Customer Reviews

Breakshot: A Life in the 21st Century American Mafia

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

kenji gives us a 1st hand account about his criminal past. he started at a young age commanding a crew and supplying cocaine in california and the west coast. he met and worked for joe avilla at his club and dealing with people like gisleda bianco (who has at least 40 homicides to her credit). gallo wasn't just into cocaine, he was into every thing that could make money. eventually his past caught up to him,getting arrested for murder. during this time he worked with a cop ,who was a crook. kenji found out that the "game is rigged". his life led him to porn and then new york to work with the colombo and lucchese family as an informant. once you pick up this book you won't put it down. its not just a mafia book. its a book about crime and redemption. gauranteed non-stop action.

I was given this book. I do not read true crime. I started reading about the life of Porn Stars and I was drawn into the book.
I started at first page on Friday night and I was done Sunday by 10am!
It was a non-stop barrage of Violent crime and action. I could see how he grew and the love of one women helped him.

A great read if you like crime.

JK

Great read.The drug game,the porn ,LCN, with a mix of violence.. and scams that would be a grifters wet dream.Kenny puts it all out there and holds nothing back...if he is taunting his haters on his blog he is living the life in the OC ,no hiding for this guy.A straight up rollar coaster ride that you wont want to get off.This book ranks up there with Murder Machine and The Mexican Mafia.No holds barred..

Could not put it down! I don't tend to read alot of true crime books as I usually find them all a slighty different verzion of the same old story. I was given Breakshot as a gift due to part of the story taking place in Orange County, California. As a former resident, I can attest to the fact that this is as unlikely a setting as one finds for this type of story to unfold in. Picture Goodfellas being filmed on the Gidget soundstage and you get the picture of why this is the case. From the beaches of Southern California to the burroughs of New York this story outlines one man's improbable rise to crime superstardom and not a page is turned without you wanting more. Dirty cops, porn stars, mass murdering cocaine traffickers all make cameo appearences in this gangster's amazing life.I opened the book with a vague interest in the story. I closed it realizing that I had just finished the most interesting true crime book I had ever read. Even more entertaing and improbable then the story of Henry Hill.

Very entertaining book about the most unlikely gangster you could ever find: a Japanese-American kid from a good family who did it just for the thrill of it, Kenji Gallo recounts his memories as a teenage drug trafficker, porno entrepreneur, elite escort pimp, mafia associate and, in the end, FBI informant.

Kenji narrates things as he sees them today from confinement and, as opposed to most crime books out there, this one does not glorify the mafiosi as some sort of cool valiant warriors of honour. Just the porn world and L.A. mafia stories, written in Matthew Randazzo's signature epithet-heavy and harsh style, will give you your money's worth.

And if that was not enough there is a fascinating cast of characters, too outrageous to be anything but the honest-to-God truth, including crooked narcotics investigator Jerry Head, Latino heartthrob/surfer/cocaine cowboy Joey Avila, Mike Marvich ("the Keyser Soze of the California underworld"), sociopathic Colombian coke Godmother Griselda Blanco aka "Mama Coca", Jewish conman Jerry Zimmerman and Peter North (yes, that Peter North).

Kenny opened his soul to the writer and the result is one of the freshest and most entertaining genre books that you are going to find.

I had no idea this would be a good book. I read it in 3 days! I could not put it down. The cocaine filled 80's, the 90's porn game and the Mafia make this a must read book on crime!
This is one of the best true crime books ever. I do not agree with being a rat and turning on friends,but this Kenji is gangster.
Anyone who claims it is a bad read never read the book.
The cocaine cowboys in this book jump out at you. The grind of the Mafia comes through like the movie Donnie Brasco. The guys in book like Mike Marvitch, Jerry Head are just evil!
The Last Mafioso
Wiseguy
Donnie Brasco
Breakshot

These are the books on street life. Kenji takes it modern.

Read this book.

Nothing gets held back in Breakshot as Kenny "Kenji" Gallo provides readers with an unsettling, honest, straight-forward, un-censored version of life in the Mafia. It's not glorified. It's not cool. It's awful. That is exactly what you find throughout the pages--the reader gets the bare bones, stripped down, harsh reality version of the mob lifestyle. This is not the Sopranos. What Gallo chronicles throughout the pages of Breakshot has not received a glossy Hollywood treatment. This mob informant is the real deal. Gallo wants the public to understand what he went through, the mistakes he made, and what he saw by infiltrating mob families in California, Florida and New York. Gallo, an Asian-American middle-class "kid" from Orange County, has a solid memory for his interactions with wise guys on all levels within numerous influential families. He had the charisma and talents to gain the confidence of major players in these different mafia families.

This book is so good, I can't put it down. A real life Mafia story. I had seen Kenny Gallo on a TV show, and then I heard there was a book about this kid who grew up in one of the nicest areas of the country in Irvine, CA. Fascinating that he became a mobster.

Breakshot is one of the most entertaining crime non fiction books I have read. Reads like a true life GRAND THEFT AUTO game come to life. Kenny Gallo is a Gen Ex'er asian-american thug from Los Angeles who somehow survives the cocaine wars of the 80's, becomes a porn producer, and then at the end becomes NYC mafia associate. He has unique storytelling ability that is both funny and scary at the same time

Gallo never sugar coats his story or makes himself appear to be more important then is (usually the shortcoming of Mafia books - See Henry Hill in WiseGuy).

If your fan of crime books, GTA video games, or the porn industry, this book is a must read. After reading this book, read Michael Franzese's Book Quitting the Mob as a companion piece since some of the same figures appear in both books.

There is really one funny story after another. Including one where he goes to UTAH to collect payment from a high class hooker hiding out in her parents house. LOL!

Gallo takes a lie detector test at the end of the book and passes to prove that all the stories are real and factual.

This reads like a madman is writing it. A big bad ass that had links with the cosa nostra (notice I no longer use Capitals on the name, it has lost its shine, that's for sure) and terrorized any one one on his path if he deemed necessary, which he most always did. Corroborated by multiple polygraphs, his story is authenticated by such controlling powers. Like me saying this is the best and having an agency test my words for validity and then given me the seal of approval. Everything is Hollywood these days and no one is immune from "Going Hollywood" (Supertramp) and so his story unfolds at a rapid pace right until the moment where incredulity starts showing its doubtful face. Corrupted Irvine narcotic officer (believable), hanging around with capos of different mafia families (take it with a grain of salt these days), porno entrepreneur, rubbing elbows with the black widow of the cocaine traffickers, the famous Imelda who ended in Irvine at one time, when most doors in this great country started closing on her type, violent violent nature with a giggling twist (part enjoyment, part uncontrollable according to the tale), the book thrives in shock value.
Interesting never the less for one can tell right away this guy is not typical in any way, shape or form. The Orange County period in which he earned his reputation included bombs, shootings and countless beatdowns, all told with the assurance and flamboyance of someone with confidence and panache. He sure exhibits a knack for describing things to a hilt, a take no prisoner type account that the reader must determine how much percentage is true and how much comes from the fertile mind of the author.
Now he walks free and is indeed kind of a luminary of sorts. I enjoyed the first part but found the later chapters a little more boring to my taste and that is when I started having my doubts. Still, great effort has gone into editing this book to a fine edge. Included are photos and overall one ends up liking his crazy psycho personality a little more. I like non fiction but the good ones are hard to come by, all the rest are in between readable and not.
The world he describes is out of a movie production, the great smugglings, the connections, the money, the violence, all you need is to take it to the screen. Separating fact from fiction is a rather difficult task, one that I do not want to even pretend I can or would want to do, so 3 Stars from my perspective for Breakshot. I did skip a few pages here and there once I realized that it had lost some of its steam.