The money comes in once a month by plane—untraceable bills, totaling millions of dollars. And these men are going to steal it. The Lufthansa Heist was one of the most audacious, and profitable, crimes ever committed on U.S. soil. It has been immortalized in movies like Goodfellas and The Big Heist. The New York crime families contributed brains and muscle and, on December 11, 1978, these men stole almost ten million dollars. Then the bodies started piling up. Doug Feiden weaves this spellbinding tale of the crime and its bloody aftermath, where the FBI started to piece together what had happened, where paranoia make the risk greater than the reward, and where witnesses were soon silenced for good.
A revealing look at the making of Martin Scorsese’s iconic mob movie and its enduring legacy, featuring interviews with its legendary cast. When Goodfellas first hit the theatres in 1990, a classic was born. Few could anticipate the unparalleled influence it would have on pop culture, one that would inspire future filmmakers and redefine the gangster picture as we know it today. From the rush of grotesque violence in the opening scene to the iconic hilarity of Joe Pesci’s endlessly quoted “Funny how?” shtick, it’s little wonder the film is widely regarded as a mainstay in contemporary cinema. In the first ever behind-the-scenes story of Goodfellas, film critic Glenn Kenny chronicles the making and afterlife of the film that introduced the real modern gangster. Featuring interviews with the film’s major players, including Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, Made Men shines a light on the lives and stories wrapped up in the Goodfellas universe, and why its enduring legacy has such a hold on American culture. A Library Journal Best Book of the Year A Sight and Sound Best Film Book of 2020
For a time in the 1970s, New York City seemed to many to be genuinely on the cusp of collapse. Plagued by rampant crime, graft, catastrophic finances, and crumbling infrastructure, it served as a symbol for the plight of American cities after the convulsions of the 1960s. This tale of urban blight was reinforced wherever one looked—whether in the news media (memorably captured in the infamous New York Daily News headline “Ford to City: Drop Dead”) or the countless movies that evoked the era’s uniquely gritty sense of dread. The Taking of New York City is a history of both New York and some of the decade’s most definitive films, including The French Connection (1971), the first two Godfather movies (1972 & 1974), Taxi Driver (1976), Serpico (1973), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), and many more. It was also an era in which the city wrestled with the racial tensions still threatening the tear the nation apart, never more so than in “Blaxploitation” classics such as Shaft (1971) and Super Fly (1972). These films depicted the city that never sleeps as a grim, violent place overridden with muggers, pimps, and killers. Projected at drive-ins and inside their local movie houses, rural America saw New York as a nightmare: a vile dystopia where the innocent couldn't rely on the local law enforcement, who were seemingly all on the take. If one took Hollywood's word for it, the only way a person was able to find justice in 1970s New York City was by grabbing a gun and meting it out themselves. Author Andrew Rausch meticulously separates fact and fiction in this illuminating book. Attentive to the ways that New York’s problems were exaggerated or misrepresented, it also gives an unvarnished look at just how bad things could get in the “Rotten Apple”—and how movies told that story to the country and the world.
“I messed up,” Calvin Newton lamented, after wasting thirty years and doing time in both state and federal prisons for theft, counterfeiting, and drug violations. “These were years of my life that I could have been singing gospel music.” During his prime, he was super-handsome, athletic, and charged with sexual charisma that attracted women to him like flies to honey. Atop this abundance was his astounding voice, “the voice of an angel.” This book is his prodigal-son story. Audacious, Newton never turned down a dare, even if it meant climbing on the roof of a speeding car or wading into a freezing ocean. As a boy boxer, he was a Kentucky Golden Gloves champ who k.o.’ed his opponent in twenty-three seconds. By his late teens he had been recruited by the Blackwood Brothers, the number-one gospel quartet in the world. In his mid-twenties while he was singing Christian songs with the Oak Ridge Quartet, Newton’s mighty talent and movie-star looks took him deep into hedonism--reckless driving, heavy romancing, and addictive pill popping. As 1950s rock ‘n’ roll began its invasion of gospel, he and two partners formed the Sons of Song, the first all-male gospel trio. Long before the pop sound claimed contemporary Christian music, the Sons of Song turned gospel upside down with histrionic harmony, high-styled tuxedos, and Hollywood verve. Their signature song, “Wasted Years,” foreshadowed Newton’s punishing fall. This biography looks back at the destructive lifestyle that wrecked a sparkling career. When well into his sixties, Newton turned his life around and was able to confront his demons and discuss his prodigal days. He talked extensively with Russ Cheatham about his self- destruction and the great personal expense of his own bad-boy choices and late redemption. In this candid biography, one of gospel’s all-stars discloses a messed-up life that vacillated between achievement and failure, fame and infamy, happiness and grief.
This title was first published in 2003. The sixth edition of this compendium of film and television adaptations of books and plays includes several thousand new listings that cover the period from 1992 to December 2001. There are 8000 main entries, covering 70 years of film history, including some foreign language material.
In Brazil, what is known as Criminal Faction, a term used in academic and journalistic circles that has no particular definition, does not correspond to what is understood as Criminal Organization. This notion comes from the Palermo Convention and offers the Italian perspective on an issue related to mafia groups. It also reflects that we try to find in other countries solutions to issues that we alone have and Brazilians' low-self-reliance dilemmas, which the playwright and writer Nelson Rodrigues referred to as the "mongrel complex." This work, written by personnel of the police and the Public Prosecutor's Office, is a collection of studies conducted in Brazil that use Comparative Law to answer pressing national issues. It offers a new and fresh look at Public Safety and Police Science matters without being parochial or seeking for extraneous solutions.
