What can a one-time mob boss teach you about how to run a business? I'll Make You an Offer You Can't Refuse, written by a former member of the Colombo crime family, promises an insider's view of the mob that will change the way you do business forever. The first thing you'll learn? Get a plan, work it hard, be smart, and surround yourself with people who know how to help you reach your goals--people like Michael Franzese. At the height of his involvement in the mafia, Franzese ran rackets that earned him millions of dollars every week. After serving his time, Franzese quit the mob and dedicated his life to making a positive impact on the world by sharing what he's learned along the way. Now, he's a consultant who has helped everyone from high-powered executives to small business owners learn how to make the most out of their businesses--and, more importantly, how to do it honestly. As one of the few who quit the mob and lived to tell his story, Franzese has a unique perspective on how the mafia does business. Packed with hard-won experience, street smarts, and just a pinch of philosophy, I'll Make You an Offer You Can't Refuse shares the professional advice (and the life lessons) that Franzese learned firsthand, including: The importance of cutting to the chase The value of having a good crew How to start learning from your failures The danger of bending the rules How to come out ahead in your negotiations Why you should lead with your brain instead of your mouth How to think about real success Business is business. Let your friend Franzese give you a tip or two about how to run yours better.

Their lives. Book jacket.

“Couldn’t put it down.” —Nicholas Pileggi, author of Wiseguy (Goodfellas) and Casino The extraordinary life and times of a legendary crime boss who refused to squeal—but who finally agreed to talk to an award-winning New York Newsday reporter shortly before his death at age 103 . . . John “Sonny” Franzese reportedly committed his first murder at the age of fourteen. As a “made man” for the Colombo crime family, he operated out of his Long Island home specializing in racketeering, fraud, loansharking, and other illicit deeds he would deny to his dying day. His career in organized crime spanned over eight decades—and he was sentenced to fifty years in prison for robbery charges. But even behind bars, Sonny Franzese never stopped doing business . . . This is the true story of an old-school mafioso as it’s never been told before. Newsday reporter S. J. Peddie interviewed Franzese in prison—and uncovered a lifetime of shocking secrets from the legend himself: * Why FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had a very personal interest in Sonny. * How Sonny managed to juggle numerous affairs with women, including a famous model. * How Sonny spent a third of his life in prison—and still managed to earn untold millions for the mob. * How Sonny accidentally revealed some of his worst crimes—to a “friend” wearing a wire. Through it all, Franzese refused to break the Mafia’s code of silence. Authorities believe he may have murdered, or ordered the murders of, forty to fifty people. Yet he earned a grudging respect from law enforcement and an absolute reverence from his fellow gangsters. Eventually he managed to outlive them all—until his death in 2020 of natural causes, a rare event in the Mafia. Thanks to a series of exclusive firsthand interviews, the astonishing life story of John “Sonny” Franzese can be told in all its bold, brutal, and blood-spattered glory. This is a must-read for anyone fascinated with Mafia history—and a rare look inside a criminal mind that has become the stuff of legend.

“[A] fascinating new book about mafia boss Alfonso D’Arco, who became the federal government’s most successful cooperator.” —The Village Voice Alfonso “Little Al” D’Arco, the former acting boss of the Luchese organized crime family, was the highest-ranking mobster to ever turn government witness when he flipped in 1991. His decision to flip prompted many others to make the same choice, including John Gotti’s top aide, Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, and his testimony sent more than fifty mobsters to prison. In Mob Boss, award-winning news reporters Jerry Capeci and Tom Robbins team up for this unparalleled account of D’Arco’s life and the New York mob scene that he embraced for four decades. Until the day he switched sides, D’Arco lived and breathed the old-school gangster lessons he learned growing up in Brooklyn and fine-tuned on the mean streets of Little Italy. But when he learned he was marked to be whacked, D’Arco quit the mob. His defection decimated his crime family and opened a window on mob secrets going back a hundred years. After speaking with D’Arco, the authors reveal unprecedented insights, exposing shocking secrets and troublesome truths about a city where a famous pizza parlor doubled as a Mafia center for multi-million-dollar heroin deals, where hit men carried out murders dressed as women, and where kidnapping a celebrity newsman’s son was deemed appropriate revenge for the father’s satirical novel. Capeci and Robbins spent hundreds of hours in conversation with D’Arco, and exhausted many hours more fleshing out his stories in this riveting narrative that takes readers behind the famous witness testimony for a comprehensive look at the Mafia in New York City.

The poignant story of a young woman married to a powerful mobster. Small-town girl Cammy Franzese didn't plan to marry one of the most powerful mob bosses in the country. She didn't expect to raise her children alone while Michael served hard time. And she certainly didn't anticipate what would happen when he finally made the stunning decision to turn his back on "the life" and become a devout Christian. Now Cammy shares the details of her painful and joyful journey, including: How, as a Christian, she met and married Michael when he was an unbeliever and a high-profile mobster The high life she lived in their first year of marriage when she had more money than she knew what to do with What it was like being under law-enforcement scrutiny, dealing with death threats, harassment from the FBI, and having to move several times to protect their family How she stayed faithful to Michael and raised their children on her own while he was locked up for eight years Readers will learn why Cammy stayed in a marriage loaded with so much heartache and struggle. With painful honesty, she speaks about restoration, miracles, and the confidence we can have knowing God prepares us for the challenges and obstacles we will one day have to face.

Vince Luca is just like any other high school guy. His best friend, Alex, is trying to score vicariously through him; his brother is a giant pain; and his father keeps bugging him to get motivated. There is just one thing that really sets him apart for other kids-his father happens to be the head of a powerful crime organization. Needless to say, while Vince's family's connections can be handy for certain things (like when teachers are afraid to give him a bad grade), they can put a serious crimp in his dating life. How is he supposed to explain to a girl what his father does for a living? But when Vince meets a girl who finally seems to be worth the trouble, her family turns out to be the biggest problem of all. Because her father is an FBI agent-the one who wants to put his father away for good.

Morris "Moe" Dalitz was America's most secretive and most successful mobster. As a major architect of the United States' national crime syndicate, Dalitz was active in various fields of organized crime from 1918 until his death, all while spinning a web of myth and mock-respectability around himself so dense that decades after his demise, most mistake the legend for reality. From Prohibition-era bootlegging to the Reagan years, no other individual was present at so many pivotal events in gangland history. It's impossible to fully understand the modern Mob without knowing about Dalitz, his career, and the cunning publicity campaign that transformed his image from thug to that of a revered philanthropist. This exhaustive biography tells the story of Dalitz's life and the syndicate that he and like-minded individuals built from scratch.

From the time I was old enough to form my first memory, my childhood was already headed down the inevitable path of dysfunction. With divorce in the books and a new man in the house, these events actually turned out to be the easy part. The hard part was absolutely everything else that followed. From the depths of addiction to the height of recovery. From a life-threatening diagnosis to the ultimate loss of a lifetime, my story will take you through a journey of one mother’s love for her two young boys and the relentless courage to protect us, at any cost, from the very danger that she unwittingly had a hand in creating. It was a danger that would force us to disappear without a trace, from the only home we ever knew to a small town that no one could even pronounce. And as our lives were so quickly being turned upside down, all reasons for this upheaval could only point to one thing: the new man in the house. As the secrets began to pile up, there seemed to be far more questions than answers. The pressure to keep these secrets from us would inevitably take its toll, and by the time the truth was finally revealed, the emotional damage had already been done. No matter what degree of dysfunction that was dealt us, as two innocent boys from Chicago, thanks to our mother’s unwavering love, we always had one thing to hold on to—hope. Hope of a second chance. Hope of a fresh start. The hope of a better ending to our story than the tragic beginning we were so unfairly given.

Hollywood Godfather is Gianni Russo's over-the-top memoir of a real-life mobster-turned-actor who helped make The Godfather a reality, and his story of life on the edge between danger and glamour. Gianni Russo was a handsome 25-year-old mobster with no acting experience when he walked onto the set of The Godfather and entered Hollywood history. He played Carlo Rizzi, the husband of Connie Corleone, who set her brother Sonny—played by James Caan—up for a hit. Russo didn't have to act—he knew the mob inside and out: from his childhood in Little Italy, where Mafia legend Frank Costello took him under his wing, to acting as a messenger for New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello during the Kennedy assassination, to having to go on the lam after shooting and killing a member of the Colombian drug cartel in his Vegas club. Along the way, Russo befriended Frank Sinatra, who became his son's godfather, and Marlon Brando, who mentored his career as an actor after trying to get Francis Ford Coppola to fire him from The Godfather. Russo had passionate affairs with Marilyn Monroe, Liza Minelli, and scores of other celebrities. He went on to become a producer and starred in The Godfather: Parts I and II, Seabiscuit, Any Given Sunday and Rush Hour 2, among many other films. Hollywood Godfather is a no-holds-barred account of a life filled with violence, glamour, sex—and fun.