Customer Reviews

The Good Rat: A True Story

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This is a fine addition to anyone's true crime shelf. You're not going to see a romantic view of mob life here. Tony Soprano might be interesting to have as a neighbor, but the people in this book are such that you'd much prefer that they live in a different part of town, or better yet, a different town altogether. The book does present a rather one-dimensional view of the criminals involved: you will not be reading about the kind of family (personal, not mob) life that helped make Tony Soprano three-dimensional. The figures in the book may have been decent people at home, but that's not the point here.

You'll get a view of current mob life--the violence, the paranoia, the omerta, and the breaking of omerta. Some things have changed from the heyday of Murder, Inc in the 1940s, but much is still the same: plus la change, plus la meme chose. Burton Kaplan today is little different from his counterparts of 50-70 years ago: surveillance and eavesdropping techinques are better, the FBI has discovered the Mafia, and witness protection programs have led to a partial decline in omerta. Where once a stand-up guy could do 5 years in prison, with RICO standing up for 30 years is less appealing. Kid Twist Reles' revelations in Murder, Inc were eye-opening back then: Burton Kaplan's testimony is fascinating, but he has lots of fellow canaries, so to speak.

You'll get a very gritty tale here. These are not nice fellows at all. Some reviews may speak of the contrast between good and evil in the book, but that's not really true. NYC policemen as contract killers is a very unpleasant thought, but it's hardly new (see the book Satan's Circus). What is more interesting is how one of these cops, whose uncle was a well-known mobster, and who himself had a criminal record, was admitted to the police force and rose high in the ranks. His moonlighting for the mob did not come as a major surprise. His outing was unusual: you get the feeling that there seemed to be a lot of tolerance in law enforcement for his activities. The Feds brought him down--not the NYPD.

What I would have liked to see here is perhaps some kind of map or chart, and a cast of characters (there's a very brief list, which mostly just mentions names). If you're thoroughly familiar with the greater NY mob scene, you shouldn't have a problem. But for most people, being able to check a cast that listed, say, Sammy "The Bull" Gravano along with his family, role in the family, etc, would have been helpful. There are interesting people who get brief mentions, such as Jimmy Burke (see GoodFellas) and the fearsome Roy DeMeo, whose murder crew made even John Gotti nervous (see Murder Machine). Unless you're a true crime fan, such names might not carry the nuances that they should. But Good Rat covers one slice of the scene in greater New York, and covers it very well.

The author of this fascinating true crime tell-all is none other than the inimitable Brooklyn/Queens/New York symbol of "old-school" mob reporting Jimmy Breslin. The initial core of this story was supposed to be the trial of Lou Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, two NYPD cops who performed contract murders for the Mafia, along with providing any type of confidential police "intel" that would benefit the mob. That included making available classified information that ranged from wire taps, which helped the Mafia PERMANENTLY weed out "rats", to addresses of individuals on the "lam", thus enabling the Mafia to find and kill witnesses whose testimony could be detrimental. These cops even kidnapped people behind the guise of their police badge and handed the kidnapped victims over to their gangland executioners.

The trial started on March 14, 2006 in the United States District Court Eastern District Of New York in Brooklyn. On the first day of the trial is when the main subject matter of Jimmy's book changed. The main witness for the government was one Burton Kaplan. Kaplan was seventy-two years old; at the age of thirty-nine he served his first prison sentence of four years in Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary. At the start of this trial he still owed eighteen years to the penitentiary for drug charges. He testified "in simple declarative sentences, subject, verb, and object, one following the other to start a rhythm that was compelling to the jury's ear." On that first morning the author listened with excruciating excitement. "A few words from Kaplan on his Brooklyn porch send animals rushing out to kill." What is unveiled by this witness in the pages that follow is a documented history of the murders, beatings, bribes, hijacking, kidnapping and organizational flow chart of the Mafia as never before detailed under oath. Interspersed with detailed transcripts of Kaplan's testimony are almost whimsical "tangential" rhapsodies of Breslin's days gone by. The author leads us into personal "flashbacks" to the Damon Runyon like existence when reporters like him drank at the same bars and sat at the same tables as "famous" underworld characters. Reporters would get chastised if a gangsters name wasn't included in one of his columns. As Kaplan captivated the court room with his testimony, "his face and voice showed no emotion, other than a few instances of irritation when one of the lawyers asked something he knew and they did not. You are wrong, Counselor, he would snap!" "Are you a member of the Mafia?" he was asked. "No I can't be a member, I'm Jewish." "Throughout the trial Kaplan refers to himself by various street names for an informer. He is asked what he means when he says these things. "A STOOL PIGEON IS A RAT. JUST LIKE ME!"

What follows is the inner workings of all the Mafia families from the Lucchese to the Gambino's to the Genovese, Bonanno, et al. The jargon includes "swag", "shylock", "a piece of work" (murder). And of course the nicknames: Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso (a brutal killer intimately dissected in this book.), "Good Nicky" Guido, Jimmy "The Clam" Eppolito, "Bad Nicky" Guido, "Fat Tony" Salerno, "Black Pete" Savino, "Benny Eggs" Mangano, "Big Mama" Gallo, Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, and endless more. Through it all, Breslin takes the reader from the courtroom, to magical, whimsical, literary, journeys into his and Kaplan's criminally infested past, and back again to the courtroom. Jimmy Breslin is really one of a kind... a fading breed. I could listen to his stories all day long, and so should you!

Long before "The Sopranos," Casino and Goodfellas, Jimmy Breslin wrote a book in 1970 called THE GANG THAT COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT that was also made into a movie. It was one of the first fictional looks inside the feared Cosa Nostra, written a year after Mario Puzo penned THE GODFATHER. There might never have been a fictional Tony Soprano if not for Breslin and Puzo.

Breslin knew his subject. He spent many a long night back in the day drinking in mob joints with characters such as Jimmy Burke, who was portrayed in Goodfellas by Robert De Niro. Breslin points out here that a young De Niro consulted with him to find out how to play wiseguys before filming The Gang. It was one of Bobby D's first screen roles before Godfather: Part II.

So who better to cover what was billed as the first great mob trial of the 21st century? Two NYPD detectives were accused of being hitmen for the Lucchese crime family, fulfilling contracts on eight victims. Breslin approaches the trial with a sense of gloom. "And the idea of cops who use their badges to murder depresses me," he writes, "It is dreary and charmless and lacks finesse. It promises no opportunity to marvel, much less laugh."

And then Burton Kaplan, the good rat in this tale, takes the stand to inform on the cops. Breslin observes, "He testifies in simple declarative sentences, subject, verb and object, one following the other to start a rhythm that is compelling to the jury's ear...Kaplan comes out of all the ages of crime, out of Dostoyevsky, of the Moors Murders, of Murder Inc. A few words spoken by Burt Kaplan on his Brooklyn porch sent animals rushing out to kill."

Breslin found his book, as Kaplan tells the court about his life in crime. He uses Kaplan's story to link us to the history of the mob over the past half century, as witnessed firsthand by reporter Breslin.

Kaplan is not a mob boss. He is not even a "made man." As a Jew, he can't be a member of the Sicilian mob. Kaplan is a legitimate businessman with a lot of illegitimate sidelines. Whether dealing in drugs or stolen goods, Kaplan is an "earner" for the mob. He also becomes right-hand man to Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, a Lucchese crime boss who uses Kaplan as the go-between to the alleged "killer" cops.

At 72 and facing 18 more years in prison on drug charges, Kaplan quite reluctantly and with great sorrow breaks the code of silence he has lived his life by in order to see his grandchild as a free man. He becomes a rat.

THE GOOD RAT is a classic mob book. It is a fascinating and compelling read made even better by one of America's greatest writers working his craft at the top of his game. Breslin does not just write sentences --- he chisels them as if working in stone. Most writers just get the words down, but Breslin works the words until they are sharp and precise and paint clear pictures. This has become a lost art in corporate journalism today and especially on the Internet.

Consider Breslin's description of one of the cops: "He must weigh more than three hundred pounds. He has the shoulders of a goat. Once he stopped bodybuilding, his front slid down like a slab off a collapsing glacier." Or this description of his fellow defendant: "His narrow, sharp face reveals less than a frosted window."

Interspaced between the trial, Breslin gives us the entire modern history of the mob. At the beginning, the "Black Hand" operated in secret as J. Edgar Hoover denied its existence. By the late '60s the Mafia had become part of American folklore as bestselling writers like Breslin and Puzo started making it a cultural phenomenon.

Then the narrative shifts to the Outfit's waning years at the end of the 20th century as arrogant gangsters like John Gotti were destroyed by informants like Sammy "The Bull" Gravano and RICO statures started putting old men away not for five years, as had been the case, but for 50 years of hard time. The code of Omerta quickly crumbled.

Breslin writes with his usual passion and biting humor. As a young newspaperman he got the mob beat because he came from Queens. "I was reputed to be streetwise and tough," he writes. "Which was untrue. I didn't fight. I chased stories, not beatings. But I knew where to find people who were somewhat less than our civic best, and so the editors clung to the illusion."

Did he ever fear that his writing about the mob would get him buried in The Hole, the notorious "informal" burial site in Ozone Park? He writes, "Was I nervous about the mobsters? You want to be afraid of something, be afraid of being broke."

Written as only JB can. Like the legendary reporter he is, Breslin tells the truth about the mob. "As it dissolves, you inspect it for what it actually was, grammar-school dropouts who kill each other and purport to live by codes from the hills of Sicily that are actually either unintelligible or ignored."

In THE GOOD RAT, Breslin shows us unexpected sides of the mob. Jimmy Burke "left a mountain of bodies" buried over his career. One night, Burke summons Breslin to an ominous midnight meet. Breslin wonders if he is going to be killed. But he has other problems on his mind; his first wife is dying of cancer. Burke surprises him by offering him $30,000 in cash to get his wife the best doctors. It isn't a bribe, Burke points out, because "I know Rose when you married her." Breslin declines, saying, "But I got to remember you forever."

Times change. Traditional mob enterprises like gambling and loan sharking have been taken over by the government and banks. The corner ATM machine in poor neighborhoods replaces the shylock while still charging outrageous interest on "loans." Yet there will always be a Mafia, Breslin points out. "Just like Prohibition, mobsters will do things nobody else wants to do," he writes.

At one point in this book Breslin describes the late newspaperman from Chicago, Mike Royko, as "a national treasure." Very true. But so is Jimmy Breslin. Another great writer, Pete Hamill, once told me that "Jimmy is Jimmy." Other writers have copied his style for decades, but nobody has his distinctive voice. THE GOOD RAT is one of his best books. Read and enjoy it. A new work by Breslin is an event to celebrate and cherish.

--- Reviewed by Tom Callahan

If you have a good knowledge of Mafia history in New York and in the US generally this book will flow well while you read and absorb it, for new comers it is still a good read but will take longer and you will probably need to check out other books to put it all together. Breslins reflections on his life of writing about the Mob are gems and his book about Burton Kaplan is fascinating. Kaplan is the good rat who finally realizes unless he talks to the Govt about is his life in crime he will spend the rest of his life behind bars and someone else will rat on him.

Kaplan has plenty to account for including murder so he spills all and tells of his life of crime and his cohorts. The two mafia cops who he informs on are roasted slowly by Breslin in the book who can barely conceal his disgust at their greed, treachery and killings. He describes the view of hell each cop had from his house as he went to work each morning and their indifferance to the disgraceful murder of the good Nicky Guido.

There are moments of humour as Breslin recalls a time in court when a mafia don on trial publicly berates Breslin for wearing a cheap suit and being embarrassed by him being at his trial. Breslin at times goes off track from the trial and relates personal anecdotes of his life of writing about the Mob. He goes into the early history of the Mob and why Hoover's FBI was sleeping on the job while the Mob prospered. He goes on to relate how the FBI finally woke up to the power of the RICO act and realized enough was enough the Mob had to go down and finally the FBI won.

Well worth the read and thanks for the book Mr Breslin.

This is the book only Breslin could write, on a subject that has captivated everybody for the past half-century. As I write this, the NYC tabloids are on fire with the story of a not-so-good rat who wore a wire and gave up dozens of Gambino family gangsters. Breslin tells the tale of the greatest rat since Valachi, the man who ran the so-called mafia cops, and does that story magnificent justice. But then he goes farther, telling his own lifetime of mob tales, from his childhood on the streets of Queens to the barrooms and courtrooms all over the city. This is the greatest nonfiction mob book since Wise Guys, Nick Pileggi's masterpiece, and this is maybe even a better book owing to how Breslin's autobiography/memoir sneaks into the tale of so many of the city's best bad guys. People will be reading this book 50 years from now.

Good book but glosses over the fact that Kaplan was a cold blooded murderer who sentenced eight men to certain death including one to death by torture.

This writer must have made a offer that nobody could refuse :---)
Not sure why all the accolades by those who read this book.
No meat, timeline is confusing. It is simply a regurgatation
of the trial questioning/answers. Repeat, the book is what the
accused said under cross, or questioning, etc...
I found it confusing and boring.
I am not suggesting writer is unskilled, unimaginative,
or not of quality experience.
I have read at least 50 books and seen 50 films of fiction
and fact on this subject (Mafia/crime). So I know what
is interesting, fun to read/watch... This book is not.
I wish I had purchased the paperback vs an expensive hard cover...
Fogettabout it
David

Jimmy Breslin provides a unique perspective of the Mafia in The Good Rat. He shows us that while the gangsters that make up the Mafia are tough guys, they do not in fact live by a code of honor and they are not very powerful. Breslin tells us Hollywood makes them appear far more powerful than the reality. The way the mobsters get ahead is by killing each other, Breslin tells us.

The reason the tough guys are not so powerful after all seems to be not only because they don't truly live by a code of honor, but also because they avoid work. Breslin is funny when he explains how the desire to avoid work is what they all have in common, and how they can't manage themselves without affiliations with others that perform serious work.

The "rat" in this story is Burton Kaplan, the most interesting character in my opinion. I liked the reader that provided the voice for Kaplan on this audiobook - he was magnificent. Kaplan didn't have to fear for his life so much, until just before he turned stool pidgeon, because his knowledge and work ethic were highly valued by the Mafia. I found this interesting. It showed brains and hard work are more likely to be life-preserving attributes than the practiced use of physical intimidation, even in organized crime.

The book gives the account of the trial of two former New York City policemen that operated as contract killers for the mob while in uniform. Those two are Stephen Caracappa and Louis Eppolito, two truly despicable characters. The stories of each murder committed by these two former police officers is interesting because it shows the Mafia as it is was at the time. Apparently mobsters don't need an enemy to plan a killing; they only need to suspect that their target might kill them first if they don't act urgently.

What I liked most about this book was that it demystified the Mafia more than other books I've read. It didn't seem glamorous at all - exactly the opposite. I wondered how anybody can enjoy life when friends are likely to become their murderers one day.

Based on the 2006 trial of the NYPD Mafia cops, Eppolito and Caracappa, "The Good Rat" details the documented testimony of Burton Kaplan: government witness, informant, stool pigeon, rat, and criminal. Though Kaplan is no Sammy Gravano, his own participation in mob activities and hits over the years was substantial. This is the story of a man that talked his way out of the consequences of his career choice by playing main witness for the government in a RICO prosecution.

The talented and witty Jimmy Breslin offers profound insight to consider. In chapter six, Breslin states: "Years ago the state looked upon gambling as a low vice, a depravity, and those who profited from it were no better than cheap pimps and deserved years behind bars. That opinion held right up until the government took it over..."

This account incorporates Kaplan's trial testimony throughout while giving the reader the background by way of flashbacks in this shockingly true narrative of two seriously bad cops. As a trial and organized crime enthusiast I loved it!

I have been a so-so fan of Breslin in the past, but I really think this book is excellent. he weaves trial excerpts with his own commentary and humour and Iw as kept interested throughout.