Frank Costello: Prime Minister of the Underworld

If ever there was a more dangerous "gangster" than Costello: that is one who was more capable of promoting the Mafia way of life,he would be hard to find.His nonviolence and smooth as butter type PR (all business)gained him alot of respect and most of all alot of money.(Which, along with staying out of jail, is by the way what the Mafia is all about.)He is represented in this book as a character that one could have alot of empathy for(even his own lawyer,who authored this bio,believed in him.)A poor Italian immigrant growing up during the Great Depression Era doing what he has to do to help his family out,not sadistic at all,just realizing that immigrants didn't have alot of opportunity to "move on up" in honest enterprises. That's what makes his type of Mafioso so dangerous.No bad-English gory tales of suitcases full of body parts and sadistic laughter.Just a charismatic friendly type laid back guy and the threat of violence; an ever so light background haze.Not an overwhelming heavy fog like the Gotti types.Still,that haze would be enough to give one a "light"feeling of discomfort when dealing with Mr. Costello.No doubt it would swing some labor/building contracts his way.(Hey why take a chance and Mr. Costello is such a great guy anyway!(?) With his charisma and support for charities ,such as the Salvation Army,the government might even feel bad about prosecuting him for unpaid income taxes.They might even be charmed into dismissing charges.You wouldn't even want to see Costello spill tomato soup on himself;Costello's not a Mafioso like a Genovese/Gotti type whom prosecutors love to "bring down". This book gives the reader this type of impression and while not as "exciting" as Sammy the Bull's expose on John Gotti,the book leaves you with the impression that maybe the mob isn't such a bad thing.Now there's the danger!

This was a very good biography of Frank Costello. In addition you also recieved a good history of organized crime.This booktells of Costello's leadership role in the Mafia. You are taken through bootlegging.the gambling empires that were built by organized crime as well as the House un-American activities hearings. The author also gives you good insight into the attempted murder of Costello by rival forces.You also get a good insight into Bugsy Seigel,Meyer Lansky, and other prominentfigures in organized crime. This isn actually a very good book.Read it.

There has been much attention focused on this book in the last year or so. First Harold Ramis, noted "Prime Minster of the Underworld" as inspiration for his mob picture, "Analyze This". Then I read where former CBS President Tom Leahy along with Norman Twain obtained an option to do the book as a movie. It made me go out and get a copy. I was not disapointed! "Prime Minister" is the sort of book that isn't written much anymore. It is done with elan' and the subject, Frank Costello, the "capo di capo" is treated with great dignity. It is a dignity that Costello strove for in life, even as he headed an organized crime family. Costello's attorney wrote this book with the outstanding author Joseph DiMona. Together they weave an adventurous tale of an immigrant who through the din of will, grit and native intellect rose to the top of the "Cosa Nostra". Costello preferred negotiations to violence and acted as the Mob's peacemaker. "Prime Minister of the Underworld" presents a man of fundamental decency, ambivalent about life as a mobster, yet one of the most successful gangsters. It is this riddle, this internal contradiction that makes Costello compelling and drives this story. Wolf and DiMona display great restraint, they let the action speak for itself and there is not a moment gratutitous violence or moralizing. So complex is Costello's character that it needs no adornment and will bear no easy analyzation. What emerges is a clean portrait of an everyman as killer. George Wolf and Joe DiMona fashioned one of the great mob books of all time. A book as subtle and powerful as its' topic.

I enjoyed the first section on his childhood which was all new to me. But what I really enjoyed was the second section on the bootlegging days. It went into more detail than I could have asked for on how he set it up and even gave some detail on some of the gun fights men like Bugsy Seigel got into. I would have liked the book better if this section would have been a lot bigger. The rest of the book was good too and supplied an interesting theory on Lucky Luciano's infamous ride but didn't go into any real detail on how he ran and operated the crime family it focused more on his personal businessess. All in all interesting (especially the bootlegging section) and a fairly good story. I recommend at least giving it a try.

This book was an excellent book with a lot of details that I didn't know before. Some of it seems like fiction but I didn't find anything in there that I thought was. It was a good page turner but I gave it a 9 do to some of the lack of information on his running of the actual crime family, it dealt more with his personal businesses. Good facts on his bootlegging days. I would definately recommend this book to anyone interested in the mafia.