Gangbusters: The Destruction of America's Last Great Mafia Dynasty

After coauthoring an Edgar-nominated bio of John Gotti (Goombata, 1990) and an account of the $8-million 1978 Lufthansa robbery that provided grist for the film Goodfellas (The Heist, 1986), among other books, Volkman has now written an exciting, intelligent and detailed study of the most successful law-enforcement assault on organized crime in U.S. history. Of the five rival Mafia clans vying for control of New York--the Lucchese, Bonnano, Colombo, Genovese and Gambino families--the Luccheses were the richest and best organized of the lot. Yet by 1995, high-ranking capos were reduced to shaking down deadbeats for pocket money. Volkman charts the family's meteoric rise in lively detail, capitalizing on colorful gangland anecdotes without losing sight of the murderous brutality and crushing stupidity that accelerated their descent. He identifies as the main causes of their decline the Narcotics Control Act of 1955, the reorganization of the FBI following the death of J. Edgar Hoover in 1972 and, most tellingly, the ""reverse natural selection"" that seemed to breed dumber and dumber Dons, and explains their respective impacts. The Mafia history is balanced with profiles of the dedicated police detectives, FBI agents and U.S. attorneys who pioneered and perfected the tactics that brought the Lucchese family to its knees. Well-paced, evenhanded and insightful, this look into a derelict empire's rise and fall is excellent both as a case study and as an introduction to organized crime. (June)