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Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires | 
 enlarge | Author: Selwyn Raab
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
Buy New: $10.45
You Save: $7.50 (42%)
New (26) Used (20) from $8.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  39 reviews
Sales Rank: 13647
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 784
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 5.9 x 2.2
ISBN: 0312361815
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.106097471
EAN: 9780312361815
ASIN: 0312361815
Publication Date: September 5, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Absolutely Brand New & In Stock. 100% 30-Day Money Back. Direct from our warehouse. Ships by USPS. 1+ million customers served-In business since 1986. Happy Customers is Our #1 Goal. Toll Free Support
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Amazon.com
The Mafia has long held a spot in the American imagination. Despite their earned reputation for brutality, the Mafia has been glorified in countless movies, books, and television shows. Not so in this book. Selwyn Raab makes no attempt to perpetuate myths about the Mafia; instead, he exposes them as a serious threat to honest citizens: "The collective goal of the five families of New York was the pillaging of the nation's richest city and region," he writes. These five families--Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese--were responsible for corrupting labor unions in order to control waterfront commerce, garbage collection, the garment industry, and construction in New York. They also ran illegal gambling operations, engaged in stock schemes, and initiated the widespread introduction of heroin (among other drugs) into cities of the East and Midwest in the 1950s, leading to "accelerated crime rates, law-enforcement corruption, and the erosion of inner-city neighborhoods in New York and throughout the United States." Five Families offers a comprehensive look at the inner workings of the various clans along with vivid profiles of the gangsters who led--and continue to maintain--this criminal empire. Beginning with a brief history of the Sicilian origins of the Mafia, Raab exhaustively explains how the Mob took over New York before spreading to cities across America, particularly Las Vegas, their most successful outside venture. He also shows how the New York Mafia lost a great deal of power in the 1980s and '90s due to many significant busts and effective plea-bargaining. However, since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the F.B.I. has been focused mainly on external threats, leaving the Mafia room to regain some lost turf by moving into new avenues of crime. An investigative reporter for 40 years, Raab interviewed dozens of prosecutors, law enforcement officers, Mafia members, informants, and "Mob lawyers," providing anecdotes and inside information that tell the true story of the Mafia and their influence over the past 80 years. --Shawn Carkonen
Product Description
For half a century, the American Mafia outwitted, outmaneuvered, and outgunned the FBI and other police agencies, wreaking unparalleled damages to America’s social fabric and business enterprises while emerging as the nation’s most formidable crime empire. The vanguard of this criminal juggernaut is still led by the Mafia’s most potent and largest borgatas: New York’s Five Families.
Five Families is the vivid story of the rise and fall of New York’s premier dons from Lucky Luciano to Paul Castellano to John Gotti and more. This definitive history brings the reader right up to the possible resurgence of the Mafia as the FBI and local law-enforcement agencies turn their attention to homeland security and away from organized crime. The paperback has been revised and updated, with a new epilogue focusing on the trial of the notorious “Mafia Cops.”
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| Customer Reviews: Read 34 more reviews...
 Interesting and Accurate April 9, 2008
I've read about half the book and I enjoy it very much. It's the best book I've read on this topic from a complete historical and objective perspective.
"Best Mafia Book Ever" February 26, 2008
I've read this book and a few other Mafia books and I can say that after reading this one this is by far the best one. It is a very throughly researched and accurate account of the five main mafia families in the united states. It describes many different individuals in each family from the lowest soldier/associate to the heads of the family themselves.The book also describes about the power that the five mafia families executed throughout the whole New York City area from the beginning of the 1900's up until the 1980's when the were being sought after much more by the FBI and Rudy Gilliani, which eventually led to many of them being prosecuted and convicted.
Add to your library January 28, 2008
Definitely worth the read, particularly if you are interested in exploring New York Mafia. Rita Schiano, author of "Painting the Invisible Man."
WELL WORTH IT!! January 13, 2008
As an avid mob book reader, I found this book to be an extremely good read. A lot of the things about the New York families pretty much has been documented in other books, but it helped me figure out the complex way New Jersey is divided among the families. If you're a vet like myself at reading up on the mob, this may not excite you as much. But if you're a novice then this book is for you.
BEST MAFIA BOOK October 10, 2007
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is the best MAFIA book written thatIve read yet. A very thorough, inclusive book where the authir is able to best describe the attributes of both the mafia lowlifes who prey on innocent people and the cops who chase them. In each description of each mafiosa, we see who they cower and betray any honorable code that they swore to.
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