Genealogy Books - Mafia Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family

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Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:

Summary: Good book..center s too much on Gotti
Comment: This is good mafia book. It does go into Gambino crime family past..which could of been more
presented here. People like Phil Mangano, albert antastastia, and gambino people who really built it
up in the first place..not like like Gotti who done a prety good job of destroying it, but it does
go into the history a little. He even had a couple of conversations with Luiciano while he was
serving in the navy in Italy. A little more history..oh, say like murder, inc. and the first boss
and Gambino would of been really good. Perhaps not enough is known.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Erroneous in many places, but solid
Comment: John H. Davis obviously wanted this book to be his crown jewel among his other works, and it doesn't
fall too short of a good effort in the end. For one, the writing in the book is readable and well
formatted -- more so than other authors like Pileggi and Roemer -- and he has also attempted to give
the birthdate of nearly all the characters in the book. Unfortunately, his attempts go very awry and
he makes an error on nearly everyone's birthdate/age in the story. The picture section is nice, but
nearly all the dates are wrong, and the character's ages at different periods are very muddled, such
as Sal Maranzano being born in 1868 (according to Davis), but being in his "mid forties" in 1931.
There are many other such discrepancies but they are somewhat unimportant, the largest error being
his reliance on other people's books for his storytelling. The book on Paul Castellano by the two
special agents (which I have read three times) is not all that reliable, and several upper-echelon
FBI employees have contradicted their bugging and surveillance techniques, instead saying that their
story is bolony. Perhaps the biggest mistake was focusing on the media's darling, John Gotti, ...
But, succumbing to popular demand, Davis focuses half if not most of the story on Gotti and his
violent antics rather than telling the full story on the legendary Carlo Gambino or the aloof but
erudite Paul Castellano. As a result, we get a rehash of aforamentioned events told from books such
as Goombata (Volkman, 1990) and Gangbusters: How The FBI Broke The Mob.
Perhaps the most
interesting part of the book is the brief deviation from the Gambino story, where Davis meets Mr.
Lucky Luciano, the original boss of bosses, in Naples, and has a kurt but direct exchange with him
about the roots of organized crime in America. This is telling of Davis' skill has a intervewer, and
it shows that he has seen the landscapes of Italy he so vividly described in the
introduction.

Still, after reading the 500-page tome, one has the feeling of having read an
extremely long news article, rather than a fulfilling biography.

6.5/10

Customer Rating:

Summary: men of respect
Comment: This is one of the best mafia books that I have read the only problem with this book that I see is
that it does not talk much about Don Carlo and to much about the low points and decline of the
Mob.Jonh Gotti was made of the old line of men of honor but he forgot the rules of the mob 1\ stay
low key stay and out of the public eye.Just look at what happened to men like Al copone,bugsy,and
my favorite Don charlie lucky men who did not fellow that rule was no more.This book does gives an
inside look in the lives of key members in the mob.So thats why I recommend this book to any one who
wants a better understanding of what went wrong with the most powerful crime family in the The
United States of America.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Gambino Crime Family
Comment: Mr.John H. Davis has done a fine job in telling about the beginning of what is now known as the
Gambino crime famly.From it's beginning up until the raise of John Gotti.And as he declined in
power.It talks about all the greats in organized crime from a to z.
A must read for any one
interested in La Cosa Nostra

Customer Rating:

Summary: One of the best LCN books in a long time
Comment: I must say that I enjoyed every page of this book, and I think that the author Davis have been very
successful in his writing. Not only he knows a lot about the topic, have done a serious research, he
have also been able to write in a easy way that makes the story even more interesting, and easy to
follow. Another thing is that he have a distance to what he is writing, and he have been able to
look at the issue without bias - he neither glorifies or are to judging - and he discuss different
persons, events, etc, with a proper distance.

Finally, I would recommend this book to anyone that
are interested in OC and LCN, especially to those who do not have read to much about the subject
before. A real OC buff might think that this book are a little bit to broad for serious research,
but I think that they will enjoy the story anyway!

Regards,

/Alex

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