Requiem for an Editor

Philip Carlo, whom I criticized as well as hyped in one of my posts, " Philip Carlo and the Quacking Duck ," is dead. This came as a complete surprise to me; I just saw him, for the first time, on an episode of Mobsters about Anthony Gaspipe Casso, the subject of his book "Gaspipe," which I used as the jumping off point for my post, in which I called out some obvious mistakes in Mafia history made by Carlo. He died on Nov. 8, 2010, never to see the publication of his last book, "The Killer Within," which is ironically being released today, Jan. 6, 2011. (Here is an excellent interview with Carlo, on AZcentral.com .) However I still recommend his books, especially "Gaspipe," because there is a fascinating intimacy in his work due to his relationship with organized crime figures in the New York Mafia (his wife is the daughter of slain  Eddie Garofalo , who was murdered by Sammy Bull Gravano); additionally, Carlo and his family had been close fri...

UPDATED: There are a million stories in the naked city, and in the mob, too. Take the case of John Pappa —books and films could be made about this guy, and perhaps one day will. In May 1999 John Pappa was convicted of racketeering, drug dealing and four murders, including the 12th and final killing of the Colombo family war , which took three years to run its bloody course. The Colombos have probably had more wars than any other family in the Mafia—they have also produced some of the most legendary “gangstars” of our age, including Greg Scarpa and Wild Bill Cutolo . John Pappa, looking as innocent as a puppy dog. Pappa was arrested during a wedding rehearsal in 1997. That’s how it is done: you put a bullet in his head, then hug and kiss his mother at the funeral, and maybe you are invited to join the victim’s brother’s bridal party. An excited team of cops and FBI agents nabbed the mobster at a church on Staten Island. Pappa, 22 at the time, was chased into St. Ann's Ch...