From the New York Times bestselling author of Blood and Honor and The Last Gangster—“one of the most respected crime reporters in the country” (60 Minutes)—comes the sure to be headline-making inside story of the Gotti and Gambino families, told from the unique viewpoint of notorious mob hit-man John Alite, a close associate of Junior Gotti who later testified against him. In Gotti’s Rules, George Anastasia, a prize-winning reporter who spent over thirty years covering crime, offers a shocking and very rare glimpse into the Gotti family, witnessed up-close from former family insider John Alite, John Gotti Jr.’s longtime friend and protector. Until now, no one has given up the kind of personal details about the Gottis—including the legendary “Gotti Rules” of leadership—that Anastasia exposes here. Drawing on extensive FBI files and other documentation, his own knowledge, and exclusive interviews with insiders and experts, including mob-enforcer-turned-government-witness Alite, Anastasia pokes holes in the Gotti legend, demystifying this notorious family and its lucrative and often deadly machinations. Anastasia offers never-before-heard information about the murders, drug dealing, and extortion that propelled John J. Gotti to the top of the Gambino crime family and the treachery and deceit that allowed John A. “Junior” Gotti to follow in his father’s footsteps. Told from street level and through the eyes of a wiseguy who saw it all firsthand, the result is a riveting look at a family whose hubris, violence, passion, and greed fueled a bloody rise and devastating fall that is still reverberating through the American underworld today. Gotti’s Rules includes 8 pages of black-and-white photographs.
From the Gutter to the Grave is an action filled urban tale that will for sure keep readersminds in suspense and fingers anxiously ready to flip the next page. With realistic street dialogue such as that used in favorite successful urban novels like, The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah and Be More Careful by Shannon Holmes, this awesome tale takes one on a wild and vivid journey to a place that other authors seldom lead readers. Through the real ghetto! Written with specificity of ethnic characterized scheme, the general readers of this type novel would in all probability be that of an African-American-Latino audience, but with a plot so alluring and dramatized, the heading multicultural could in fact to be used when categorizing FTGTTG. The author, G.C. Deuce establishes and introduces the main character as Terrance Brown, whom throughout the narrative is referred to by the moniker Trech, a 19 year old man of African American and Puerto Rican descent, who like many his age finds himself encountering several controversial and combative disputes attributed from living within an impoverished, violent, drug infested community and dysfunctional household. Being raised up in an unbalanced home life consisting of prostitution, drug abuse, imprisonment, and other immoral standards, Trech not only learned to survive but also took heed while facing day to day grueling situations, beginning at his residence. Considering all the disadvantages, he coped well and harnessed the skill of maintaining and compensating for any given circumstance that would arise and with astute planning when necessary to continue surviving and protecting his loved ones. With one brother in the grave and another incarcerated, Trech finds himself trapped within the same environment which played a major part in the destruction of his family. He gradually takes on the roll of savior as he links up with three of his closest blood cousins whom all just like him sadly suffer from the same plights associated with slum living. Showing great leadership potential, Trech devises a plan to save his family as well as himself from the struggles suffocating grip. With help from his faithful girlfriend and cousins, (except the betrayer) they clad up in police-swat gear with ammunitions and attempt to pull off the lick-of-a-lifetime, only to in the end have their big dreams turn into a horrific nightmare. After the loss of one of his cousins, Trech, along with his remaining family succeed in locking down their citys drug game; thats until the jealousy of a long forgotten relative causes him to fall deeper into the violent side of the game. Trech finds himself once again playing the role of redeemer but this time its his beloved girlfriend he must rescue from the envious haters dwelling in the streets of the hood. The climax of the story illustrates Trech, and close acquaintances rescuing his girl from a murderous back stabbing cousin, bringing the encounter to what they assumed was definitely the end. After which, boarding a peaceful one-way flight to California with his girl and her young sister, Trech finally believes he has truly been set free from the game, but little does he know that the next five years of his life would be closely monitored by a man that hed watched die from a fatal gunshot. California soon becomes introduced to a new breed of gangsters when Trechs cousin resurfaces and takes command of one of Calis most infamous gangs while keeping a close eye on his detested relative. Trech soon finds himself being blindly haunted by visions of the past! From the Gutter to the Grave fits perfectly in the category of other favorite writings like Dutch by Terry Woods and A Hustlers Wife by Nikki Turner. This intriguing story consists of three different parts, each exposing the reader to a more diverse setting of events with a variety of character
Comprehensive and objective, this study argues that organized crime in the United States results from the struggle to attain the elusive American Dream to achieve success at any cost by any means. The authors examine the social, economic, political, and cultural conditions that fostered growth of criminal groups and organizations in African American communities from the post-Civil War era to the ghettoes of today.
SIMON CARTER, ALSO KNOWN AS BLACK GOTTI IS A STREET GANGSTER IN EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD. VIOLENCE IS HIS MIDDLE NAME, AND NO ONE WOULD DARE CROSS HIM.ALONG WITH HIS PARTNER IN CRIME, MARVIN, THEY ARE MAJOR PLAYERS IN THE PHILLY DRUG WORLD. THEY EACH LIVE BY THE CODE OF THE STREETS; KILL OR BE KILLED AND NEVER SNITCH.AS THEY SET OUT TO SEEK THE ULTIMATE REVENGE THEY FIND THEMSELVES TRAPPED IN THE MIDDLE OF A CHAOTIC WORLD OR LIES, LUST, DECEIT, AND BETRAYAL. IN THE END MANY WILL DIE, AND NO ONE'S LIFE WILL EVER BE THE SAME.
Morris J. MacGregor traces the history of St. Augustine's from its beginning as a modest chapel and school to its recent years as one of the city's most imposing and active churches. For more than a century, the congregation has counted among its members many of the intellectual and social elite of black society as well as impoverished newcomers struggling with the perils of urban life. This socially diverse membership, enhanced by a constant stream of visitors of all races and classes drawn by the beauty of the church and the artistry of its musicians, has made St. Augustine's an exemplar of Christian brotherhood. The book presents in considerable detail the history of race relations in church and state since the founding of the Federal City.
A KILLER LINE-UP In his bloody reign as the head of the Gambino crime family, John Gotti wracked up a lifetime of charges from gambling, extortion, and tax evasion to racketeering, conspiracy, and five convictions of murder. He didn’t do it alone. Surrounding himself with a rogues gallery of contract killers, fixers, and enforcers, he built one of the richest, most powerful and violent crime empires in modern history. Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Anthony M. DeStefano takes you inside Gotti’s inner circle to reveal the dark hearts and murderous deeds of the most remorseless and cold-blooded characters in organized crime. Men so vicious even the other Mafia families were terrified of them. Meet Gotti’s Boys . . . * Charles Carneglia * Gene Gotti * Angelo “Quack-Quack” Ruggiero * Tony “Roach” Rampino * “Sammy the Bull” Gravano * Frank DeCicco * Vincent Artuso * Joe “The German” Watts * THE ULTIMATE MURDERER’S ROW “DeStefano explores John Gotti’s rise to the head of the Gambino family . . . Aficionados are sure to relish the finer, exhaustively researched details.” —Publishers Weekly “A thrilling ride . . . DeStefano has written another excellent biography of a memorable group of gangsters and an excellent addition to the history of the Teflon Don.” —Booklist
*NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER* The No-Holds-Barred Truth About Life Inside the Gotti Dynasty—Told by Their Most Famous Daughter Victoria Gotti never intended to reveal the inside story of the Gotti household—the day-to-day life of a family that has sparked scandalous rumors and sensational headlines for decades. But with the pressing need to finally set the record straight came the realization that only she can do so, once and for all. Daughter to the late John Gotti, sister to John A. “Junior” Gotti and three other siblings, single mother to three sons with whom she shared reality television stardom on Growing Up Gotti, an outspoken columnist and bestselling author, Victoria Gotti delivers a candid, colorful, and brutally honest family portrait that reads like a confidential file, filled with deeply personal reflections, bombshell revelations, and stunning insider secrets. The explosive memoir that captures the Gottis as they are—unvarnished, raw, and real—This Family of Mine is the essential chronicle in the ultimate American family saga.
From the grimy streets of the Upper 9th Ward in New Orleans, to the urban stockades of Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn, BlacK SheeP traces Duce's poignant and haunting journey from college-life, to thug-life, to eternal-life. Life was hard knock in the hood where Duce grew up in a rotting shotgun house with his mother and younger brother. He and his best friend, Jason, were both intellectually gifted teens who struggled together to find a place in society, while abiding in the mire of drugs and poverty in their community. Duce and Jason's tenacity however, set them on opposite pathways - Jason became the neighborhood "Dope Man," and Duce became a "College Boy." By the time Duce graduated from Southern University, it seemed he had it all - honorable grades, an attractive, high-society girlfriend, and a scholarship to attend grad school at Big State, a large flagship university in a rural midatlantic college town. But when he arrived at Big State, culture-shock knocked him off his high horse. Ultimately, his world crashed and he lost everything. When he returned home he couldn't escape the drug culture in his community. At the pith of his despair, he met a young black counselor named Coby in his court-ordered treatment program. Coby felt spiritually compelled to break Duce's defenses and uplift him through black empowerment. However, as Coby helped Duce overcome his demons, he began to unleash the ghosts in his own past. By fate, Duce, Jason and Coby were pieces of the same puzzle, posted on a platform of social injustice, government corruption and street life. The connection they had could be the insight they needed to make life make sense, or the dagger that would rip their souls apart.
Longlisted for the Booker Prize Named a Most Anticipated Book of Summer 2021 by Entertainment Weekly, Time, and CrimeReads Named a Best Book of 2021 by Time An astonishing, visceral autobiographical novel about a young man straddling two cultures: the university where he is studying English Literature and the disregarded world of London gang warfare. The unforgettable narrator of this compelling, thought-provoking debut goes by two names in his two worlds. At the university he attends, he's Gabriel, a seemingly ordinary, partying student learning about morality at a distance. But in his life outside the classroom, he's Snoopz, a hard living member of London's gangs, well-acquainted with drugs, guns, stabbings, and robbery. Navigating these sides of himself, dealing with loving parents at the same time as treacherous, endangering friends and the looming threat of prison, he is forced to come to terms with who he really is and the life he's chosen for himself. In a distinct, lyrical urban slang all his own, author Gabriel Krauze brings to vivid life the underworld of his city and the destructive impact of toxic masculinity. Who They Was is a disturbing yet tender and perspective-altering account of the thrill of violence and the trauma it leaves behind. It is the story of inner cities everywhere, and of the lost boys who must find themselves in their tower blocks.
In the bestselling tradition of Wiseguy and Boss of Bosses -- the inside story of the fall of the "Teflon Don" The team: A handpicked squad of FBI agents -- led by a war hero determined to get the job done. The target: John Gotti, the seemingly invincible head of the richest and most powerful crime of modern-day Untouchables, the FBI's C-16 Organized Crime squad, who finally ended the cocky crime lord's reign of terror. Drawing on unprecedented access to FBI records and agents, bestselling author and prize-winning journalist Howard Blum tells the riveting and suspenseful story behind the headlines. Here is the deadly game of cat and mouse that pitted Gotti, his ruthless henchmen and his elusive law-enforcement mole against the Bureau. It is a tale of courage, murder and betrayal. From Mafia backrooms to FBI squad rooms, from the high-tech electronic invasion of Gotti's headquarters to the desperate effort to expose the mole, Gangland is more shocking than fiction -- an instant Mafia classic.
