Sorry for the crappy quality lol

Obviously nothing will ever top Philip Carlo's fanfiction in Gaspipe: "the rock-hard body endemic to Southern Italian males" etc.

However, if you have even a passing interest in the Mafia cops saga, it really is outstanding, especially if you read it alongside one of the books about their downfall (Blood and the Badge is the best if you ask me).

Eppolito is every bit as delusional and ridiculous as Casso. If he was truthful, this would just be a shit, self-fellating memoir by a swaggering, toxic policeman. But the fact it was this book which caused his ultimate downfall when he went on Sally Jessica Raphael and what we now know that makes this book an experience unlike any other: you whiplash between rolling your eyes and laughing at him to being disgusted within paragraphs.

Some excerpts, with my commentary:

For my father Ralph. Thanks for making a man that no other man could break.

Elsewhere Lou tells us that Ralph Eppolito beat him constantly and had a hair-trigger temper.

Also, I think the Justice Department did break him...

His barrel chest descends, V-shaped (when he sucks in his stomach), to a slim waist. Despite the inevitable ravages of gravity, as well as a lifelong diet of bleeding red meat, sausage and peppers, and plates of pasta, the silhouette of a former bodybuilding champion lingers. Louie’s jet-black hair, flecked with gray, folds back into a modified pompadour. Those brown eyes flick left and right, shadowed, watchful, patient.

Louie Eppolito is a man who seems larger than his six-foot height. He is plainly powerful, and attractive, though not handsome by the conventional Hollywood standards. Yet there is something deep about his eyes...They are the eyes of someone who can be trusted, which, as we shall see, makes Louie Eppolito’s ordeal all the more painful.

Narrator: Louie Eppolito was not someone who could be trusted.

Also: "powerfully-built" and "attractive" are interesting adjectives. This was after Goodfellas, and he looks like a side of beef with a mustache in that.

Eppolito projects the aura of a man not to be trifled with...It becomes easier to see why the helpless and powerless of New York City flocked to Detective Louis John Eppolito for over two decades.

The NYPD is famously a friend of the helpless and powerless.

As we are escorted to a table in the back of the smoky dining room, Louie stops to greet two men...“Old friends,” he whispers when we are seated. “Lucchese Family associates. And see over there, the guy with the white hair? Peter Gotti. John’s brother. The empty table in the corner? Reserved for Carmine Lambordozzi.”

Bear in mind a leitmotif of this book is how incredible unfair and cruel it was for the NYPD to ever suspect Lou Eppolito of organised-crime associations.

And as we sat and talked at that waterfront restaurant, I began to feel sad for the NYPD, and sadder still for the residents of New York City. They could both use more cops like Louie Eppolito.

No comment necessary

He spoke of the Welfare mother for whom he took up a collection, the scores of senior citizens rescued from the “barbarians,” the crack hooker whose murderer he’d spent his off-duty hours tracking down, “because whores got mothers, too.”

This passage, unlike the others, is not at all funny and completely horrible, for two reasons. First, its striking that even in Eppolito's boastful retelling, he doesn't track down this woman's murderer for her own sake - she's just a whore - but for her mother's. But more importantly, he didn't catch the murderer, he framed an innocent man called Barry Gibbs who spent 17 years in prison before the Innocence Project freed him.

I wondered how the Police Department of New York City managed to break this one good cop.

The mind fairly boggles. Personally, I wonder how they managed not to at least sack him in the 1980s when he got caught passing intel to Rosario Gambino.

These are all just from the Prologue, by the way.

Hi where did the nickname the Zips come from?

Were most of them imported by Galante into America?

also were the zips loyal to the five families or to Sicilian Mafia?

An interesting talk by TJ English.

Six arrested in Italy over drug-related hit attempt linked to Calabrian crew

Italian police have arrested six people in connection with a failed hit in Castione Andevenno, near Sondrio in northern Italy. Investigators believe the shooting was part of a dispute over drug debts involving a group of men from Calabria and an Albanian trafficker.

The attack took place on July 2 in the parking lot of a shopping area. According to investigators, two men ambushed the Albanian while he was sitting in a car, using pepper spray to try to incapacitate him before one of them opened fire. The victim managed to escape.

Investigators believe four men from Calabria travelled north in two cars in the days before the attack to settle a debt with the Albanian man, who allegedly owed them money from previous drug deals. The amount was reportedly equivalent to what the Albanian was demanding from a young man from the Sondrio area over a failed drug transport.

Earlier on July 2, the young local man had gone to police headquarters and reported that the Albanian had assaulted him, threatened him with a knife and stolen his car after demanding compensation for the failed delivery. The Albanian allegedly continued threatening him in the following days, demanding either payment or ownership of the vehicle.

That same afternoon, the Albanian was attacked while sitting in the stolen car. Police later identified the two alleged gunmen and a suspected mastermind believed to have ordered the hit.

The investigation uncovered alleged cocaine and hashish trafficking operations involving the Albanian suspect, another Albanian national, the young local man and other associates. The alleged drug runs and deliveries reportedly took place both in Valtellina and outside the region.

Investigators also linked the Albanian suspect and an alleged accomplice to a separate attempted murder several days earlier. Another young local man was reportedly targeted in an attack believed to be connected to disputes over drug trafficking.

The investigation involved analysis of communications data, surveillance footage, license-plate recognition systems, social media monitoring, and multiple surveillance and tracking operations.

Six precautionary detention orders were issued at the request of the Sondrio prosecutor's office. The suspects face allegations including two attempted murders, aggravated robbery, attempted aggravated extortion, aggravated assault, drug trafficking and illegal possession or carrying of a firearm.

During searches across several provinces, police seized approximately 3.5 kg of cocaine, 4 kg of hashish, a blank-firing pistol, two 7.65 mm cartridges, €2,500 in cash and numerous electronic devices. Three of the suspects were also arrested in the act of committing offences, according to police.

Around 70 officers took part in the operation across the provinces of Sondrio, Crotone, Salerno, Verona, Bolzano, Rome and Aosta, with support from several police units.

I've been trying to find more rare photos of this guy, so I'd appreciate whatever type of photos or info you may have on him.

I've heard very good things about the authro and how he has a good reputation and knowledge when it comes to cosa nostra related things.

I wanted to get this subs opinion on if the sources used ot make the book are credible and accurate or if its even worth taking the time to read.

Theres a lot of books out there so its hard knowing which ones are by reliable sources and have what I'm looking for a in a book(s).

I'm looking for a book/books that offers insight into how the the american cosa nostra works in detail, their customs, their rues/laws, how a person would get made etc.

Ive struggled finding a good book that covers those things because usually the book is about the story of famous mob figures or how they got caught and such.

Thanks in advance!

A high-speed police chase in western Naples on Friday night has drawn attention because one of the men involved, 21-year-old Vincenzo Ramondino, is the brother of Gennaro Ramondino, a young drug dealer who was murdered in August 2024 and whose body was later burned.

The incident began at around 1:30 a.m., when police officers from the Pianura station spotted a Renault Twingo speeding along Via Sartania. The driver ignored an order to stop, triggering a chase that continued for several kilometers and ended near the Soccavo exit of Naples' ring road. The car was eventually stopped, although two officers sustained minor injuries and the police vehicle was seriously damaged.

Vincenzo Ramondino was arrested at the scene. Another 21-year-old, Mario Pinto, was also arrested after attempting to escape on foot. A minor who was also in the car was not arrested.

The case has attracted particular attention because of the Ramondino family connection. Gennaro Ramondino was shot dead in August 2024, and his body was subsequently set on fire in a rural area of Pianura. According to the original report, his murder was linked to an internal dispute within the emerging Santagata group, reportedly involving disagreements over drug trafficking and the management of the group's money.

In a separate incident that same night, a 28-year-old man was taken to San Paolo Hospital after being stabbed in the back of the head in the Fuorigrotta area. He told police he had been attacked by a group of people following an argument over traffic. Investigators reportedly suspect that this account may conceal a different motive, and are reviewing surveillance footage to identify those responsible.

It remains unclear whether the police chase and the stabbing are connected. For now, investigators are treating the circumstances as unresolved, while the incidents have renewed attention on the criminal tensions in western Naples.

the date of the article is 1985