Author: E. C. L. Knox
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781785072406
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
The Mafia Rats is the most hotly anticipated and sensational book to hit the British shelves. Branded already a modern classic, this completely original book is like nothing you have ever read before. Intelligent, vibrant and teeming with the creatures and wildlife indigenous to Britain, this is aimed for children and adults alike and will be missed at your peril. Enjoy and suffer as the extraordinary world of amazing creatures opens before your eyes. Shy away from the millions of hideously evil, filthy, filching, fiendish Mafia rats and their fantastically corrupt Protection Racket; pity the opium-sodden Bumblebee; laugh at the monocled Toad; empathise with the gentle Squirrels and listen to the wisdom of the revered Old Owl as the evanescent emanation of the Master of Maleficium permeates the book, where life to him matters not one jot. Celebrate the Astonishing Ball (nature at its best) and witness the agonising deaths in the Terrible Battle (nature at its worst); despise the Cult of the disaffected young; admire the brave Honey Bees and sympathise with the lone '142857' - just one more Drone from the Hive. Weep for the Grand Duke Badger and his seditious book and his tragedy that strikes in the first chapter and pray for his hopes for the future of his kind, tied up in the fate of the garrulous and feckless Prince Brocco, oblivious to most things round him. Despise the Geese; learn from the Guard Rabbits; abhor the Siamese Cat and dread the might of the Soldier Ants, Soldier Beetles, Stag Beetles and the Soldier-flies. Feel for the old Tortoise, identify with the revengeful Spiders and chuckle at the poor, truncated Brandling Worm. Then fear the sinister manufacture of the deadly poisons of the Specially-Bred Mosquitoes; the smugness of the Eucalyptus Spiders and the bravery of one young Rat, whilst all the time marvel at the tenacity of Straggly the Witch, trying to fulfil her promise to the Grand Duke Badger in her quest to find Magus the Magician, the Protector of the Courts. All the creatures you can think of adorn these pages and have a part to play. The Hawks, the Bats, the Paper Wasps, the Otters, the Damsel-flies, the Cockroaches and all the sinister Cavernophiles; one Albino Rat - there is betrayal, revenge, a second betrayal, a deception, an entreaty, a humiliation and joyous celebrations. There is much here for the intellectual in the double meanings and it will be like nothing you have seen before, creatures swimming before your eyes, their world, their hopes and fears ... and their destiny ... THE MAFIA RATS - Claire Knox's first book, is set in the gardens of Buckingham Palace (where else?) and details the fearful conflict between Straggly the Witch and the malevolent Mafia Rats. The natural world of small animals and exuberant plants is illustrated by the author in ravishing line-drawings. This epic story combines the scope of Tolkein or Pullman with the whimsical wizardry of Rowling, but it has an atmosphere all its own. You may never read an adventure story, equally suitable for adults and children, as compelling as The Mafia Rats - until, maybe, you decide you must read it a second time. DAVID BENEDICTUS 2014 - playwright and author of many books including Return To Hundred Acre Wood (Winnie The Pooh) for children. Bio - Claire Knox, originally a musician (mentor Anthony Hopkins), married into the army and lived all over the world. She has lectured at Oxford University on Creative writing and, as well as writing and illustrating this book, she designs cards.

Author: E. C. L. Knox
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781785072413
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
The Mafia Rats is the most hotly anticipated and sensational book to hit the British shelves. Branded already a modern classic, this completely original book is like nothing you have ever read before. Intelligent, vibrant and teeming with the creatures and wildlife indigenous to Britain, this is aimed for children and adults alike and will be missed at your peril. Enjoy and suffer as the extraordinary world of amazing creatures opens before your eyes. Shy away from the millions of hideously evil, filthy, filching, fiendish Mafia rats and their fantastically corrupt Protection Racket; pity the opium-sodden Bumblebee; laugh at the monocled Toad; empathise with the gentle Squirrels and listen to the wisdom of the revered Old Owl as the evanescent emanation of the Master of Maleficium permeates the book, where life to him matters not one jot. Celebrate the Astonishing Ball (nature at its best) and witness the agonising deaths in the Terrible Battle (nature at its worst); despise the Cult of the disaffected young; admire the brave Honey Bees and sympathise with the lone '142857' - just one more Drone from the Hive. Weep for the Grand Duke Badger and his seditious book and his tragedy that strikes in the first chapter and pray for his hopes for the future of his kind, tied up in the fate of the garrulous and feckless Prince Brocco, oblivious to most things round him. Despise the Geese; learn from the Guard Rabbits; abhor the Siamese Cat and dread the might of the Soldier Ants, Soldier Beetles, Stag Beetles and the Soldier-flies. Feel for the old Tortoise, identify with the revengeful Spiders and chuckle at the poor, truncated Brandling Worm. Then fear the sinister manufacture of the deadly poisons of the Specially-Bred Mosquitoes; the smugness of the Eucalyptus Spiders and the bravery of one young Rat, whilst all the time marvel at the tenacity of Straggly the Witch, trying to fulfil her promise to the Grand Duke Badger in her quest to find Magus the Magician, the Protector of the Courts. All the creatures you can think of adorn these pages and have a part to play. The Hawks, the Bats, the Paper Wasps, the Otters, the Damsel-flies, the Cockroaches and all the sinister Cavernophiles; one Albino Rat - there is betrayal, revenge, a second betrayal, a deception, an entreaty, a humiliation and joyous celebrations. There is much here for the intellectual in the double meanings and it will be like nothing you have seen before, creatures swimming before your eyes, their world, their hopes and fears ... and their destiny ... THE MAFIA RATS - Claire Knox's first book, is set in the gardens of Buckingham Palace (where else?) and details the fearful conflict between Straggly the Witch and the malevolent Mafia Rats. The natural world of small animals and exuberant plants is illustrated by the author in ravishing line-drawings. This epic story combines the scope of Tolkein or Pullman with the whimsical wizardry of Rowling, but it has an atmosphere all its own. You may never read an adventure story, equally suitable for adults and children, as compelling as The Mafia Rats - until, maybe, you decide you must read it a second time. DAVID BENEDICTUS 2014 - playwright and author of many books including Return To Hundred Acre Wood (Winnie The Pooh) for children.

Author: Jimmy Breslin
Publisher: Mainstream Publishing Company
ISBN: 9781845964801
Category : Gangsters
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
He came from the same streets as mob bosses John Gotti & Vito Genovese. Before 'Scarface', 'The Godfather' or 'The Sopranos', there was Pulitzer Prize winner Jimmy Breslin. In 'The Mafia Rat', Breslin shows us the people and places that defined the Mafia.

Author: Jimmy Breslin
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060856661
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
He was the first to put the mafia on the page exactly as they were-before The Sopranos, before The Godfather, there was Jimmy Breslin of the New York Herald Tribune. As Breslin says, 'I hate legitimate people. They all proclaim immaculate honesty, but each day they commit the most serious of all felonies, being a bore. To whom do you care to listen, Warren Buffet, the second richest and most boring person on earth, or Burt Kaplan out of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn?' Breslin can sniff out a story like he can sniff out a rat. Characters like the Honorable Jack Weinstein, the judicial heavyweight who snapped Vincent Gigante's insanity defense in two, Sammy the Bull, the original snitch, Gaspipe Casso, named for his weapon of choice; and hangouts like Pep McGuire's, the legendary watering hole where reporters and gangsters (all hailing from the same working class neighbourhoods) rubbed elbows and traded stories, the dog-fight circles and body dumps at Ozone Park, the back room at Midnight Rose's candy store where Murder, Inc. hired and fired. But best of all, Breslin captures the moments in which the Mafia was made and broken- Breslin was there the night John Gotti celebrated his acquittal at his Ravenite Social Club on Mulberry, having bribed his way to innocence, only to incite the wrath of the FBI, who would later crush Gotti and others with the full force of the RICO laws. Woven throughout Breslin's stories is the aforementioned 'Burt Kaplan out of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn,' and star witness in the recent trial of the two New York City detectives indicted for acting as mob hit men in eight homicides. Kaplan was a former handler for the Luchese crime family who owed the law 18 years in the penitentiary, and, like all rats, he knew when to flee a sinking ship.

Author: Joe Bruno
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
"Mob Rats - Jimmy 'The Weasel' Fratianno" has been ranked: AMAZON/UK #1 BEST SELLER IN "PERSPECTIVES ON LAW"AMAZON/USA #1 BEST SELLER IN "HOT NEW RELEASES - LAW ENFORCEMENT BIOGRAPHIES & MEMOIRS"AMAZON/USA & AMAZON/UK #1 BEST SELLER IN FREE "LAW ENFORCEMENT BIOGRAPHIES," AND FREE "TRUE CRIME - HOAXES & DECEPTIONS." AMAZON/UK # 1 BEST SELLER IN "TRUE ACCOUNTS OF HOAXES & DECEPTIONS"*****Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno got his nickname from his days as a petty pushcart thief in Cleveland, when he ran as "quick as a weasel" with an armful of fruit and vegetables while the cops chased him.Rising quickly up the organized crime ladder in Cleveland, Fratianno, after doing a stint in the can for robbery and extortion, migrated west to Los Angeles where he hooked up with West Coast Mob boss, Jack Dragna. After doing a few "pieces of work" or murders for Dragna, Fratianno got his button and became a made man in the Mafia. Dragna soon appointed Fratianno as one of his captains, bypassing several irate mobsters who had served under Dragna for decades. Without even trying, Fratianno had made himself several serious enemies, and this would come back to haunt him. Things began falling apart for Fratianno when, while he was in prison doing another bit for extortion, Jack Dragna died. After much infighting, Dominick Brooklier was anointed Dragna's replacement, and one of his first acts was to bust Fratianno from captain back to a mere Mafia soldier. Incredibly, after Brooklier got hit with a 20-month prison term for racketeering, conspiracy and extortion, he named Fratianno as the acting boss of his LA crime family. Fratianno, his proud chest bursting the buttons on his silk shirt because of his sudden promotion, didn't realize he was being set up for the fall. As soon as Brooklier hit the streets again, Fratianno discovered he was as good as dead. He ran to the Feds, and he offered to sing his finest tunes in return for the luxury of the Witness Protection Program. Over the next 10 years (he got only five years in jail after admitting he participated in six murders), Fratianno scammed the Feds for almost $1 million, in return for his testimony at several mob trials.The Weasel had become a Rat, but the Federal Government was his patsy. Regrettably, it was our taxpayers' dollars that compensated Fratianno handsomely, exhibiting once again the folly of our hard-earned tax dollars at work.

Author: Larry J. Hausner
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476694281
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
For many years, the FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover, ignored organized crime, as the Bureau regarded local law enforcement as best equipped to handle it. That changed when Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (in the 1960s) and New York City's Rudy Giuliani (in the 1980s) pursued eradication of the Mafia.. In this book, readers are introduced to several characters in the American Mafia, known as "rats" in the criminal world, whose cooperation with law enforcement resulted in the arrest of Mafia members across the country. Short biographies of each informant detail their crimes and deals made to stay alive or reduce lengthy prison sentences. FBI and CIA records released in 2017, and books written by the criminals themselves, reveal why previously loyal Mafia members and associates became informants. Most of the criminals written about are dead; a few are presumed to be alive and in the witness protection program.

Author: Fank Palmeri
Publisher: Brighton Publishing LLC
ISBN: 9781621832829
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Call me the last of my kind. I'm a made man. Swore the blood oath, omerta, and never looked back when I became a member of one of the Five Families in the Mafia. I came around when bosses, captains, and soldiers were real men, not like the rats we have today who earn their money then betray their friends when the feds make the going tough. I've been in "the life" most of my life. My name is Frank Palmeri. Palmeri is not my real name because even though I make my living now by legitimate means, I'm still a member of the Mafia. I always will be. As I said, I swore the oath. The Mafia is more than a crime organization; it's the life you live. I served time because of a wire-wearing rat. Now I'm writing this book and sharing information about a secret organization that is no longer secret because the rats have spilled everything. So you understand, this book is not written by an informant who wants to look good now that he has cooperated with the government... ...I never cooperated. After completing a long prison sentence, wiseguy, Frank Palmeri, shares his thoughts about the decline of the New York Mafia. Palmeri discusses the basic tenets of the Mafia organization, including the code of silence that so many made men discarded when they decided to cooperate with the federal government. In turn, the US government systematically deconstructed the Mafia using the 1970 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO). Palmeri describes the history of the Mafia, including the creation of the original Five Families of New York (Genovese, Bonanno, Gambino, Lucchese, and Profaci, which later became the Colombo Family) by Charlie "Lucky" Luciano in 1931. The author reveals a series of poor leadership decisions, as well as unnecessary and "unapproved" murders within the organization that eventually led to prominent members from all of the Five Families to turn on each other in order to bargain for more lenient sentences or protection from the feds. The basic structure and chain of command in the crime organization is described. Palmeri also calls out the failures and missteps of Mafia bosses and underbosses, including John Gotti, John Gotti Jr., and Sammy the Bull Gravano, which later made it easy for the government... ...to arrest and convict many prominent made men. The main point of Bugs, Bull, & Rats speaks directly to the title of the book. Palmeri blames the breakdown of the organization from 3000 made men in the '70s to fewer than 500 members in the current day to the betrayal of weak-minded members... many of whom Palmeri believes should never have been inducted into the organization."

Author: John L. Smith
Publisher: Huntington Press Inc
ISBN: 9781935396901
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 515

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Book Description
Of Rats and Men is the story of Mafia informants, made men, over-zealous government agents, a courtroom wizard, and the "happiest mayor in America." It's the biography of Oscar Goodman.

Author: Jimmy Breslin
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061802034
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
In his inimitable New York voice, Pulitzer Prize winner Jimmy Breslin gives us a look through the keyhole at the people and places that define the Mafia—characters like John Gotti, Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso (named for his weapon of choice), and Jimmy "the Clam" Eppolito—interwoven with the remarkable true-crime saga of the good rat himself, Burt Kaplan of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, the star witness in the recent trial of two NYPD detectives indicted for carrying out eight gangland executions. Through these unforgettable real-life and long-forgotten Mafia stories, Jimmy Breslin captures the moments in which the mob was made and broken.

Author: John Wooten
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
What's the lowest form of life, according to Don Vito Leone? A rat, of course. Vito Leone's only son was killed by a former Mafioso-turned-FBI-informant, resulting in Vito's long prison sentence. Today--back on the street and back in business--Don Vito refuses to give up his search for Frankie Calabrase, the rat who is responsible for the murder of his son. As Boss of the New England Mafia, the Don runs his operation out of a covert establishment called Vito's Diner which also houses an illegal gambling business in Boston's North End. Together, he and his soldiers manage the day-to day, while Vito grooms his nephew, Anthony, to one day take over the family business. Anyone who crosses Don Vito or his family quickly learns a valuable lesson: That the only good rat . . . is a dead rat.