Operation Family Secrets
How a Mobster's Son and the FBI Brought Down Chicago's Murderous Crime Family
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Narrated by:
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Todd McLaren
About this listen
The Calabrese family of Chicago is a close-knit, middle-class, multi-generational Italian-Irish-American clan. They operate family businesses. They work day and night striving for the American Dream. All three sons forge a bond with their controlling father, Frank Sr., and their soft-spoken favorite uncle, Nick. As a boy, the oldest son, Frank Jr., realizes that his father and uncle are also "made" members of another close-knit family: the outfit.
In Operation Family Secrets, Frank Calabrese, Jr., tells the turbulent tale of a family dominated by a violent patriarch who breaks a long-standing unwritten outfit code and "brings the street into his home" by enlisting two of his sons into the outfit's 26th Street/Chinatown crew. Calabrese reveals for the first time the outfit's "made" ceremony and describes being put to work alongside his father and uncle in loan sharking, gambling, labor racketeering, and extortion, and plotting the slaying of a fellow gangster, while they commit the bombing murder of a trucking executive, the gangland execution of two mobsters whose burial in an Indiana cornfield was reenacted in Martin Scorsese's blockbuster film Casino, and numerous other hits.
The Calabrese crew's colossal earnings and extreme ruthlessness made them both a dreaded criminal gang and the object of an intense FBI inquiry. Eventually Frank Jr., his father, and Uncle Nick are convicted on racketeering violations, and "Junior" and "Senior" are sent to the same federal penitentiary in Michigan. Upon arrival, Frank Jr. makes a life-changing decision: to go straight rather than agree to his father's plans to resume crew activities after serving his sentence. But he needs to keep his father behind bars in order to regain control of his life and save his family. Frank Jr. makes a secret deal with prosecutors, and for six months - unmonitored and unprotected - he wears a wire as his father recounts decades of hideous crimes.
©2011 Frank Calabrese, Junior, Keith Zimmerman, Kent Zimmerman, and Paul Pompian (P)2011 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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From burglary to armed robbery and murder, infamous bad guy Frank Cullotta not only did it all, in Cullotta he admits to it - and in graphic detail. This no-holds-barred biography chronicles the life of a career criminal who started out as a thug on the streets of Chicago and became a trusted lieutenant in Tony Spilotro's gang of organized lawbreakers in Las Vegas. Cullotta's was a world of high-profile heists, street muscle, and information - lots of it - about many of the FBI's most wanted.
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Great story, silly narrator
- By Tom Mainella II on 04-20-15
By: Dennis N. Griffin, and others
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The Black Hand
- The Bloody Rise and Redemption of "Boxer" Enriquez, a Mexican Mob Killer
- By: Chris Blatchford
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Rene "Boxer" Enriquez grew up on the violent streets of East L.A., where gang fights, robberies, and drive-by shootings were fueled by rage, drugs, and alcohol. When he finally landed in prison - at the age of 19 - Enriquez found an organization that brought him the respect he always wanted: the near-mythic and widely feared Mexican Mafia, La Eme. What the organization saw in Enriquez was a young man who knew no fear and would kill anyone - justifiably or not - in the blink of an eye.
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Intense, brutal, and informative
- By E on 07-08-15
By: Chris Blatchford
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Boston Mob
- The Rise and Fall of the New England Mob and Its Most Notorious Killer
- By: Marc Songini
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The New England Mafia was a hugely powerful organization that survived by using violence to ruthlessly crush anyone that threatened it, or its lucrative gambling, loansharking, bootlegging, and other enterprises. From information based on newly declassified documents and the use of underworld sources, Boston Mob spans the gutters and alleyways of East Boston, Providence, and Charlestown to the halls of Congress in Washington, D.C., and Boston's Beacon Hill. Its players include governors and mayors, and the Mafia Commission of New York City.
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Entertaining
- By joeyg1963 on 12-07-19
By: Marc Songini
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BMF
- The Rise and Fall of Big Meech and the Black Mafia Family
- By: Mara Shalhoup
- Narrated by: L. Steven Taylor
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the early 1990s, Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory and his brother, Terry "Southwest T", rose up from the slums of Detroit to build one of the largest cocaine empires in American history: the Black Mafia Family. They socialized with music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, did business with New York's king of bling Jacob "The Jeweler" Arabo, and built allegiances with rap superstars Young Jeezy and Fabolous. Yet even as BMF was attracting celebrity attention, its crew members struck fear in a city.
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Good listen
- By Lamont on 04-20-20
By: Mara Shalhoup
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Gaspipe
- Confessions of a Mafia Boss
- By: Philip Carlo
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, the boss of New York's Lucchese crime family, was a Mafia superstar, responsible for more than 50 murders. Currently serving 13 life sentences at a federal prison in Colorado, Casso has given journalist and New York Times best-selling author Philip Carlo the most intimate, personal look into the world of La Cosa Nostra ever seen.
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The author fails the objectivity test
- By William on 11-29-08
By: Philip Carlo
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The Corporation
- An Epic Story of the Cuban American Underworld
- By: T. J. English
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 19 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
By the mid 1980s, the criminal underworld in the United States had become an ethnic polyglot; one of the most powerful illicit organizations was none other than the Cuban mob. Known on both sides of the law as "the Corporation", the Cuban mob's power stemmed from a criminal culture embedded in south Florida's exile community - those who had been chased from the island by Castro's revolution and planned to overthrow the Marxist dictator and reclaim their nation.
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uncle joey approved
- By Anonymous User on 04-14-18
By: T. J. English
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The Westies
- Inside New York's Irish Mob
- By: T. J. English
- Narrated by: James Anderson Foster
- Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
It's men like Jimmy Coonan and Mickey Featherstone who gave Hell's Kitchen its name. In the mid-1970s, these two longtime friends take the reins of New York's Irish mob, using brute force to give it hitherto unthinkable power. Jimmy, a charismatic sociopath, is the leader. Mickey, whose memories of Vietnam torture him daily, is his enforcer. Together they make brutality their trademark, butchering bodies or hurling them out the window.
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Great book
- By Julio on 06-28-18
By: T. J. English
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Sex Money Murder
- A Story of Crack, Blood, and Betrayal
- By: Jonathan Green
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Based on years of research and extraordinary access to former gang members, reporter Jonthan Green creates an epic character-driven narrative, drawing on first-person interviews, police reports, and court transcripts to offer a unique and engrossing work of gritty urban reportage. Magisterial in its scope, Sex Money Murder offers an extraordinary perspective on modern-day America.
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Narrator using the N word was cringe worthy
- By Bmac on 09-07-18
By: Jonathan Green
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Animal
- The Bloody Rise and Fall of the Mob's Most Feared Assassin
- By: Casey Sherman
- Narrated by: Jim Goad
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Joe Barboza knew that there were two requirements for getting inducted into the Mafia. You had to be Sicilian. And you had to commit a contract killing. The New Bedford-born mobster was a proud Portuguese, not Sicilian, but his dream to be part of La Cosa Nostra proved so strong that he thought he could create a loophole. Barboza’s legacy, buried for years thanks to the murders or deaths of its participants, is finally coming to light and being told in its unvarnished brutality by one of America’s most respected true crime writers.
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Well done. 5 stars.
- By robert price on 03-03-19
By: Casey Sherman
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The Last Good Heist
- The Inside Story of the Biggest Single Payday in the Criminal History of the Northeast
- By: Wayne Worcester, Randall Richard, Tim White
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On August 14, 1975, eight daring thieves ransacked 148 massive safe-deposit boxes at a secret bank used by organized crime, La Cosa Nostra, and its associates in Providence, Rhode Island. The crooks fled with duffel bags crammed full of cash, gold, silver, stamps, coins, jewels, and high-end jewelry. The true value of the loot has always been kept secret, partly because it was ill-gotten to begin with, and partly because there was plenty of incentive to keep its true worth out of the limelight.
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Interesting but not the greatest story.
- By Russell on 07-21-17
By: Wayne Worcester, and others
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The Tangled Web
- The Life and Death of Richard Cain—Chicago Cop and Mafia Hitman
- By: Michael Cain
- Narrated by: Clinton Wade
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Tangled Web tells the dramatic story of detective Richard Cain's criminal career as revealed by his half-brother, Michael. Cain led a double-life—one as a well-known cop who led raids that landed on the front pages, and the other as a "made man" in one of Chicago's most notorious mob families.
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Reviews
- By G. D. Hoppe on 11-19-20
By: Michael Cain
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Lethal Guardian
- By: M. William Phelps
- Narrated by: J. Charles
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A real-estate lawyer in Connecticut's moneyed seaside communities, Beth Ann Carpenter, 30, had beauty, brains, and success. But she wanted more - namely guardianship of her two-year-old niece, Rebecca, daughter of Beth's estranged sister, Kim.
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Lethal Guardian
- By Tamara on 10-19-10
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Gangster Squad
- Covert Cops, the Mob, and the Battle for Los Angeles
- By: Paul Lieberman
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Gangster Squad chronicles the true story of the secretive police unit that waged an anything-goes war to drive Mickey Cohen and other hoodlums from Los Angeles after WWII. In 1946, the LAPD launched the Gangster Squad with eight men who met covertly on street corners and slept with Tommy guns under their beds. But for two cops, all that mattered was nailing the strutting gangster Mickey Cohen. Sgt. Jack O’Mara was a square-jawed church usher, Sgt. Jerry Wooters a cynical maverick....
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Nothing Like the movie
- By KEITH on 02-21-13
By: Paul Lieberman
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Making Jack Falcone
- An Undercover FBI Agent Takes Down a Mafia Family
- By: Joaquin "Jack" Garcia, Michael Levin
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
At six-foot-four-inches and 375 pounds, Jack Garcia looked the part of a mobster, and he played his part so perfectly that his Mafia bosses never suspected he was an undercover agent for the FBI. "Big Jack Falcone," as he was known inside La Cosa Nostra, learned all the inside dirt about the Gambino organized crime syndicate and its illegal activities---from extortion and loan-sharking to assault and murder.
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interesting story--offensive narration
- By Mark on 03-17-12
By: Joaquin "Jack" Garcia, and others
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Convicted
- A Crooked Cop, an Innocent Man, and an Unlikely Journey of Forgiveness and Friendship
- By: Jameel McGee, Andrew Collins, Mark Tabb
- Narrated by: Calvin Robinson, Adam Verner
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Racial tensions had long simmered in Benton Harbor, a small city on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, before the day a White narcotics officer - more focused on arrests than justice - set his sights on an innocent Black man. But when officer Andrew Collins framed Jameel McGee for possession of crack cocaine, the surprising result was not a race riot but a transformative journey for both men.
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Wonderful book
- By Michelle B Ouellette on 06-10-21
By: Jameel McGee, and others
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U.S. Marshals
- Inside America's Most Storied Law Enforcement Agency
- By: Mike Earp, David Fisher
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Blending history and memoir, retired U.S. Marshal Mike Earp - a descendant of the legendary lawman Wyatt Earp - offers an exclusive and fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the most storied law enforcement agency in America, illuminating its vital role in the nation's development for more than two hundred years. Setting his own experiences within the long history of the U.S. Marshals service, Earp offers a moving and illuminating tribute to the brave marshals who have dedicated their lives to keeping the nation safe.
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Boring, history of the bureaucracy
- By Lake Like A Local on 03-15-21
By: Mike Earp, and others
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a great book
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Tony Spilotro was the Mob's man in Las Vegas. A feared enforcer, the bosses knew Tony would do whatever it took to protect their interests. The "Little Guy" built a criminal empire that was the envy of mobsters across the country, and his childhood pal, Frank Cullotta, helped him do it. But Tony's quest for power and lack of self-control with women cost the Mob its control of Vegas; and Tony paid for it with his life.
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Amazing
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Wiseguy
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This is the true crime best seller that was the basis for Martin Scorsese’s film masterpiece GoodFellas, which brought to life the violence, the excess, the families, the wives and girlfriends, the drugs, the payoffs, the paybacks, the jail time, and the Feds...with Henry Hill’s crackling narration drawn straight out of Wiseguy and overseeing all the unforgettable action.
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Secretive - even reclusive - Russell Bufalino quietly built his organized crime empire in the decades between Prohibition and the Carter presidency. His reach extended far beyond the coal country of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and quaint Amish farms near Lancaster. Bufalino had a hand in global, national, and local politics of the largest American cities, many of its major industries, and controlled the powerful Teamsters Union. His influence also reached the highest levels of Pennsylvania government and halls of Congress, and his legacy left a culture of corruption that continues to this day.
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Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, the boss of New York's Lucchese crime family, was a Mafia superstar, responsible for more than 50 murders. Currently serving 13 life sentences at a federal prison in Colorado, Casso has given journalist and New York Times best-selling author Philip Carlo the most intimate, personal look into the world of La Cosa Nostra ever seen.
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The author fails the objectivity test
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The story of Luigi Ronsisvalle is an intimate look at the life of a professional killer. It is, in some ways, the story of all workingmen and women with ambition who never achieve their ultimate goal. But what makes Luigi unique is that, for him to achieve his goal, people had to die. His ambition, from when he was twelve years old, was to be a made man in the Mafia. He once told a presidential commission, "American child falls in love with baseball, I fall in love with Mafia."
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Great insight into the life of a knock-around mobster
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The President Street Boys
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Frank DiMatteo was born into a family of mob hit men. His father and godfather were shooters and bodyguards for infamous Mafia legends, the Gallo brothers. His uncle was a capo in the Genovese crime family and bodyguard to Frank Costello. Needless to say, DiMatteo saw and heard things that a boy shouldn't see or hear. He knew everybody in the neighborhood. And they knew him...and his family. And does he have some wild stories to tell....
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The Real Deal
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Darkest Hour: John Alite
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A college baseball scholarship was his way out of the inner city, but his dreams of going pro were crushed by an arm injury. John Alite was forced to return home to the only life he knew, where having to live on the streets of New York meant one thing - earning how to survive. From a young age, he found himself influenced by the wrong crowd. Enticed by the wealth, power, and prestige of the mafia, he immersed himself in a world that was foreign to most. But the cold, bitter truth was he was expendable, and his sworn allegiance was rewarded with betrayal.
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All his childhood, no mafia content whatsoever...
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The Gotti Wars
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Overall
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Performance
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John Gotti was without a doubt the flashiest and most feared Mafioso in American history. He became the boss of the Gambino Crime Family in spectacular fashion—with the brazen and very public murder of Paul Castellano in front of Sparks Steakhouse in midtown Manhattan in 1985. Not one to stay below law enforcement’s radar, Gotti instead became the first celebrity crime boss. His penchant for eye-catching apparel earned him the nickname “The Dapper Don;” his ability to beat criminal charges led to another: “The Teflon Don.”
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Corrupt prosecutors and Defendant
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Hitman
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Martin Scorcese’s The Departed barely touched his story, but radio talk show sensation, crime reporter, and Boston Herald columnist, Howie Carr, takes us into the heart of the life of Johnny Martorano. For two decades Martorano struck fear into anyone remotely connected to his world. His partnership with Whitey Bulger and the infamous Winter Hill Gang led to 20 murders for which Johnny would serve only 12 years in prison.
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My audible listening enjoyment has taken a hit
- By Steven Schuster on 06-01-11
By: Howie Carr
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Cosa Nostra
- A History of the Sicilian Mafia
- By: John Dickie
- Narrated by: Tom Lawrence
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Hailed in Italy as the best book ever written about the mafia in any language, Cosa Nostra is a fascinating, violent, and darkly comic account that takes us deep into the inner sanctum of this secret society. John Dickie uses startling new research to reveal the inner workings of this secret society with a murderous record. He explains how the mafia began, how it responds to threats and challenges, and introduces us to the real-life characters that inspired the American imagination for generations, making the mafia an international, larger than life cultural phenomenon.
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Lots of detail
- By B. Anderson on 11-18-24
By: John Dickie
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Black Mass
- Whitey Bulger, The FBI, and a Devil's Deal
- By: Gerard O'Neill, Dick Lehr
- Narrated by: John Rubinstein, Christopher Evan Welch
- Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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In this gritty New York Times best-seller, the true story of a crooked deal between the FBI and the Irish Mob is exposed. By providing a penetrating look into the mean streets of mid-1970s South Boston, the author shows how two kids from the neighborhood cross paths again years later, ending in the biggest informant scandal in FBI history.
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Excellent!
- By John L. Mahan on 06-18-15
By: Gerard O'Neill, and others
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Chin
- The Life and Crimes of Mafia Boss Vincent Gigante
- By: Larry McShane
- Narrated by: Paul Costanzo
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Vincent "Chin" Gigante. He started out as a professional boxer - until he found his true calling as a ruthless contract killer. His doting mother's pet name for the boy evolved into his famous alias, "Chin", a nickname that struck fear throughout organized crime as he routinely ordered the murders of mobsters who violated the Mafia code. Vincent Gigante was hand-picked by Vito Genovese to run the Genovese Family when Vito was sent to prison. Chin raked in more than $100 million for the Genovese Family, all while evading federal investigators.
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Not as good as others
- By KM528 on 02-05-17
By: Larry McShane
What listeners say about Operation Family Secrets
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Dr. Ron
- 09-08-22
Good Chicago Outfit Book
This book talks about well known Outfit guys who controlled the Pilsen/Chinatown area on Chicago's near South Side. Good and insightful. Horrific and ruthless sometimes. If you want to know the streets, this book is for you.
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- Shaft58
- 10-07-16
The playback was choppy through my bluetooth
i enjoyed having a book i read being read to me. i woukd love to here the other Operation Family Secrets book made to audio.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Thomas W.
- 12-12-21
Justice comes from left field.
Amazing story of an is of and under the radar street crew that went unchecked for 30 years.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Chris And Mo
- 01-22-21
The best mob book I've heard
The best mob book I've heard in here. Definitely a must read/listen. get it now
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1 person found this helpful
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- ahippieadventure
- 02-06-13
Riveting Listen!
What did you love best about Operation Family Secrets?
I love the fact that Frank Jr. opens his heart and mind in this book. I was able to equate his thought processes to those I see with people who are "chronically abused". He shows his humanity most when he repeatedly holds out the hope that the man he loves as father will change his ways. Even when I was saying to myself "No way in hell is he going to change." after the fourth time Frank Jr. expressed the hope that ...maybe this time... It just doesn't happen when an abuser does not equate themselves with being abusive. Frank Sr. abused in every facet of his life and the lives of his family members.
What did you like best about this story?
I like that he consistently shows his humanity as he repeatedly holds out the hope that the man he loves as father will change his ways. Even when I was saying to myself "No way in hell is he going to change." after the fourth time Frank Jr. expressed the hope that ...maybe this time... It just doesn't happen when an abuser does not equate themselves with being abusive. Frank Sr. abused whatever he possibly could in every facet of his life and the lives of his family members.
Which scene was your favorite?
There was no favorite scene, the entire book had me in suspense! Listening to this book was like experiencing the aftermath of a natural disaster. Stunning surprise after stunning surprise, except instead of being an act of nature, this is with the behaviors of a man with no conscience who does his best to work people like puppets.
Any additional comments?
I am glad that Frank Jr. was able to weigh his choices, recognize and do what needed to be done to ensure the safety of himself and his family... and probably a whole lot more even generations of people.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Kristen Jenkins
- 05-27-23
Wow
I can’t even imagine. My Father died when I was 4 but I can only imagine how you must of felt!
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1 person found this helpful
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- A better way.
- 05-03-24
The heartfelt detail and genuine agony of the author.
Absolutely phenomenal! One of my bast selections yet. I am now planning on partaking in a family secrets tour in Chicago. Salute to all the law enforcement and men who stood up and said “no more”. Also heartfelt prayers and sorrows go to the families who were affected by the senseless violence because of greed and poor choices.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Rich
- 08-30-21
Great Story with a Sometimes Boring Delivery,
The narration is very bland, and at times is irritating. The narrator assumes an affect at times when speaking as a gangster and other key characters. The delivery is lazy and irritating., other than that this is a good one.
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- Anonymous User
- 12-27-22
Sincere.
Frank Jr. did what he knew needed to be done and is a man's man for it. He is not a rat. Sometimes, you just have to wrap things up that you know should've been wrapped long ago
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- chiefhiawatha
- 07-29-22
What’s the overarching story
A collection of tales for hours. No overarching story told. Returned after several hours of listening.
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