Joe Dogs: The Life and Crimes of a Mobster

Probably more fully than other books about the Mafia, this autobiography of a thug who worked primarily for the Gambino crime family, and occasionally for the Colombos, reveals what mobsters are like. Iannuzzi depicts them as stupid, but with a certain shrewdness; fanatically greedy for money, which they spend on mistresses and gambling; and enamored of the street concept of machismo. He likens them to children arguing over whose father is stronger as they simultaneously battle about who has the higher-ranking gangland contacts. Iannuzzi, who grew up in a suburb of New York City, became the right-hand man in Florida for one Tommy Agro; when Iannuzzi was slow to pay a debt of $8000, Agro had him so badly beaten that he became an FBI informant and played a major role at the trials of many Mafiosi throughout the 1980s. ``Joe Dogs'' is now in retirement. Photos not seen by PW. (June)