Mafias Greatest Hits

David Jacobs, the hardboiled true crime writer who gave us Hellcats, Vixens, & Vicedolls: Women, Crime, and Kink of the Fifties and Ku Klux Klan America's First Terrorists Exposed (Shadow History of the United States), along with Mr. Goodfella, Henry Hill, rats out the mob in this bullet-riddled history of mafia executions. Jacob's prose is faster and more hard-hitting than a speeding bullet and always hits their mark. So, pick up this book, and don't talk to no one--or else!

David Jacobs narrates the stories of ten of the Mafia's most notorious murders with the skill of a good story-teller. He covers the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, the murders of Dutch Schultz, Albert Anastasia and Bugsy Seigel among others. This is not the right book for a reader looking for a detailed study and analysis of any of the murders involved, but it is more than a quick journalistic summary. Jacobs adopts the pose of a critic, of the judge at a sporting event, evaluating each hit on a scale of 20, with points for stategy, tactics, and results. On that basis, the most elaborate hit, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre flunks at 10, since the object of the attack, the death of Bugsy Moran, was not achieved and the blowback did severe damage to the Capone mob. Jacobs comes up with a credible explanation of the unsolved murder of Abe Reles ("The Canary that Couldn't Fly" --- the Murder Inc honcho who turned state's evicence) and an entertaining summary of all of the hits. But what sets this book apart from others is the analysis, and the comparative analysis, of strategy, tacics and result. The writing is not without defect. ("Believing him dead, the shooters fled. Torrio was --- but not mortally." How can someone be "dead but not moertally?"] OK, the meaning is clear and the writing is vigorous and entertaining. The greatest hit: The assassination of Don Salvatore Maranzano (18 points out of 20)

I have read several books on the mafia and each one is full of this one or that one plotting the demise of the other before he is whacked himself. It's a life of constant stress and your bodyguards and best friend may very well be the ones involved in snuffing out your life. This book is different in that ten mafia hits are analyzed and rated on their effeciency in being carried out in addition to the degree the hit accomplished what it was intended to do. Interestingly, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre is well known to all, but it didn't accomplish what it was intended to do (wipe out Bugs Moran) and, in fact, backfired in that the outrage of the public called too much attention to the mob. This was not a good thing. Other than this hit in Chicago, all but one of the remainder take place in New York City. The ones I found to be the most spectacular were the elimination of Albert Anastasia (The Mad Hatter) in a barbershop, Carmine Galente in an outdoor section of a Brooklyn restaurant, the elimination of Paul Castellano and his bodyguard in front of Spark's Steak House between 2nd and 3rd Avenue and the wipeout of Dutch Schultz and three of his cohorts in a Newark, New Jersey chophouse. The grading, if you will, of each hit made it different from other books you may have read on the mob.

Whom else, but that ace chronicler of crime, David Jacobs, could make these over exposed expose's seem so fresh and insightful? The stories are well told, the facts and figures are correct, and the rating system is a welcome and interesting gimmick. I read it in two sittings. The men singeled out in these pages were no doubt tough, but not as tough as putting the book down.