Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires

A 10th-anniversary edition of the New York Times bestselling history of the Mafia's infamous Five Families, featuring a new preface by the author. For half a century, the American Mafia outwitted, outmaneuvered, and outgunned the FBI and other police agencies, wreaking unparalleled damage on Americas social fabric and business enterprises while emerging as the nations most formidable crime empire. The vanguard of this criminal juggernaut is still led by the Mafias most potent and largest borgatas: New Yorks Five Families. Five Families is the vivid story of the rise and fall of New Yorks premier dons, from Lucky Luciano to Paul Castellano to John Gotti and others. This definitive history brings the reader right up to the possible resurgence of the Mafia as the FBI and local law-enforcement agencies turn their attention to homeland security and away from organized crime. This updated tenth-anniversary edition features a new preface by the author.