Breaking the Mob

by Frank Friel, John Guinther

The cop who took on Nicodemo Scarfo chronicles Scarfo's nefarious business dealings and describes how he hunted down Scarfo and some of the most evil and peculiar men, including Harry "the Hunchback" Riccobene, Teddy Di Pretoro, and Salvatore "Salvy" Testa. Reprint. K.

Paperback

First published June 1, 1990

Reviews

[Patti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was given this book as a gift and had no idea how much I would enjoy it when I received it. I'm not sure how much of the prose was aided by the co-author, but I felt like the story flowed seamlessly and the point of view felt true to the author's life experience of being a cop in Philadelphia. It reminded me of the HBO show The Wire in it's ability to convey the shortcomings of the American legal system and the brutal experiences of people involved in the mafia or drug trades, while also showing that there are people fighting for reform and justice. The author conveyed that across the spectrum, there are many who live by a code of honor on both sides, but it only takes one powerful person with a disturbed sense of justice to create a cascade of murder stats. Glimpsing into those codes of ethics from a lawman's perspective of the law, as well as his perspective of the code the mobsters live by, was fascinating and informative.

[Melissa Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love you forever ❤️