Covert: My Years Infiltrating The Mob

Bob Delaney with Dave Scheiber

ISBN 10: 1402754434 / ISBN 13: 9781402754432

Published by Union Square Press, New York, 2008

About this Item

Softcover. Very good, faint crease top right corner front cover. 276 pp. with index. Foreword by Bill Walton. Illustrated with photos. In 1975,must a year and a half into his career as a New Jersey State Trooper, Bob Delaney was was approached with a tantalizing undercover assignment ---infiltrate the Mob. Delaney accepted and became Bobby Covert, president of a North Jersey trucking company used by law enforcement as fly-paper for snagging wiseguys. He operated for three years undercover, even crossing paths with Joe Pistone (the real-life Donnie Brasco) thought neither knew the other was undercover. He gathered enough evident to convict 30 Mob members. But the psychological after-effects on Delaney were serious---he struggles with PTSD and Stockholm syndrome, went into a tailspin and found help only after a chance meeting with an old college psychology professor and a period of informal therapy. A former high school basketball officiator, he returned to the hardwood and eventually became a referee in the NBA.

Seller Inventory # E36751

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Covert: My Years Infiltrating The Mob
• Publisher: Union Square Press, New York
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1402754434
• ISBN 13: 9781402754432
• Binding: Softcover
• Edition: First edition.
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • True crime

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."