Bringing Down the Mob: The War Against the American Mafia and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more

Buy New

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime Free Trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn More
Buy Used
Used - Very Good See details
$2.43 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
Kindle Edition
 
   
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Bringing Down the Mob: The War Against the American Mafia
 
 
Start reading Bringing Down the Mob: The War Against the American Mafia on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

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

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

Price: $17.00 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
  Special Offers Available
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Only 3 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).
Want it delivered Wednesday, February 1? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
Textbook Student FREE Two-Day Shipping for Students. Learn more

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition --  
Hardcover --  
Paperback, Bargain Price $6.80  
Paperback, September 4, 2007 $17.00  

Book Description

0805086595 978-0805086591 September 4, 2007 1st
"American Mafia . . . was lucid, concise, and devoid of sensationalism . . . This equally well-written sequel [is] cogent [and] coherent."--The New York Times Book Review
 
In his critically acclaimed American Mafia, Thomas Reppetto revealed the details of organized crime's ascendancy in America. His fascinating sequel follows the mob after its peak during Prohibition and the mayhem that followed. Drawing on a lifetime of field experience, he tells the stories of the Mafia's twentieth-century bosses, showing how men such as Sam Giancana, "Crazy Joe" Gallo, and John Gotti became household names. By 1960 crusaders such as Robert Morgenthau, U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani, Robert Kennedy, and scores of ordinary cops and U.S. marshals began to gain the upper hand in what became a war against organized crime.

In vivid, fast-paced prose, Bringing Down the Mob reads like a dramatic fifty-year military campaign. Reppetto concludes his lively history with evidence for a provocative theory that, given the right formula of global connections and shrewd business decisions, a new generation of multinational criminals appears poised to take up the Mafia mantle.

Special Offers and Product Promotions

  • Buy $50 in qualifying physical textbooks, get $5 in Amazon MP3 Credit. Here's how (restrictions apply)

Frequently Bought Together

Bringing Down the Mob: The War Against the American Mafia + American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power + Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires
Price For All Three: $41.92

Show availability and shipping details

Buy the selected items together
  • In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power $11.33

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires $13.59

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details



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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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"

Product Details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Holt Paperbacks; 1st edition (September 4, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0805086595
  • ISBN-13: 978-0805086591
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,022,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

 

Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
5 star:
 (7)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.9 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Another impressive book by this author!, June 24, 2007
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!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


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 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.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Authentic and Authoritative, May 30, 2007
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.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews






Only search this product's reviews



Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
mob watchers, top hoodlums, organized crime experts, mob world, street tax, mob life, mob families, acting boss, mob figures, mob guys
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, United States, New Jersey, American Mafia, Robert Kennedy, Jimmy Hoffa, Atlantic City, New Orleans, Department of Justice, Edgar Hoover, Las Vegas, White House, John Gotti, Tony Accardo, Kansas City, Chicago Outfit, World War, Southern District, Frank Costello, Los Angeles, Supreme Court, Angelo Bruno, Vito Genovese, Carlo Gambino, Sam Giancana
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:


Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums



So You'd Like to...



Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject