The Sixth Family

The Collapse of the New York Mafia and the Rise of Vito Rizzuto

By: Lee Lamothe, Adrian Humphreys

Narrated by: Danny Campbell

Length: 22 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

The definitive book about the explosive Rizzuto crime family

On May 5, 1981, three rebellious members of New York's Bonanno crime family were gunned down in a Brooklyn social club. One of the gunmen was Vito Rizzuto, a man who would rise to the top of the underworld in Canada and then expand his reign across continents to become a global superboss.

The Sixth Family, now revised and updated, reveals the hidden history of the rise of the Rizzuto clan, the alliances it forged around the world, and the bloody events that led to charges against Vito Rizzuto in the United States and Italy for racketeering and corruption. As police in the United States, Italy, and Canada meticulously pieced together the puzzle that is Vito Rizzuto, established notions about the nature of authority within the Mafia were called into question. Who was this so-called "John Gotti of Canada"? How did he become one of the biggest names in global crime? And how did he survive the deadly assault from gangland rivals that almost destroyed his family?

©2008, 2014 Lee Lamothe and Adrian Humphreys (P)2019 Tantor

How it all worked, end to end

This is well-researched and thorough. It is not the most flashy-entertaining writing style, but it moves along fine, and is an education in how all this was done, and by whom. It shows the motivations of all the participants.

great book.

new very little about the Canadian mob. great to hear more detail on what i did know and how Rizzuto fit in with the american mob. it's always very interesting to hear different views from different people who know or participated in events already talked about in different books or documentaries. when you're tired of hearing about the American mob it's a very interesting and refreshing change. a lot of great stories and a lot of interesting events. as good as i hoped it would be. narrator was good and no complaints.

Excellent in depth of Vito Rizzuto

I have read / listened to upwards of 100 mafia related books. However, I only knew of the Canada faction from passages of books on the New York families. It was a nice change and very interesting tale of one of the top bosses of his generation. Usually the narrator doesn't really matter in these kind of books. They aren't doing voices and they aren't trying to create a movie around the narration. Still, Danny Campbell was tough to get used to. This is a really long book so eventually his voice doesn't grate at you so much, but it takes a while.

Great stuff

Real mafioso no joke . A hardcore look at Canadian Mafia they are no joke .So many good lines.

A bit dry

When dealing with the people involved, the audiobook was quite interesting and did give a nice background to the Mafia in Canada. On the other hand, too much dry information concerning the drug trade was more like having a textbook read aloud to you. It could be that I simply prefer to hear more about the characters (real or fictional) to anything else. Kudos for the Narrator making this book more enjoyable.

Vito was Worth over 7 billion. Incredible truly incredible

ncredible how Vito was bigger than all 5 American Bosses put together. He wouldn’t have done a day in jail if he took fat rat big joe out once Vito knew rat joe killed George from Canada. Massio should have went down with pride. At his age why destroy vinny and Vito. Goes to show the Americans ruin everything. George from Canada seemed like a super cool dude. Stuff like massion don’t happen in Russian culture or Mexican or even the real Italians. Everyone understands open your mouth your family dies. Nobody talks then period.

Not Sure Why/How I Finished This

The narrator sounds like he is actively dying as he struggles through the story. I didn't notice it at first, but once I did it made me nuts.

The story of Vito Rizzuto and his rise to power is incredibly interesting, but this book is probably at least 2.5× longer than it needs to be, and a lots of the content seems to be filler.

The only reason I didn't return this book is because they definitely put a lot of work into researching it and writing it, but if I could go back in time I would have absolutely not gotten this book. Spare yourself.

The most boring book I ever read

The story in book is told from a "Third person" point of view it never at any point "brings you in to the story" also very annoying is the fact that the writer continuesly uses the term SIXTH FAMILY which is his own terminaligy it was never used either by police or by the mafia, this adds to the feeling of listening to a lecture rather then a story..