Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti

A thorough detailing of perhaps the most colorful personality to ever hold membership in La Cosa Nostra. The book has detailed insight to Gotti’s sharp wit, tough guy complex, character flaws on top of the strenuous legal pursuit through the eyes of law enforcement.Capeci and Mustain once again prove that they are the masters of telling an interesting story while giving the reader insight to all parties involved within the story. There are times when you feel like you are one of the gambling degenerates at the Bergin sprinting to a pay phone to place your bets on a Sunday morning. There are times when you feel like a frustrated prosecutor knowing your case is built only to have it compromised but underworld influence on the jury.The purpose of the book is to give a detailed story about all things John Gotti and Capeci and Mustain nail it while allowing the reader to decide whom they empathize with most. This is significant because there is a plethora of Gotti literature that is either pure glorification of The Life or pure bastardization of gambling, conspiracy, gang involvement. You as the reader get fed the details neutrally.While I do believe this is outstanding work, I believe it is inferior to Murder Machine (Capeci, Mustain, 1993). I hold this to be true because Murder Machine unwinds like a Greek tragedy and an onion being peeled back more and more. The reader is continually drawn in. It’s as much nonfictional shock value entertainment as it is a bio and legal commentary. This is absolutely no slight against Mob Star because as a mob literature fanatic I believe Murder Machine is the 5 star bar I compare all mob literature too. It just happens to have the same authors.The weakness (albeit a small one that doesn’t take away at all from the quality of research and knowledge from the authors) of Mob Star is that gears switch too quickly. There are several excerpts, particularly in the second half of the book, where one is reading about every day gritty street life and with abrupt shift and no transition the reader then is forced to read about surveillance law and legal politicking within New York at the time. One is forced to go back and re-read to make sure nothing was missed because it feels like a huge switch has been made without notice. This is frequent in MM as well but in my opinion Capeci and Mustain tie it all together better at the end of the chapter, this is not entirely the case with Mob Star.I would give this book 4.5/5 stars. It is a freight train of biographical human detail of John Gotti and decades of associates and a legal drama that is entertaining and top of being true. My only slight, only slight, is the transitions are not smooth or don’t wind together like they did in Murder Machine. But overall, I consider this to be the most upright and reliable literature on Gotti.

The book was extremely outdated and the information was out of date

ok

It has kept me interested. A good read for anyone with interest in the mob. I’m half way through it and it’s hard to put it down.

Nice read

The author adds too much personal opinion into the text. If you're looking for straight facts, all the personal opinions can be really annoying to sort through. Because of the unprofessional insertions, I wouldn't recommend it for a research project; which is unfortunate because the book had some decent facts mixed in between the author's delusional ego.

Starts off pretty good but kinda drags a little in the second half. More background info would've made it great

When I picked this book up I thought I would get a nice history of Gotti. That was true to some extent but the majority of the book was devoted to the trials. If you are a lawyer or someone who is interested in that sort of thing then this book is for you. If you want a good read then pick up the Capeci book on Gotti,that is top of the line! You can also read this if you are having problems sleeping....

was enjoyable but not too thrilling.

As sold

great!