Wised Up: A Reformed Mobster's Confessional Memoir - Second Edition Updated With a New Chapter and More Photos

by Charlie Wilhelm

Wised Up is a true crime story of atonement for Charlie Wilhelm, a career criminal who ended his life of crime the year he turned 40. Going to the FBI with no lawyer – and no criminal charges against him – he went undercover, wearing a wire to catch his life-long friends for drug dealing, bribery, loan sharking and murder. This intimate story, told in Charlie’s voice, is the first to expose organized crime in Baltimore. It also reveals Charlie's friendship with a childhood friend, Bruce Hall, who became an FBI agent and helped Charlie leave his life of crime. The book unravels the complex relationship between an informant and his FBI handlers, and explores the tormented mind of a man with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder who faces the consequences of doing the right thing, while turning against his crime family.In this second edition of Charlie Wilhelm's memoir, a new chapter takes up where the original Wised Up left off when it was first published in 2004 after Charlie put his best friend in prison for murder. Read the updated version, with a new cover and new photos, and find out what happened next.

488 pages, Paperback

Published July 19, 2017

Reviews

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating account of a man who reformed his life as a "wiseguy". Charlie Wilhelm ran numbers, loan sharked, skimmed from poker machines, and more, but could not take the life anymore. It was running him down and ruining his relationship with his family. So after about 20 years as a mobster, he decided to come clean. He turned to his brother's best friend, Bruce Hall, an agent with the FBI and became an informant. He turned in his own best friend, Billy Isaacs, fingering him for a decades old unsolved murder.
While Charlie never murdered anyone himself, he definitely led a criminal life. It is amazing what he risked to turn his life around. Very impressive.

#WisedUp #CharlieWilhelm #JoanJacobson