Customer Reviews

War of the Godfathers

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

The fatal flaw of this book is that Roemer fails to make clear that much of the book is fiction. If Roemer wanted to write a fictional story about Las Vegas, then fine write a fictional story. However, the mishmash of both truth and fiction leaves the reader confused as to what really happened. Also, being written by an ex FBI agent the book reads much like a police report, a little on the dry side with lots of "he said and she said". Finally, why bother using the phoney name of Richards, when we know he is talking about himself? Seemed rather silly to me.

I lost interest after the fictional hit on Moe Dalitz (right on the strip in broad daylight of all things!!). As if the mob would ever be that stupid. Come on Roemer, you can do better than that.

As a reader looking for accurate information on what really went on behind the scenes in Las Vegas, I was left disappointed. Roemer's book "The Enforcer" which details the accounts of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro's adventures in Vegas was a much better effort.

I read the book, not realizing entire events were fictional. Then I read "Enforcer" and found out that Moe Dalitz died in his sleep and Tony Spilatro was killed by his own people. I felt duped -- this is not taking artistic license but complete falsification of reality

While the way the book is attempted to be written is clever, as it is almost like a Hollywood script of real events, the book is farfetched and is downright untrue in several instances.One glaring falsehood is that Moe Dalitz was shot down an then was later poisoned in a hospital.Roemer a former FBI agent, should have known better,escpecially considering he wrote briefly about Dalitz real demise in another book.If one takes this book for what it is, a story , it is enjoyable.The one interesting factual aspect about this book is the details given to the famous "STRAWMAN" cases which largely crippled organized crime in the midwest.

Overall the book was good. The reason I gave the book 3 stars is he didnt make it clear that the book was fiction. If I was somebody who didnt know much about organized crime, I would think the book was fact. I didnt really like the book that much because it was fiction. This and the Godfather are the only fiction books I read that are about organized crime. I did like that it told the truth about who would win the war. It gave good detail. Anyway if you like fiction, get this book.

since the author uses real characters, it is not clear that the story is fictional . for example he mentions and discusses actual crimes even though the reasons or timeing is not actual so by mixing fact with fiction story seems confused and i believe misleading.

Growing up in the Oak Park area and knowing most of the characters involved in the book, I find it fascinating that Roemer uses an alter ego in Bill Richards instead of just using his own name. He drops names of people I know, so what's he hiding behind Richards for? He constantly pats himself on the back (Richards) and it made me put the book down several times. Did he use Richards so it didn't seem like he was talking about himself? I got sick of reading about him telling us what a great FBI agent he was. If he was so good, how come Accardo never went to jail?

I have read all of late SA William F. Roemer's novels, and this is without question the most repugnant volume of them all. Not only does he ficticiously involve himself in the story (as the subliminal Richards), but he insists on making Joseph Bonanno (RIP) a master criminal. What he fails or refuses to understand is that Bonanno and his son Salvatore were ousted from the Cosa Nostra in 1968 when their battle for supremacy failed against the other New York City families. They retired to Tuscon where Bonnano tried to pull off some small-time schemes with car dealerships in California by using his son and a few other down-and-out wannabe wiseguys as fronts for his crooked business transactions. The simple fact was, though, that he was no longer a Mafia power. Yet in 1986, when all the Chicago and Kansas City mob leaders have been convicted of skimming from casinos and sentenced to long prison terms, he suddenly reinvigorates his Mafia standing at the age of 81 and decides to fight 80-year-old Anthony Accardo for primacy in Las Vegas? What a farce. Roemer shows his cheap taste for fiction with such a ridiculous storyline.

Perhaps what caused this reader to put the book down so frequently was the author's stubborness in refusing to hire an editor for the book. It literally reads like an 7th grade english class thesis paper on how the FBI and its crooked director J.E. Hoover was justified in waiting until the '60s to attack the Mafia; how Anthony (Big Tuna) Accardo was a gentleman (he was not), and was the most powerful boss in the nation (he also was not - far from it, any NYC family could have crushed his little Outfit in no-time), and how Accardo waged war against the octogenarian Joseph Bonanno (which he also did not). This, and all of Roemer's other books, are disgraceful in their continual self-aggrandisizing of the author (including photos of Roemer as a young boxer in the book "The Enforcer," which was supposed to be on ANTHONY SPILOTRO), in their childish grammatical errors stemming from Roemer's refusal to leave editing to someone who knows what they're doing, and in their white-washing of the FBI's unpardonable blunders and blackmail throughout the reign of Roemer's hero, J. Edgar Hoover.

I highly recommend the reader to think before spending the (money) on the book.

"War of the Godfather's" is not that bad of a book. Roemer does write a great story in the first half of the book, it is filled with action and suspense. The last half of the book is the weak part of it. Roemer constantly pats himself and the other agents on the back, only to get egg on their faces when the Chicago boss, Accardo, walks. By mixing fact with fiction, it does give a good story, thats what is missing in the last half.

This is book split in two with the first half dealing with the accounts of what happened between Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo from Chicago and Joe Bonnano from New York. It tells the story of how Bonnano tried to move into Vegas even though this was clearly Chicago territory. I feel this is a great action book in the first half. However, in typical Roemer fashion, the last part of the book is all about the FBI trying to prosecute the two Dons and falling miserablely on their face. Minus all the pats on the back by Roemer, this is a wonderful book for anyone who got excited just before Michael Corleone shot Solotzo.

I used to wonder how a crack former FBI agent and organized crime specialist like Bill Roemer could write glowing reviews praising the accuracy of Jay Robert Nash's sensationalist works. Then I ran across War of the Godfathers. What a novel idea--to write a novel using real people as characters. If this is any example, however, the late Mr. Roemer displayed little talent in creative fiction and the plot, revolving around a fictional gang war over Las Vegas between the Bonanno Family and the Chicago Outfit, is totally absurd. War of the Godfathers is way over the top and the nearest thing to restraint is Roemer's untypically immodest disguise of himself as a pseudonymous character. It's not especially well written and on top of everything else, the publisher didn't make it abundantly clear that this was a work of fiction. A large number of folks have been taken in by it, with fictional events such as the murder of Moe Dalitz even being reported as fact in several so-called "true crime" books. I don't understand the point of it to this day.