Gaspipe

Confessions of a Mafia Boss

By: Philip Carlo

Narrated by: Alan Sklar

Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, the boss of New York's Lucchese crime family, was a Mafia superstar, responsible for more than 50 murders. Currently serving 13 life sentences at a federal prison in Colorado, Casso has given journalist and New York Times best-selling author Philip Carlo the most intimate, personal look into the world of La Cosa Nostra ever seen. By pure happenstance, Casso had lived next door to the family of young Philip Carlo, who was able to get into the mind, heart, and soul of one of the most cunning, ruthless mob bosses in the annals of crime history. In Gaspipe, Casso reveals the shocking details behind headline-making crimes and crime figures, such as:

The mob's decision that John Gotti had to be taken out after whacking Big Paul Castellano without approval - and how Casso got the order to hit Gotti

A fly-on-the-wall view of the Mafia commission sit-down at which John Gotti was made capo di tutti capi, the boss of all bosses

The insidious relationship between La Cosa Nostra and the Russian Mafia, and how the Lucchese family murdered the most-feared assassin in the Russian mob

Details of secret sit-downs with mob bosses Vincent "The Chin" Gigante and John Gotti, and the notorious Sammy "The Bull" Gravano

How Gravano made fools of the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI

The real story of the Mafia Cops and the revelations of other law enforcement personnel on Casso's payroll

How the Mafia managed to get a tight stranglehold on most unions in America

The truth behind the Mafia's real role in bringing huge amounts of narcotics into the United States

How federal prison officials were bought and sold by the Mafia

The intimate details of the women behind the Mafiosi

The truth behind the assassinations of JFK and RFK

Who killed Jimmy Hoffa, and where his body is

©2008 Philip Carlo (P)2008 Tantor

Outstanding

If only Audible had more mafia books and the Italian mafia narrated by Italian Americans and not cowboys and Indians.

Awesome recording!

Excellent story and performance by reader! Depth and plot went well together. Reader did a great job of putting you in the room in some parts.

Good Read, if you wanted an inside look on the Maf

Would you listen to Gaspipe again? Why?

Yes, to catch up on the details

What was one of the most memorable moments of Gaspipe?

The revenge for the attempt on his life

Which scene was your favorite?

The revenge for the attempt on his life

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

no

Any additional comments?

Good insight into the Mafia.

Fantastic read.

Would you consider the audio edition of Gaspipe to be better than the print version?

All audio books are better than the written version.

What does Alan Sklar bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

A really cool, deep voice that is similar to Morgan Freeman.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

This dude was a ruthless sick bastard.

Any additional comments?

Great read if you like true crime. What disturbed me a bit was it seemed to be written from his perspective, and made him out to be a nice guy through parts of the book. They left out some particular details about his life, but I do a lot of research on mobsters so I'm probably biased in that regard.

WOW... Fascinating and Fantastic

Fantastic to listen to the accounts from a true mafia boss. The book takes you through the life of Anthony Casso who in spite of everything is a man of his word. It is a fascinating and fantastic journey from the pinnacles of power to love to spare and powerlessness of a jail cell.

Superb

Good book narrative flows naturally, easy to follow it’s like watching a movie on Gaspipe

Good book, incredibly biased

It took a while to get going but was very everything once it did. Gaspipe was one of the most ruthless, cold blooded killers there was but the author goes out of his way to paint him as a lovely family man and a great business man and just credits all the killings as just part of the life. Once you realized how biased this is, it's hard to ignore. At times, it seems as if Gaspipe himself if writing the book.

Great details, great narration

One of the best audiobook narrators I’ve heard. Really makes the book interesting and exciting. Plus the book not only tells a great story but gives extra details about historical and social contexts that tie everything together.

If you like Mafia books this one is great

The book takes you into the inner sanctum of the mafia. From the start of Gaspipe's career to the very end when he turns on the LCN.

Not a very good book

Like another reviewer stated I had first read Iceman which is by the same author and it was a great and entertaining book -- in retrospect I'm not sure how true it was but it was still interesting.

This book is not up to those standards -- it's not even close. The book is written like the author is afraid that a contract will be put on him if he is even remotely objective on any point. Additionally the author uses every cliche you can recall.

The story starts off extremely slow, the first quarter or more of this book is very boring. The reason I'll give this book 3-stars is the middle part of the book. During this part the story flows at a good pace, its interesting and it even for the most part seems well written. But then the author returns to the dull, non-objective filler for the final 3-4 hours. In this part you can hear about how unfair the government is not to give him a 6 1/2 sentence, I mean he plead guilty to killing many people, dealing drugs, corruption, etc -- but 6 1/2 years seems fair to me. You'll hear about how the government tricked him into a confession, how they gave him his lawyer, how they took advantage of poor Anthony. It's one of the most dull, boring diatribes I've ever heard and why the author didn't make this part of the book about 12 long is beyond me.

As for the read I'm convinced he's only reading the book in an effort to test the bass of your speakers. His reading style is annoying at best, dangerous to your health at worst. He's not the worst reader I've heard but he is not very good. He could become an acceptable reader if he stopped purposefully trying to make his voice so bassy, it's very annoying.

Overall this book is quite disappointing and worst it makes me think the entire Iceman book, which I did enjoy, is complete fiction.