The Valachi Papers

Enjoyed the movie and wanted to remember more of the details

Joe Valachi, aka "Joe Cago" was a racketeer from East Harlem where trouble would breed daily on the streets of 1st Ave. For a New York guy, it was very interesting to read this book, and notice all the similar streets in Harlem and in the Bronx as well. This book definitely takes you back to another era (one that you will never see again). I found it interesting to read about how Valachi got into trouble with someone, and then had to squash a beef, switch into another crew for fear of retaliation, etc... It portrayed some different views that you just don't see in a lot of books. *You realize that you're getting a 1st hand account of someone who was around organized crime figures (and was in fact - one of those figures himself).I like the fact that this book displays how mob life is not all what you see in the movies: it's not people making all kinds of money and living the high life. For others like Joe Valachi - there are tough times when you're broke, in jail, or just not getting along with certain people (to the point where it may hurt your street credit). Realize that when your status is scarred in this particular circle, you may wind up dead...There were some rare things mentioned in this book too - where Valachi stated he never abused someone who owed him money. He was a loan shark that didn't believe in raising his hand. He would rather solve the problem in a more business-like manner. There was mention of all the stoolpigeons being held in Westchester County Jail. I didn't realize how many rats there were at that time. It goes to show you that informants were always present, not just what you read in the papers today.This book was a nice easy read and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in reading about a true story of someone growing up on the other side of the tracks where the only education a kid can get is in the street!

The Valachi Papers is a masterfully, in-depth look at the more seedy side of American history. Whether we are willing to admit it or not, the Cosa Nostra was a powerful force in many of this country's most important eras. Lucky Luciano used his influence to protect the New York waterfront during WWII for example. What I love the best about this book in particular is that it is not a romanticized version of a life in the mob. Rather, Mass using Valachi's testimonies and writings, gives a chronology of brutality that spans over 30 years. Prior to engaging this book I had my notions about the mob despite what all of my previous research had indicated. Lets face it, movies like 'the Godfather' and 'Goodfellas' make being a mobster seem pretty appealing if not down right cool. What Maas' work does is dispel those fantasies by showing a man whose life in the mob was rife with turmoil, danger, murder, betrayal and hardship. He was no stranger to the inside of a prison cell. His mob connections, even as a 'made' man, could not shield him from economic hardships and, in many cases, were the source of his problems. Valachi was no more a rat for speaking out than his boss Vito Genovese was a rat for savagely murdering all opposition, real or imagined, in his greedy grasp for more and more power. Maas' work is a factual account that makes no claims. It is the portrait of a man whose life was the very thing that ultimately led to his downfall and the subsequent testimony that would follow. I found this book to be a must read for anyone who fancies themselves a 'student' of mafia history.

If you are at all interested in reading about the mafia this is certainly the place to begin. Valachi was there from the beginning, he was in fact a made man in order to swell the ranks in preparation for the war that essentially created the cosa nostra as we know it. Once in he adopted the Cosa Nostra as his true family and lived the life of those violent brethren.This is in fact, essentially, a history and a biography all in one, so it is a bit hard to inject emotion into it as the previous reader complained about. Read it as a history, not as a book of fiction, and you will go into it with the right mindframe. That being said I thoroughly enjoyed reading this as I didn't have much of a background knowledge of the mafia other than names. Without knowing it much of what I knew from watching fictionalized movies all stemmed from this book and what was revealed.At times you wonder if Valachi was just some crazy man that made everything up and was an avid reader of crimes (a la the Benet confessor, John Mark Karr), but the detail is way too in depth. All one can do is believe it as true, which makes this book all the more interesting. I would most definitely recommend this book to anyone curious about the Cosa Nostra as this is certainly the place to begin.5 stars.

This author is soooooooo much better than Gay Telese ("Honor Thy Father"). I don't remember too much about Valachi, because I was just a little kid when he was indicted and testified. But I do remember his face on TV. There was a LOT of coverage, that's for sure! The story is fascinating, and it's well told. We had just finished reading "Honor Thy Father", and we both couldn't help reacting, after less than one chapter of this book, "what a difference!" VERY good book, and extremely insightful.

I read this years ago and lost my copy so I bought another one and read it in a few days. Joe Valachi is a gangster soldier who lived the real mob life without all the glamour and close friends. It was a violent world where he couldn't trust even childhood friends. Life for the typical Mafia soldier wasn't an endless string of parties. This is not to say that Valachi didn't live a glamour life at times, but once drugs got into the Mafia ranks, their old world disappeared. Joe was a killer and a pure gangster, a product of his time and place. Peter Maas did a great job with this book. The movie starring Charles Bronson could never do justice to the book. Valachi was a creepy guy.

Joe Valachi was in the middle of it all. His knowledge and memory of the Mafia, before the Mafia was really known about is mind-blowing. Easy to read, full of detail, and with a perspective only a man like Valachi could share.

You never know how much is true in all of these autobiography's, but there is certain things that have been proven, so you can come up with some idea about what is true and what is not. Now Joe Valachi is not the most reliable source for information, given the fact that he was only a low level soldier in the mafia, but that does not mean that he is lying constantly. There are certain things that he says he is sure about and other things that he is only getting from rumors that are going around, so take some of the things he says in this book with a grain of salt. There are things that get said in gangland lore that have been proven untrue and others that you have to make up your own mind with, like Giuseppe Masseria's so called last meal, which was later proven false with a autopsy report, which showed that he had nothing to eat before he died, and Charlie Lucky Luciano's first kill, Umberto Valenti, which to me seems false given that this incident happened before Luciano was with Masseria, and there was another person at that set up, which seems to me to be the more likely suspect, given the history between the two of them, who's name you should know if you are interested in the mafia in New York, because he was the leader of the first mafia family in New York, Giuseppe The Clutch Hand Morello. Any way like most mobster autobiography's Joe Valachi does not really go into detail on any of the murders he committed. All in all if you are a fan of the genre, then this book is definitely worth a read.P.S if you want to know more about Giuseppe Morello, then you can buy The First Family, by Mike Dash

A great Mafia read. Though a 'mere' soldier, Valachi has much to tell, and offered incredible insight to the previously little known Mafia phenomenon - J. Edgar Hoover (bent Head of FBI) had still denied their existence 'til Valcahi spoke. His insider information in very informative and interesting, and, as noted in an excellent review above, his incredibly forensic memory gives authority & detail to the narrative. Also, it is important to note that Peter Maas (author of 'Serpico' & others) writes brilliantly well. I would also highly recommend Johh H. Davis, 'Mafia Dynasty' (and his brief bibliography) for a wonderful sweep of Mafiosi history, starting from the very early days in New York (pre 'Lucky' Luciano, et al.) to John 'Teflon Don' Gotti. As in 'The Valachi Papers', there is a great economy in writing style, which adds impact to what you are reading. Finally, I would highly recommend Martin Short's, 'Crime Inc.' DVD from the 1980s; slightly dated in places, it is still brilliant as a very real documentary on the Mafia, laced with incredible interviews with real Mafiosi, such as Jimmy 'The Wessel' Fratiano, and a host of other genuine mobsters, whose characters would not look out of place in the fantastic 'Sopranos'.

If you want to trace the time that the world was made aware of the secret mafia in the usa. This is the book that started the disclosure of the secret society called "La Cosa Nostra".Joseph Valachi tells it as it was for him as regime leader.Read this book and all future mafia books become clear and easier to understand and to follow the heirarchy of how the set up woreked.Valachi,s revelations even convinced attorney general Bobby Kennedy to direct the infamous J.Edgar Hoover to redirect his F.B.I. personnel away from his paranoid imagined threat from reds under the bed,to increase the manpower of just four men to over forty agents to investigate the claim made from Valachi about the imagined strength of this secret society called La Cosa Nostra. This book is the beginning of a history of organised mafia crime right up to the present day,as the interest in the mafia culture is still strong today.D.W.W

There's no doubt in my mind that Valachi perhaps 'fabricated' some of the stories he tells in this book, but hey, isn't that what the mob is all about?One of the most in depth and interesting books I've ever read on the American Mafia. Peter Maas hits all the points and gets answers from nearly every aspect of mob-life that we've been curious about in such a way that you almost forget that what you're reading is mostly true.An absolute page turner, it left me reeling at the end at how one man can be so brazen and it has left me longing to book another flight to New York and visit some of the places Valachi talks about.I don't think there will ever be another detailed story of Mafia life such as this one.

Great book