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The Last Mafioso: The Treacherous World of Jimmy Frantianno
Hardcover with Fast Amazon Shipping. Also published by Bantam: 0-553-25474-X
463 pages, Hardcover
First published January 13, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
April 3, 2012
I think that is book is very interesting. I was able to stay completely focused while reading this book, and at times I did not want to put it down. The life of Jimmy was one of love, revenge and betrayal. I think that I really enjoyed this book because the character of Jimmy was very interesting. It’s hard to believe some of the stuff that he was able to do. For example he started his own trucking business and was almost able to run a competitor out of town. I also think that this book is very detailed about all aspects of Jimmy’s life.
Jimmy also mentions a lot about his other mafia cohorts. Throughout the book one can learn a lot about the mafia’s inter working throughout the west coast. But, that’s not all this book covers. It also talks about the crime families in New York and Chicago as well. Also, if you read this book you will learn a lot about the mafia’s allies and what they did to some of their enemies. One of their allies that I was surprised to learn about was Frank Sinatra. But, that’s not all this book has a plethora of knowledge about all things mafia from their initiation ritual to their code of ethics. The only negative aspect of this book is the fact that there are a lot of characters in this book. There are over one-hundred names that come up frequently in this book. So, that means that there are a lot of names to learn and memorize in the short amount of time that you are reading this book. But, that aspect does not affect this review, but it is good to mention. Once in a while one may get confused at who’s who by the end of this book. But, I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in the mafia or crime fiction as well. This book is very intriguing and a good read for just about anyone.
Jimmy also mentions a lot about his other mafia cohorts. Throughout the book one can learn a lot about the mafia’s inter working throughout the west coast. But, that’s not all this book covers. It also talks about the crime families in New York and Chicago as well. Also, if you read this book you will learn a lot about the mafia’s allies and what they did to some of their enemies. One of their allies that I was surprised to learn about was Frank Sinatra. But, that’s not all this book has a plethora of knowledge about all things mafia from their initiation ritual to their code of ethics. The only negative aspect of this book is the fact that there are a lot of characters in this book. There are over one-hundred names that come up frequently in this book. So, that means that there are a lot of names to learn and memorize in the short amount of time that you are reading this book. But, that aspect does not affect this review, but it is good to mention. Once in a while one may get confused at who’s who by the end of this book. But, I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in the mafia or crime fiction as well. This book is very intriguing and a good read for just about anyone.
January 19, 2014
I felt the book was disjointed. Too many names with not enough description of the players involved.
I basically finished it because I hate to not complete something I start.
The book can be summed up by stating this Jimmy "the weasel" broke laws, murdered people, rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous and when he fell out of favor with his friends and they came looking to murder him he tucked tail and turned government witness.
He truly lived up to his nickname.
I basically finished it because I hate to not complete something I start.
The book can be summed up by stating this Jimmy "the weasel" broke laws, murdered people, rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous and when he fell out of favor with his friends and they came looking to murder him he tucked tail and turned government witness.
He truly lived up to his nickname.
May 18, 2018
Since reading Green Felt Jungle, Demaris's expose on Mafia operations in Las Vegas co-written with Ed Reid, I was intrigued to read is inside look on an acting boss found to be an FBI informant destined for the Witness Protection Program. I applaud Demaris for including the detailed "dramatis personae" to make sense of the myriad character spread over 500 pages. However, the story is not really engrossing until we, literally, "cut to the chase" in the final act as a Mafia contract pushes "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratianno out of the Mob, into hiding, and ultimately into the witness stand as a gov't-protected testifier. For some reason, Demaris chooses to fill a lot of the book with lengthy conversations that ring false; supposedly Demaris and his colleagues automatically lapse into narrating their own documentary about Mafia history and hits. I would like to know more about how he came to be an FBI source for so long. This important sub-plot is relegated to a passing reference.
The book is a revealing tale of life in the Mafia with an indepth look at the Los Angeles crime family, The Chicago Outfit, and The Cleveland crime family, and several notable mobsters. There are also notable non-mobsters featured with unsavory connections, including Frank Sinatra (willing to work with made men to make his mom proud to save a son in Knights of Malta), and murky mayor Joseph Alioto.
Johnny Roselli's life is also detailed and the book describes conversations the two had about John Roselli's involvement in the CIA's plot to assassinate Fidel Castro, known as "Family Jewels" when declassified in 2007. The book also mentions Roselli's alleged involvement in the John F. Kennedy assassination, but dismisses the notion that the Mafia had anything to do with the JFK murder while suggesting both Hoffa (for the scrutiny of RFK) and Castro (for uncovering the CIA's plot to assassinate him) had motive and intent to slay JFK.
The book is a revealing tale of life in the Mafia with an indepth look at the Los Angeles crime family, The Chicago Outfit, and The Cleveland crime family, and several notable mobsters. There are also notable non-mobsters featured with unsavory connections, including Frank Sinatra (willing to work with made men to make his mom proud to save a son in Knights of Malta), and murky mayor Joseph Alioto.
Johnny Roselli's life is also detailed and the book describes conversations the two had about John Roselli's involvement in the CIA's plot to assassinate Fidel Castro, known as "Family Jewels" when declassified in 2007. The book also mentions Roselli's alleged involvement in the John F. Kennedy assassination, but dismisses the notion that the Mafia had anything to do with the JFK murder while suggesting both Hoffa (for the scrutiny of RFK) and Castro (for uncovering the CIA's plot to assassinate him) had motive and intent to slay JFK.
July 17, 2012
At times it got a bit confusing with all the factual details...but then again without that it wouldn't be so rich. Getting a first hand insight of the background of the mafia and the process involved in joinging was interesting. Also to see how they operate and the specific regulations they abide by. Reading about the power they had and understand how the family structures work and all the operations they were involved in was really really interesting.
August 19, 2015
Here's a short recap: the Jews in the book ended up with the money, the Italians with the bragging rights and the Working stiff teamsters Nada. It's a good read and easy to follow. Some names from early Vagas days are now respectable house hold names, well at least two. Gonna have to read it to find out.
December 3, 2015
Page turner and full of good information and stories especially in regard to west coast operations
February 26, 2018
Few other gangsters were as transnational as Jimmy the Weasel, and his exploits offer perhaps the best window into the overall Mafia scene of the the era.
February 9, 2023
Long before sourcing Wikipedia became a point of shame in any sort of written work, people quenched their thirst for general knowledge via the Encyclopedia Britannica. Originally published just shy of the 1800s, the Internet and people's changing reading habits finally closed the coffin on actual print versions of the encyclopedia in 2010, the last version comprising a set of thirty-two volumes and more than thirty thousand pages. Jimmy Fratianno, the walking encyclopedia of La Cosa Nostra, THE LAST MAFIOSO, though active only for about fifty years, produced a murderous volume of information on organized crime when the FBI put him on the books as an informant, thus ending his career as a Mafia button man and marking him for death.
Seemingly the blue print for anything portraying the Mafia from 1980 forward, THE LAST MAFIOSO is the Who's Who & What's What in Organized Crime across America from 1937-1977. Encompassing a cross-section of organized crime history, including Lucky Luciano, Al Capone, Frank Nitti, Bugsy Siegel, Mickey Cohen, Moe Dalitz, as well as the Bonanno, Lucchese, Gambino, Magaddino, Maseria, and Colombo crime families, THE LAST MAFIOSO represents the first time that the FBI allowed a key witness to talk freely to a writer prior to giving testimony in upcoming trials. It appears that the writers of THE SOPRANOS read this book and heavily borrowed some of the unique names and events of real life Cosa Nostra members and wrote them into their series. Besides also being mentioned in THE LAST MAFIOSO, Nicholas Pileggi, once a crime reporter, seems to also have lifted a lot from these pages and would later pen WISEGUYS ('85) and CASINO ('95), subsequently finding life on the big screen as GOODFELLAS and CASINO.
Finding downstream revival with the Whitey Bulger story and the Steve Martin vehicle MY BLUE HEAVEN, THE LAST MAFIOSO is also Jimmy's ultimate vendetta in the best Mafia tradition. Putting those who put a contract out on him in prison to rot there for life. Rather than being an exception, it seems to be the norm, for Jimmy insists that in his business, people you think're close to you--aren't; people you think you can trust--don't. Shattering the image of one big happy family, in the Organization, the Combination, the Family--whatever it's called, you come in alive and you go out dead. The honored society of Cosa Nostra, which only welcomes men of great courage and loyalty, is a place where you live and die by the gun and the knife. Cosa Nostra comes before family, country, and God. Though its members never mention 'Mafia & Cosa Nostra' among themselves, violence and silence is greatly valued. As the narrative follows Fratianno's meteoric rise in the Mob, THE LAST MAFIOSO outlines how shockingly deeply entrenched organized crime is in American life and every city in the country. It's probably nigh on impossible to find someone not touched by Mafia schemes, evidenced by the cause celebre involved: Menachem Begin, Frank Sinatra, Shirley MacLane, Jimmy Hoffa, Howard Hughes, Zeppo Marx, and Dean Martin.
Getting a gradual start in organized crime, Jimmy "the Weasel" Fratianno initially had a knack for escaping the cops and staying outside the slammer, incrementally moving across America from east to west, as the business and circumstance required. Jimmy's line was bookmaking, shylocking, skimming, gambling, and scamming. In the course of following his chronicle he'll elaborate about Mordida, shibboleth, and "no show" jobs. A scammer and a con-man all his life, Jimmy had no trouble spotting a snowjob when he heard one, making him one resourceful, enterprising, and go-getting individual. Always earning. Thus a darling with the bosses, Jimmy's biggest problem then was appearing in the papers, the papers, since it ruined his 'sub Rosa' type of profile and being able to make money and hustle in the shadows. Detailed, fascinating, and brutal, THE LAST MAFIOSO reinforces, as taught in THE ENFORCER in '76, that conspiring to commit a misdemeanor in CA is a felony, that it was against the rules to clip people in Vegas (since Benny built the Flamingo), and that a Mafia reputation was the great equalizer for otherwise ruthlessly abusive people to fall in line. Easily the tangentially Mafia equivalent of PRINCE OF THE CITY and SERPICO, THE LAST MAFIOSO is the never before seen grand journey into the life of America's Mafia and its quintessential fifty years until 1977. Take the oath, live in the fast lane, and beware, with La Cosa Nostra, once in, never out.
October 29, 2018
Books about the Mafia are for me sort of like pizza or sex with fat girls. Even when it's not great or even good, it's still somehow satisfying. This book is the exception to the rule, however, and while it was intermittently entertaining and sometimes even gripping, it falls far short of both the best offerings in this particular True Crime sub-genre (like the books by Nick Pileggi and Jerry Capeci) and the more workmanlike but still readable mob books, like those written by Phil Carlo.
There's no doubt the book's subject, Jimmy "the Weasel" Frattiano is a compelling figure, the type of guy who never mastered basic English grammar but who had enough street-smarts to make millions (sometimes legally), and was also privy to the inside track on some of the biggest scams and hits in the history of organized crime, including the massive skim operation in Vegas (wonderfully depicted in the book and film "Casino") and the failed plot to kill Fidel Castro ("Operation Mongoose"), as well as the successful killing of union organizer and populist blowhard Jimmy Hoffa.
The problem with the book is that the focus is too wide, with too large a caste of dramatic personae. Then there are the massive paragraphs of dialogue (sometimes verbatim wiretap chatter) that get to be a bit too much after awhile. I understand that Mob guys like to talk their heads off (which is a bit paradoxical, considering their oath of "Omerta") but it sometimes felt like I was reading transcripts instead of a book.
Things do heat up in the final third of "The Last Mafioso", however, as mobster Jimmy Frattiano faces his life's great moral crisis: to either stay true to the family which is crumbling around him and can no longer remain true to its own core beliefs dating back to the old country, or to become the one thing most despised in the underworld: a rat/ government informant. I don't want to spoil the ending for you, but which way Jimmy Frattiano goes shouldn't be too hard to guess. His nickname, after all, was "Jimmy the Weasel," not "Johnny Tight Lips."
Moderate recommendation, in any event. Some photos included.
There's no doubt the book's subject, Jimmy "the Weasel" Frattiano is a compelling figure, the type of guy who never mastered basic English grammar but who had enough street-smarts to make millions (sometimes legally), and was also privy to the inside track on some of the biggest scams and hits in the history of organized crime, including the massive skim operation in Vegas (wonderfully depicted in the book and film "Casino") and the failed plot to kill Fidel Castro ("Operation Mongoose"), as well as the successful killing of union organizer and populist blowhard Jimmy Hoffa.
The problem with the book is that the focus is too wide, with too large a caste of dramatic personae. Then there are the massive paragraphs of dialogue (sometimes verbatim wiretap chatter) that get to be a bit too much after awhile. I understand that Mob guys like to talk their heads off (which is a bit paradoxical, considering their oath of "Omerta") but it sometimes felt like I was reading transcripts instead of a book.
Things do heat up in the final third of "The Last Mafioso", however, as mobster Jimmy Frattiano faces his life's great moral crisis: to either stay true to the family which is crumbling around him and can no longer remain true to its own core beliefs dating back to the old country, or to become the one thing most despised in the underworld: a rat/ government informant. I don't want to spoil the ending for you, but which way Jimmy Frattiano goes shouldn't be too hard to guess. His nickname, after all, was "Jimmy the Weasel," not "Johnny Tight Lips."
Moderate recommendation, in any event. Some photos included.
July 20, 2021
At times it got a bit confusing with all the factual details...but then again without that it wouldn't be so rich. Getting a first hand insight of the background of the mafia and the process involved in joinging was interesting. Also to see how they operate and the specific regulations they abide by. Reading about the power they had and understand how the family structures work and all the operations they were involved in was really really interesting.
February 10, 2026
A classic of the genre, a fascinating look into the subculture that was very rare for the times. Back then the idea that someone who turned on the mob would be proud of that fact wqs pretty unique. Either they'd be too ashamed, scared of being killed, or both. Nowadays, it seems like everyone who was in the Mafia now has a few books published, a YouTube channel, multiple appearances on various reality TV shows, featured on true crime documentaries, speaking engagements etc.
Read
August 16, 2020Read in 1982. True story of "Jimmy the Weasel" who became acting boss of the Los Angeles crime family. Interesting.
May 11, 2021
This is my very most favorite book. You will never read a book so intense. So profound in its story content of a true american philanthropist. I admire the reality of the brutality of survival.
April 7, 2023
Very good, forget about it.
September 3, 2024
He was really quite brilliant
And he was great at crime.
Then his "friends" try to kill him,
And he starts to drop dime.
And he was great at crime.
Then his "friends" try to kill him,
And he starts to drop dime.
July 30, 2020
The extensive recollections of one of the highest ranking Mafia informants.
April 5, 2015
It takes a lot (or a little as the case may be) for me to not like a book on the mafia, but this book was just not good. It is largely a meandering recitation of mostly pretty boring stories with no semblance of an overarching arc to the story. Not only is seemingly everything that ever happened to Frantianno included (e.g a surprising number of homages to his self-reported sexual prowess, and yes those are as classy and relevant as you are now imagining) but there are also several sections that don't even have to do with him. What you get as a result is a confusing mass of seemingly disjointed stories that become hard to follow. This book reads like an initial first draft that would have to undergo two or three revisions before it became coherent.
May 7, 2008
Like most books written by mob informants, a lot of Jimmy Fratianno's stories are debatable, meaning there is little evidence to support them, and little evidence to contradict them. He was honest about his participation in some mob executions.
The best parts about this book are the photos and description of the California underworld, something lacking for many years. Fratianno's memoirs are also the extent of public knowledge on the San Francisco-Bay Area underworld.
The best parts about this book are the photos and description of the California underworld, something lacking for many years. Fratianno's memoirs are also the extent of public knowledge on the San Francisco-Bay Area underworld.
Read
June 13, 2009Incredible! Can it really be true? Somehow, the "answer" regarding Jimmy Hoffa, and other similar descriptions (Sinatra, Zeppo Marx, Hollywood, Vegas) seem just a bit glossed over. But this is intended to be a biography and from that aspect, the book offers a wide open view of Jimmy the Weasle's world.
Read
April 1, 2011Interesting to read about the mob influence on the West Coast. You think of Las Vegas and the East only. Not California.The last third of the book I was having trouble keeping all the characters straight and some of the financial hocus pocus they pulled was hard to follow. But amazing that the mafia groups could pull it all off.
June 8, 2012
LOTS OF INFORMATION & WELL KNOWN NAMES...
January 5, 2019
This is a scary book. Makes you realize how nasty the Mafia was. Frantianno was more or less co-writer so it's very realistic.
December 11, 2007
Dont ever cross anyone that is connected
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews