Cosa Nostra News

We don't usually see what we are seeing this summer.... A good number of readers are purchasing Mafia-related nonfiction lately. (Apparently, the Bonanno crime family is garnering the most interest . ) The No. 1 seller on our Amazon affiliate list. Understand that this is all based on our informal, highly un-technical review of our Amazon sales data for July and thus far into August. We are only including a list of titles -- not sales data. We will say that we see these kinds of numbers only in December.

Kirkus  describes  it as "a  straightforward update to the notorious 1978 Lufthansa Airlines heist. Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Anthony DeStefano understands the difficulty of opening new aspects of a crime immortalized in journalism, memoirs, and the film Goodfellas. James Burke, aka Jimmy the Gent. “Of all the Mafia heists, rip-offs, scores, and plunders, none has been more iconic a part of American popular culture than the brazen [Lufthansa] robbery.” Vincent Asaro, who now faces 20 years in prison on charges related to arson, was charged with (and acquitted of) co-masterminding the infamous $6 million Lufthansa heist with James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke; Asaro also was charged with (and acquitted of) murdering Paul Katz, a suspected mob snitch strangled to death with a dog leash.

Last Don Standing: The Secret Life of Mafia Boss Ralph Natale by Larry McShane and Dan Pearson will be available in the U.S. next March.  The Amazon Kindle version is available for pre-order now at the discounted price of $12.99, a savings of 50 percent. The book, about the life of a former boss of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra will download to Kindle devices on March 21, 2017. Natale is the first-ever mob boss to turn state’s evidence, as the book's description notes .

Today marks the Kindle debut of Louis P. DiVita's A Wiser Guy -- so readers can purchase it in whatever format they prefer: ebook , hardcover or paperback . (Be sure to check out Louis's website , where the above trailer is posted, along with additional information.) In A Wiser Guy , DiVita -- whose grandfather was Paul Palmeri and great uncle Benedetto Angelo, aka "Buffalo Bill," Joseph DiCarlo 's partner -- shares personal and colorful anecdotes about life among high-profile members of the American Mafia from around the 1920s to the present. DiVita's forebears, originally from Sicily's Castellammare Del Golfo , first played a decades-long role in upstate New York where they were closely allied with mob bosses Stefano Magaddino and Joseph DiCarlo. The Palmeri brothers initially planted their flags in Buffalo and Niagara Falls; they had associations with major Canadian mobsters of the day, such as Rocco Perri. These relationships had ramificatio...

Larry McShane covers the Mafia, among other things, for the New York Daily News ; he authored a book about Vincent "The Chin" Gigante  that is available now. Chin: The Life and Crimes of Mafia Boss Vincent Gigante will be available on May 31. (McShane also had a hand in writing Ralph Natale's memoirs, as noted , which is due for release next year but is already available for preorder in the U.K. The title, Lost Lives and Forgotten Vows: The Ralph Natale Story , may change, as the book's publisher noted.) First biography of the Oddfather McShane's Gigante offering is a welcomed addition to Mafia-related nonfiction, and since it is the first book dedicated solely to The Chin, it fills a huge void as well. Previously, Selwyn Raab's Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires  included details of Gigante's reign as part of its overview of the New York Mafia. Gigante's daughter also has written ...

Click image to purchase It was surprising enough that Gangland News hawked a nonfiction book about the mob's doings written under a pen name, but now the New York Daily News went and interviewed this fella too. "Frank Palmeri" is the pseudonymous author of Bugs, Bull, & Rats , which the Daily News describes as "an anecdotal recounting of some of the mob’s most notorious hits and hit men." (Note to Daily News: you misspelled the guy's name -- it's Palmeri not Palmieri. I am seeking work if you need a proofreader ...) As for the inducted mobster who  wrote the book : Palmeri is not my real name because even though I make my living now by legitimate means, I'm still a member of the Mafia. I always will be. As I said, I swore the oath. The Mafia is more than a crime organization; it's the life you live. I served time because of a wire-wearing rat. Now I'm writing this book and sharing information about a secret organization that...

Linda Scarpa's memoir about life with the mob hitter known as the Grim Reaper aka Greg Scarpa. Click on the cover to purchase.... By Nick Christophers, guest contributor, editor of Mob Candy (see his website ): We have been inundated with books, films and TV shows on the subject of the Mafia over the years. Wives, girlfriends and daughters have taken to the pen to expose their experiences. Yet many of them have either “sugar-coated” their stories or they really had no knowledge of “the life.” One of the earliest books that delved deep into the life was “ Mafia Marriage ” by Rosalie Bonanno, who was married to Salvatore Vincent “ Bill” Bonanno , the son of Cosa Nostra boss Joseph Bonanno . Since then there have been many attempts to expose the true meaning of living in that world, e.g., “ This Family of Mine ” by Victoria Gotti, daughter of John Gotti, former boss of the Gambino crime family; “ The Godfather’s Daughter ” by Rita Gigante, daughter of Vincent Louis G...

The Mafia and the Gays by Phillip Crawford Jr., the Friends of Ours blogger , is available at Amazon either as a Kindle e-book for $2.99 or a trade paperback for $9.95. The Friends of Our blog is a must-read for anyone interested in crime -- it offers a comprehensive focus on criminal activity impacting America, including but not limited to traditional organized crime, including the various Mafia grows that expanded beyond Italy. Since 2009, Philip has blogged about organized crime at Friends of Ours . He is the leading authority on the Mafia's historical role in gay bars and has been cited as a major resource in numerous books, foremost among them Alex Horts's The Mob and the City and John Strausbaugh's The Village.

Click on the cover to purchase We'd like to give a shout out to the  Reading Ghost blogger  for crafting a review of  Inside the Last Great Mafia Empire  that highlights a key aspect of our approach to writing The Cicale Files series . Mob books such as  Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires  tend to provide detailed overviews of organized crime, focusing on a particular crime family, city, or period of time. Often an abundance of names, biographies, storylines, dates and other details swamp the reader.  And we have wondered how much most readers really take away from these books once they finish the last page... As bloggers writing about the subject, we of course love these books and we eagerly consume even the footnotes and details regarding source material. But in this case we refer to  the mainstream reader , not only the Mafia junkie.