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Public Enemies New York City Mafia Frank Costello & Mayor O'Owyer 1st - $12 (Upper East Side)
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Story of New York City and its immigrant Irish mayor William O'Dwyer and his relationship with the head of the Mafia, Frank Costello the organized crime boss who many feel was the basis for author Mario Puzo and his creation Don Vito Corleone aka The Godfather.
From the dust jacket flap:
Both William O'Dwyer, the 104th mayor of New York City, and Frank Costello, prime minister of the underworld, were immigrants, and there the similarity might have ended, except for the televised Kefauver hearings on organized crime in 1951 that linked them forever.
The smiling gregarious O'Dwyer, Irish to his toes, walked a policeman's beat while studying law and became the crusading district attorney who broke up Murder Inc.
Costello, the son of Calabrian peasants, turned early to crime in the streets of East Harlem, and never turned back. He and other young hoods--Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Joe Adonis--built a national crime network that extended from numbers to narcotics, from New York to California.
A part of the syndicate's fiefdom was Tammany Hall. Only Tammany could crown a mayor. William O'Dwyer profoundly wished to be mayor of New York and in 1945 his wish came true. Then wide open gambling had a hey-day--numbers, race track wire services, crooked cops, a mob-controlled Tammany hall. And in the midst of it all, a burdened O'Dwyer, unwisely trusting in Tammany and his own subordinates, much beleaguered by gossip and by fact, was driven from office. Soon after, Senator Kefauver rode in on an electronic horse, and the scandals involving the mayor and the mob became public property.
George Walsh has written a very American story of two men who took different roads to the same destination, of two "Public Enemies" and the crime that was.
1980 Book Review From The Journal-News:
“Public Enemies: The Mayor, The Mob and the Crime That Was.’ by George Walsh. Norton, $12.99.
Public Enemies is a lively, exciting tour of the underworld, certain to inform and entertain everyone. It is also the story of Bill O'Dwyer, the man who was mayor of New York, and of Frank Costello, called the ‘prime minister’’ of the Mob, whose fame reached its apex during the Kefauver
hearings in 1951.
The author has told the story of Bill O'Dwyer’s rise to the top of New York City]s political power. and of the syndicate’s control of crime in the city. How O'Dwyer was driven from office, and what happened to the city’s major crime figures Costello, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky (still alive at 78 in Miami. Joe Adonis, Albert Anastasia, Bugsy Seigel, Virginia Hill, Vito Genovese, and others.
Walsh takes us behind the scenes and tells us who “hit'’ Anastasia in the barber chair informers said it was "Crazy Joe" Gallo and four others, who referred to themselves as the Barbershop Quintet; about the soldiers who tried to kill Frank Costello on orders from Genovese, but whose bullet only creased him; how the Syndicate used Jewish hit-men and Murder, Inc. to climb to power; and how the Mob and Tammany worked hand-in-hand.
"Public Enemies" races along faster than most novels and even well-read New Yorkers will find dozens of surprises in this well-written book.
hardcover 274 pages 6" x 8 1/2" 1980 First edition W.W. Norton Books
Condition: Book is near fine with light wear. Book is tightly bound. No writing. Dustjacket very good with light wear. DJ is not price-clipped. Now covered in a protective dj sleeve.
Price $12- CASH ONLY. You pick-up on upper east side. Please no- "what is your best price?" Price is firm. NO OFFERS or haggling on price. Do not ask if book is still available. If you are reading this, it is available. I remove sold items.