Mafia Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family – An Inside Story of Power, Murder, and Control from Sicily to New York

by John H. Davis

The Gambinos--they arrived in America from Sicily when the `20's roared with bootleg liquor. For thirty years they fought a bloody battle for control of New York's underworld to emerge as the nation's richest and most powerful crime family. Now Mafia expert John H. Davis tells their compelling inside story. Here are the chilling details and deceptions that created a vast criminal empire. Here are six decades of the uncontrolled greed and lust for power of such men as Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, Meyer Lansky, Vito Genovese, Albert Anastasia, Carlo Gambino, Paul Castellano, and John Gotti--men for whom murder and betrayal were business as usual. From the Gambinos' powerful stranglehold on New York's construction, garment, and waterfront industries to the government's onslaught against them in the `80s and `90s, Mafia Dynasty takes you into the mysterious world of blood oaths, shifting alliances, and deadly feuds that will hold you riveted from the first page to the last.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Crime, History, Biography, Politics, American History

530 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mafia fascinates many of us.

Why that is?

I can't really say, but it probably has something to do with Hollywood.

Movies make the Mafia seem cool. These guys wear cool expensive clothes, they drive nice cars, they date beautiful women and hang out with celebrities.

But that's just a Hollywood fantasy.

In real life these men are violent and they wear tacky clothes...they're also SUPER racist. Alot of rappers get their name from mobsters but trust me those mobsters would've called us Black folks niggers(with the hard ER).

Nowadays the Mafia doesn't really exist anymore. There are still Mafia families but they don't have anywhere near the power they once had. There was a time in the 1970's and 1980's when several industries in New York City were completely controlled by Mafia families.

Mafia Dynasty is a look at the history of the Italian Mafia from the early days in the late 19th century all the way through to John Gotti's conviction and life sentence in the 1990's. It mostly focuses on the Gambino family which is the most famous of 5 New York families, but it does mention something related to other families and even some of the more famous non 5 family gangsters like Bugsy Siegel and Al Capone.

I'm a lover of Mafia content everything from The Godfather all the way to the underrated reality show Mob Wives(RIP Big Ang) which starred the daughter of Mafia "rat" Sammy the Bull Gravano. But as I age I do find myself feeling conflicted about this type of entertainment. These men are brutal murders. They pumped drugs into Black neighborhoods and in several cases committed terrorist acts against Black people.

I still do enjoy Scorsese films and I am planning on reading more mob books but I do still have issues with adding the mythology of racist.

Mafia Dynasty didn't cover the more racist side of the Mafia but John H. Davis(who was Jackie O's first cousin by the way) definitely put in the hard work of researching these people and even met several of them including Charles Lucky Luciano. This book focused mostly the 1960's- early 1990's and I would like to read more about the earliest days of the Mafia. I've never found John Gotti to be particularly interesting but maybe that's because he's someone I consider to be more contemporary and I prefer more historical figures.

I must say I did find it hilarious just how over the top positive the treatment of Rudy Giuliani was in this book. At the end of the book Giuliani is described as "bestowing new dignity on all Italians and giving them a positive new image". The Rudy Giuliani image in 2022 is definitely different than the Rudy Giuliani of the past. When I was a kid he was actually known as "America's Mayor " and now he's.....well Google him and then watch Borat 2.

I definitely would recommend this book to readers who want a easy to read history of one the most important aspects of crime history.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always been a big fan of the old black and white mobster movies with Jimmy Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, and the more modern mafia flicks (The Godfather). I thought the mafia's influence was exaggerated in those films, and died out in the 50's.

How ignorant I was! Reading "Mafia Dynasty" was eye opening and shocking - to learn of the extent of the Gambino family's power, control, crime, corruption and murders. This book starts from the beginnings of "the Honor Society" in Sicily to the Mafia's early beginnings in America with Lucky Luciano, Albert Anastasia to Carlo Gambino's empire in the 60's and 70's to the 1992 trial of the teflon don John Gotti (the most interesting part to me). They don't teach this history in school! I recommend this book to everyone and anyone who wish to open their eyes a bit more to the world around them.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I watched some documentaries with John Davis in them, saw he had a book and figured, why not read it? I loved this book. It was a nice overview. I liked how he went back to the origins and explained stuff from there. It was easy to understand, a lot of info but presented in a good way. He made you get a feel for each gangster, letting you know about their personalities, how they dressed and carried themselves, what type of gangster they were- business or violent. Made you realize even the ''business'' ones were still responisble for many deaths. I enjoyed the transcripts from the tapes although at the end it did seem like it kept showing the same ones over and over. Overall, a great book though. Only bad thing is it makes me want to read up on about 50 more people :)

[Derrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a thorough telling of the history of the Gambino crime family. I definitely enjoyed reading it! I felt like it was put together in a way that made it fairly easy to read. The author obviously worked hard doing the research and compiling the massive amount of information this book contains. Anyone with an interest in the history of organized crime in America would be sure to enjoy this book.

[Raven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked up a chapter here and there and finally finished.

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid accounting of the Mafia's roots and Gambino crime family. As expected the Gotti years become the principal focus through the second half of the book. I have read several other books related to the Mafia but this is the first time I've heard it proposed that the Apalachin fiasco was deliberately engineered from within. The author concludes by stating Gotti was true to Cosa Nostra principles but the truth is that he never bothered to get a sanction for his hit on Big Paul, fearing that Castellano would be tipped off by the Vincent the Chin Gigante, boss of the Genovese faction.

[Lamadia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very interesting read on the real New York mafia and its fall from power in the 90s. It's mostly about John Gotti and the author was present at his trials. Near the end it started to get very repetitive. Since it is an outsider's perspective of true crime, it necessarily is heavy on courtroom scenes which bog down the narrative. Davis' colorful descriptions are charming, but ultimately are obvious for what they are, attempts to make real courtroom drama dramatic.

[Hugo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great page turner of a book about the Gambino crime family, from it's beginning until the fall of John Gotti.

The one negative point of the book is not enough detail is given about Carlo Gambino, the most successful leader of the crime family, while Paul Castelano and Gotti reigns are explored in a more complete form, then again, the fact that so little is know about Gambino's reign is the actual reason why he was so successful, so it's hard to totally fault the author for this.

[Tom Nolan]

paperback 4x6

[Julio The Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

'The first generation build. The second generation sows the seeds of decay. The third generation destroys". This is known as the BUDDENBROOKS theory of business, politics, or in this case, organized crime, from the theme of Thomas Mann's great family saga. One police detective turned it into American English: "When you go from Carlo Gambino to Paul Castellano to John Gotti, that's not evolution that's devolution". At one point the Gambinos had New York City by the balls, controlling the garment industry, the largest employer in the city, the construction industry, the most lucrative business in Gotham, and hijacking cargo from JFK airport, next to drugs the most profitable illegal activity in the Big Apple. In the end, John Gotti sat in solitary confinement at Marion Maximum Security prison in Illinois, with the Aryan Brotherhood as bodyguards (and snitches at that!). The founder, Carlo Gambino, was like Vito Corleone on GODFATHER II. He came to America by ship, and gradually and quietly made his way up the ranks of La Cosa Nostra, becoming the factotum to Albert "The Mad Hatter" Anastacia, who he betrayed and ordered killed in 1957. Don Carlo inherited what was now the Gambino Family. He double-crossed the man who had helped him set up Anastacia, the powerful and vicious Vito Genovese, planting evidence that sent Vito to Prison for life. In the 1960s Don Carlo, a self-proclaimed disciple of Machiavelli, arranged the kidnapping of his only rival on the Commission, Joe Bonnano. Kidnapped, not killed, since that would have started a war with the Bonnanos. In 1976 on his deathbed, Don Carlo named his brother-in-law and cousin Paul Castellano Family boss. Big mistake. Big Paul took his inheritance as a promotion to CEO and actually came to believe he was a businessman, who read THE WALL STREET JOURNAL every morning. The Family soldiers got shorted, and up-and-coming capo John Gotti took Paul out in a hit on December 16, 1984. This was defeat disguised as a victory. John loved fame as much as Paul loved money, and, as Don Carlo could have told him "Our thing is secret, capisce?" Down came the federal indictments one after the other, and with many soldiers and captains facing long prison sentences themselves it was not hard for the Feds to turn John's Underboss, Sammy Gravano, against him. Sammy received a time-served sentence for 19 murders while JOhn got to spend 23 hours a day in a solitary prison cell. John Davis, an expert on the American Mafia and, weirdly, a cousin of Jackie Kennedy, has written a Family saga of a brutal regime that is more gripping than any fictional account of crime.

[James Edward Powelk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and informative book on the Gambinos, but too many typos made it difficult to understand in oarts

This was an informative and entertaining read, especially the rise and especially the fall of John Gotti, but there were some problems that the editors or Amazon could have and should correct. First the good. There was some entertaining and informative details about Gotti, and especially his last trial that any fan of true crime or Mafia stories will enjoy. There was also quite a bit of information about the beginnings of Cosa Nostra and the Gambino family, especially considering the secrecy and mystery of that world before wire taps and informats were around to lift the veil. In my opinion there were only two negative problems with this book. First there were several parts of the book that were repeated word for word several times throughout the book, mainly regarding tapes of Gotti. The book would quote the tapes and a few chapters later in a trial they would appear again, and then a few chapters later, they would be show up some more. Even though it sometimes was frustrating and maybe could have been cleaned up, at times some of the repeated stories were helpful, so it didn't bother me too bad. The other problem did bother me. There were several typos that at times made it difficult to follow. By reading this review it should be obvious I am no grammar cop. I'm not talking about a misspelled word or a missing comma,. There were names that only had one or two letters, and several times a name or word was replaced by numbers, like the writer but the number lock key, the editors missed it and apparently no one at Amazon caught it either when it was being written for a digital copy. Before writing the review, I looked and it was written in 1993. So either since 1993 the author, none of the author 's family, or the publisher read this book, or the mistakes were made when it was converted to digital. Either way, parts of the book was hard to understand. It was like a test where they give you the first and last letter of a word and humble everything else up, except worse and for 200 pages. The only other thing I would add is that it would have been nice for someone to have added a chapter or two to follow up on the family in the last 25 years since this book was written. If you are a fan, it's worth struggling through the errors to read this.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since watching The Irishman, I’ve had a yen for Mafia crime stories. I’ve always wanted to know more about the Gambino family since they were the most powerful of the five families during the time the mob ran everything. So I picked this lauded work up.

It gave me everything I need in the best way possible: being detailed without being tedious. It covers the families coming over from Italy and Sicily, how what we know to be the “mafia” came into existence and how the families formed out of old bootlegging wars. Much of the history parallels the history of the underworld in 20th century New York City.

Most of the second half of the book is devoted to John Gotti. I knew little about the man himself and nothing I learned really changed my perceptions but I got the bigger picture I wanted. Apparently, the government was coming down hard on the mob in the 80s with RICO, so whomever succeeded Paul Castellano probably would’ve gone down soon after anyway. Which doesn’t change the fact that John Gotti was a moron as a boss, a flashy braggart who basically painted a target on his back. It only goes to show the ineptness of the prosecution, both state and federal, that it took four tries to finally convict him of something.

Davis goes long several times on how the Mafia created a bad image for Italian-Americans. He doesn’t glorify the family or the life at all. He is a little lenient towards Gotti, claiming that the gangster was loyal to the code until his demise which, okay? At the same time, this is a well-rounded picture of how something that started as a protection racket grew into criminal dominance and was eventually reigned in by a combination of prosecutorial zeal and its own hubris. Crime doesn’t pay.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding! Read this when it was published and have been recommending it to people for over 25 years. Mr. Davis is very thorough in his research and writing and it really shows. There is a ton of information in this book and I truly found all of it interesting. I grew up in southern New Jersey, not far from Philadelphia and Atlantic City. As such, I knew well of the existence of Cosa Nostra. Once, when I was at a friend's house for a big (Italian) family barbecue, I noticed that his uncle introduced several gents as "a friend of mine" but two others specifically as "a friend of ours", and I noticed the difference in how they were treated. That really piqued my curiosity, so I began listening, reading and learning more intently. However, what I learned over the years was piecemeal; disjointed. Reading Mr. Davis' book confirmed a lot of what I knew as fact (- a nice feeling), connected many dots, and provided much fascinating historical information. If you have any interest in the mafia, in Cosa Nostra, I'm quite certain you'll enjoy this book. Also, if you know anyone with a budding interest, this would make an excellent gift, as the history provided makes it an excellent starting point.

[Gino Gemignani · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book in 1999 at a college library book sale where it sat on my shelf. Finally, I read it and it was so worth it. John Davis is a fantastic writer. He took me on a journey from the roots of the Italian Mafia to its evolution into the Gabino empire in the United States. The last fourth of the book illustrates the Gotti trial and the essential decline of the crime family.

A couple of times in the book John Davis inserts himself into the story as once he interviewed Lucky Luchino in Italy while John was just starting his journalism career, just out of the Navy. Another time he is asking questions at a John Gotti press conference many years later.

This book really filled in a lot of gaps about the history of the New York "Five Families" that I had learned about over the years from movies and TV documentaries. I did not fully appreciate how dominant the Italian Mafia aka the "Cosa Nostra" was in the New York economy from the 1940s to the early 90s. During World War II they even influenced the navy and the war effort.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific book! (Problems with Kindle edition)

This is a well written, solid book about the Gambino Family through the decades. It starts with its inception and finishes with John Gotti going to prison.

The book is full of interesting stories about Mafia people throughout the Gambino history. The book isn't short, isn't fluff. Very substantial, well researched and well written. I highly recommend it.

The book was written in the 1990s soon after Gotti's last trial, which he lost. Looks like the print book was scanned and turned into the Kindle version. It's a mess. Every paragraph, probably every sentence, has weird spelling and punctuation. It would be nice if the publisher would re-do the scan and clean up the spelling and formatting. It's very irritating and disruptive to read the book the condition it is now.

Also, no photos in the Kindle book. Surely the publisher can find a few that are ok for a digital book.

[Joe Rodeck · Rating 5 out of 5]

*Mafia Dynasty* chronicles the history of the mob from Sicily to New York to the fall of John Gotti. As I was reading it, I was often referencing *The Godfather.* There’s the Don whom everyone kowtows to; a man who runs a huge criminal enterprise is the still the devoted father & family man. There’s the restaurant as the ambush murder site for rival gang leaders.

In the movie, Don Corleone turns friends into enemies when he refuses to continue to be involved with illegal drugs. But this book explains that it was because the government which could look away from lots of rackets was really ramping up a war on drugs–there are no high moral planes here.

Too many Tough Tonys and Big Sals and Fat Frankies for some tastes, I’d guess; and the last ¼ of the book is all John Gotti, who was a hot topic at the time of publication.

[Jcb · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Certainly well-researched. This book deserves 4-5 stars for fulfilling its mission of informing readers about the grand sweep of Mafia in America (NYC area) with a concentration on John Gotti.

That said, the reading did get tedious at times. Synopsis: This guy whacked that guy because that guy whacked a third guy; then they all intimidated some witnesses and union bosses. Finally, a bunch went to prison. Yawn.

The best parts were the historical bits in Italy/Sicily, and the idea that Gotti, despite being a violent criminal, was living by "the code," while others may not have been. Is that to be respected?

**SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED**

[Lambishquin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the history that was laid out here in detail. Gives the reader a real in depth look of the stories that intertwine to creat the history of one of the most notorious Mafia families. It might be me but at the end i feel like it kind of got repetitive but also these were court cases detailing all the history that had been documented in order to convict Gotti and others. Great book though! Glad i picked it up. My favorite chapter was the Gambino Legacy chapter thaf explained all the ways they earned money and how they worked. Was very interesting and i never knew they were so powerful. Highly reccommend to anyone interested in the subject.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lukewarm review. It covers a long history, but it’s not written very well. It reads as though it didn’t go through much of an editing process: repetitive, simplistic and unclear whether he followed a clear theme. This could have been written by a talented high school student.

Note to the Kindle edition: there are typos galore. Some sections are almost hard to follow with errors like mis-spellings, truncated words, and odd characters being inserted. The transcription was not done very well.

[Noah Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first mafia book and what grew my obsession. Carlo Gambino was probably the most successful mobster of all time, and learning about his and the family’s rise was amazing. Then to end at a joker like John Gotti showed how times and the mafia had changed. They don’t make em like Carlo anymore. John H. Davis also does a great job and is one of the if not the best mob author out there.

[Erwin Pantel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kindle edition problems

There are many typographical errors and some garbled paragraphs I believe due to the conversion to the e-book format. The content is interesting, but the kindle problems did reduce the readability in some areas of the book.

[Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Majority of the book talks mainly about Carlo Gambino and John Gotti.

[Rich Guins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engrossing.

[Frankiey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kindle version had many typos and was almost unreadable at points

[Ronna Huckaby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have reread this book several times. Really good look at the Gambino crime family. Highly recommend

[Jef Verstraete · Rating 4 out of 5]

A true classic ! recommended for anyone interested in the mafia or cosa nostra.

[Donnacha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read and very well written.

[Oliver Paisley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed it, slog at times but very informative!!

[Ben Ezra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engrossing and Riveting Story written by John Davis

[Martin Mull · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly Accurate.Educational/historical? Yes