"Mob Rats - Jimmy 'The Weasel' Fratianno" has been ranked: AMAZON/UK #1 BEST SELLER IN "PERSPECTIVES ON LAW"AMAZON/USA #1 BEST SELLER IN "HOT NEW RELEASES - LAW ENFORCEMENT BIOGRAPHIES & MEMOIRS"AMAZON/USA & AMAZON/UK #1 BEST SELLER IN FREE "LAW ENFORCEMENT BIOGRAPHIES," AND FREE "TRUE CRIME - HOAXES & DECEPTIONS." AMAZON/UK # 1 BEST SELLER IN "TRUE ACCOUNTS OF HOAXES & DECEPTIONS"*****Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno got his nickname from his days as a petty pushcart thief in Cleveland, when he ran as "quick as a weasel" with an armful of fruit and vegetables while the cops chased him.Rising quickly up the organized crime ladder in Cleveland, Fratianno, after doing a stint in the can for robbery and extortion, migrated west to Los Angeles where he hooked up with West Coast Mob boss, Jack Dragna. After doing a few "pieces of work" or murders for Dragna, Fratianno got his button and became a made man in the Mafia. Dragna soon appointed Fratianno as one of his captains, bypassing several irate mobsters who had served under Dragna for decades. Without even trying, Fratianno had made himself several serious enemies, and this would come back to haunt him. Things began falling apart for Fratianno when, while he was in prison doing another bit for extortion, Jack Dragna died. After much infighting, Dominick Brooklier was anointed Dragna's replacement, and one of his first acts was to bust Fratianno from captain back to a mere Mafia soldier. Incredibly, after Brooklier got hit with a 20-month prison term for racketeering, conspiracy and extortion, he named Fratianno as the acting boss of his LA crime family. Fratianno, his proud chest bursting the buttons on his silk shirt because of his sudden promotion, didn't realize he was being set up for the fall. As soon as Brooklier hit the streets again, Fratianno discovered he was as good as dead. He ran to the Feds, and he offered to sing his finest tunes in return for the luxury of the Witness Protection Program. Over the next 10 years (he got only five years in jail after admitting he participated in six murders), Fratianno scammed the Feds for almost $1 million, in return for his testimony at several mob trials.The Weasel had become a Rat, but the Federal Government was his patsy. Regrettably, it was our taxpayers' dollars that compensated Fratianno handsomely, exhibiting once again the folly of our hard-earned tax dollars at work.

What People are saying about Joe Bruno's Mobster BooksANOTHER HISTORY LESSON! – I love Joe Bruno's books. I always say that he's the NYC true crime historian. NYC has had its share of murder and corruption over the past couple of centuries and the author is a wealth of knowledge about it. A must read for any true crime book collector. - RJ Parker - Best Selling Author of True Crime Books TRUE CRIME AT ITS BEST!! - Joe Bruno has a way of giving real light into his mob stories. His easy writing style pulls you in, and his no BS attitude allows you as a reader to get the full story not just what he chooses to share. There is so much real life history in these books. His books are especially edge of your seat interesting. They are mind blowing, really. I would highly recommend you pick up a copy of one of his books. You'll see what I am talking about. – Brenda Perlin – Adult Contemporary Fiction Author.

Of Rats and Men is the story of Mafia informants, made men, over-zealous government agents, a courtroom wizard, and the "happiest mayor in America." It's the biography of Oscar Goodman.

New York Public Library Book for the Teenager New York Public Library Book to Remember PSLA Young Adult Top 40 Nonfiction Titles of the Year "Engaging...a lively, informative compendium of facts, theories, and musings."-Michiko Kakutani, New York Times Behold the rat, dirty and disgusting! Robert Sullivan turns the lowly rat into the star of this most perversely intriguing, remarkable, and unexpectedly elegant New York Times bestseller. Love them or loathe them, rats are here to stay-they are city dwellers as much as (or more than) we are, surviving on the effluvia of our society. In Rats, the critically acclaimed bestseller, Robert Sullivan spends a year investigating a rat-infested alley just a few blocks away from Wall Street. Sullivan gets to know not just the beast but its friends and foes: the exterminators, the sanitation workers, the agitators and activists who have played their part in the centuries-old war between human city dweller and wild city rat. Sullivan looks deep into the largely unrecorded history of the city and its masses-its herds-of-rats-like mob. Funny, wise, sometimes disgusting but always compulsively readable, Rats earns its unlikely place alongside the great classics of nature writing. With an all-new Afterword by the author

What people are saying about “Mob Rats:Gangsters Who Squeal—Volume 1”5.0 out of 5 stars Great Fun Read! By CurfewplugI've read hundreds of books about organized crime; some good, some not so good. This was one of my favorites. I enjoy Mr. Bruno's writing style, lively, informative, and just the right amount of street jargon.5.0 out of 5 stars JOE BRUNO, YOU'VE DONE IT AGAIN By Eddie LazinskyGreat read!! I just couldn't put it down. The pages just flowed. Keep up the good work Joe. I'm looking forward to Volume II. 5.0 out of 5 stars Great read!! By lcook0825As usual a great read involving the Mafia in NYC. Very well written and I finished in one sitting. Lots of research goes into Joes books and it just keeps you reading. I'm looking forward to his next one as I always do. 5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read, thank you Joe Bruno!! By Chester L. StoneWhen I see a Joe Bruno title I expect to be entertained and educated and “Mob Rats: Gangsters That Squeal” fills that expectation. Joe Bruno is a combination of a historian, crime reporter and educator. As I have said before reading Joe Bruno is like having a conversation with an old friend.

He was the first to put the mafia on the page exactly as they were-before The Sopranos, before The Godfather, there was Jimmy Breslin of the New York Herald Tribune. As Breslin says, 'I hate legitimate people. They all proclaim immaculate honesty, but each day they commit the most serious of all felonies, being a bore. To whom do you care to listen, Warren Buffet, the second richest and most boring person on earth, or Burt Kaplan out of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn?' Breslin can sniff out a story like he can sniff out a rat. Characters like the Honorable Jack Weinstein, the judicial heavyweight who snapped Vincent Gigante's insanity defense in two, Sammy the Bull, the original snitch, Gaspipe Casso, named for his weapon of choice; and hangouts like Pep McGuire's, the legendary watering hole where reporters and gangsters (all hailing from the same working class neighbourhoods) rubbed elbows and traded stories, the dog-fight circles and body dumps at Ozone Park, the back room at Midnight Rose's candy store where Murder, Inc. hired and fired. But best of all, Breslin captures the moments in which the Mafia was made and broken- Breslin was there the night John Gotti celebrated his acquittal at his Ravenite Social Club on Mulberry, having bribed his way to innocence, only to incite the wrath of the FBI, who would later crush Gotti and others with the full force of the RICO laws. Woven throughout Breslin's stories is the aforementioned 'Burt Kaplan out of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn,' and star witness in the recent trial of the two New York City detectives indicted for acting as mob hit men in eight homicides. Kaplan was a former handler for the Luchese crime family who owed the law 18 years in the penitentiary, and, like all rats, he knew when to flee a sinking ship.

For many years, the FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover, ignored organized crime, as the Bureau regarded local law enforcement as best equipped to handle it. That changed when Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (in the 1960s) and New York City's Rudy Giuliani (in the 1980s) pursued eradication of the Mafia.. In this book, readers are introduced to several characters in the American Mafia, known as "rats" in the criminal world, whose cooperation with law enforcement resulted in the arrest of Mafia members across the country. Short biographies of each informant detail their crimes and deals made to stay alive or reduce lengthy prison sentences. FBI and CIA records released in 2017, and books written by the criminals themselves, reveal why previously loyal Mafia members and associates became informants. Most of the criminals written about are dead; a few are presumed to be alive and in the witness protection program.