Covert: My Years Infiltrating the Mob

Delaney, Bob, with Scheiber, Dave

ISBN 10: 1402754434 / ISBN 13: 9781402754432

Published by Union Square Press, New York, NY, 2008

About this Item

Glued binding. Paper over boards. xi, [1], 276 p. Illustrations, black & white. Index. Foreword by Bill Walton. From WIkipedia: "Bob Delaney (born November 1, 1951 in Paterson, New Jersey) is a former police officer and professional basketball referee in the National Basketball Association (NBA) who officiated from the 1987-88 NBA season up until the 2010-11 NBA season. Delaney is a 1973 graduate of New Jersey City University with a Bachelor of Science degree in criminology. He is a 2006 inductee into NJCU's Athletics Hall of Fame. After finishing college, Delaney joined the New Jersey State Police. During the mid-1970s, Delaney worked as an undercover officer as part of an operation known as "Project Alpha". In the early 1980s, Delaney retired as a law enforcement officer and devoted full-time to becoming a basketball referee. In 2008, Delaney wrote about his undercover experience in Covert: My Years Infiltrating the Mob, with co-author Dave Scheiber. He completed a Master of Arts degree in leadership from Saint Mary's College of California." Very good in very good dust jacket. Signed by author. Inscription signed by both authors on fep. Publishers ephenera laid in.

Seller Inventory # 69672

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Covert: My Years Infiltrating the Mob
• Publisher: Union Square Press, New York, NY
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1402754434
• ISBN 13: 9781402754432
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First edition. First printing [stated].
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

Featured on NPR and CNN

 

In a riveting page-turner, NBA referee Bob Delaney reveals the clandestine life he led before becoming one of professional basketball’s most respected referees.
In 1975, Delaney had spent only a year and a half as a New Jersey State Trooper when his superiors approached him with a tantalizing yet dangerous undercover assignment: to infiltrate the Mob. Delaney accepted, and became Bobby Covert, the president of Alamo Trucking, a fully-operational business used by law enforcement as flypaper for snagging crooks. 

At the height of The Godfather era, Delaney wore a wire and lived among wiseguys who modeled themselves on their on-screen counterparts, quoting lines from “The Movie” and boasting of how often they’d seen it. Delaney even crossed paths with Joe Pistone, the real-life Donnie Brasco (though neither knew the other was undercover), knowing all the while that a single slip could get him killed.

Ultimately gathering enough evidence to convict 30 members of the Bruno and Genovese crime families, Project Alpha was a success, but Delaney struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and traces of Stockholm syndrome after getting too close to those he investigated. Therapy helped him come to terms with all he’d endured during his three tense years undercover, and, once a college basketball star, Delaney began officiating high school and intramural games as a way to rebuild his life—eventually working his way up to the NBA, where he has been a referee for more than two decades.

 

About the Author

Bob Delaney has been an NBA referee for the past twenty years. In the 1970's, he was a highly-decorated New Jersey State Trooper who went undercover for nearly three years to infiltrate the Mob, and was the principal undercover operative in the landmark investigation, Project Alpha.

Dave Scheiber is a nationally-recognized and award-winning sports and news features writer at the St. Petersburg Times. His work has appeared in numerous publications and, early in his career, he was a regular contributor to Sports Illustrated, which called him "one of the most talented young sportswriters in America."