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My Father, My Don

by Tony Napoli, Charles Messina

3.57 · rating details · 7 ratings · 5 reviews

Moving back and forth in time from the 1800s to the present day, My Father, My Don: A Son's Journey from Organized Crime to Sobriety tells the saga of the Napoli Family and takes its reader on a true-life journey, detailing one family's involvement in American organized crime. As told through the eyes of Anthony "Tony Nap" Napoli, the book follows the story of hi...more

Paperback, 304 pages

Published September 12th 2008 by Beckham Publications Group

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Oct 10, 2010

oriana rated it

Shelves: read-2010

As anyone who knows me knows, I fucking love to smoke. I don't smoke in my apartment anymore, though, I smoke outside on my stoop. And I smoke good cigarettes, American hipster Spirits, which last like ten minutes per. While I'm smoking, I read, because the only thing better than smoking is reading while smoking, right? It's the best part of my day -- and it's a large part, especially since I work from home. I'd guess that I'm out on my stoop, smoking and reading, combined, probably three hours ...more

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Aug 15, 2010

Joseph Bruno rated it

Saying Tony “Nap” Napoli has had an interesting life is like saying water is sometimes wet.
In his autobiography “My Father, My Don” co-written by Charles Messina, Tony Nap opens the book with a lurid tale starting with, “It was a cold November afternoon, in 1993 when, in a feverish burst of fury, I pulled the young punks pants down to his ankles and cut his balls off with a switchblade that he had stupidly pulled on me.”
The young punk he disfigured had tried to molest Tony Nap's...moreSaying Tony “Nap” Napoli has had an interesting life is like saying water is sometimes wet.
In his autobiography “My Father, My Don” co-written by Charles Messina, Tony Nap opens the book with a lurid tale starting with, “It was a cold November afternoon, in 1993 when, in a feverish burst of fury, I pulled the young punks pants down to his ankles and cut his balls off with a switchblade that he had stupidly pulled on me.”
The young punk he disfigured had tried to molest Tony Nap's daughter in her high school in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. But this incident became a watershed in Tony Nap's life, because he knew his rage had been fueled by severe alcohol abuse that had consumed his entire life up to that point. It also was the beginning of the end of his alcoholism. At his trial, he was “not guilty” on five counts and found “guilty” of a single count of misdemeanor assault. This was as a result of a shrewd defense by his lawyer Barry Slotnik, who had convinced the jury Tony Nap was an service veteran who had been “damaged psychologically from the stress and agony of combat training.”
Tony Nap was sentenced to 39 months in a VA hospital for psychiatric treatment and alcohol detox. Tony Nap said, “ It was just what I needed and a long time coming. I would enter that hospital a free man. I would leave a new man.”
Tony Nap was the son of Jimmy “Nap” Napoli a legendary Mafia boss, who was the mob's main conduit to the cash cow of Las Vegas. Jimmy Nap went so far back in the mob he associated with the legendary Frankie Yale from Brooklyn and even Al “Scarface” Capone. Jimmy Nap's base of operations was a social club in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn and also at a table in the legendary Crisci's Restaurant, which Jimmy Nap frequented almost every day.
Try as he could, Jimmy Nap could never control his wild and alcohol-fueled son Tony, and Tony went from one predicament to another, culminating in his assault of a Police Captain, who had tried to shake down Tony's nightclub in Union City, New Jersey. Tony Nap was facing big time in prison and although his father had huge connections, he feared his son would do serious time in jail.
Jimmy Nap banished Tony Nap from New York, telling him, “All I want you to do is get on the next bus out of New York. Go somewhere. Anywhere. Far Away. And don't come back until I tell you too. Don't call. Don't send no letters. Just go away. Disappear. When the time is right, you'll hear from me.”
The next thing Tony Nap knew, he was holed up in the dirt-road town of Tucumcari, New Mexico, Population 3500, light years away from the bright lights of New York City. He worked as a boxer for a Carnival, bartender and any other job where he could make a buck. He spent time in prison there for beating up three men who had raped a girlfriend of his, and for unwittingly being involved in a gas station robbery with two local hicks who had less teeth than brains and they didn't have much of either.
He spent three long years in New Mexico, before he disobeyed his father and called home. His Aunt Rae answered the phone and told him in his absence, his beloved mother had passed away and that his father had been looking for him to tell him the news, but could not locate him.
Tony Nap returned home to find his father now married to a woman 27 years younger than his father. This did not sit well with Tony Nap. But what could he do? His father was his father, but he was also his boss – his Don.
Jimmy Nap gave his son business after business, responsibility after responsibility, and Tony Nap was able to screw up one after another. Tony Nap landed a big job in Las Vegas as his father's representative and as a result he robbed elbows with every star entertainer in the business including Frank Sinatra, who was a frequent drinking partner.
Jimmy Nap was arrested and convicted on Rico charges in 1978 and he gave his son control of his gambling operations in Brooklyn. That didn't go too well either and when Jimmy Nap was released in 1985, his gambling empire was a shell of what it used to be.
Soon after his father release, Tony Nap was arrested too on a Rico charge by his family's nemesis Rudy Giuliani. It was set-up seen through by the jury and Tony Nap was acquitted.
As he was walking out of the courthouse a free man, Tony Nap said Giuliani stood by the back door of the courtroom and growled, “Napoli, I'll get you next time.”
Soon before Jimmy Nap died, he spoke to his son about the reasons his gambling empire had gone under. In fact, Jimmy Nap had dissolved his gambling operations completely, telling his son, “It's all over with now. All debts have been settled. The last bets have been put in. The windows are closed. I turned everything over to the west side.”
As for his people who had cheated and turned on Jimmy Nap, he told his son, “I knew all the while what was going on with them, misusing my money, running around like the degenerates they are. But you, I can't figure you out. How the hell do you get by?”
Tony Nap told his father, “How do you think? I get by because I'm your son. That's how I always got by.”
Tony Nap said, “That wasn't the last thing I said to my father, but I'd like to believe that it was.”
All in all, this book is a must read for those who want to get a glimpse of the inner workings of the mob. The good. The bad. And the extremely ugly. There is no glorification of a life of crime, violence and heavy-duty drinking.
As of the book's writing. Tony Nap has been sober for 15 years. He spends his time working with Veterans at VA Hospitals, helping them get VA benefits that they deserve. He also assists widows and dependent children of 100% disabled veterans. He helps them fill out the paperwork, so they can collect the proper compensation they are entitled too.
For most of his life, Tony Nap was not a very good man. But now he is more intent on giving rather than receiving.
If “My Father, My Don” proves anything, it proves that's it never too late to straighten out your life out and become a productive citizen and a God-fearing person.
Good luck to you, Tony Nap. Maybe you will finally find salvation.
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Dec 27, 2010

Kid rated it

This book has great charm and has a lot to recommend for folks living in the section of Brooklyn Tony Napoli haunted (Williamsburg/Greenpoint). It's an affective meditation on the fallout from a powerful father. Basically Napoli could wallow in self-destructive behavior and his father would swoop in and save him. There's an interesting contradiction at work here - Napoli hungers palpably for the love and acceptance of his father while he meditates on the distance he was allowed to fall because h...more

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Jan 25, 2009

Cheryl C. rated it

A gripping and raw true story of a father and son's relationship and the world of organized crime can be found in "My Father, My Don" by Tony Napoli with Charles Messina.

James "Jimmy Nap" Napoli was a mob kingpin who ruled over the largest gambling empire in America for almost forty years. In this no-holds-barred autobiography, James's son, Tony, describes his own life in the mob under the influence of his father and depicts the sometimes tense, but always cherish...moreA gripping and raw true story of a father and son's relationship and the world of organized crime can be found in "My Father, My Don" by Tony Napoli with Charles Messina.

James "Jimmy Nap" Napoli was a mob kingpin who ruled over the largest gambling empire in America for almost forty years. In this no-holds-barred autobiography, James's son, Tony, describes his own life in the mob under the influence of his father and depicts the sometimes tense, but always cherished relationship he had with his father.

"My Father, My Don" opens with a powerful, graphically violent scene. But it is this scene that sets the tone for the telling of such a brutally honest story, and it is a scene that will be revisted toward the end of the book, when Tony has come full circle and is on the road to sobriety and healing.

This truly is a book that is about more than just two lives in the mysterious world of organized crime. It is the story of a boy whose family came to America from Italy on a banana boat looking for a better life. It is the story of a young James Napoli, seeking to be a man in the way he wished, instead of seeking the life his father wanted him to live. It is the story of Tony Napoli, who grew up the son of a mobster, loving his father, feeling his influence, but ultimately wanting to be himself. Most of all, it is a story of family--the ties that bind and the lengths to which one will go to protect his own.

From the first word to the last, this book will be one you won't be able to put down. You'll be disturbed at times and astounded at times, but more often you'll be moved by the level of respect and the amount of love one man has for his father. While exploring a world that is vastly different than what you might have experienced, you'll gain fresh insights into the intriguing and complicated world of organized crime. And there is at least one scene that will move you to tears.

Fascinating and gritty, "My Father, My Don" is a must read for anyone intrigued by organized crime or powerful stories of coming to grips with the past and moving on.
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Nov 21, 2008

Christine Verstraete marked it as to-read

Just interviewed him at my blog; fascinateing story. http://candidcanine.blogspot.com/2008/11...

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