Mob Daughter: The Mafia, Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, and Me!

Karen Gravano · Lisa Pulitzer

Feb 2012 · Sold by St. Martin's Press

About this ebook

From Karen Gravano, a star of the hit VH1 reality show Mob Wives, comes a revealing memoir of a mafia childhood, where love and family come hand-in-hand with murder and betrayal.

Karen Gravano is the daughter of Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, once one of the mafia's most feared hit men. With nineteen confessed murders, the former Gambino Crime Family underboss—and John Gotti's right-hand man—is the highest ranking gangster ever to turn State's evidence and testify against members of his high-profile crime family.

But to Karen, Sammy Gravano was a sometimes elusive but always loving father figure. He was ever-present at the head of the dinner table. He made a living running a construction firm and several nightclubs. He stayed out late, and sometimes he didn't come home at all. He hosted "secret" meetings at their house, and had countless whispered conversations with "business associates." By the age of twelve, Karen knew he was a gangster. And as she grew up, while her peers worried about clothes and schoolwork, she was coming face-to-face with crime and murder. Gravano was nineteen years old when her father turned his back on the mob and cooperated with the Feds. The fabric of her family was ripped apart, and they were instantly rejected by the communities they grew up in.

This is the story of a daughter's struggle to reconcile the image of her loving father with that of a murdering Mafioso, and how, in healing the rift between the two, she was able to forge a new life.

Ratings and reviews

I was really disapointed at some points I couldnt even keep my eyes open !!! If you intrested in the MOB world,watch it on the history channel,biography things like that. It was very un intresting.Some parts were amusing to see how privledged the daughter of a murderer lived as a teenager,how vain & self centered this woman is .Her Fathers a Rat & shes nothing but a self absorbed woman ..Dont buy it take a few $$ and donate it to a crime victims fund

This trick is 40 something it would nice if she acted her age and as far as the show goes if she didn't have her trifling friend Ramona then I know that Drita would beat the daylights out of her. I can't stand Karen and yes your father is RAT I hope he dies in prison. Italian mafia is dead Mexican Mafia is taking over so watch your mouth Karen and I wouldn't read your book if they paid me.

I really enjoyed her book. It was very interesting. Karen is in a good place now, and I think she learned alot in life.She loved living the crime life but also knew their were consequences in that lifestyle. I think she will be a wonderful mother to her daughter. I also think she has alot to offer to people that, are wanting to live that life? I wish her family as well as her the best because they deserve the best.

About the author

KAREN GRAVANO was born in Brooklyn, New York. She is a star of the VH1 Reality TV show Mob Wives, about the day-to-day struggles family members are faced with after a loved one is sent to prison. She is also producing a movie based on her family's story and developing a scripted television series about her wild days living in New York City. Outside of the entertainment business, Karen is putting her experience as an esthetician and her love for skin care into developing her own line of products.
LISA PULITZER is a former correspondent for The New York Times. She is the author of more than a dozen non-fiction titles, including New York Times bestseller Stolen Innocence (with Elissa Wall) and Portrait of a Monster: Joran van der Sloot, a Murder in Peru, and the Natalee Holloway Mystery (with Cole Thompson.)