Five Families

The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires

By: Selwyn Raab

Narrated by: Paul Costanzo

Genovese, Gambino, Bonnano, Colombo, and Lucchese. For decades these Five Families ruled New York and built the American Mafia (or Cosa Nostra) into an underworld empire. Today, the Mafia is an endangered species, battered and beleaguered by aggressive investigators, incompetent leadership, betrayals, and generational changes that produced violent, unreliable leaders and recruits. A 20-year assault against the five families in particular blossomed into the most successful law enforcement campaign of the last century.

Selwyn Raab's Five Families is the vivid story of the rise and fall of New York's premier dons, from Lucky Luciano to Paul Castellano to John Gotti and more. The book also brings the listener right up to the possible resurgence of the Mafia as the FBI and local law enforcement agencies turn their attention to homeland security and away from organized crime.

©2005 Selwyn Raab (P)2015 Tantor

Critic reviews

"This masterpiece stands an excellent chance of becoming a bestseller with crossover appeal beyond devoted watchers of The Sopranos." ( Publishers Weekly)

Complete Guide to La Cosa Nostra

If you are looking for a deep dive and end-to-end history of the mafia in the US, this is the book for you. Selwyn Raab is a well-known mafia historian so this has all the facts you could ever want. I'm a bit of a mafia buff myself, but find it tough sometimes to keep track of who all the players are, what families they were from, etc. This book helps solidify and give you a "ground up" view that helps break it down in a more organized fashion. If you are looking for something more "Goodfellas" style, this is probably not the best mafia book for you. If you want to learn how the 5 families came to be and what happened to them, this is your Cosa Nostra bible.

informative

I don't love the choice for narrator. The book is informative, it just couldn't hold my attention

Fantastic

Great story, great narrator. Easy to follow. Long, enough to keep you occupied for a month. Fantastic work

The Man. The Myth. The Legend...on the mob.

This tome is Selwyn's epic written history of America's creation of New York's mafia, and other major criminal players. Selwyn is living history himself with the mafia. A crime reporter on a major NY paper from the 60's up to the 90's. Even today, as a young man in his 70's 😁 he can be seen being asked to participate in mob documentaries.
If anyone should write a book on the 5 families, it would be him. If you are not familiar with the author, then shame on you!
This book is a chronology of the mafia in the US, up to the Mafia of today. Yes, the little "m" and "M" was on purpose. While the timeline can be a little busy, if you listen to it again, it makes sense. Remember you bought this book to learn something, not look at comics!

background noises

Background noise in the recording was distracting at times. But good story telling and amazing how in depth the information goes into the family's.