Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I enjoyed reading this book. It was informative, just as good as a book written by George Anastasia titled "The Goddfella Tapes", In both books, they talk about Philadelphia "La Cosa Nostra" and how law enforcement try to defeat them...Wiretaps, Stake outs, asking questions and getting informants...These books are essentailly "Good VS Bad". Go and get them, you'll enjoy them.

Very good book on Philly mob, this is the 2nd book on this subject that I have read and liked it as much as Blood & Honor.

Some books about criminal mobs by lawmen can fall into the trap of being too judgmental, self righteous and poorly written. This book though strikes the right balance and delivers relevant details of the rackets, history and personalities of the Philadelphia mafia and its mobsters. The book flows well and does not burden the reader with irrelevant comments and long winded sermons.

The success of police tactics in putting pressure on mafia members to turn informer and agree to testify against the mob in court is the link that enables Frank Friel and his fellow officers to build up cases against Scarfo and associates that eventually leads to convictions with long jail sentences and brings down the mob.

Scarfo's bloodthirsty and unstable leadership plays a large part in turning some mafia members (who realize that they also are in unmistakable danger of being bumped off by Scarfo) to become government witness's against the mob.

Friel provides a great deal of information about his conversations and dealings with criminals, the local police and FBI agents. He also does a sidetrack to provide relevant details of corruption in local government and areas of the Philadelphia police force, and this helps the reader to understand how severe the problem of organized crime became for this city. Happily in the end the good guys eventually win and drive the crooks out of town and straight to jail with long sentences.

A detailed look at the multiple Mafia murders in Philedelphia during the Nicky Scarfo era. Friel gives us a great story about the lives and details of Scarfo's gang, but the book can be hard to follow as many cases he mentions were not solved with certainty. We see that the war between Scarfo and the Riccobene gang ended with many bodies on both sides piled up. Treachery was Scarfo's style, and he had his soldiers kill most of his own gang due to his paranoia. This book should be a reason for anyone to realize that the mob life is full of treachery and murder, and that whether you are a capable and loyal soldier or not, your future is either ending up with an early death or a prison term.

I sure reads like one, maybe I'm biased `cause I lived there, grew up with all the doctrine & dogma(not to menton all the great food, they may be killers, but they sure can cook!). I admire the toughness & tenacity[like how "The Hunchback" counted the bullets from the guy shootin` him before he ran out of the phonebooth to tackle him & take away his gun]. This book is a little better, in my opinion, by explaining the details of the connection of the Mayor to the gangsters. I'm sure it's not much different anywhere in the world but you rarely see it documented so well.