Kill the Irishman: The War That Crippled the Mafia

My grandfather was a cleveland detective during most of the happenings of danny greene. after buying this book and reading it, i asked many questions to which my grandfather(retired at the time) informed me that all were true except there were some things left out like the bombings off of st. clair of people working for him that had matresses up against their walls to prevent from dying from bombings. i cant tell the entire facts because theyre mostly in the police reports i have from my grandfather since he kept copies of all of them and died last year. RIP 2008. but he told me the inside jokes about danny greene which made the book more intersting like bringing green pens to meetings and creating a joke out of it. overall its a good book but its better if you know ALL the facts of danny greene's mob...but you prolly wont know if your not a cop involved in it!

Rick Porello has succeeded in giving a very clear account of the rise of a mob figure, and the ultimate demise of both him and his adversaries, ultimately weaking La Cosa Nostra nationwide. It does not surprise me that this book might lead to a movie, since it perfectly lays out a compelling true story script.

I gave this book an A because it is one of the best non-fiction books I have ever read in my life. Its not a tough read and Rick Porrello does an excellent job of the describing the chaos that was going on in Cleveland during this time period. The beginning of the books tells you about Danny's troubled past growing up in Collinwood, a large Cleveland neighborhood. He lost this mother at a young age and his father sent his to life with his grandfather. I believe that part of the reason he turns to a life of crime is because of his extremely troubled childhood. He was very charismatic as a kid so he made friends very easily. Often times with the wrong crowd though. He got in many street fights as a kid and in minor trouble with the police. Even though you know he is a bad man you grow attached to him and start to almost like him. As he grows up he gets more and more involved with illegal activity and eventually breaks his way into the big time and is competing with the Italian mafia. The book is very interesting and intriguing. I highly recommend it for a nice quick easy read.

I lived in Cleveland during this period.It was an amazing time.As an Irish Catholic I had some affinity with Danny Greene, but realized he was basically a gangster no matter what his public persona as a community and labor leader.Rick Porello does a fine job of telling this amazing tale.I only hope the plan to make it a movie goes forward, I'll be first in line.

Being a Clevelander I found this book to be wonderful. Being able to identify names and places made this book even more interesting. I definitely like the factual information instead of a "hollywood" reporting style. If you have read other mafia related stories, this one helps tie the names and places together during that era. I would defintely like to see this story portrayed in a movie.