Larry McShane

From award-winning New York Daily News reporter Larry McShane, the gritty, bloody, first definite biography of one of the Mafia's deadliest contenders for boss, "Little Vic" Orena, who battled it out in the streets with Carmine "The Snake" Persico for control of the Colombo Family and triggered the bloodiest Mafia war of our times . . . June 20, 1991. A five-man hit team waited in a car outside the Long Island home of Victor Orena, the acting crime boss of the Colombo crime family. Orena recognized the vehicle--and managed to escape with his life. But it was just the beginning. Over the next year, more shots would be fired in what would become the last major mob war in New York's crime-soaked history--and one of the bloodiest. The war ended with Orena's 1992 arrest and conviction for racketeering. But the full story of "Little Vic's" astonishing rise and fall has never been told. Until now . . . With shocking new revelations from Orena's son Andrew, this eye-opening account takes readers inside the criminal underworld of New York's infamous "Five Families" from the point of view of one of its rising stars. The grandson of Sicilian immigrants, Victor Orena ingratiated himself with the local Mafiosi during his teens, ultimately aligning himself with the Colombos. Ascending the ranks, he eventually became acting boss of the family when its don Carmine "The Snake" Persico was sentenced to prison. But as Persico struggled to maintain control from behind bars, Orena decided to seize that power for himself--launching a ruthless mob war the city would never forget. It's all here: the Mafia hits, the FBI stings, the bullets and the backstabbings. Featuring a rogues gallery of legendary mobsters--from the Gallo brothers to the Gambinos and John Gotti--this riveting account sheds new light on one of the most fascinating chapters in American crime.

VINCENT "CHIN" GIGANTE He started out as a professional boxer--until he found his true calling as a ruthless contract killer. Hand-picked by Vito Genovese to run the Genovese Family when Vito was sent to prison, Chin raked in more than $100 million for the Genovese family and routinely ordered the murders of mobsters who violated the Mafia code--including John Gotti. At the height of his power, he controlled an underworld empire of close to three hundred made men, making the Genovese Family the most powerful in the U. S. And yet Vincent "Chin" Gigante was, to all outside appearances, certifiably crazy. He wandered the streets of Greenwich Village in a ratty bathrobe and slippers. He urinated in public, played pinochle in storefronts, and hid a second family from his wife. On twenty-two occasions, he admitted himself to a mental hospital--evading criminal prosecution while insuring his continued reign as "The Oddfather." It took nearly thirty years of endless psychiatric evaluations by a parade of puzzled doctors for federal authorities to finally bring him down. "A tale for the ages . . . grabs you with the immediacy of a breaking news story and carries you along as if you were living it."--Michael Daly, The Daily Beast "A story that's long overdue. McShane pulls no punches . . . a vivid picture of the last American gangster." --George Anastasia, author of Gotti's Rules

As the last Don of the Philadelphia mob, Ralph Natale, the first-ever mob boss to turn state's evidence, provides an insider's perspective on the mafia. Natale's reign atop the Philadelphia and New Jersey underworlds brought the region's mafia back to prominence in the 1990s. Smart, savvy, and articulate, Natale came up in the mob and saw first-hand as it hatched its plan to control Atlantic City's casino unions. Later on, after spending 16 years in prison, he reclaimed the family as his own after a bloody mob war that left bodies scattered across South Philly. He forged connections around the country, invigorated the family with more allies than it had in two decades, and achieved a status within the mob never seen before or since until he was betrayed by his men and decided to testify against them in a stunning turn of events. Using dozens of hours of interviews with Natale along with research and interviews with FBI agents, this book delivers revelatory insights into seminal events in American mob history, including: - The truth about Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance- The murder of Jewish mob icon Bugsy Siegel - The identity of the man who created modern-day Las Vegas With the full cooperation of Natale, New York Daily News reporter Larry McShane and producer Dan Pearson uncover the deadly reign of the last great mob boss of Philadelphia, a tale that covers a half-century of mob lore--and gore.