The Mafia: The Complete Story

by Jo Durden-Smith, Al Cimino, M.A. Frasca

This book is about extraordinary men who lived through extraordinary times. The History of the Mob tells the stories of their lives, their families, their code, their crimes, and their cold-blooded murders”from Don Vito Cascio Ferro, the New York mobster who lured Joe Petrosino to his death in Palermo, to John Gotti, the Teflon don and Bernardo the Tractor Provenzano, who hid out in a farmhouse for forty-three years.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, True Crime

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

Jo Durden Smith was a British author and a documentary film maker.
He was educated at Haileybury and Merton College, Oxford. He worked for World in Action, Granada TV's documentary team, where his rock films were made.
Subsequently he lived in New York, and then Moscow. He was a columnist for The Moscow Times, to 1997.

Reviews

[Dom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little hesitant to jump into this book because there were not a lot of reviews and I could barely find out any information on it. I started reading and was pleasantly surprised. This is very easy to read and kept me interested throughout it's 400+ pages. To say it is "The COMPLETE Story" may be a little exaggerated. Of course there is so much history here that writing that's not 1,000+ pages would be difficult. It does explore Mafia origins in Italy and the move to the US and Canada, but it is base level stuff. If you are already a Mafia buff then this book will not give you any new information. If you know nothing or very little about the Mafia then this is a good start. My rating is for the content, but it could've been a little more fleshed out in some areas. 3.5

[Zach Rutherford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve always been interested in the mafia and the background behind the mafia. The book tells the complete story of the mafia. It goes all the way back to when it started and how it started. The book covers all the big name bosses and families ever to be involved in the mafia. It was very detailed on every person and family. It told how they got involved in the mafia, what kind of business they were involved in and the murders they committed. It told how the mafia people handle their business and how they killed people. Overall it was a super interesting book and a good read. I would definitely recommend this book.

[William S · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I am no expert on the Mafia or organized crime I found this book lacking in content to be called “The Complete Story” as was mentioned by another commenter. It seems like certain characters and episodes were glossed over where some other stories got double or even triple coverage. This leads me to my second complaint that a lot of the content was redundant especially between the main story flow and the Mafia Killings cutouts. The idea of the cutouts is great but the author should have included different content in those then what was already presented in the main story line. Having recently read “I Heard You Paint Houses” it is surprising that Frank Sheeran and the Buffalino crime family gets no mention even with the brief section about Jimmy Hoffa. I understand this book came out well before the other but there were rumors and in other scenarios the author commented if information he presented might be suspect. I did like the stories about the various organized crime groups in Italy and Sicily although after a while the names get confusing to keep straight. It certainly would have been easier to follow if the story flow stayed with the activities going on in US, CAnada or Italy/Sicily but chosing to interweave all three throughout each time period was the route that the author chose to go, it works just makes it a little more difficult to follow. All in all a fair read.

[J.J. Lair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very detailed telling of mafia history. We go from early Sicily to New York, to Chicago, Kansas City. There are the bootlegging years turning to drugs. There are the changes in style from Mustache Petes to commissions to flashy dressing. Back to Sicily to Italy and influence on government. There were quality heroin labs in France so there is the history of the French Connection. The rise of New England area mafia and Philadelphia. Back to New York.
Ending on the rise of other crime .
Very detailed sometimes too detailed.

[Adyn M · Rating 4 out of 5]

This had such a large amount of information and was very interesting. I would recommend this to those who want information on the mafia. The spelling and small grammatical issues don't cause too many issues and they're easy to figure out. Ratings: 2 5 star categories (originality and plot (which I consider to be information in this instance)), 2 4 star categories (writing style and readability), and 2 2 star categories (relatability and personal impact).

[Elizabeth Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing was very interesting and it held a lot of information that I’d never read before. It was okay, nothing to jump out of your seat about.

[Benjamin D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basic book but good for those looking into the history of Cosa Notre in America.