Book Review - Underboss by Peter Maas

Underboss : Sammy the Bull Gravano's story of life in the mafia by Peter Maas

New York: Harper Collins, 1997                                ISBN 0060182563


It took most of a lifetime for Sam Gravano to work out what most of us learn more quickly - that criminals are not to be trusted, are not nice people, and that greed is usually their downfall. In this fascinating account - based on many hours of taped conversations with Gravano - Peter Maas shows us how the Gambino crime family operated in New York during the 1970s through to the early 1990s.

In many ways Gravano's early life was that of an archetypal gangster: growing up on the mean streets of Bensonhurst, the dyslexic Gravano did not do well at school and after a short time in the army took up with a street gang.

While Gravano is the first to say he wasn't an educated man, he was not stupid, and soon realised that if he wanted to ever become more than a street punk he needed to ally himself with the local Cosa Nostra crew.

The book is a simple re-telling of his adventures in crime, including the murders, betrayals, stand-over tactics, scheming and all that goes with being a made man in the mafia.

A good portion of the book is taken up with Gravano's dealings with Paul Castellano and John Gotti. Gravano was involved in the murder of Castellano, and eventually turned states witness against Gotti.

Gravano saw himself as an old school mafioso, avoiding publicity, and living a relatively modest life. He grew increasingly disgusted with Castellano's distance from the on-the-ground workings of his crew, and at Gotti's public displays of wealth.

Maas does a good job of making sense of all the ins and outs of the alliances and enmities between and within families, which makes this book an easy read.

There is much in here that is not surprising - the lack of self-awareness and empathy of these gangsters for example. What is more interesting are the descriptions of how Gravano and his crew went about planning operations, and how the byzantine workings of Cosa Nostra played out on a day-to-day basis.

If you have an interest in organized crime and its history, this book is well worth reading.

Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell

Book Review - Mafia Republic by John Dickie

Mafia republic : Italy's criminal curse : Cosa Nostra, Camorra and 'Ndrangheta from 1946 to the present
by John Dickie

London : Sceptre, 2013                                                   ISBN 9781444726428


John Dickie has become something of a Mafia "expert", this being his third book about the subject (the others being Mafia brotherhoods and Cosa Nostra). He writes lucidly and well about the peculiarly Italian mix of culture, criminality and power that is encompassed by the major organised crime societies mentioned in the title.

Originally confined to their own areas of the Peninsula and Sicily, Mafia republic describes how, after World War II, these criminal syndicates expanded their range into Northern Italy and beyond - to the USA, Australia, South America and Asia - via the explosion of money provided by the drug trade. Dickie describes the inter-connection between Cosa Nostra and the political networks in Sicily and how up until the end of the Cold War they both relied on each other to confirm their power. Until the present time, it has been the ability of these Mafia organisations to influence the political arena that have enabled them to lurk "openly in the shadows", and infect nearly all areas of business in Italy.

At the end of the Cold War, when the old certainties no longer applied, and with much more at stake owing to the rivers of gold provided by drug money, the connections that had slowly built up between Cosa Nostra and the Camorra particularly, and between Cosa Nostra and the Government, began to break down. "Warfare" broke out, with no-one being immune to the bullets of the assassins. Salvatore Riina, the Corleonosi who murdered his way to power in the 80s, finally went too far when he murdered Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, two of the country's most committed anti-mafia judges. Even the politicians couldn't sweep this under the carpet, and the response was heavily damaging to all the Mafia syndicates. The forces of law and order were helped by the "pentiti", Mafia bosses who started to tell all - Riina's murderous rampage had convinced many that it was safer to talk from a prison cell than stay on the streets.

Dickie's book ties these strands together well, and also shows how the Camorra rose to be a power before splintering into so many criminal gangs, and how it is the 'Ndrangheta has become the major world-wide force in drug trafficking, after a late start and a side-track into kidnapping that did not endear it to it's criminal associates.

While this book does not take you into the soul of Sicily in the same way as Midnight in Sicily, it is a great one-book introduction into Italian organized crime.

Recommended.

Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell