Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires
    Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires
    Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires
    Audiobook33 hours

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

    Written by Selwyn Raab

    Narrated by Paul Costanzo

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    Genovese, Gambino, Bonnano, Colombo, and Lucchese. For decades these Five Families ruled New York and built the American Mafia (or Cosa Nostra) into an underworld empire. Today, the Mafia is an endangered species, battered and beleaguered by aggressive investigators, incompetent leadership, betrayals, and generational changes that produced violent, unreliable leaders and recruits. A twenty-year assault against the five families in particular blossomed into the most successful law enforcement campaign of the last century.
    Selwyn Raab's Five Families is the vivid story of the rise and fall of New York's premier dons, from Lucky Luciano to Paul Castellano to John Gotti and more. The book also brings the listener right up to the possible resurgence of the Mafia as the FBI and local law enforcement agencies turn their attention to homeland security and away from organized crime.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateOct 6, 2015
    ISBN9781494586881
    Author

    Selwyn Raab

    Since 1974, Selwyn Raab has been a reporter for The New York Times and has won dozens of awards for his coverage of the Mafia. He's appeared countless times on both local and national news shows and in documentaries about the Mafia for the History Channel and A&E. More than a newsman he is also something of a crusader, having played an important role in exposing fabricated testimony surrounding the conviction of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. Raab is  the author of Justice in the Back Room which was the basis for the legendary "Kojak" television series and the very successful Mob Lawyer, which shed new light on who killed Jimmy Hoffa and JFK.

    Related to Five Families

    Related audiobooks

    True Crime For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Related categories

    Reviews for Five Families

    4/5

    118 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Very comprehensive and compelling. Provides a freighting look at the power of organized crime, and a warning that we need to continue the diligence we once had to eliminate its most pervasive power.
    • 3/5
      Started out great and has plenty of good information, but just gets seriously bogged down in the details and feels very repetitive and quite a drag. Couldn’t even finish it, I just got bored of it.
    • 5/5
      Beginning with the Sicilian origins of the Mafia, Selwyn Raab explains how it spread from its New York origins to cities across America.Raab, a newspaper and television reporter with more than 40 years experience covering organized crime paints a realistic portrait of the Mafia. Avoiding glamorization, the author, who spent more than 25 years as a reporter with The New York Times, exposes the Mafia as a serious threat to honest citizens."The collective goal of the five families of New York was the pillaging of the nation's richest city and region," he writes. The five families--Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese--were responsible for corrupting labor unions to control waterfront commerce, garbage collection, the garment industry, and construction in New York. Later, they broadened their vistas to include the country, particularly Las Vegas, its most successful outside venture. Since September 11, 2001, the author says, the F.B.I. has been focused mainly on external threats, the author notes. This gives it room to regain some lost turf by moving into new avenues of crime. Exhaustive in its research and well-written, Five Families chronicles the tale of the rise and fall of New York’s premier dons: Lucky Luciano, Paul Castellano and John Gotti. To carry his tale, Raab interviewed prosecutors, law enforcement officers, Mafia members, informants, and "Mob lawyers." The result: anecdotes and inside information that reveal the true story of the Mafia and its influence.A masterpiece, this book will be considered a model of what great journalism should and can be.