Breaking the Mob: The Gripping True Story of a Dedicated Cop Who Led the Fight that Put an Entire Mafia Family out of Business [Paperback]

John Guinther (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 20, 2000

Between 1981 and 1989, Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo was boss of one of the most violent gangs in the history of organized crime, the Philadelphia-Atlantic City mob. Friel describes Scarfo's rise to power, his bloody feud with his arch rival, and the rise and fall of Scarfo's "Young Executioners," who used the streets of Philadelphia as their murder playground. Friel also tells of his efforts to save an innocent man convicted of two mob murders from the electric air.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A former Philadelphia police captain who rose through the ranks and headed his city's Organized Crime Task Force, Friel played a major role in the breakup of the Nicky Scarfo Mafia family. The Scarfo mob, originally based in the City of Brotherly Love, expanded its focus to include Atlantic City when legalized gambling was approved for the seaside resort. Scarfo, a violent and unpredictable man, had taken over after his two predecessors were murdered within a year; his ascendance set off a wave of killings. Collaborating with Guinther ( Brotherhood of Murder ), Friel tells how police work brought the don and dozens of his underlings to justice in 1989. The book also details Friel's own successful effort to free a wrongly convicted man from death row. But what makes the book especially noteworthy are the authors' insights into the psychology of mobsters and their recommendations for increased efficiency in fighting the drug war, especially interagency cooperation.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Friel led the Organized Crime Task Force which helped convict Philadelphia Mafia boss Nicky Scarfo and others of murder, extortion, and racketeering; Guinther is the author, with Thomas Martinez, of Brotherhood of Murder ( LJ 8/88). Scarfo, whose violence--excessive even by Mafia standards--led to his downfall, has been the subject of two previous books, Joseph Salerno and Stephen J. Rivele's The Plumber ( LJ 1/90) and Donald W. Cox's Mafia Wipeout ( LJ 2/15/90). While this is the most readable account, the book's focus on Friel's successful effort to free a man unjustly convicted of a mob murder, his battle with the police bureaucracy, and his suggestions for investigative reforms, detract from the main story of Scarfo and gang. The definitive account of their crimes has yet to be written.
- Gregor A. Preston, Univ. of California Lib., Davis
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 452 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (March 20, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595000509
• ISBN-13: 978-0595000500
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #985,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Former Philly cop delves deep into the the Scarfo mafia., January 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Breaking the Mob (Paperback)

Frank Friel shows his mettle in this extensively detailed book about his involvement in breaking up the Nicky Scarfo mob in Philadelphia. Friel was the cop end of a special task force where the FBI and local police cooperated in breaking up the Scarfo syndicate.

Friel's descriptions are extensive with interviews with mafia players and extensive details on the construction of Scarfo's mafia hierarchy and the conviction of Philly mafia wiseguys.

At times Friel comes off as too saintly but manages to avoid boring the reader with too much self promotion. Instead, his nuts-and-bolts information on the Philly mob is hard hitting and to the point. He knows all the players well and by the end of the book so will the reader.

Unlike other mafia books where mobsters sound romantic and rebellious, Friel shows the brutality and petty nature of the real deal.

A must-read for anyone beginning to learn about the Philly mob scene.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book, best yet on the most violent mafia family, September 5, 2002

By 

Joseph D. McCaffrey (Hollywood, Florida United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breaking the Mob, true story of a dedicated cop (Hardcover)

The Mafia family in Philadelphia during the 1980s under Nicky Scarfo was by far the most violent group of killers, extortionists, drug dealers, and swindlers in the recent history of the Mafia. Scarfo was a sociopathic killer, ordering killings as a way of doing business, many of his victims were killed on a whim. As the bodies began to pile up, Lt. Friel, a homicide detective, was directed by the Philadelphia Police Department, his employer, to join forces with the FBI's Organized Crime squad.

Friel and the FBI worked well together, a cooperation that resulted in breaking the Mafia's code of silence, and Nicky Scarfo is now serving life plus 40 years. The entire top echelon of the Philadelphia LCN family went to jail with him -- those who he hadn't had murdered during his reign.

Friel is not only a dedicated and very smart cop, he is also a good story-teller. This is an excellent book from start to finish.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Tactics & Strategy, October 1, 2004

By 

James Hercules Sutton (Des Moines, IA (USA)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breaking the Mob: The Gripping True Story of a Dedicated Cop Who Led the Fight that Put an Entire Mafia Family out of Business (Paperback)

are the strong points of this docudrama about the collapse of the mob in Philadelphia in the 1980s, when corruption was rampant in city government, its judiciary, unions and police force. Friel gives us strategy and tactics he used, including interview techniques and psychological gambits. He admits that his method would have failed if trust hadn't broken down in the mob because of actions by a godfather who was thought irrational and vicious by his mobsters. Friel shows how bureaucratic methods are couterproductive--everything from time wasted in report writing to conviction of the innocent. His suggestions for change are consistent with management theory about large-scale organizations. As an investigator, he's thorough and competent; but these very qualities sometimes make it difficult to read this book, as it suffers from heavy prose. There's an irony or two, but never a laugh. Investigating organized crime is serious stuff. "Breaking the Mob" is more penetrating than other first person books about true crime, but less penetrable. Worth reading, as a legacy of how the good guys got the bad guys & what it took to bring them down.