The Last Gangster: From Cop to Wiseguy to FBI Informant: Big Ron Previte and the Fall of the American Mob

Anastasia, George

ISBN 10: 0060544228 / ISBN 13: 9780060544225

Published by HarperCollins, 2004

About this Item

Shows very minimal signs of wear and previous use. Can include notes highlighting. A portion of your purchase benefits nonprofits! - Note: Edition & format may differ from what is shown in stock photo & item details. May not include supplementary material such as toys, access code, dvds, etc.

Seller Inventory # 584ZST0003P1_ns

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Last Gangster: From Cop to Wiseguy to FBI Informant: Big Ron Previte and the Fall of the American Mob
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060544228
• ISBN 13: 9780060544225
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: like_new

About this title

Synopsis

As a cop Ron Previte was corrupt. As a mobster he was brutal. And in his final role, as a confidential informant to the FBI, Previte was deadly. The Last Gangster is his story -- the story of the last days of the Philadelphia mob, and of the clash of generations that brought it down once and for all.

For thirty-five years Ron Previte roamed the underworld. A six foot-tall, 300-pound capo in the Philadelphia-South Jersey crime family, he ran every mob scam and gambit from drug trafficking and prostitution to the extortion of millions from Atlantic City. By the 1990s, Previte, an old-school workhorse, found himself answering to younger mob bosses like "Skinny Joey" Merlina. Spoiled, cocky, and careless, the young, up-and-coming gangsters were hungry for the media's attention and the public's recognition. Gone were the days of loyalty and discretion.

Convinced that the honor of the "business" was over, Previte became the FBI's secret weapon in an intense and highly personalized war on the Philadelphia mob. Operating with the same guile, wit, and stone-cold bravado that had made him a force in the underworld, and armed with only a wiretap, Previte recorded it all: the murder, the mayhem, and the betrayal.In The Last Gangster, George Anastasia -- the critically acclaimed author of Blood and Honor and The Goodfella Tapes -- tells Previte's story for the first time. Unflinching and enthralling, The Last Gangster is the true story of how the once monolithic, highly organized, powerful, and secretive Cosa Nostra was defeated by its own hand.

About the Author

George Anastasia, who spent more than thirty years reporting on crime for the Philadelphia Inquirer, is the grandson of Sicilian immigrants who settled in South Philadelphia. He is the author of six books of nonfiction, including Blood and Honor: Inside the Scarfo Mob—the Mafia’s Most Violent Family (which Jimmy Breslin called the “best gangster book ever written”); The Last Gangster; and The Summer Wind: Thomas Capano and the Murder of Anne Marie Fahey. He lives in southern New Jersey.