August 7, 2015 Friday
Dina Di Mambro is my favorite true-crime author, so I was thrilled when
she called to tell me she had read my book 30 Illegal Years To The Strip and critiqued it on Amazon.com with 5
Stars. This is her revue.
Well researched and
fascinating!
This book is exhaustively researched and fascinating
reading. Future authors who cite this work will owe a debt of gratitude to Bill
Friedman for putting a wealth of documented information all in one place.
"30 Illegal Years to the Strip" is more of an information bank than
advertised "mafia encyclopedias", the exception being that it is well
written, exciting and captures the reader's interest. It is not just a dry
listing of the facts but is most readable. In addition to research on the
previously published, the author does not rely strictly on secondary resources
having done interviews of his own with mob legends such as "Jimmy Blue
Eyes" and others. The author gives well rounded portrayals of leading mob
figures showing them as real human beings---neither all good nor all bad. One
myth that has been perpetuated over the decades is that Charles
"Lucky" Luciano was involved with narcotics and prostitution for
which he was arrested in 1936. Friedman sets the record straight; Luciano was
framed by Thomas Dewey. While most definitely a foremost leader in organized
crime, Luciano, at this point, was not involved with drugs and flesh peddling.
The fact that Friedman corrects this misconception leads me to believe the
veracity of the other information presented in this book. Love "30 Illegal
Years to the Strip: The Untold Story" and I'm looking forward to reading
other works by this author.
