Synopses & Reviews
The riveting, often bloody account of how the fifty-year attack by the federal government virtually extinguished the nation's most powerful crime syndicateIn the critically acclaimed American Mafia, Thomas Reppetto narrated the ferocious ascendancy of organized crime in America. In this fascinating sequel, he follows the mob from its peak into a shadowy period of decline as the government, no longer able to deny its existence, made subduing the Mafia a matter of national priority.
Reppetto draws on a lifetime of field experience to tell the stories of the Mafia's twentieth-century leadership, showing how men such as Sam Giancana and John Gotti became household names. Crusaders like Robert Kennedy led concerted--if sometimes sporadic--attacks against organized crime. As the battles between the feds and the Mafia moved from the streets to the courtrooms, Reppetto describes how it came to resemble a conflict between sovereign powers.
In direct, shoot-from-the-hip prose, Reppetto chronicles a turning point in American Mafia history, and offers the provocative theory that, given the right formula of connections and shrewd business, a new generation of multinational criminals may be poised to take up the Mafia's mantle.
Synopsis
A companion volume to American Mafia provides a compelling account of the federal government's fifty-year battle to bring down America's most powerful crime syndicate, drawing on years of field experience to profile Mafia leaders and the strategies used to bring them down.
Synopsis
"American Mafia . . . was lucid, concise, and devoid of sensationalism . . . This equally well-written sequel [is] cogent [and] coherent."--The New York Times Book Review In his critically acclaimed
American Mafia, Thomas Reppetto revealed the details of organized crime's ascendancy in America. His fascinating sequel follows the mob after its peak during Prohibition and the mayhem that followed. Drawing on a lifetime of field experience, he tells the stories of the Mafia's twentieth-century bosses, showing how men such as Sam Giancana, "Crazy Joe" Gallo, and John Gotti became household names. By 1960 crusaders such as Robert Morgenthau, U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani, Robert Kennedy, and scores of ordinary cops and U.S. marshals began to gain the upper hand in what became a war against organized crime.
In vivid, fast-paced prose, Bringing Down the Mob reads like a dramatic fifty-year military campaign. Reppetto concludes his lively history with evidence for a provocative theory that, given the right formula of global connections and shrewd business decisions, a new generation of multinational criminals appears poised to take up the Mafia mantle.
About the Author
Thomas Reppetto is a former Chicago commander of detectives and was president of New York City's Citizens Crime Commission for more than twenty years. He is the author of NYPD: A City and Its Police, a New York Times Notable Book, and of American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power (0-8050-7798-7). He lives in Westchester, New York.