Boardwalk Gangster - by Tim Newark (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

For the first twenty-five years of his career, Lucky Luciano was a vicious mobster who became the king of the New York underworld. For the next twenty-five, he was a fake, his reputation maintained by government agents. Boardwalk Gangster follows him from his early days as a hit man to his sex and narcotics empires, exposing the truth about what he did to help the Allies in World War II, and revealing how he really spent his twilight years.

Drawing on secret government documents in the United States and Europe, this myth-busting biography tells a story that has never been told before--in which the American Mafia becomes entangled with foreign war and Cold War conspiracy.

Review Quotes

"A fascinating case of how criminals are made, broken--and made again." --The Huffington Post

"Well written and well researched." --The Telegraph (Books of the Year) (UK)

"This interesting book separates the truth about Luciano from the stories and movies about his life." --The Oklahoman

"A must for true-crime fans." --News of the World (UK)

"Newark provides what is, probably, the most balanced biography of a man who often claimed to be a victim, but had little thought for his own victims." --BBC History Magazine

"Great detective work here. Tim Newark has uncovered fascinating new angles on the Lucky Luciano story and tells it well." --John Dickie, author of Cosa Nostra

"Tim Newark's beautifully written and thoroughly researched studies offer new information and penetrating insights on hitherto little-known chapters in the history of American organized crime." --Robert Rockaway, author of But He Was Good to His Mother

"The victory of Mafia Allies is the depth the author brings to the subject." --New York Post on Mafia Allies

"Mafia Allies follows the fortunes of the Italian and American Cosa Nostra during the Second World War and brilliantly explodes a large number of myths in the process." --Daily Telegraph (UK) on Mafia Allies

About the Author