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Last Don Standing
- The Secret Life of Mob Boss Ralph Natale
- Narrated by: Alexander Cendese
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Release date: 07-25-17
- Language: English
- Publisher: Tantor Audio
- Whispersync for Voice-ready
Regular price: $24.49
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 104
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5 out of 5 stars
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A terrific listen. Author and narrator were Great
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 17
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Using newly released FBI files, eyewitness accounts, and family mementos, Top Hoodlum takes you inside the Mafia that Frank Costello helped build from the ground up, from small-time bootlegging and gambling to a nationwide racketeering empire. Sometimes shocking, sometimes amusing, and always riveting, these are the stories that have inspired American crime classics like The Godfather, Casino, Goodfellas, and The Sopranos. This is the man who made the Mafia such a powerful force in our nation's history. This is Top Hoodlum.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 17
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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.
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The notorious Gotti family is the stuff of mob legend. The "Dapper Don", John Gotti Sr., and his son John A. "Junior" Gotti ran New York's powerful Gambino crime family and were well known for their flamboyant style and brutal ways, an image perpetuated in popular Mafia mythology. John Alite, a mob hit man, associate, and close friend of the Gottis, has a very different story to tell.
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A sworn member of the Colombo crime family in New York City, Michael Franzese was considered the biggest moneymaker in the mob since Al Capone. At age 35, he was number 18 on Fortune Magazine's list of the 50 most wealthy and powerful Mafia bosses in America. But then he did the unthinkable. He quit the mob. Franzese met Camille Garcia, who turned his world upside down with her innocent beauty. He fell in love with her, married her, and began a new life that didn't include the Mafia.
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5 out of 5 stars
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interesting book
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Scores
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- By: Michael D. Blutrich
- Narrated by: Michael D. Blutrich
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,127
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,974
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,967
Meet Michael Blutrich, mild-mannered New York lawyer and founder of Scores, the hottest strip club in New York City history, funded by the proceeds of an insurance embezzlement scheme. All Blutrich wanted was to lay low, make the club a success, and put his criminal acts behind him. But the Mafia got involved, and soon the FBI came knocking. Scores became wildly popular, in part thanks to Blutrich's ability to successfully bend the rules of adult entertainment. Unfortunately for Blutrich, it would all soon implode.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Seductive narration about fortunes and betrayals
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I Heard You Paint Houses
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- By: Charles Brandt
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,076
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 901
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 904
"I heard you paint houses" are the first words Jimmy Hoffa ever spoke to Frank "the Irishman" Sheeran. To paint a house is to kill a man. The paint is the blood that splatters on the walls and floors. In the course of nearly five years of recorded interviews Frank Sheeran confessed to Charles Brandt that he handled more than 25 hits for the mob, and for his friend Hoffa.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Don't give up!
- By Grace Azul on 05-30-10
Publisher's Summary
As the last don of the Philadelphia mob, Ralph Natale, the first-ever mob boss to turn state's evidence, provides an insider's perspective on the Mafia.
Natale's reign atop the Philadelphia and New Jersey underworlds brought the region's Mafia back to prominence in the 1990s. Smart, savvy, and articulate, Natale came up in the mob and saw firsthand as it hatched its plan to control Atlantic City's casino unions. Later on, after spending 16 years in prison, he reclaimed the family as his own after a bloody mob war that left bodies scattered across South Philly. He forged connections around the country and achieved a status within the mob never seen before or since, until he was betrayed by his men and decided to testify against them in a stunning turn of events.
Using dozens of hours of interviews with Natale along with research and interviews with FBI agents, this book delivers revelatory insights into seminal events in American mob history, including:
- The truth about Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance
- The murder of Jewish mob icon Bugsy Siegel
- The identity of the man who created modern-day Las Vegas
With the full cooperation of Natale, New York Daily News reporter Larry McShane and producer Dan Pearson uncover the deadly reign of the last great mob boss of Philadelphia, a tale that covers a half century of mob lore - and gore.
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Overall
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4 out of 5 stars
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- ECarr
- 08-25-17
Great book I lived up in Philly I could picture
Great read
Loved it
The story was well written and performance was
well done. amazing characters It was amazing
all this was on all around me while grew up
there knowing I could have walked past some
of these people or sat in same restaurants or bars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 05-03-18
Trash
Absolute crap. Natale is clearly attempting to rewrite LCN history at a time when anyone who could dispute his account is dead. Facts and truth matter.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kevinowings
- Chicago
- 03-13-18
it's a great book wish he could have kept it going
Great book lots of inside stuff and lots of cool murder for hire stories. to bad he never got revenge on the guy. and it's sad there are so many snitches.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- justin
- 01-09-18
Terrible
This book sucked. Natale contradicted himself some many times. As for the narrator his voice was terrible for this title. He sounded constipated and could not pronounce names correctly.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 10-05-17
Excellent, interesting, true story 5 stars.
An excellent true story. A great film could be made of this story. 5 stars