Nothing beats a good read and there is no better genre (in my admittedly biased view) than that of True CRIME. Fact is so often stranger than fiction and reading about the morality of different eras, the excesses of individuals’ desires and the depths of human behaviour never ceases to interest me.
BOSS OF BOSSES – Joseph F.O’Brien & Andrew Kurins
‘THE FALL OF THE GODFATHER’
Paul Castellano was an old style mafia boss who ruled New York’s Gambino crime family from 1975 to 1985. He lived on sirloin steak and cheesecake, dressed in a satin bathrobe, silk socks and calfskin slippers, rarely leaving his opulent Staten Island mansion.
Visitors were frequent; as were the fat envelopes they brought, cash tributes to Castellano for allowing their criminal enterprises a bite of the juicy Big Apple. It seemed neither rival gangsters nor the feds could lay a glove on Pauly and his empire towered until two FBI agents managed to plant a bug in his kitchen. This is their account of how things came crashing down.
Like all good True CRIME literature, O’Brien and Kurins’ book is a sensitive study of human relationships. Every player from Castellano’s Conciliator Joseph Gallo (‘A natural diplomat, he lied purposefully and with wisdom’) through to his desperate-to-please pet thug Tommy Bilotti with whom Castellano would die, is incisively described. You’ll find yourself nodding in recognition as each character and their position in the crime family structure are introduced, yet the authors’ main fascination is with Castellano himself.
A ten year reign as top dog was born of a powerful mix of personal attributes. Persuasive yet restrained, ruthless but incredibly patient, greed and ambition took Paul Castellano to a position in which it is estimated that he took a quarter from every dollar spent on construction in early eighties New York. Wealth poured in and it bought power, authority and respect.
The bug told another story. The Castellano household, wife Nina and children Connie, Paul Jnr, Joseph and Phillip maintained a façade of normality whilst Paul conducted a bizarre affair with their Colombian maid Gloria. The FBI agents listened in disbelief as Gloria mocked the mob boss, impersonating his accent as he whined about other gangsters and bunions on his feet. Keen to meet his young lover’s needs, he had a bendable tube implanted into his penis. By all accounts Gloria was a dreadful cook.
Over the months of surveillance, O’Brien and Kurins collected enough evidence on Castellano and his associates to cause irreparable damage to the Gambino family. When they went to arrest him they describe a mix of jubilation, regret and respect for a man they knew every intimate detail about, though he knew nothing of them.
The bug had reduced Castellano’s credibility to zero, it had picked up enough information to bury everyone. As he and Tommy Bilotti emerged from a black Cadillac outside Sparks Steak House, they were mown down by a hail of bullets sent by John Gotti.
The agents of his downfall reflected, ‘Only the luckiest mob leaders enjoy the luxury of dying in bed.’
BOSS OF BOSSES – Joseph F.O’Brien & Andrew Kurins
‘THE FALL OF THE GODFATHER’
Paul Castellano was an old style mafia boss who ruled New York’s Gambino crime family from 1975 to 1985. He lived on sirloin steak and cheesecake, dressed in a satin bathrobe, silk socks and calfskin slippers, rarely leaving his opulent Staten Island mansion.
Visitors were frequent; as were the fat envelopes they brought, cash tributes to Castellano for allowing their criminal enterprises a bite of the juicy Big Apple. It seemed neither rival gangsters nor the feds could lay a glove on Pauly and his empire towered until two FBI agents managed to plant a bug in his kitchen. This is their account of how things came crashing down.
Like all good True CRIME literature, O’Brien and Kurins’ book is a sensitive study of human relationships. Every player from Castellano’s Conciliator Joseph Gallo (‘A natural diplomat, he lied purposefully and with wisdom’) through to his desperate-to-please pet thug Tommy Bilotti with whom Castellano would die, is incisively described. You’ll find yourself nodding in recognition as each character and their position in the crime family structure are introduced, yet the authors’ main fascination is with Castellano himself.
A ten year reign as top dog was born of a powerful mix of personal attributes. Persuasive yet restrained, ruthless but incredibly patient, greed and ambition took Paul Castellano to a position in which it is estimated that he took a quarter from every dollar spent on construction in early eighties New York. Wealth poured in and it bought power, authority and respect.
The bug told another story. The Castellano household, wife Nina and children Connie, Paul Jnr, Joseph and Phillip maintained a façade of normality whilst Paul conducted a bizarre affair with their Colombian maid Gloria. The FBI agents listened in disbelief as Gloria mocked the mob boss, impersonating his accent as he whined about other gangsters and bunions on his feet. Keen to meet his young lover’s needs, he had a bendable tube implanted into his penis. By all accounts Gloria was a dreadful cook.
Over the months of surveillance, O’Brien and Kurins collected enough evidence on Castellano and his associates to cause irreparable damage to the Gambino family. When they went to arrest him they describe a mix of jubilation, regret and respect for a man they knew every intimate detail about, though he knew nothing of them.
The bug had reduced Castellano’s credibility to zero, it had picked up enough information to bury everyone. As he and Tommy Bilotti emerged from a black Cadillac outside Sparks Steak House, they were mown down by a hail of bullets sent by John Gotti.
The agents of his downfall reflected, ‘Only the luckiest mob leaders enjoy the luxury of dying in bed.’
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