The Underboss: The Rise and Fall of a Mafia Family

Rating:
Summary: Good mafia reading
Review: If you're interested in the Boston Mob & the Angiulo family, this is the book for you. There is very little out there on the subject and this book gives a compelling view into the workings of the North End Mob & the Feds attempts, failures, & ultimate success in catching the seemingly unattainable Jerry Angiulo. It is well written and consistantly interesting & exciting.

Rating:
Summary: Very good!!
Review: Interested in the New England mob? Go no further - THE UNDERBOSS is well researched and you walk away from it with a very good understanding of the events that occurred and the key players behind it. Worthy of any mafia book collection. I also recommend BLACK MASS, ALL SOULS, and STREET SOLDIER.

Rating:
Summary: GOOD PLACE TO START
Review: Interested in the New England mob? Go no further - THE UNDERBOSS is well researched and you walk away from it with a very good understanding of the events that occurred and the key players behind it. Worthy of any mafia book collection. I also recommend BLACK MASS, ALL SOULS, and STREET SOLDIER.

Rating:
Summary: Do you speak american?
Review: One of Jerry Angulio's favorite sayings do you speak american..$$$. At any rate, this a good account on the Boston mafia and New England Underboss Jery Anguilio's. It tells how he got his start after being in the navy in ww 2 becoming a bookmaker and early on almost getting whacked for making a blunder. He eventually rose in the mafia ranks despite never having actually personally killed anyone himself although he would order many hits. He actually at one time wanted to be a lawyer and was one of the first mafioso to Realize that RICO could become what it has becom and ironically his family would be the first proving ground trial that RICO would be used against LCN successfully. He wasn't all that well like even among mafia ranks but made a ton of money. FBI breaks ins to wire his social club would bring down him and many other Boston LCN members instead of the supposed info Whitey Bulger gave to the FBI.

Rating:
Summary: Very good!!
Review: There is a man referred to obliquely in the prior reviews who has been seriously affected by all of this and essentially left for dead if you will. The man was bounced around as a child overseen by state authorities contracting to nonprofit firms employing former federal officials. One of the state officials charged with guardianship of the boy went by the same name as a female FBI agent listed in Black Mass by O'Neill and Lehr. Another woman charged with guardianship of the boy ran a hard labor camp for juveniles in trouble with the law, where breaking granite boulders with sledgehammers was the norm as was poor food,inadequate rest and mandatory employment where this woman demanding oversight of the teen's paychecks.At the hard labor camp, which was tacitly approved by state social workers and caretakers,local police and allegedly state police, the boy was forced to work 12-15 hour days, often 7-14 days without showers, little sleep and poor quality meals in addition to constant threats of violence, being locked up by state officials or state police and having all of his personal belongings confiscated-- the boy had been sent to this program simply because he had no family or other supports and had NO trouble with the law prior to being put there. The woman in charge of the program possessed the same name as a major manufacturing firm located in southern New Hampshire. This placement was overseen by the state official bearing the same name as the female FBI agent. Some 15-20 years later, this woman re-emerged in the man's life as a girlfriend of a coworker.

This same man was befriended as a boy by a couple with indirect alleged links to George Cashman and former Governor Cellucci. When this case broke, the couple disavowed the man.

Susan Kelly in her book also discussed the possibility that the early stages of the Boston Strangler murders may have been linked to gangland violence in the wars around which Flemmi emerged. A woman is said to have survived the Strangler but was never interviewed. Is it possible the Boston Strangler in turn is linked to this case ,got a woman pregnant, and the child was used as some sort of collateral for cooperation of the real Strangler?

At the same time, Jonathan Harr released his book 'A Civil Action' just after Whitey fled town. When the book came out, the man worked for Grace Co.,unaware of his past as a very young,sick and handicapped boy growing up in the chaos of an environmental tragedy in Woburn,Mass. The fervor surrounding Harr's work appeared in sync with the tepid waters of the Bulger case, and during the early phases of the hearings, Robert Redford and Sylvester Stallone appeared in a Somerville court for ambiguous reasons regarding the Bulger case. Prior to Harr's work, the man had written an autobiographical work of his own which touched upon memories of a sick child in Woburn during the emergence of the cancer epidemic.As the Bulger case broiled, Barry Mawn, native of Woburn, was assigned to the Boston FBI office in pursuit of Bulger- Mawn, Teddy Roosevelt to Cuba, Mawn to Woburn. Many of the Bulger case principals had indirect ties to Woburn and surrounding communities.

In addition to all of this, the man's medical records began disappearing, and employment became all but impossible as he was destroyed financially, just as the state trooper who stopped Whitey at Logan airport.Evidence of phone tampering emerged possibly using off premise extensions linked to major companies the man worked for which also did business with the federal government. The man's bank records and video rentals have been scrupulously monitored and broad evidence of a long term evidence gathering investigation of an individual with no history of criminal activity or breaking the law. It seems feasible the man is linked to the Bulger case and has been watched by various agencies who feel threatened by his father, a man unknown to the boy growing up or as an adult.

One thing a government oversight or other committee might investigate is the possibility that one of the principals in the Bulger case on either side had a son who was immediately flagged and watched all of his life and used as surety without his knowledge by the government or perhaps even organized crime. The committee might offer protection and encourage that individual to come forward and disclose all they know.