Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33922 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 784 pages

Customer Reviews

The Mobs Decline Examined in Detail.
I could not quite justify the full five. I believe that full marks are for the exceptional works of genius that are seldom published. This is not quite upto that standard.
Despite this being an excellent account of the mafia's decline over the last 30 years, its chapters on the beginnings and haydays of the mob were sketchy and frequently incorrect. An example of this is Vincent Mangano being named as the first boss of the Gambino family from 1931-51. Anyone who has studied this group will know that their history goes back much further than 1931 and that Al Mineo and, for a short time, Frank Scalise both predated Mangano as family Boss.
The Mobs Golden years (40s and 50s) are also very low on detail. Joey Adonis is totally ignored.
But, and I think this was the authors point, the beginning and peak years of the Mob have been written of many times. By concentrating on the tragi-comic saga type decline of the Gambino's (Gotti), the Lucchese's (Amuso/Casso) and the Bonanno's (Massino) Raab as avoided re-writing the same stale old tales.
All the information in this book as already appeared in print but this is the first to catalogue concise versions of the stories and add analysis of what the events signify and what may come next.
Its an enjoyable read, never becoming dry and academic. A must have book for anyone with an interest in La Cosa Nostra over the last 40 years.

A fine history of the New York Mafia
Raab Selwyn's book, Five Families, focuses on the New York Mafia's most prominent gangsters, from their inception at the start of the twentieth century, to their somewhat downgraded status in the twenty first century. The book encompasses not only the bloody rise to power of a gang of thugs, from urban poverty to controlling a criminal empire worth hundreds of millions of dollars but also their prosecution by a collection of committed, persistent and dogged law enforcement individuals.

Five Families covers all the main 'godfather' stories, as you would expect as well as the story of many minor hoodlums who played a role in this brutal tale. The sadistic and remorseless nature of organised crime becomes readily apparent - this book does not glorify and glamourise the violent men who operate in their business; the determination of the police and federal investigators is likewise highlighted, from street level surveillance and bugging programs to court prosecutions. The 'popular culture' influence of the mob is also touched upon, from The Godfather to The Sopranos.

What this book does not cover in any detail, is Mafia activity outside of New York: significant characters such as Santo Trafficante of Florida, Carlos Marcello of New Orleans and Sam Giancana of Chicago are hardly mentioned at all. This is perhaps excusable, given that the title of the book implies that it will focus exclusively on the New York Mafia.

More importantly, Five Families does not discuss deeper reasons for why J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, refused to investigate organised crime (indeed, he persistently denied its' very existence). Selwyn Raab puts Hoover's denial and obstructionism down to either a misplaced benevolence - not wishing to place his employees in an arena where they might become susceptible to bribery and corruption, or down to the fact that Mafia investigations were time-consuming, with no guarantee of success and 'his' bureau would have better crime-busting rates if they concentrated on more easily solvable crimes such as bank robbery and car thefts. There may be a partial element of truth in this but it completely ignores a much more significant fact: that J. Edgar Hoover had a lengthy personal relationship with the Mafia (such as John Roselli) and financially benefitted from his mob ties yet simultaneously, he was blackmailed by the mob into denying their existence, by way of incriminating photographs (Hoover was a closet homosexual and transvestite). Raab entirely omits discussion of any of this material; one wishes he had read Anthony Summers' biography of Hoover, Official and Confidential beforehand, as it establishes these facts conclusively.

Another area where it could be argued the author does not go deep enough, is the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Raab rightfully acknowledges that the Mafia may well have played a role in this murder but he completely fails to mention that the mob had a relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency and that the Mafia was always the junior partner in any enterprises in which they conspired together. The mob would not have the resources to organise numerous facets of the crime's context, such as the maneuvering and sheep-dipping of alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald as a 'communist' and the eagerness of the subsequent investigation (the Warren Commission) to downplay and ignore vital evidence.

Those aspects aside, Five Familes is a decent, lively exploration of the insidious tentacles of the New York Mafia's corrosive influence, from the fish market and garbage collection to construction and City Hall. Selwyn Raab's book is a respectable collection of New York Mafia history and a fine companion piece to John Dickie's book, Cosa Nostra, a history of the Sicilian Mafia. Raab covered the Mafia for twenty five years as a reporter for The New York Times and has written what amounts to a not entirely comprehensive but nonetheless praiseworthy examination of the history of Italian-American organised crime.

Probably the best book i've ever read!
An extreemely interesting read about post second world war mafia. It is extreemely well written and will give you a very concise read about the higherlings of the five mafia families.

The books main point is the introduction of the Rackateering Influenced and Corrupt Orginations law (RICO) and its major implementations on recent crime figures such as gotti and massino.

However, if you are looking for a book detailing pre second world war mafia then this is not it. Luciano is briefly detailed, murder inc is included a bit but that is not what this book is about - and no, al capone is not in this book!!

If you want to know all sbout the ups and downs of more recent mafia activities then i would definately recoment you read this book!