The Cigar: Carmine Galante, Mafia Terror
by Frank Dimatteo & Michael Benson
SYNOPSIS – 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.
MY THOUGHTS – This is a look at the life of Carmine Galante, a none too savvy mobster. There is debate whether he was born in Italy before his family moved to the US, or if he was born here in the US as his birth certificate showed. It made it harder for him to be deported as they could never prove he was from Italy. Another good mob read by this pair of authors.
PUBLISHER – Citadel Press– 320 pages
PUBLICATION DATE – Mar 28th, 2023
MY RATING – 4/5 STARS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR –
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 nonfiction history and crime titles Gangsters vs Nazis, Betrayal in Blood, Killer Twins, Mommy Deadliest, Who’s Who in the JFK Assassination, and The Devil at Genesee Junction. He is the co-author, along with Frank Dimatteo, of the acclaimed American Mafia history books Carmine the Snake, Mafia Hit Man, and Lord High Executioner. He regularly appears on ID: Investigation Discovery channel and is the recipient of the Academy of American Poets Award. Benson lives in New York and can be found on Facebook @authorMichaelBenson.
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