'Tong Wars’ Details New York City's Chinatown’s Bloody Past As Two Early 20th-Century Gangs Fought For The Neighborhood's Control

Sherryl Connelly at the New York Daily News offers a piece on Scott D. Seligman's new book on the Chinese Tong Wars in New York City.

At the dawn of the 20th century, New York’s Chinatown was the scene of a vicious and bloody gang war that has been all but obscured by history.

While the Italian and Irish gang wars of the era have been exhaustively documented, and mined for entertainment value in movies like Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York,” only now does a new book give Chinatown its due.

“Tong Wars: The Untold Story of Vice, Money and Murder in New York’s Chinatown,” by Scott D. Seligman, tells the blood-soaked story of how two criminal syndicates warred for control of Chinatown in the first decade of the new century.

At stake were the payouts from the many gambling and opium dens as well as the brothels that made Chinatown a major lure not just for other Chinese immigrants but also for white New Yorkers, too.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/tong-wars-reveals-feuding-gangs-chinatown-article-1.2714292

George Anastasia's 'Gotti's Rules': In New Book, Gambino Hit Man And Enforcer John Alite Say John Gotti Jr. Would Turn And Run When Things Got Tough

Sherryl Connelly at the New York Daily News offers a piece on mobster John Alite, the subject of veteran organized crime reporter George Anastasia's new book Gotti's Rules: The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti, and the Demise of the American Mafia.

Not long after John Gotti went to prison in 1992, Gambino family hit man and enforcer John Alite plotted to murder his son. John Gotti Jr. survived, but Alite still seems to want him dead.

“Gotti’s Rules: The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti, and the Demise of the American Mafia,” by George Anastasia, is Alite’s final revenge against Junior, an attempt to assassinate him in words.

Spilling family secrets to Anastasia is all Alite’s got left. He already tried to put Junior behind bars.

In 2009, Alite took the stand in the feds’ last attempt to nail Junior, this time on racketeering and murder conspiracy charges. Like the three trials that preceded it, this one ended with a hung jury.
But Alite, who has served time for a slew of crimes from two murders, eight shootings, home invasions and armed robberies, isn’t done with Junior.

In his book, Gotti comes across not just as a vicious criminal but as a coward who never really got how being a mobster worked.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/mob-enforcer-new-book-rips-john-gotti-jr-article-1.2073451

'Manson: The Life And Times Of Charles Manson' Draws Portrait Of Psychopath As A Young Man

Sherryl Connelly at the New York Daily News offers a look at a new book about Charles Manson.

In “Manson: The Life and Times of Charlie Manson,” former investigative journalist and author Jeff Guinn tells the story of one of the most notorious psychopaths of the 20th century with such quiet authority that Manson’s horrific acts seem even more chilling, if that’s possible.

Among other interviews Guinn was able to obtain exclusively, he spoke at length with Pat Krenwinkel, one of the four Manson Family members to carry out the slaughter of Sharon Tate and her friends that night in the mansion on Cielo Drive. The book goes on sale Aug. 6, two days before the 44th anniversary of the carnage.

Guinn draws a masterly portrait of the psychopath as a young man, “graduating” from reform school to prison then to parole when he flirted with the straight life by marrying waitress Rosalie Jean Willis in 1955.

She gave birth to his son, Charles Manson Jr., while he was back in prison on parole violation. Willis deserted him shortly afterward in 1957. Though there would be another marriage to a prostitute, it seems Manson’s growing evil was unchecked after that.

The book is most harrowing as Guinn details the prelude to slaughter as Manson, desperate for the money and fame he felt was his due, relocates with his slavish followers, the Family, to Los Angeles in 1967 trolling for the connection to bring his music, and his genius, to the world.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/hedline-article-1.1410785

Note: Manson sounds interesting, but one should also read, or reread, Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry. This is a fasinating account of the arrest and prosecution of Manson.

Real Life 'Sopranos' Exposed In Mike Russell's New Book 'Undercover Cop'

Sherryl Connelly at the New Daily News offers a piece on Mike Russell, the undercover police officer who has written a new book.

Mike Russell has quite a story to tell in “Undercover Cop: How I Brought Down the Real-Life Sopranos.” The former New Jersey state trooper unleashed hell on the mob in the form of 200 cops who took down 45 wiseguys on Sept. 26, 1986.

They all pleaded guilty.

Along the way he took a bullet to the head, passed on info about a plan to whack Rudy Giuliani and had to strip down to his underwear in front of a gang of riled mobsters.

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/real-life-sopranos-exposed-undercover-article-1.1404744?localLinksEnabled=false