wasn't convicted of the fifth), and I know it's a horrible thought, but -- that's it? Really? Four people over 10+ years is a bloody rampage? Of course, body count isn't everything. A wiseguy doesn't have to number his victims on two hands to be myth-worthy. For all we know (and we're certainly told it over and over in this book), Charlie Canigs really is a bloodthirsty, sadistic, morbid, sociopathic mobster with few equals in the personality disorders department. The problem is that the book tells us this, but it doesn't show us. And this is largely because Charles Carneglia declined to be interviewed by the author, and the subsequent lack of personality completely cripples the book. MOB KILLER fails to bring Charlie Canigs to life, and I think the author knows it, which is why most of the book isn't even really about Charlie. It's about Gotti, Alite, McMahon, Zuccaro -- all of whom are much more present personalities. We get lots of quotations from these guys -- words straight from the mobsters' mouths -- but I can recall maybe three quotations attributed to Charlie (and even those are hearsay). The guy who supposedly made Gotti dangerous just seems absent from his own book, and that's a real shame.… (mere)

I found this hard going to begin with but don't get me wrong I found it interesting as it went on it was just a style of writing I was not used to.

It is written by reporter Anthony M DeStefano who interviewed Massino's family and friends as well as law enforcement officials.

It tells of the history of the Mafia and how Joseph Massino and his other members continued there business and ultimately ratted each other out.

I was interested in this as watching The Wire at the moment about gangsters in New York and was interested in the wire taps etc that were talked about in this book. How the police/FBI go after the criminals.

I would recommend reading this but stick with it.… (mere)