The Cigar

From real-life "Mafia Survivor" Frank Dimatteo, the gripping account of the life and crimes of the most feared mafia boss of all time: Carmine “Lilo” Galante, the prime mover behind the legendary French Connection. HIS WAR CRY: “I RULE EVERYTHING.” FOR HALF A CENTURY HE ALMOST DID. The brutal and blood-stained true story of one of the most feared bosses in American Mafia history, who rose from tenement street thug to notorious hit man to a prime mover behind the legendary French Connection. And the bodies piled up. The son of Sicilian immigrants, Camillo Carmine Galante was raised in Manhattan’s Little Italy and by all accounts born bad. At age ten his home away from home was juvenile detention. By fifteen he was terrorizing the streets of New York’s Lower East Side, scoring high marks for the “errands” he was running for his La Cosa Nostra elders. When he turned twenty, Galante was already one of the mob’s top enforcers­–a sadistic thrill killer and clinically diagnosed psychopath with big dreams: whack his way into controlling organized crime the world over, vowing to kill Mafia chieftans Tommy Lucchese and Carlo Gambino and take control of their mob families. Carmine “Lilo” Galante’s rise to Mafia star was infamous: hit man for the Luciano and Genovese crime families; named consigliere by Joseph Bonnano; he wiped out eight members of the Gambinos; on behalf of Mussolini he assassinated the publisher of an anti-Fascist newspaper. “The biggest dope peddler in the country” according to law enforcement, Galante helped orchestrate one of the largest heroin trafficking operations on record—a power move too dangerous for his rivals in the narcotics trade. The heads of the five New York families decided that the psychotic Galante had to be stopped. On July 12, 1979, finishing his lunch in a Brooklyn restaurant, Galante got what he’d dished out his whole life: a shotgun blast to the face, his trademark cigar still clenched in his teeth . . . Frank Dimatteo is a lifelong Brooklynite, Mafia “survivor,” and publisher of Mob Candy magazine. He is the author of the acclaimed memoir, The President Street Boys: Growing Up Mafia, as well as Mob Candy’s Brooklyn Gangsters and Manhattan Gangsters. Michael Benson is the author of more than sixty books, including the true crime titles Betrayal in Blood, Killer Twins, and Mommy Deadliest. He also wrote Who’s Who in the JFK Assassination, and most recently, The Devil at Genesee Junction. He regularly appears on ID: Investigation Discovery channel, including On the Case with Paula Zahn, and Deadly Sins. He is the recipient of the Academy of American Poets award.