This masterpiece stands an excellent chance of becoming a bestseller with crossover appeal beyond devoted watchers of The Sopranos. Selwyn Raab, Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of Americas Most Powerful Mafia Empires.
They want to see fucking lions and tigers and that’s what we are. Read reviews for average rating value is 3.9 of 5. While Raab surprisingly gives short shrift to the 1980s pizza connection case, which revealed the growing influence of the Sicilian Mafia on America's heroin trade, he otherwise demonstrates mastery of his subject. Put it in their face, Gotti urged Sammy the Bull Gravano. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of Americas Most Powerful Mafia Empires 3.9 out of 5 stars. Law enforcement's varying responses as well as society's view of gangsters enrich the narrative, which merits comparison with the classic true-crime writing of Kurt Eichenwald. Throughout his survey of the mob's evolution from simple protection rackets to pump-and-dump stock schemes Raab renders the mobsters (including men less well known than John Gotti, but no less significant) as three-dimensional figures, without glossing over their vicious crimes and their impact on honest citizens. Of necessity, Raab also illuminates the Mafia's origin in 19th-century Sicily and its transition to this country. Combining the diligent research and analysis of a historian with the savvy of a beat journalist who has extensive inside sources, the author succeeds at an ambitious task by rendering the byzantine history of New York's five families Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese easily comprehensible to any lay reader. Former New York Times crime reporter Raab sets a new gold standard for organized crime nonfiction with his outstanding history of the Mafia in New York City.
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