The Underboss by Gerard O'Neill, Gerard O'neill

From the Publisher

On February 26, 1986, Mafia underboss Gennaro Angiulo was convicted of racketeering and sentenced to forty-five years in prison. In The Underboss, bestselling authors Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill tell the story of the fall of the house of Angiulo. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, aided in part by the Irish Mob's Whitey Bulger, entered the Boston Mafia's headquarters in Boston's North End early one morning in 1981 and began to compile the evidence that would lead to the entire upper tier of one of the most profitable and ruthless criminal enterprises in America.

Originally published in hardback by St. Martin's in 1989, The Underboss became a national bestseller. Information uncovered during the course of Lehr and O'Neill's Black Mass investigations adds new dimensions to the story and the authors include this new material-including Whitey Bulger's cagey manipulation of the FBI-in The Underboss's revised text and in a new preface and afterword.

The Boston Globe - David Nyhan

Fans of George Higgins' novels will feel right at home here.... This is how the Mob operates.... The full, grimy story.

Chicago Tribune

An engrossing story of the good guys winning big, told with insight and chilling effect.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Nobody could follow these hair-raising maneuvers better, or write about them more authoritatively.... A riveting book.

Library Journal

This fast-paced, engrossing, and ultimately satisfying story shows how the FBI bridged the mythic moat surrounding Angiulo.... Gripping.

Worcester Telegram

An eminently readable capsule history of organized crime in Boston and ... an absorbing, true tale of cops and criminals.

Publishers Weekly

The undoing of a Mafia underboss related with underdone flair or tension, this picks up momentum halfway through with the re-creation of the FBI's bugging surveillance, Operation Bostar, conducted in 1981 in Boston's ethnic North End, where Gennaro J. Angiulo's bookmaking operation was headquartered. Case agent was Edward Quinn, romanticized by the authors, reporters at the Boston Globe , to heroism. Still, the tale is not without a measure of real valor, especially given the ennui endured by the agents monitoring 850 hours of often boring, frequently garbled tape recordingstedium that caused them all to gain weight from gobbling donuts. An interesting aspect of the case proves to be the successful prosecution of Angiulo under the challenged federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Actby which he was ultimately convicted. And when he has served his 45-year term, there is a mandatory life sentence awaiting him for his conviction for accessory to murder. Photos. ( Feb.)

Library Journal

Ruthlessly and brutally, Jerry Angiulo reigned as underboss of Boston's Mafia; he molded it into one of the most lucrative mob enterprises in the country. An ``evil genius,'' Anguilo's fatal error was to believe the popular wisdom that he was too crafty and too well insulated in his impregnable North Boston enclave to ever be apprehended. This fast-paced, engrossing, and ultimately satisfying story shows how the FBI bridged the mythic moat surrounding Angiulo. On the fourth attempt, marked by a quasi-military campaign, the FBI secretly broke into mob headquarters and planted bugs which led to Angiulo's life imprisonment; he was literally condenmed by his own words. A popular, gripping look at the FBI operation, which monitored Angiulo's criminal pursuits.-- Jerry Maioli, Western Lib. Network, Olympia, Wash.

Booknews

Longtime investigative reporters for the describe how in the 1980s a group of FBI agents brought down Gennaro J. "Jerry" Angiulo and his four brothers, who had run the Mafia in Boston for decades. Their coup was placing a bug at the main office. The 1989 edition was cloth bound. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

What People Are Saying

George V. Higgins
The straight stuff ... Real - and wonderfully readable.... This is what the Mob's about now, cruel and smart and vicious. (George V. Higgins author of At End of Day)

Dominick Dunne
A tough and tautly written account of the interlinking machinations of the good guys and the bad guys.

Product Details

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents