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Bringing Down the Mob: The War Against the American Mafia [Hardcover]

Thomas Reppetto (Author)
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)


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Book Description

October 31, 2006 0805078029 978-0805078022 1st
The riveting, often bloody account of how the fifty-year attack by the federal government virtually extinguished the nation's most powerful crime syndicate

In the critically acclaimed American Mafia, Thomas Reppetto narrated the ferocious ascendancy of organized crime in America. In this fascinating sequel, he follows the mob from its peak into a shadowy period of decline as the government, no longer able to deny its existence, made subduing the Mafia a matter of national priority.

Reppetto draws on a lifetime of field experience to tell the stories of the Mafia's twentieth-century leadership, showing how men such as Sam Giancana and John Gotti became household names. Crusaders like Robert Kennedy led concerted--if sometimes sporadic--attacks against organized crime. As the battles between the feds and the Mafia moved from the streets to the courtrooms, Reppetto describes how it came to resemble a conflict between sovereign powers.

In direct, shoot-from-the-hip prose, Reppetto chronicles a turning point in American Mafia history, and offers the provocative theory that, given the right formula of connections and shrewd business, a new generation of multinational criminals may be poised to take up the Mafia's mantle.


Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Reppetto, who served as a commander of detectives with the Chicago police and was president of New York City's Citizens Crime Commission for more than 20 years, is one of the rare commentators on the contemporary Mafia who has been able to view the Mob's power grabs and struggles from the inside. This account follows his acclaimed American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power (2003). Whereas that book (ending in the early 1950s) focused on the many strands of organized crime coalescing into a multifaceted force that functioned almost as an independent state within the U.S., this volume traces the decline of the Mafia from the Apalachin raid of top-level mobsters meeting in New York through Robert Kennedy's Mafia-busting campaign, and on to the planting in a cornfield of Chicago mobster Tony Spilotro, and the incarceration of New York crime boss John Gotti. Reppetto concludes this exhaustive and fascinating study with an analysis of the scattered state of the Mafia today. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"American Mafia... was lucid, concise, and devoid of sensationalism... This equally well-written sequel is cogent and coherent." - The New York Times Book Review" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.; 1st edition (October 31, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0805078029
  • ISBN-13: 978-0805078022
  • Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,381,027 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.9 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Another impressive book by this author!, June 24, 2007
This review is from: Bringing Down the Mob: The War Against the American Mafia (Hardcover)
After reading "American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power" l looked forward to the author's second book on the history of the decline of the American Mafia and am happy to write that l thoroughly enjoyed it and in fact it is superior to his first book. Thomas Reppetto brings his substantial experience of law enforcement combined with his brilliant historical analysis of organized crime and is able to write a precise, informative and profound book. If you only read two books on the history of the American Mafia you cannot go wrong if you read these two books.

The book begins with the famous raid on a meeting of national mafia kingpins at Apalachin on a mild November day in 1957 led by Detective Sergeant Edgar Croswell of the New York State Police. The author debunks the theory it was a random raid by some hick country cops but a predetermined blow at organized crime by a polished and professional group of able and determined policeman. So this chapter sets the tone of the book as it details the efforts of the various state and Federal Police Agencies and Justice Departments (including the FBI playing catch-up after years of neglect by Hoover) to gain intelligence about the illegal operations of the mafia families and its mobsters with a view to putting the mafia families out of business (such as construction, transport, union racketeering, garbage disposal, fruit and meat markets, share trading and allowing legitimate business to flourish without criminal interference) and putting the mobsters away in jail for as long as possible.

The law enforcement agencies were helped in their task by favorable Federal Government legislation from the 1960's onward. Some important legislation was the 1968 Organized Crime Control Act which authorized the USA Attorney General to apply to Federal judges to obtain a warrant for electronic eavesdropping, the new law also enabled tapes and bugs to be admitted as evidence in courts of law. The RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Statute) proved to be an essential and very successful law to convict many criminals and mafia members.

The author states that Hoover was reluctant to move against the mob for many years not because he was scared of it but because of the powerful political contacts and protection the Mob had especially in the big cities like New York, Chicago, Buffalo etc, Hoover wanted to keep his job and was not game to upset certain powerful politicians and he worried his agents could be corrupted by too much exposure to the Mob and political pressure. By the 1980's the wheel had done a full turn as the FBI went all out to put the Mob out of business, it was helped greatly by the Reagan administration with extra funds and resources. The book reveals the efforts of many people who were determined to win this war such as Bobby Kennedy, G Robert Blakey (who drafted the RICO laws) and countless Federal and State detectives, policeman and attorneys.

Since 09/11 much of the FBI resources have been directed to the war on terror possibly at the expense of the war on the Mob which includes not only the Mafia but other well organised gangs, l wonder at times if the Mob is in a state of renewal and becoming stronger again; I hope not!
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A police like style to discussing the mob, May 22, 2007
By 
William D. Tompkins (New York, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Bringing Down the Mob: The War Against the American Mafia (Hardcover)
This book is written in a tex-book style which is so perfectly crafted with police like detail to thehistory of mob events. The only mis-representation for the book is the cover which almost led me to believe that this would have been written with a yellow journalism tinge to it, rather the book is crafted most perfectly and reads with absolute flow.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Authentic and Authoritative, May 30, 2007
This review is from: Bringing Down the Mob: The War Against the American Mafia (Hardcover)
There are few people who can chronicle a topic in criminal justice with the scholarly erudition of Tom Reppetto. He combines his innate brilliance, his distinguished law enforcement career and his superb academic credentials in presenting a factual, detailed and accurate account of the government's efforts against the criminality of the American Mafia. The precision of his definition as well as his dedication to a factual accounting sets him apart from other authors writing about the "mafia" with their primary objective of appealing to the prurient entertainment interests of the unwary American reader. If you want to know [...] the American Mafia, Mr. Reppetto's works are a must read. Standing above and apart from the "spaccones", he is distinguished in his efforts.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
mob watchers, organized crime experts, mob world, organized crime squad, top hoodlums, mob life, street tax, mob families, organized crime task force, mob family, acting boss, organized crime strike force, mob figures, mob guys, law enforcement sources, national syndicate, mob bosses
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, United States, New Jersey, Robert Kennedy, American Mafia, Jimmy Hoffa, New Orleans, Atlantic City, Edgar Hoover, White House, Las Vegas, John Gotti, Kansas City, Los Angeles, World War, Eastern District, Frank Costello, Allen Dorfman, Carlo Gambino, Chicago Outfit, Sam Giancana, Tony Accardo, Lucky Luciano, President Kennedy, Tommy Lucchese
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