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...
On the absurdity of the human condition...