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Murder Machine: A True Story of Murder, Madness, and the Mafia

Murder Machine: A True Story of Murder, Madness, and the Mafia

List Price: $7.99
Your Price: $7.19
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Awesome detail to reality of the mob.The only downside...
Review: Right around the end of the book,they had an extreme fixation on the cops and the "demeo task force".COMPLETELY relieving any mention of the demeo crew,paul,nino,or even dominick (the main mob associated characters)Around the end the whole deal with the cops lives the half assed comparisons of the mafia members and the fbi agents lives.
These were the things that cut my attention down to that of a 2 year old.

More or less i was angered by the last chapter of the book not delivering what the rest had.Excitement, morbidity,hard times of wanna be soldiers,vivid detail,and most importantly the mafia
slayings it was just such a good read!

Well to make a long story short...
Buy the book its worth your time and your money.BUT dont be suprised when the progressive fall of the demeo crew means the progressive fall in your interest in the book.

Thank you for reading my review.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Appalling tale of human cruelty
Review: The book is well written, and unlike most books about the mob it doesn't glorify them. For once they are shown as the gutless, mean-spirited, utterly self-centred and cruel characters that they really are. But if you've got a soul,...then you'll find this book deeply upsetting and disturbing. I can't stop thinking about the children of their victims who must still be alive today and have to live with their grief every day of their lives. Don't you ever stop to think about that? This isn't just some interesting story, these horrors were inflicted on real people, many of whom are still alive today. For God's sake try and put yourself in their shoes, how would you feel if this had happened to YOUR father? All these people here calling for the 'movie' to be made have no conscience or compassion. That will only further magnify the victims pain, and they've suffered enough...Nothing justifies murdering and dismembering innocent people...

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: True only if pigs fly
Review: One would think that the authors of this book, being employed or having been employed by reputable newspapers, would know to check their facts. Their "true" story is at least partly fiction. Told through the perspective of a biased bystander with limited intelligence and perception, the "facts" as they pertain to at least one of the characters are almost completely fictitious. There are other factual errors that are glaring. It seems Mustain and Capeci had no problem sacrificing journalistic integrity to the gods of sensationalism and profit. The authors and publisher should be grateful that they were not sued for libel.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Interesting
Review: Murder Machine is an interesting tale of deception. The main source of the book is a turncoat nephew of the late Costa Nostra Gambino familie's top Capo, Nino Gaggi. Given that their would be no book without Nino's nephew as a source, the book is biasely written in his favor. I feel the authors did not achieve a completely objective book, but rather slanted things the way Nino's nephew saw them, pointing out negative aspects of his uncle, while intentionally failing to point out the positive aspects. Regardless, it is definitely worth reading for any true crime buff. The most intriguing part of the book features an interesting character, Roy Demeo. Demeo, the son of an unskilled worker, and certaintly a sociopath, rose to be one of the most feared and successful gangsters in his time. In the process leaving behind millions for his family, which paid for his daughters Yale education. The other interesting character in the book Nino Gaggi, through his successful life as a gangster, was able to put his son through medical school to become an optometrist. Despite the unconventional lives that Roy Demeo and Nino Gaggi lived, their decendants are really the ones who prospered. Long after Demeo and Gaggi are dead their decendants will likely still be turning out legitimate, upper middle class citizens, because of Demeo and Gaggi's illegal enterprising, that allowed their descendants to go to top colleges. I can't say the same for the source of the book, Nino's newphew, who at the end of the book is noted as being employed in 'merchandising,' I don't think his prodigy will be going anywhere.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: MAFIA FANS CHECK THIS BOOK OUT
Review: This book is an incredible tale of the car theft crew of the Gambino crime family. It is hard to fathom that anything like this could ever happen. A story about Roy DeMeo, a gangster who is considered by the F.B.I. to be the most prolific serial killer in United States ever(!), and his crew of killers. John Gotti himself was afraid of DeMeo and his crew, so that in its self is a reason to read this book.A great story about the Mafia one that is very hard to put down and one that you will read again.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: There's More To This Story.....
Review: Anyone who lives in Brooklyn (as I do) would tell you that you can't leave your car at a hydrant for 10 minutes without getting a ticket. So how did this crew run a human-butcher shop in a crowded borough for 10 years without detection, dumping corpses & body parts all over town? As bad (but fascinating) as this story is, I do believe that the whole story must be a lot worse, ie, lots more corrupt police & political involvement than what was detailed in the book. Some outwardly-respectable people walked on this one - they only got the street thugs, in my opinion. That crew had major protection from somewhere, I'm convinced of that.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An Incredible Movie On Paper
Review: This is the first and only mafia book I've ever read. After
having seen all of the popular movies about the mob, this book
was better than any movie I've ever seen. The writing technic
was incredible, weaving stories about the DeMeo Crew in and
out of the running dialouge and stories. It kept my interest from cover to cover and wishing there were a couple hundred more pages. Jerry and Gene are the best. Can't wait to see if any
one has the nerve to attempt to take this one to the big screen.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Must read
Review: I have long been curious of the mafia, of course being from Italian decent, because my heritage is forever intertwined with the mafia in America. There are tons of books out there about Gotti, to be honest I don't read them, he was a sensationalist who ultimately ruined the precious traditions of the mafia. However, it is books like Murder Machine that spark true interest. These are about the often unheard of soldiers that made the mafia what it was.

The DeMeo gang was a brutal bunch of killers that were feared by all, even their own associates. To read how plainly and effortlessly these guys killed is simply staggering.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in the mafia.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Real New York True Crime
Review: "Murder Machine" is the well-researched tale of a Brooklyn based crew from the Gambino mob family. Capos Roy Demeo and Nino Gaggi, and a "soldier" and former Green Beret Vietnam veteran, Dominick Montiglio, are the principal characters. The supporting cast of wiseguys and goodfellas are gritty and lifelike. Veteran New York Daily News reporters Capeci and Mustain have done their homework. Names, dates, places, faces, rubouts, deals gone bad, and deals that went down fly by in a kaleidoscope of New York crime- Brooklyn style. This is Paul Castellano's part of the family, not (!) to be confused with the "Manhattan faction" led by Aniello Dellacroce. This is hard core big city crime- far from the glamorized and glorified Mafia of Mario Puzo. The men of "MM" meet their fate in grizzly fashion with no (relatively) peaceful "sleeping with the fishes" deaths. The authors perform admirably in humanizing the settings and involving the reader with wives girlfriends, families and innocent bystanders alike. How could you not like Denise Montiglio or Carol Di Nome? In fact, this reviewer thought the criminals were more likeable than some of the cops. Detective McCabe and especially Detective Coffey were just plain boorish by the conclusion. Two weak points deserve mention: 1) The story of the prosecution was too verbose-especially the tales of office politics in the U.S. Attorneys offices. 2) A map of Brooklyn would have helped. Even most New Yorkers could not find Canarsie or Bath Beach on their own! 4 stars should be an honest evaluation, since "MM" is a tad too long. A final note: Some reviewers had had trouble with Dominick Montiglio's veracity. I would point out that there is a ton of backup evidence to support all the subsequent prosecutions. Guys like Capeci and Mustain have their "sources". Rest assured that "Murder Machine" is not a work of fiction!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Candid and Realistic
Review: "Murder Machine" was the most "out there" mob book I have ever read. I could not put it down. I was up all night reading it. It is unbelievably realistic, with "no holds barred." It is the candid tale of a real-life mob crew and goes into grisly detail describing their murderous antics. What amazed me about this book, were the numerous matter-of-fact murders committed by these guys. There was no remorse. They ordered cokes, pizza, and cut guys up, while eating and laughing all the way. They treated their hellish apartment behind the "Gemini Lounge" like a slaughterhouse. Montigilio speaks in unabashed detail about how they "iced" the victims, drained the blood out of their throats immediately after the kill, hung them upside down from hooks in the shower, and then cut and quartered them like butchers. Apparently, that was DeMeo's prior profession. It was gross, morbidly fascinating, and began to sound like men dressing out a deer or elk, except these guys were in New York City, and there weren't any elk around. He speaks of cutting and quartering the bodies and placing them in trash bags and dumping them at garbage sites. I was shocked and horrified, and wondered how these guys got a good night's sleep without having vivid nightmares. They did it all for money, prestige and membership in the mob. These guys would do anything to be made--even though the non-Italians were told over and over again, that they would never get made. Heck, even the Italians were not getting made. These guys even scared Big Paulie.

This book is a "must read" for anybody who wants to read about the glamour and guts of mob-life mixed together in realistic, day-by-day detail. Mob politics, jealousy, drug addiction, girlfriends and murders are all there. Studio 54 and its heydey and Big Paulie grace the pages along with psychopathic Roy DeMeo and his crew of mob miscreants. One of the best mob books I've ever read.


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