Quotes from Selwyn Raab

Put it in their face," Gotti urged Sammy the Bull Gravano. "They want to see fucking lions and tigers and that's what we are.

The link between gangsters nicknamed for food—Benny Eggs and Johnny Sausage—prompted agents to refer to them as "Chin's Breakfast Club.

The district attorneys were usually hand-picked incompetents designated by the Democratic Party's Tammany Hall Club, a group of party leaders who controlled nominations and elections in Manhattan, a Democratic stronghold.

Johnson did what most politicians do to douse political fires: he formed a study group.

Since the creation of the five families in 1931, the Lucchese borgata had proved to be the most stable and least divisive of the New York families.

Explaining his filing system to capo George Zappola, Casso noted that he catalogued top-notch car thieves under the letter C. Gaspipe's sharp wit deflated Zappola when he asked for his classification. "Under U for useless.

In D'Arco's words, "It was like a forest and all the trees around it were organized-crime guys.

Nevertheless, the inquiry turned up evidence to prove that with the help of mobsters, Post officials were dumping newspapers into the East River, incorporating them into the paper's circulation statistics, and thereby boosting advertising rates.

Although designated as acting boss, D'Arco sensed he was getting "curved instructions" from Casso, who was transmitting the same information and directions he received to other Lucchese members. The curved instructions were designed to determine if D'Arco was faithfully carrying out his bosses' commands.

A white, gummy substance smeared on the club's plate-glass window blocked a view of the interior from the sidewalk. Inside, signs on the wall read: "Tough Guys Don't Squeal," "Don't Talk. This Place Is Bugged" and "The Enemy Is Listening.

A singular hoax was displaying the agent wearing a paper bag mask, posing as an informer. "There's no doubt that they think we have a rat-snitch fingering them," Richards rejoiced.

Casso the son detested the nickname, simmering with rage at anyone who used it, although he allowed a handful of close accomplices to refer to him as "Gas.

Seizing on the reduced-ranks situation, Gotti urged Gigante to reinforce his family with forty additional men. Sammy the Bull Gravano knew that Gotti was scheming to undercut Gigante and to court loyalty from the new Genovese cadre by informing them that he was responsible for their admission into Cosa Nostra.

Mandelman, Stephen. Comrade Criminal: Russia's New Mafiya. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.

Massino's crew stashed stolen expensive men's suits in a warehouse in the Corona section of Queens, and propelled the clothes on a rope line attached to a haberdashery across the street whenever customers showed up for a cut-rate sale.