Mob Killer: The Bloody Rampage of Charlie Carneglia, Mafia Hit Man

by Anthony M. DeStefano

A Crazed Killer

He dissolved the bodies of some of his victims in acid and poured them down the sewer. He hung grisly souvenirs on nails in his junkyard.

La Costra Nostra

Charles Carneglia was a stone-cold killer who fell in with the bloodthirsty John Gotti crew. As the infamous crime family rose to power with their murderous trail of sex, jealousy, greed, and revenge, Carneglia rose with them.

Mafia, Madness And Murder

This is the horrifying story of a misfit who fit perfectly into the New York mafia. In a harrowing journey inside a ruthless criminal underworld, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Anthony M. DeStefano chronicles one man's life in a world of depraved acts of violence and the horrors that went with being a member of the Gambino family.

"Thrilling American crime writing." -Jimmy Breslin on King of the Godfathers

Includes 16 Pages of Shocking Photos

Genres: True Crime, Crime, Nonfiction

369 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2011

About the author

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for the past twenty years for Newsday in New York City, specializing in criminal justice and legal affairs. He is the author of The Last Godfather, King of the Godfathers, Mob Killer,The War on Human Trafficking, and Gangland New York, among others. He has appeared on Biography Channel programs as an expert on organized crime and he also speaks at academic conferences about crime and human trafficking.

(source: Amazon)

Reviews

[Walt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the better mass-market paperbacks on the Gambinos. Using Charles Carneglia as a means to discuss the entire organization, DeStefano uses a variety of records, especially court documents, to create a picture of one of the last members of the older mob generation, before the mass defections to government authorities.

The portrait of Charles Carneglia is a mixture of admiration, disgust, and sympathy. Carneglia was an ineffectual mobster except in his experience as a hitman. However, he kept to the older code of ethics among the Mafiosi and was notably the only defendant out of sixty-two who did not make some sort of plea agreement with prosecutors. The result was life in prison.

Unlike many authors of mob books, DeStefano sought to balance the depiction of Carneglia as a monster with that of a flawed human being. DeStefano made it clear how devoted he was to his mother and his family. There are also some indications of skepticism towards rumors and hearsay from turn-coat mobsters towards Carneglia's viciousness. Nevertheless, it is clear that Carneglia was involved in multiple violent crimes, and DeStefano makes no effort to minimize his guilt. The result is a neutral and seemingly unbiased account of the post-John Gotti Gambino mob.

[Ed Scarpo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story about one of John Gotti's most brutal assassins. Carneg shot people, stabbed them, dismembered them, burned them to nothing in acid, all while living in the same house as his mother. He was an outsider among outsiders and the book details how he supposedly envied the success of others, like his brother, even though Charlie got his own button. True to form, author Destefano includes many intriguing details, such as Carneg's minor role in the accidental death of Gotti's son; Charles had owned the motorbike the boy was riding when a car accidentally struck and killed him. Imprisoned for life, this man isn't insane. He knew enough to maintain a bushy beard so he could allow his defense attorney to use it in his remarks. "Made members of Cosa Nostra don't wear facial hair," went one line of his defense. A deliciously disturbing account of a mob killer from an earlier generation, when wiseguys walked the street openly.

[Katelin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not so much a book about one guy but more an over few of the gambino crime family. In fact if you know anything about the mob or the gambino family it may actually be hard to follow and keep track of all the different players connection, so this shouldn’t be your first mob book. It was well written but I felt like this book was missing any inside or first hand insight. Charlie Carneglia didn’t participate in this book and from what it seems most of the info the author pulled was all from public case files, testimonies or newspaper articles. Because of that it kind of fell flat and lost the thrill and charm, and had alot of gotti this and that and honestly Charlie Carneglia was like one of the least interesting members of the gambinos and wasn’t really a man player. besides the fact he went to trial but I mean he was screwed either way so why not go to trial. For me it just didn’t have enough first hand information and read kind of like a book report collecting all your sources. Still in the end an interesting biography of someone’s life involved in the mafia, everyone’s roll was different.

[Codi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good look inside the Mob. I of course knew who the Gotti and Gambino families were but Charles was a new character. I felt like this book was hard to follow at first as there were so many people introduced, but by the end of it I understood why and how they all fit together. I also enjoyed breaking up my reading genres and throwing in a non-fiction book.

[c · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was OK as a mob book, but calling it a book about a particular guy in the mob, felt kind of like a stretch…

[Zane Sterling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding Story!

If you like Mafia stories, this book is for you. Disturbing stories about disturbed individuals doing disturbing things...and it's all true!

[Brooklynne Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty solid. I kinda wish they focused more on Carneglia, but hey, gottis are interesting, too. 🥲

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read better mob books.

[Mariann Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mob killer

It was a fairly good book and I enjoyed reading it, my only issue was that it was kind of all over the place which could get confusing at times.

[Carl A. Marine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow read

Took a long time to get to the point. I thought the book was going to be from a different perspective.