The Last Godfather: The Rise and Fall of Joey Massino (Berkley True Crime)

A fairly lightweight summary of Massino's career. It does contain some personal colour and some detail about his business dealings. However, there are quite a few sections that consist of court transcripts cut and pasted. This is fine in the sense that we hear the mobsters in their own words, but they sometimes seem rather over-used. Whilst business issues are discussed, some, such as drug dealing, could be covered in more depth. There's a reference to narcotics and to Massino discouraging the trade, but that's not really satisfactory.There are some patches of writing that are less than polished, with words repeated from one sentence to another. There is also a reference to 'Joe Crazy' Gallo that I haven't seen before - it's usually 'Crazy Joe' - and I wonder if this is correct.I read The Last Godfather in a couple of days and so it's certainy easy reading, but I didn't get much more than I got from other books such as Selwyn Raab's 'Five Families'.The wording on the cover is somewhat misleading - yes, Massino 'broke his silence', but we don't hear much about that here, apart from some brief comments at the end. It's not as if he was interviewed for the book. Now that would be something worth reading.

I brought this book as a Christmas presentVery disappointed with the look of the book. Cover looks damaged and thought it would look better inside. Poor quality

Well written. Full of background info which helps give an understabding of the power that The Mob had during its 1970's/80's heyday. Has a real American flavour. Includes testimony from star witnesses at joey massino's trail and unique photo's taken by the author.

got it

book was a little tatty but very good book to read

ta

great

Crittle does an excellent job describing the main characters and the different crimes that they committed whilst associated with the bonanno crime family and Joey Massino's crew. Another plus point of the book is the chapter on the rubout of the three captains, Sonny Red, Big Trin and Philly Lucky. However the book was just lacking that something extra that would have made this a great read. Overall though I would reccomend this book to anyone interested in the life of Joey Massino. Also excellent photographs in the centre pages.