Bullets Over Hollywood by John McCarty A lively history of gangsters in American film and an insightful look at why we love them. The gangster, like the gunslinger, is a classic American character--and the gangster movie, like the Western, is one of the American cinema's enduring film genres. From Scarface to White Heat, from The Godfather to The Usual Suspects, from Once Upon a Time in America to Road to Perdition gangland on the screen remains as popular as ever. In Bullets over Hollywood, film scholar John McCarty traces the history of mob flicks and reveals why the films are so beloved by Americans. As McCarty demonstrates, the themes, characters, landscapes, stories--the overall iconography--of the gangster genre have proven resilient enough to be updated, reshaped, and expanded upon to connect with even today's young audiences. Packed with fascinating behind-the-scenes anecdotes and information about real-life hoods and their cinematic alter egos, insightful analysis, and a solid historical perspective, Bullets over Hollywood will be the definitive book on the gangster movie for years to come. Reviews "According to McCarty, Americans admire the antihero gangster because he's an unbound character who goes where he wants, does what he wants and 'takes no bull from anybody.' The author conveys the appeal of these reckless outlaws, personified in film by such icons as Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney, through concise analyses of key crime films and well-drawn personal histories of the genre's central stars, directors and writers." -- Publisher’s Weekly “This is a wonderful, rich dazzler of a book that belongs on every film bookshelf. It wisely balances opinion and history with gossip and anecdote, making for the definitive word on the subject. And also making for a helluva great read.” —Ed Gorman, author of the Sam McCain mysteries “This is the definitive study of the gangster movie. Mr. McCarty goes beyond the standard historical textbook; he peels back complicated layers, bringing to light observations about film as a reflection of real life, and interpreting the fine line between character and caricature, man and actor. Every page provides a deep insight into the gangster hero without diminishing his enigmatic power.” —Elaina Archer, producer of Rita and Clara Bow: Discovering the “It” Girl “Bullets Over Hollywood is that rarest of beasts: an impeccably-researched sourcebook so powerful it sinks its fangs into you and won’t let go. McCarty is brilliant in analyzing the different gangster types.…and the stories he tells are sometimes fall-down funny. The appendixes alone—the gangster films year by year, Oscar-winning films and performances, a marvelous bibliography—are worth the price of admission. This is a must-read for anyone who has ever loved the movies.” —Joe Gores, author, 32 Cadillacs and Cons, Scams & Grifts About the Author John McCarty is an adjunct professor of cinema in the Department of Theatre at SUNY, Albany, and the author of more than thirty books, including The Fearmakers, The Sleaze Merchants, and The Films of Mel Gibson. He lives in upstate New York.

The Way Of The Wiseguy by Joseph Pistone **** INTERVIEW WITH JOSEPH PISTONE AKA DONNIE BRASCO **** Here's the first nonfiction work from author Joe Pistone since his New York Times #1 bestseller and hit movie, Donnie Brasco. Perhaps no man alive knows the inner workings and lifestyle of wiseguys better than Pistone does, having spent six years infiltrating the Mafia as an undercover FBI agent. Now, years later, Pistone reassesses what the underworld was really about. Occasionally poignant, always in shocking detail, The Way of the Wiseguy gives readers a first-hand look at the thinking, psychology, and customs that make wiseguys a unique breed. The book is divided into anecdotes that reveal key principles of wiseguy life, including "Don't Volunteer You Don't Know Something," "Be a Good Earner," "Look Like You Mean Business, "It's Your Best Friend Who Will Kill You," and much more. The stories-more than 80 of them-are spellbinding, and the insights into this lawless realm of badguys are often uncannily relevant to the workings of the legitimate world of big business and everyday social discourses.

Cigar City Mafia by Scott Deitche Bootleggers, gambling ringleaders, arsonists, narcotics dealers, and gang murderers-a variety of characters flourished in the era known as Prohibition, and Tampa, Florida was where they battled for supremacy of the criminal underworld. With meticulous detail, Scott M. Deitche documents the rise of the infamous Trafficante family, ruthless competitors in a "violent, shifting place, where loyalties and power quickly changed." Ybor City, the region of Tampa known as Little Havana, was a hard-working, multi-ethnic community, pillared by the cigar industry. With ambitions of greater power and money, the young Italian mob had to contend with the likes of Charlie Wall, old school dean of the underworld, the Cuban Syndicate, and thousands of corrupt police officers who exchanged loyalties for dollars. Complete with a profile index of each known Trafficante family member, Cigar City Mafia is the only chronology of the Tampa underworld to show readers the local factories, bolita gambling houses, and the Hillsborough River, where a new body floated to the surface practically every other day. About the Author Scott M. Deitche was born and raised in central New Jersey. He has had a number of articles published on organized crime and its manifestations in Florida. His work and research on the topic has been featured on Fox-TV.He resides in St. Petersburg, Florida with his wife and daughter.

Simone - The Last Mouthpiece by Robert F.Simone From Library Journal Simone, a convicted and disbarred attorney known for his success in representing Philadelphia organized-crime figures, pens his fascinating memoirs. He is proud to have been a "mouthpiece" for the mob, believing that everyone is entitled to a fair trial. Blunt and funny, Simone recounts how he scraped through law school while betting on horses and sports. After winning a high-profile burglary acquittal for a bar hostess, he attracted the attention of the Philadelphia Mafia. The Mafia lent him money but told him to stop gambling. Simone describes his many winning cases, including his own prosecutions in tax and perjury cases. He is out to settle scores with those who wronged him and names prosecutors and agents who "free more criminals than all the best defense lawyers in the country." He argues that the government should not use informants because they are inherently untrustworthy. Simone prefers the "stand up" former clients who are in prison. The author was convicted of extorting money from drug dealers for the Mob but is attempting to practice law again. The verdict on this book? What Simone has to say about the use of informants should be taken seriously, but ultimately this is a one-sided, juicy rant against the criminal justice system today by an ex-Mafia mouthpiece and, in that regard, enjoyable reading. Recommended for public libraries. Harry Charles, Attorney at Law, St. Louis Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Blood And Honor by George Anastasia Here is the critically acclaimed inside story about the rise and fall of Philadelphia’s notorious Scarfo organization. Blunt and graphic, Blood and Honor: Inside the Scarfo Mob—The Mafia’s Most Violent Family (Camino Books) is a firsthand account of murder, money, and corruption told from the perspective of wise guy-turned-witness Nick Caramandi. It was Caramandi who helped Nicky Scarfo get his hooks into the legitimate world of politicians, judges, unions, entertainment, casinos, and all the rest. In Caramandi’s words, “Wherever there’s money, that’s where we are. Wherever there’s power. You understand?” Author George Anastasia shows the world how well Scarfo understood those fatal words. A veteran Philadelphia Inquirer reporter who spent years researching some of the most notorious mob figures of all time, Anastasia begins this fascinating book in 1980 with the murder of boss Angelo Bruno. This single act of violence officially ended Bruno’s long, low-profile rule of the Philadelphia mob and unleashed a fierce struggle for its control. Anastasia then takes the reader through the bloodletting that ensued—years of carnage that eventually claimed the lives of twenty-eight members and associates of the city’s La Cosa Nostra and left Scarfo its undisputed head. Any notions a reader may have of a Mafia “code of honor” will crumble upon reading this chilling story of Scarfo’s rise to power and brutal reign. Caramandi’s testimony resulted in more than fifty convictions, bringing down Scarfo as well as launching wide-ranging investigations into the broader Mafia underworld. A prime target for hit men to this day, Caramandi continues to survive only through the government’s Federal Witness Protection Program, while Scarfo and many of his associates spend the rest of their lives behind bars. In this new and updated edition, Anastasia picks up the story where he left off, filling us in on the fates of all the characters—major and minor—since first publication of Blood and Honor. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: George Anastasia, a veteran reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, is the author of four books of nonfiction, including three about the Philadelphia mob. He has won many awards for investigative journalism and magazine writing.

Gods Rat:Jewish Mafia on the Lower East Side by Mike Bookman I've always been an avid fan of coming of age sagas in the classic American tradition of. Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield. Abie Isaacs the fifteen-year-old protagonist in Michael Bookman's contribution to this genre, God's Rat, is in their league. Abie experiences his growing pains on the squalid streets of the Jewish east side early in the last Century as a member of a violent street gang, The Stanton Street Boys. The story pivots on the Rosenthal/ Becker Affair which is a sticky wicket still hotly debated by historians ninety years after the fact. As a history buff I can attest Bookman has done his homework. A notoriously crooked cop, NYC Police Lieutenant Charles Becker, is convicted and ultimately executed for masterminding the murder of the gangster Herman Rosenthal. Rosenthal is murdered because his talking to the press threatens to overthrow the "System", a deeply entrenched coalition of Tammany power brokers, the police, and the underworld. That is the part everybody accepts. The debate rages over whether Lieutenant Becker was guilty as changed, or framed by both a yellow press who labeled him "the killer cop" and a power mad DA, Charles Seymour Whitman, who knowingly prosecuted an innocent man as a necessary stepping stone on the road to become New York's next Governor. Bookman embraces the latter version. In God's Rat, a seamless mélange of fact and fiction, Abie Isaacs overhears his mother's former pimp, Morris "The Pimp" Schiff and Tammany heavy Senator Big Tim Sullivan plotting the murder of Herman Rosenthal and the framing of Lieutenant Becker. Abie, in spite of his own gangster scruples, feels compelled to warn Rosenthal. As a result he earns the potentially lethal epithet "Rat" and his world is never the same. Bookman's poignant depiction of a besieged adolescent bad boy, who finds the capacity to understand, forgive and change, is heart rending and convincing. The writing is fast paced and intelligent; the descriptions, vivid; the tone wry; the dialogue real. You see, feel, and hear the gangsters, the pimps and the whores. God's Rat presents a Lower East Side you probably never knew existed. And now that you know, you'll never forget. Steve Collins - Reviewer: Steve Collins from Chevy Chase, MD

YO Capeesh!!!!: Funny? I laughed so hard i dropped my cannoli!.....almost. by James Caridi Yo Capeesh!!!! is a humorous, nostalgic, educational and sentimental guide to Italian Americana. It was written in a way that would appeal to many of the 25 million Italian Americans and those familiar with them. It is especially useful for those individuals smitten with the Italian American media. Using humor as its focus, portions of the book are educational and can be used by all as a reference. It not only addresses Italian American heroes, songs and traditions but also phonetically and occasionally pictorially defines typical clichés, mannerisms, speech and food used in movies, TV and the stereotypical Italian American home. For those who are infatuated with the Mob, a chapter entitled "How the boys say it" explains many of the expressions and origins of organized crime vernacular. This chapter was included because of the somewhat crazed interest for this media genre and is sensitive to the majority of Italian Americans it does not represent. Briefly, Yo Capeesh!!!! is a whimsical, entertaining guide that has widespread appeal not only for Italian Americans but also for those who are interested in the allure and mystique of this unique and pervasive sub-culture.

Takedown:The Fall of The Last Mafia Empire by Rick Cowan In 1992, New York City detective Cowan was investigating a truck bombing at a Brooklyn garbage transfer station when the "mobbed-up" thugs responsible for the crime showed up to further intimidate Sal Benedetto, the facility's owner. Thinking fast, Benedetto introduced Cowan as his "Cousin Danny," thereby averting disaster-and allowing Cowen entry into a landmark investigation in which he went undercover as Danny Benedetto to expose the Mafia's billion-dollar monopoly of the city waste removal business. By the time the grand jury indictments were handed down, Cowan had spent years on the case, helped put away dozens of mobsters and incurred lasting emotional trauma from the strain of leading a double life. Recalling it here in vivid, riveting detail, Cowan (aided by journalist Century) reconstructs a time when he was deeper undercover in the garbage "cartel" than any city cop had ever been, with the close calls to prove it. Whether he's boosting a wiseguy's car to plant a bug, navigating confrontations with goons wielding two-by-fours and baseball bats or suffering through a Mafia Christmas party with a malfunctioning radio transmitter burning into his leg, Cowan's exploits play on the page like scenes from a well-mounted mob movie. The Hollywood producer with the rights to his story won't have to spend a penny juicing it up: this is a well-told, gripping tale of a heroic investigation. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Boss of Bosses: The Fall of the Godfather: The FBI and Paul Castellano by Joseph F. O'Brien In 1983, FBI agents O'Brien and Kurins planted a microphone in Paul Castellano's opulent Staten Island mansion. The 600 hours of recordings led to eight criminal trials, and precipitated this critically-acclaimed and revealing look inside the Mafia.

Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia: A True Story by FBI Agent Joseph D. Pistone Donnie Brasco is Pistone's unforgettable account of how be became part of the mysterious underworld that is the Mafia--the first and only account by a law enforcement agent--and it is amazing and intriguing as the flamboyant, deadly world it portrays. Includes an update in which Pistone comments on new development in the Mafia.

Gotti: Rise and Fall by Jerry Capeci, Gene Mustain Two veteran journalists provide a close-up look at the world of New York organized crime and its colorful leader, John Gotti, detailing Gotti's bloody rise to power and the struggle to bring him to justice. In this explosive true crime thriller, the authors expose the lurid underside of New York's organized crime syndicate and its undisputed leader, John Gotti. Boldly written and masterfully paced, this book gives all of the incredible details behind the downfall of America's most famous and fascinating gangster since Al Capone. Photos.

Goombata: The Improbable Rise and Fall of John Gotti and His Gang by John Cummings, Ernest Volkman Prize-winning journalists Cummings and Volkman provide a shocking account of John Gotti's meteoric rise from Brooklyn "bone-breaker" to Mafia don in this riveting exploration of the bloody machinery of La Cosa Nostra operating on the dark side of the American dream. Includes an updated chapter with complete coverage of late-breaking developments.

Secrets of Life and Death: Women and the Mafia by Renate Siebert The first book to focus on the women whose lives are entangled in the workings of the mafia. Siebert cuts through the mafia's myth of honouring women to expose the harsh reality for women living with, and fighting against, the mafia. With careful attention to the social realities of southern Italy, she looks at what it means to live in the mafia's shadow. She explores the gains and costs of being a mafia wife in New York or Palermo, probing the emotions underlying women's mafia loyalties and the sexual lure of the mafioso.

MY Only Son by Christopher J Gambino "My only Son", is the story of Vinny Denucci, the son of Sonny Denucci, the head of a New York organized crime family and the " Boss of Bosses" of the five (5) Mafia families of New York. The story begins when Vinny is fourteen (14), a naive, intelligent, good-natured boy, who does not fully understand what his father does for a living. Vinny has dreams of becoming a lawyer when he reaches adulthood. Sonny is a ruthless crime lord, who wants his only son to be his successor as head of the crime family. Felicia, Vinny's mother, is a strong willed individual who has grown tired of living the life of a crime boss's wife, and wants her son, with whom she is extremely close, to follow his dreams to a life outside the family.

Made Men: by Greg Smith It wasn't until the success of "The Sopranos" that New Jersey's powerful DeCavalcante family became legitimized in the eyes of big city capos. But a higher profile meant higher risk. Member turned against member, and eventually one of them turned to reporter Greg B. Smith to expose the rise and fall of one of the most notorious families in America.

Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano's Story of Life in the Mafia by Peter Maas Gravano spent his entire life in the mob, his loyalty unswerving until the moment he realized crime boss John Gotti was about to sell him down the river in order to save his own neck. At that point Sammy the Bull "switched governments" and turned state's evidence. John Gotti, according to Gravano, thought he was a celebrity -- an attitude Gravano obviously disapproved of. The relationship between Gotti and Gravano lies at the heart of this story, for loyalty is what Gravano lived by and what he ultimately betrayed. His reasons make for compelling, disturbing reading.

The Mafia Encyclopedia by Carl Sifakis Written by a veteran crime reporter, this bestseller is the most complete and up-to-date source available on the subject. In this "Who's Who" of crime, readers will find the full flavor and substance of Mafia culture, customs, and characters presented in more than 400 articles. More than 95 photos help capture Mafia history from the birth of the brotherhood and the major underworld figures who created it, to the law enforcement agents and organizations who have tried and failed to destroy it. Includes biographical entries of both well- and less well-known wiseguys, their criminal specialties, career highlights, friends and enemies, eccentricities, peccadilloes, and frequently dramatic demises.

List of Mob and OC books and Authors: