Rating: 
Summary: wow
Review: Al DeMeo did a great job with this.. wow. It's very interesting to read after reading Murder Machine. Because it's told in Albert's own words, that makes it much easier to get involved in the story. It's a fairly short book, easy to read in one sitting. I can buy DeMeo being a great dad, better than some legit dads for sure.. Some parts seemed a bit far fetched, though. Roy DeMeo being sad about a frog dying? How could the same Roy DeMeo who took a new recruit out on the street and had him randomly clip a guy to prove he would be a decent hit man get sad about some frog dying? C'mon. It's hard to believe this is the kid's first book, he does an excellent job describing his emotions, makes you really feel for him.
Rating:
Summary: wow
Review: Al DeMeo did a great job with this.. wow. It's very interesting to read after reading Murder Machine. Because it's told in Albert's own words, that makes it much easier to get involved in the story. It's a fairly short book, easy to read in one sitting. I can buy DeMeo being a great dad, better than some legit dads for sure.. Some parts seemed a bit far fetched, though. Roy DeMeo being sad about a frog dying? How could the same Roy DeMeo who took a new recruit out on the street and had him randomly clip a guy to prove he would be a decent hit man get sad about some frog dying? C'mon. It's hard to believe this is the kid's first book, he does an excellent job describing his emotions, makes you really feel for him.
Rating: 
Summary: Impressive, honest, sad memoir
Review: Al DeMeo has lived two lifetimes before he turned forty, and this book tells his story. He has warm memories of his father, and can somehow seperate his father's crimes from the havoc it caused on his family. It was stunning to read that he carried a gun to elementary school to protect his sister. The auther equivocates about the number of people his father killed -- "Murder Machine" puts the number at 200, but that's somewhat unreliable. The only one Al is certain about is the one I remember reading about growing up -- his father mistakenly identified a door-to-door salesman as a hitman and killed him. This killing of an innocent (or a "civilian" in Soprano's-speak) seems to have broken his father's spirit somewhat, and led to a downward spiral. After his father's death, Al Demeo carries on outwardly strong, but eventually the stress of holding it all inside nearly culminates in suicide. The two most powerful scenes in the book are the desciption of Al's mourning for his father and his near suicide. I believe the book was ghost-written, and much of it has that breezy, second-hand feel, but those two scenes are very intense and the reason I give this book the highest rating.
Rating:
Summary: The ignoble consequences of Roy DeMeo's sins
Review: Al DeMeo's 'For the Sins of My Father' offers the other side of Roy DeMeo as portrayed in the book 'Murder Machine'. Young DeMeo describes in vivid detail growing up in adulation of his father, gradually facing the reality of life in the Mafia but never quite coming to terms with the extent of his father's sins. It's understandable why Al doesn't believe the accounts of his father's bloody butchery in the 'Murder Machine', considering that he grew up seeing the fatherly side of Roy DeMeo and was never subject to his father's blood-curdling brutality. Al's account of his life growing up as the son of one of Mafia's most notorious killers is sometimes heart warming, usually sad, and always suspenseful. All in all, this book is well worth the read. It is different than any other 'Mafia' book; Al was not only the son of a vicious killer but a victim of his father's deeds. For greater effect, I recommend reading 'Murder Machine' before reading this book. Good luck to you Al DeMeo.
Rating:
Summary: a very sad case
Review: as a father i couldnt even imagine doing what roy demeo did to his son al,by involving such a young boy in such things,and basically taking his childhood away,and from a sons view,al really loved his father and no child should have to go through with what al had to do.this book really shows al truly suffered most of his adult life,i only hope he can start a new life for himself and someday be a great father since he is only 37.good luck al i hope you find peace,you deserve it...
Rating:
Summary: interesting angle for a mob book
Review: As a self admitted mafia aficionado I was very interested in this book from the son of one of the most notorious mob hitmen in history,especially since I had already read MURDER MACHINE and was well aware of roy demeo's reputation.Albert seems to be a relatively good guy who was born into something that would be very hard to handle if you were 30,much less a teenager.Good for him for making it,but being a mobster's son apparently carries a born hatred for the police trying to put away a murderer and reporters who write about the horrific things your father did.Yes the guy was his father but if Roy did half the things he was accused of,it seems an impossibility to humanize Roy DeMeo as Al tries to.Read Murder Machine as well to get the other side of Roy.Albert deserves compassion,his father doesn't.
Rating:
Summary: must read for mob buffs
Review: For all the glory that comes with the mob that we see in the movies like Godfather and Goodfellas, here in this book is the ugly reality of the dangerous ways of 'the life'. As the title states, the sins of the father are visited upon the children.
Rating:
Summary: For the sins of my father
Review: Great Book! Keep's you reading until it's done. I had seen the review put out by "Concerned Citizen" and had to laugh. Does he think the writer of the "Murder Machine" had all the right answers to all that went on with Roy DeMeo? I guess no-one person has all the answers but I am open minded enough to hear all the perspectives. Albert had first hand knowledge of the events and was trying to write a human interest story and not a crime novel. Did Al get rich off the blood money? could have,but no amount of money will bring back a lost parent, fix a failed marriage or give back the years he has lost to depression. Read this book, it will give anyone more humility.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent read !
Review: I am by no means a big book reader but when I got my hands on "For the sins of my father" I couldn't put it down! Albert, son of a mobster and devoted father Roy DeMeo does a masterful job of showing the other side of mobster life. The side where the "sins" commited by his father were far surpased by the loving relationship he had with his family. I would highly recommend this book! A+++++
Rating:
Summary: A journey into one young man's Heart of Darkness
Review: I bought this book on the spur of the moment. It was in the sale and I thought, "What the heck, I've nothing else to read tonight!" The author Albert DeMeo pulls no punches as he chronicles not only his father's life, the Mobster Roy DeMeo and his steady rise to power in the Mafia in New York but also his own involvement from the tender age of five in a world that was seductively charming as it was dangerous. "For the Sins of my Father" is a brutal, candid, violent, tender portrayal of a life in a huge glass bubble in which escape is not an option for anyone. However Albert DeMeo is not an apologist for his father's actions, rather he pulls the reader in a world in which corruption is at the heart of everything. Just as you can't feel sorry Roy DeMeo for the choices he made in his life you also cannot feel anything for the Police, the FBI, the Government, the Court system because they were often as corrupt as the people they claimed they were trying to bring to justice. Albert's father knew many people and many considered themselves law abiding whilst at the same time asking and getting favours from the Mafia Capo who was their "neighbour" and "friend". In one chapter the young Albert helps his father's "crew" to work out how wipe clean some audio tapes that could send one of their members to jail; magnets the child tells them men can wipe clean magnetic tapes of all their contents. It is a corrupt police officer who puts a magnet next to the audio tapes so that they will be blank when they are played in court. It is also to Mafia owned drinking dens that many court officials, police officers and other city officials attend to drink, buy drugs and enjoy the company of Prostitutes. Roy DeMeo's murder in the early 1980s is a brutal wake up call for the teenage Albert and hounded by both the Mafia who want his silence and the FBI wanting him to turn State's evidence, Albert somehow manages to salvage his life out of the wreckage of violence his father has left behind. This is not a fairy tale, there is certainly no happy ending but Albert DeMeo is living proof that you can walk a way from organised crime and go on to live a legitimate life, all it takes is a lot of courage, the memory of how your father, a man you loved beyond all words, died in a hail of bullets, murdered by the very people who were supposed to be his friends and associates. This book is very different from the gratuitous Best Seller "The Murder Machine" which demonises Albert's father; this is a book that puts a life into perspective, warts and all. Violence, car crime, prostitution, gambling, protection rackets, corrupt officials, loan sharking, pornography are put on display and it is left up to the reader to judge where the line between right and wrong lies. There is no moving away from the fact that Roy DeMeo was a murderer, a Mafia Capo and a man with a criminal mind, but the world he worked in was a world providing services and commodities that people wanted and even the law was not above the stench of death, and corruption. Read this book with an open mind and remember a father's love can transcend even the most vile of crimes....
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