Handsome Johnny

The Life and Death of Johnny Rosselli: Gentleman Gangster, Hollywood Producer, CIA Assassin

By: Lee Server

Narrated by: B. J. Harrison

Length: 18 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

“No one knew more about the mob, Hollywood and Las Vegas than Johnny Rosselli, and Lee Server got it all in Handsome Johnny.” (Nicholas Pileggi, best-selling author of Goodfellas)

A rich biography of the legendary figure at the center of the century’s darkest secrets: an untold story of Golden Age Hollywood, modern Las Vegas, JFK-era scandal, and international intrigue from Lee Server, the New York Times best-selling author of Ava Gardner: Love Is Nothing....

A singular figure in the annals of the American underworld, Johnny Rosselli’s career flourished for an extraordinary 50 years, from the bloody years of bootlegging in the Roaring Twenties - the last protege of Al Capone - to the modern era of organized crime as a dominant corporate power. The Mob’s “Man in Hollywood”, Johnny Rosselli introduced big-time crime to the movie industry, corrupting unions and robbing moguls in the biggest extortion plot in history.

A man of great allure and glamour, Rosselli befriended many of the biggest names in the movie capital - including studio boss Harry Cohn, helping him to fund Columbia Pictures - and seduced some of its greatest female stars, including Jean Harlow and Marilyn Monroe. In a remarkable turn of events, Johnny himself would become a Hollywood filmmaker - producing two of the best film noirs of the 1940s.

Following years in federal prison, Rosselli began a new venture, overseeing the birth and heyday of Las Vegas. Working for new Chicago boss Sam Giancana, he became the gambling mecca’s behind-the-scenes boss, running the town from his suites and poolside tables at the Tropicana and Desert Inn, enjoying the Rat Pack nightlife with pals Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. In the 1960s, in the most unexpected chapter in an extraordinary life, Rosselli became the central figure in a bizarre plot involving the Kennedy White House, the CIA, and an attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro.

Based upon years of research, written with compelling style and vivid detail, Handsome Johnny is the great telling of an amazing tale.

©2018 Lee Server (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Great Story

Another example for the youth of how crime does not pay. It also shows your grandfather probably had a better sex life than you.

A true gangster and a great guy

An amazing book,the narrator was great.
this is a outstanding story about a real man and his amazing life

Great book about Johnny Roselli

You don't find much on Johnny Roselli. He comes up a little in several books, the most information found in Jimmy The Weasel Frattiano 's book. But this one goes into great detail.

Wow

Really great book… loved it .. never a dull moment. Full of fascinating Hollywood and mob history.

ANOTHER WONDERFUL READ

very interesting a great narrator ....the facts were on point with other mafia books great job

could have been shorter.

The story is enthralling, the performance was okay, could have been 2hrs shorter. There was a good bit of filler, and the narrator did the thing where he would do terrible accents when speaking dialog for some characters. All in all this was quite good and I recommend it.

Entertaining

I felt that this book was pretty good, not sure how accurate it was about John roselli's life, but was good regardless. The narrator read in a way where it felt like you were involved in the scheme with Mr. roselli.

Informative

Makes you wonder who’s the criminal the us government or the mobthis book was very informative

Good book

Very good listen. Go through birth of America mafia, golden Hollywood and Vegas. Would recommend

Wide-ranging tale, with colorful, odd narration

I live in Southern California., where plenty of this action happened, so right off the bat I was avid to hear this. I was not disappointed.

This Johnny Roselli was quite a versatile character. He took on the coloration and style of Hollywood, but was a little more sly and diplomatic and suave than Bugsy Siegel. He ranged wider too. However, he ended up in a way about as messy as Bug's exit.The telling here is casual in tone and approach, yet peppered with colorful little details and a sort of sly wit.

The tone is pretty tabloid (as in, gratuitous cussing, a pretty loose style, and as usual in an audio, not the usual disciplined citation of sources), and sometimes it seems as if Johnny was a sort of mafia magical figure, being everywhere from meeting Al Capone at the Dempsey-Tunney fight, to Judith Campbell Exner's bed (between her bouts with Giancana and JFK) to many other storied locations. But who knows? It was a time of amazing crossed paths. The author is the master of the historical narrative (and the mountain of questionable books and tales swirling around the Cold War, JFK, Rat Pack, Chicago mob, and so forth), and he is not shy to inject all sorts of casual "facts," assumptions, innuendo, conversations and thoughts. This is stimulating stuff, but not serious history. But there were actual absurdities, in this bubble of Keystone Kops and Keystone Kriminals. Plenty of sources if authentic just blather opinions of this and that, and this is tossed in, too. Why would I tolerate it? It is entertaining and sometimes yields insights and angles. It alternates between big themes and flashy celebrities and exciting times and the pettiness and fog, all of which do depict this odd "Johnny."

Lots of listeners complained about the narration. I take a different view. Yes, it is definitely weird. But it is a fitting kind of weird. The narrator, it seems, tried (successfully) to combine a sort of old-fashioned radio-announcer golden warmth (and consciously mannered old-style phrasing) with a sort of slick, sleazy side. He sounds like he takes nothing too seriously, and at moments, seems to sneer and purr through it, and sometimes at odd unexpected moments. Sometimes voices are completely whiny and bizarre. There is no gravitas here. But on balance, this sort of works for this specific subject, because Johnny Roselli was that sort of cynical poser in that sort of cultural period. The narrator handles foreign names better than average, and very rarely makes any errors. At first I was distracted by his style, but I got used to it.