Audiobooks by Anthony M. DeStefano

Broadway Butterfly: Vivian Gordon, The Lady Gangster of Jazz Age New York

"Indiana-born Vivian Gordon fluttered to New York in 1920 looking for fame and fortune. Before long, the flame-haired chorus girl parlayed her youth, beauty, and ambition into more profitable means as a tough and glamorous symbol of Prohibition-era excess. She was a speakeasy owner, blackmailer, high-end escort, extortionist, racketeer, and con woman. But given her dangerously intimate associations, Vivian was also a woman who knew too much and who rightfully feared for her life. On February 26, 1931, Vivian's bludgeoned and garroted body was found dumped in Van Cortland Park in the Bronx. Now, in the first in-depth biography of its kind, Pulitzer Prize and Emmy Award-winning journalist Anthony M. DeStefano unravels her tumultuous life and the headline-making murder that became an obsession for many. The evidence Vivian left behind was damning: a diary with more than three-hundred names implicating powerful officials, philanthropists, businessmen, and every major gangland figure in collusion and corruption. The investigation eventually resulted in the career-ending of James 'Jimmy' Walker, disgraced mayor of New York City. Broadway Butterfly finally finds a place in history for Vivian, a woman with a rare legacy in gangster lore, whose demise was as tragically inevitable as the brutality of the city's demimonde during Prohibition."

Anthony M. DeStefano (Author), Romy Nordlinger (Narrator)

Audiobook

King of the Godfathers: “Big Joey” Massino and the Fall of the Bonanno Crime Family

"The Last Of The Old-World Mob Bosses—And The Ultimate Betrayal For more than twenty years, Joseph 'Big Joey' Massino ran what was called the largest criminal network in the US, employing over two hundred and fifty made men and untold numbers of associates. The Bonanno family was responsible for over thirty murders, even killing a dozen of its own members to enforce discipline and settle scores. He would be brought down by Salvatore 'Good Looking Sal' Vitale, the underboss who was not only Massino's closest and most trusted friend, but also his brother-in-law. In the end, facing the death penalty and the prospect of leaving his family penniless, Massino started talking to the FBI—the first Mafia Godfather to break the sacred code of omerta, and the end of a centuries-old tradition. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Anthony DeStefano, who interviewed Massino's family and friends as well as law enforcement officials and confidential sources, King of the Godfathers is the story of the brutal mob war that made Massino head of the Bonanno family and the most powerful gangster in America."

Anthony M. DeStefano (Author), Danny Campbell (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Deadly Don: Vito Genovese, Mafia Boss

"From enforcer to godfather, Vito Genovese rose through the ranks of La Cosa Nostra to head of one of the wealthiest and most dangerous crime families in American history. In The Deadly Don, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anthony M. DeStefano presents the rise and fall of Vito Genovese in this first comprehensive biography of the legendary mafioso—from his childhood in Naples, Italy, and the beginnings of his bullet-ridden criminal career on lower Manhattan's mean streets, through his self-exile in the mid-1930s back to his homeland where he ran a black market operation under the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini, and his return to New York where Genovese made a fortune as the head of an illegal narcotics empire. DeStefano reveals the important and terrifying role Genovese played in the creation of the Mafia, detailing his bloody and ruthless lifetime of crime that would put him behind bars for his last fifteen years—and securing his infamous place in the history of organized crime."

Anthony M. DeStefano (Author), Danny Campbell (Narrator)

Audiobook

Gotti's Boys: The Mafia Crew That Killed For John Gotti

"Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Anthony M. DeStefano takes you inside John Gotti's inner circle to reveal the dark hearts and violent deeds of the most remorseless and cold-blooded characters in organized crime. Men so vicious even the other Mafia families were terrified of them. Meet Gotti's Boys . . . ● Charles Carneglia: the ruthless junkyard dog who allegedly disposed of bodies for the mob—by dissolving them in acid then displaying their jewels. ● Gene Gotti: the younger Gotti brother who ran a multimillion-dollar drug smuggling ring—enraging his bosses in the Gambino family. ● Angelo 'Quack-Quack' Ruggiero: the loose-lipped contract killer who was wire-tapped by the FBI—and dared to insult Gotti behind his back. ● Tony 'Roach' Rampino: the hardcore stoner who looked like a cockroach—and used his gangly arms and horror-mask face to frighten his enemies. ● 'Sammy the Bull' Gravano: the Gambino underboss who helped John Gotti execute Gambino mob boss Paul Castellano—then sang like a canary to take Gotti down. Contains mature themes."

Anthony M. DeStefano (Author), Johnny Heller (Narrator)

Audiobook

Top Hoodlum: Frank Costello, Prime Minister of the Mafia

"The press nicknamed him 'The Prime Minister of the Underworld.' The U.S. Treasury's Bureau of Narcotics described him as 'one of the most powerful and influential Mafia leaders in the U.S.' But to friends and associates, he was simply 'Uncle Frank.' Who was Frank Costello really? That's the question Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Anthony M. DeStefano sets out to answer—in this definitive portrait of one of the most fascinating figures in the annals of American crime . . . Using newly released FBI files, eyewitness accounts, and family mementos, Top Hoodlum takes you inside the Mafia that Frank Costello helped build from the ground up, from small-time bootlegging and gambling to a nationwide racketeering empire. Sometimes shocking, sometimes amusing, and always riveting, these are the stories that have inspired American crime classics like The Godfather, Casino, Goodfellas, and The Sopranos. This is the man who made the Mafia such a powerful force in our nation's history. This is Top Hoodlum."

Anthony M. DeStefano (Author), L.J. Ganser (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Big Heist: The Real Story of the Lufthansa Heist, the Mafia, and Murder

"The crime that inspired the movie Goodfellas. The story that couldn’t be told—until now. One of the biggest scores in Mafia history, the Lufthansa Airlines heist of 1978 has become the stuff of Mafia legend—and a decades-long investigation that continues to this day. Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Anthony DeStefano sheds new light on this legendary unsolved case using recent evidence from the 2015 trial of eighty-year-old Mafia don Vincent Asaro, who for the first time speaks out on his role in the fateful Lufthansa heist. This blistering you-are-there account takes you behind the headlines and inside the ranks of America’s infamous crime families—with never-before-told stories, late-breaking news, and bombshell revelations: New details on the heist’s planning: who was involved, how they pulled it off, and what really happened to the almost $6 million in cash and jewels they stole from JFK AirportWhy suspected heist participant Vincent Asaro was found not guilty of all charges—racketeering, theft, and murder—even after being observed by the FBI for more than three decadesThe shocking discovery of human bones in a Queens home belonging to a relative of Jimmy Burke, the homicidal Lucchese crime family associate who assembled the Lufthansa heist team—and masterminded the caper, then the biggest cash robbery in American historyThe eye-opening testimony of gangsters-turned-informants Salvatore Vitale and Gaspar Valenti—and what it reveals about the Mafia code of silence known as OmertaThe greed, betrayal, murder, and other frightening insights into the Bonanno and Lucchese crime familiesDisturbing claims about how some members of the NYPD leaked information to mobster Jimmy Burke and may have helped hide evidence of a mob murder victim’s demiseAn invaluable addition to any crime library, this is the most complete, thorough, and up-to-date account of the Lufthansa heist currently available. Pulitzer Prize winner Anthony DeStefano draws from his years of experience reporting on the mob for New York Newsday—as well as his firsthand coverage of the Asaro indictment and attendance at the trial—to expose the all-too-human heart of organized crime in America. The Big Heist is thrilling, shocking, and impossible to put down."

Anthony M. DeStefano (Author), Keith Sellon-Wright (Narrator)

Audiobook

Gangland New York: The Places and Faces of Mob History

"From the Bowery Boys and the Five Points Gang through the rise of the Jewish 'Kosher Nostra' and the ascendance of the Italian Mafia, mobsters have played a major role in the city's history, lurking just around the corner or inside that nondescript building. Bill 'the Butcher' Poole, Paul Kelly, Monk Eastman, 'Lucky' Luciano, Carlo Gambino, Meyer Lansky, Mickey Spillane, John Gotti—each held sway over New York neighborhoods that nurtured them and gave them power. As families and factions fought for control, the city became a backdrop for crime scenes, the rackets spreading after World War II to docks, airports, food markets, and garment districts. The streets of Brooklyn, swamps of Staten Island, and vacant lots near LaGuardia Airport hosted assassinations and hasty burials for the unlucky. The bloodlettings, arrests, and trials became front-page fodder for tabloids that thrived on covering Mulberry Street. Chinese, Russian, and Greek mobsters rose to prominence and wrought bloody havoc as well. Each of Gangland New York's five sections—one for each borough—traces criminal activities and area exploits from the nineteenth century to now. Everyone knows about Umberto’s Clam House in Little Italy, but now you can find Scarpato's restaurant in Coney Island, where Joe Masseria was killed by henchmen of Salvatore Maranzano, who in turn died in a Park Avenue office building at the hands of 'Lucky' Luciano a few months later. From the Bronx to Brighton Beach, from New Springville to Ozone Park, here is a comprehensive, on-the-ground guide to mob life in the Rotten Apple."

Anthony M. DeStefano (Author), Gary Galone (Narrator)

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