Frank Costello: A Novel

Ronald K. Fried

2022 abe. · State University of New York Press

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As Frank Costello looks back over his life as head of the most powerful crime family in America, he doesn't focus on the triumphs of his bootlegging empire, his nationwide gambling network, or his de facto control of Tammany Hall. Instead, Costello—the politically connected "Prime Minister of the Underworld"—remembers the lies he's told, the mistakes he's made, and his fateful decision to testify before the televised Kefauver hearings investigating organized crime in America. The novel reaches its climax as Costello—in a naïve attempt to preserve the patina of respectability he's spent his life creating—tries to defend himself before senators out to expose the full extent of the Mafia's reach. The result is a humiliating, very public lesson about who holds the real power in America. This is an historically accurate work of fiction told in Costello's imagined, bitter, street-wise voice.

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Ronald K. Fried is the author of two novels, My Father's Fighter and Christmas in Paris 2002 and the nonfiction title Corner Men: Great Boxing Trainers. He is a regular contributor to The Daily Beast, and his work has appeared in The New York Times and other publications.